Fire Flowers by Ben Byrne Read Free Book Online Page A

learned all the big words at your fancy school but I’m still Shin from Sengen Alley.”
    I sat up, a bit ashamed of myself for having been rude. Perhaps he had been a bully in the old days. But all sorts of things had changed since then.
    â€œWhat’s the big idea, then?” I asked.
    He jerked his thumb toward Tomoko.
    â€œYou know—there’s another way a girl like that could make us some money.”
    I leaped to my feet and stared him down with white eyes. I was furious that I’d ever felt sorry for such a bastard. I held my fist under his chin until he shrank backward.
    â€œWhat does it matter?” he whined. “We wouldn’t be the only ones!”
    â€œDon’t you touch a hair on her head,” I whispered. “Don’t you even dare.”
    His lips peeled back to show broken teeth. “I get it. Want to save her for yourself, ugly?”
    My clenched fist stopped a hair’s breadth from his eye socket. He froze for a second, then shrugged and rolled away.
    â€œSuit yourself,” he muttered.
    Â 
    Tomoko didn’t say much, at first. In fact, I sometimes wondered whether she’d actually forgotten how to speak on her long journey across the Kansai plain. But one afternoon, she came over to us through the ticket hall, holding up a tattered magazine.
    â€œI’ve found something,” she said, in quiet voice.
    Tomoko was holding a torn copy of
Women’s Club
, a journal that my mother used to read. I wrinkled up my nose, but she opened it anyway to show us an article. I squinted at the title: “Let’s Eat Grasshoppers!” it said.
    â€œGrasshoppers?” Koji exclaimed.
    It wasn’t such a surprise. The newspapers had been full of similar stories that month, making suggestions as to how people could find alternate sources of nutrition.
    â€œLet’s hear it, then,” I said, nodding in encouragement.
    Tomoko blew her hair out of her eyes. Shyly, she began to read.
    â€œNot only is the countryside full of grasshoppers, but despite what some might think, they are in fact quite delicious to eat and are very healthy, being packed full of vitamins . . . ”
    She trailed off as Koji made a sour face and Shin, not to be outdone, retched loudly. But the idea didn’t seem so bad to me. We were all practically starving. Even if we didn’t eat the grasshoppers ourselves, we could always try to sell them back here at the market. I’d seen people selling buckets of frogs before, some even sold snakes.
    â€œPerhaps we’ll go on a grasshopper hunt tomorrow, then,” I said. “First thing.”
    The children made excited noises, but I quickly dashed their hopes.
    â€œThere’s no reason for us all to go, of course. Just us older ones. Me—and Tomoko, as it was her idea. Shin, you can stay here and look after the little ones. You’re in charge.”
    The children grumbled away, and I stole a glance at Tomoko. Her cheeks were glowing. She was smiling at me.
    Â 
    It was a cold morning, marvelously clear and bright, as we jumped down from the Tobu Main Line train just past Shiraoka, up in Saitama prefecture. The fields were crunchy with frost and mottled leaves were floating down from the trees, slowly, as if they couldn’t bear to land. We’d borrowed some little bamboo cages from an old man at the market to make homes for our grasshoppers. But though we hunted about in the fields for hours on end, as the magazine suggested, it finally became clear that we wouldn’t be needing them. There were no grasshoppers to be found.
    â€œI wonder where they all could have gone,” Tomoko said with a sniff.
    â€œPerhaps it’s not the right season anymore,” I said. “Or perhaps they’ve all been eaten already.”
    It was still a beautiful day though, and we wandered for a while along a winding path that led through the fields as the dew melted and a warbler called