The Bridge To Nihon (BOOK ONE)

Chapter 4 - The Village Store and Magical Windows

The boys looked around to make sure that nobody was around to overhear them.

"White," Pip whispered.

"This is the Battle of Saguran," Tin said, pointing towards a cluster of white stones that were almost completely encircled by black stones.

"Ah, that one," Sofia said as if she couldn't care less. Inwardly, she felt like a pot of boiling water, about to explode.

"Do you want to know how we are playing the ambush?" Tin said, now desperate to make an impression.

"Su- sure."

Tin turned around a few of the white stones. They were painted black on the other side.

"Yes, that's very clever," Sofia said, not understanding what it meant, wondering how the boys could know so much more than she did. It also crossed her mind that they were only making stuff up, and that this was a silly children's game that she was much too grown-up for.

"Can I play, too?" she asked, suddenly feeling shy.

At this, the boys turned fire-red and placed themselves in front of their game as if preparing to physically defend it.

"This is our game."

"You don't know anything about it."

Sofia felt tears rising. She didn't like the twins anyway, they were stupid and immature, and on the few occasions she played with them she was always bored. She looked past them, fighting the impulse to push them aside and kick away the stones. But Aunt Sybil had given her enough leeway for one day, and she wouldn't be so forgiving if she got into a fight with Pip and Tin.

She snorted with as much disdain as she could muster.

"I don't want to play with you, anyway," she said. "I have a new friend, and she knows much better games than you."

Pip knitted his brows together. "What friend?"

Sofia almost stuck out her tongue, but she figured that she was above such childish gestures. "She's a secret," she said and turned on her heels before the boys could voice their disbelief.

She pushed open the door to the store. The doorbell played its familiar ding-a-ling as she entered. Sofia blinked away the tears, and Pip and Tin's laughter ebbed off behind her.

The village store was much larger inside than it appeared from the outside. From the outside, it fit in discreetly with the other houses, except for a sign above the door that said Groceries, Tools and more. It used to say ... and everything you dream about, but the villagers had not appreciated the lofty notion, and the name had been changed.

Of this, Sofia knew nothing, but the store owner, Mr Borrealis, reminded himself of it daily, with a sadness that kept accumulating like drops of water in a bucket.

"Sofia! What a lovely surprise," Mr Borrealis called out as he saw her.

He was a large man with a loud ebullient voice, brimming with happiness on the outside and melancholia on the inside. His face was round and joyful, and he had a long, thin mustache that he carefully curled every morning with a hot iron and tried in vain to keep in place with an oily pomade that smelled like cured fish. He never achieved the symmetry he was aiming for, and since he had the unfortunate habit of touching his face when he was immersed in his thoughts, his mustache became more lopsided as the day went on.

"Hello, Mr Borrealis," Sofia said politely because she liked the old man enormously and had more than once wished that she could trade places with the twins, and work in the shop with him. She would never be too lazy to help or sneak away when she wasn't supposed to. Not often, at least.