COURTING DEATH

Chapter 9

No one looks at it but everyone knows it's there, like the calling card of death, which I suppose it is. A single long-stem rose in a small vase sitting on an empty desk, a traditional silent announcement that one of our classmates has died. It's the next day and the shinigami left me alone last night. But I freeze in the classroom doorway wondering what it may have done instead. I scan the room in disbelief, then I notice on whose desk it is sitting. A number of girls give me a sidelong glance and snicker. I realize it's a prank because It's Shizuku-san's desk and I don't think you can kill a shinigami. Those girls don't know how appropriate that flower is.

I walk over to Kioko-chan who is quietly talking with Himura-san and Shimura-san and exchange "Ohaiyou"s. I nod to Shizuku-san's desk. "Who did this?"

"That's what we're speculating about," Kioko-chan says.

Himura-san gives me a crooked smile. "My guess is Hanashita-san. She's made no secret that she likes Kurosawa-san, even though he has already rejected her, and he's made it no secret that he likes Shizuku-san."

"Perhaps someone should remove it," Shimura-san suggests.

I have to appreciate her kindness, though we all know no one would do that. The last thing one wanted to do when a class picked a target was to volunteer to take that person's place.

"Do you think she'll be upset?" Kioko-chan asks.

"Well, she should make more of an effort to fit in," Himura-san said. "You know what they say, one percent guilty is half guilty."

Most people would be upset by the flower, I think. No one likes to be singled out from the group, especially for this type of "humor." In this case the flower could even be construed as a death threat. But, then, Shizuku-san wasn't exactly a living person. I shake my head. "I doubt she'll even notice."

Kioko-chan and Shimura-san turn questioning looks up at me.

The classroom door slides open and Shizuku-san steps into the room. Hanashita-san and her friends look away as if they are busy with something else. Shizuku-san walks to her desk and sits, moving the vase aside to one corner. She takes her homework assignments out of her book bag and stacks them neatly, having-apparently-already finished them.

Hanashita-san and her friends start whispering, then trade disappointed frowns when she doesn't react. I try to hide my smile.

"Well, I guess that's that, then," Himura-san says, looking a little disappointed herself.

Takasagi-sensei enters and I check the time. Homeroom is about to start so I head back to my desk. Watanabe-san snatches a glimpse over one of his broad shoulders at Shizuku-san. He was a big guy who must have hit puberty in grade school and was just about the only friend I had made in this class before Kioko-chan and I started dating. I sit and tap him on the shoulder. "Did you see who did it?"

"No," Watanabe-san's deep voice replies. "Whoever did it must have come in very early."

"Some of the girls think it was Hanashita-san."

"Wouldn't surprise me."

The class president calls us to attention and we greet Taksagi-sensei and bow. Time drags on. In between classes, while we wait for each teacher to arrive, everyone moves around and talks with their friends. Shizuku-san just sits at her desk watching everything. She doesn't speak to anyone and no one speaks to her. Hanashita-san and her friends gather nearby in little clumps, with their backs to Shizuku-san, chatting about boyfriends and makeup and shopping. It seems a rather blatant attempt to ostracize her.