though none of them had been much use to anyone during the fire raids. Theyâd been more like miniature stoves then. You still had to be wary of going inside, just in case there was a baked, rotten corpse stuck down there.
âWhatâs she doing in there?â I asked.
âShe lives in it!â
âReally?â
Aiko nodded, biting her lip
âIs she nice?â
âSheâs my friend.â
âI see.â
The girl had been sent to Tokyo from Hiroshima, Aiko said, in the Chugoko region, out on the Seto Inland Sea. Her mother had packed her off to stay with relatives a month or so earlier, but when the girl had disembarked at Tokyo Station, thereâd been no one there to meet her. So sheâd just wandered off on her own until she finally found herself here at Ueno.
I didnât know much about Hiroshima people, only that their city had been very badly bombed, just days before the end of the war. It had gone up with just one blast, people said. I remembered thinking how unlucky theyâd been, not to have made it through.
Aikoâs face was crumpled up in sympathy, and I could tell that sheâd taken a shine to the girl. It was hardly surprising. It couldnât have been much fun hanging around with us boys all the time.
âCan she come and join us, big brother?â she asked, with a pleading look on her face. âPlease?â
I felt a tingle of pride. No one had ever called me big brother before. Maybe it wouldnât be such a bad thing to have another girl in the gang, I thought. She could always help out with the selling work.
âWhy donât you bring her over to meet us later on today?â I said.
Aikoâs face lit up and she clapped her hands together.
âThank you big brother!â she said. âThank you, thank you!â
~ ~ ~
Tomoko. The name itself was enough to send a delicious shiver down my spine. She wore a blue canvas jacket, a battered metal water canteen hung over her shoulder. Her hair was cut very short, almost like a boyâs, and fell just beneath her eyes, so that she blew it out of the way whenever you spoke to her. Her face was quite round, but she was terribly thin from her journey from Hiroshima to Tokyo. She was thirteen years old and as shy as a borrowed cat.
That night, she slept on the floor next to us in our corner of the ticket hall. Just as I was drifting off, someone flicked my ear. I looked up to see Shin leering over me.
âWhat do you want?â I said.
âI was thinking,â he said, as he scratched the side of his nose.
âThat makes a change.â
His thick lip trembled. âListen,â he said. âDonât you be so proud. You might have learned all the big words at your fancy school but Iâm still Shin from Sengen Alley.â
I sat up, ashamed of myself for having been rude. Perhaps he had been a bully in the old days. But all sorts of things had happened since then.
âWhatâs your big idea, then?â I asked.
He jerked his thumb toward Tomoko.
âThereâs another way a girl like that could make us some money, you know.â
I leaped to my feet and stared him down with white eyes, furious that Iâd ever felt sorry for such a bastard. I held my fist under his chin until he shrank backward.
âWhat does it matter?â he whined. âWe wouldnât be the only ones!â
âDonât you touch a hair on her head,â I whispered. âDonât you even dare.â
âWhat?â he said. âWant to save her for yourself, monster?â
My clenched fist stopped a hairâs breadth away from his eye socket. Finally he shrugged and rolled away.
âSuit yourself.â
~ ~ ~
Tomoko didnât say much, at first. In fact, I sometimes wondered whether sheâd actually forgotten how to talk on her long journey across the Kansai plain. But then, one afternoon, she came over to us through the ticket hall, holding up