The fluidity of the sea and its people (Khr X Pjo)

chapter 11

It was soon becoming very apparent, that both Sally and Percy were going to be permanent fixtures in Tsuyoshi's life (for the time being of course).

Percy adored Takeshi, and would spend hours upon hours with his son; playing all sorts of games with him, like peek-a-boo and spinning long winded stories about his 'evil' teachers.

And ever since Tsuyoshi explained to Percy, why Takeshi only ever spoke in Japanese, Percy had decided to make it his personal mission to make Takeshi first English word to be his name.

Because of Percy's new mission, he began endlessly repeating his name to Takeshi, in hopes his son would one day repeat it.

Takeshi on the other hand, had only seen this as a new game to be played, and usually would just follow his 'older brother' gaze, and repeatedly say "gēmu, gēmu," the Japanese word for game.

Takeshi had picked up this particular word from his mother, who had loved the game, baseball. She had later confided to Tsuyoshi, that she was going to teach Takeshi baseball as his first sport.

It seemed however, in exchanged for Percy's love and affection towards his son, Tsuyoshi found that Percy would rather steer clear of him.

This didn't hurt him too much. Tsuyoshi suspected it stemmed from the fact Percy's teachers would purposefully ignore his wants and needs, under thinly veiled excuses.

And if Percy's stories are to be believed, then Tsuyoshi has many reasons to believe Percy's teachers were ignoring Percy's wants and needs, justifying their actions, that they couldn't deal with him, because of Percy's ADHD and dyslexia.

Because of this, Tsuyoshi wouldn't be surprised if this would result in Percy not trusting most adult or authority figures, barring Sally of course, and would most definitely prefer to avoid Tsuyoshi entirely.

Tsuyoshi felt his bones sag down, and the room seemed to grow grey.

While the stigmas surrounding learning disabilities are much more largely known and recognized in America compared to Japan, it was painful to see Percy having to deal with these types of prejudices, even from his own teachers.

Teachers who were suppose to guide children like Percy, were isolating him, and refusing to do even the bare minimum: to help Percy.

Tsuyoshi was learning to truly despise Percy's current teacher.

However, with nothing he could really do that wouldn't gain too much attention, all Tsuyoshi could do was to respect Percy's own boundaries.

Noticing his slightly peevish expression, Sally gave Tsuyoshi a friendly nudge.

"Don't worry, Percy doesn't hate you." Sally gave Tsuyoshi a consolidating expression. "Its just that Percy needs time to adjust."

Not wanting to correct Sally, Tsuyoshi nodded politely, noting as Sally said this, Percy was stealing quick glanced towards him.

Maybe what Sally says has some merit.

Also noticing this, Sally gestured her head towards Percy, "see," she exclaimed.

Tsuyoshi glanced towards the children, noting how Percy was unsubtly watching him in ways only untrained civilian children could be.

Percy's hand was placed over his face, clumsily blocking Tsuyoshi's direct view. The shielding was however, ruined with Percy peeking over his hand every few seconds. Within few seconds of Tsuyoshi looking directly at his son's friend 'spying' at him, Percy almost immediately turned away, his ears flushing red.

Snort

Percy snapped his head towards the noise, furiously looking around, trying to figure out who'd made the noise. Meanwhile, Sally turned her head away from her son, blatant amusement dancing in her eyes.