My Modern Kaidan: Meibatsu

Chapter 5

I find my mom in her usual spot in the living room on weekends. I sit down beside her, pressing my shoulder into hers.

"Hey, Mai," she murmurs, not looking away from the TV.

"Mom," I say. "Where's my baby book?"

"Um, I'm not sure. Maybe in the hall closet by dad's office. Why?"

"I just wanted to look through it. It'll be my birthday soon."

"Yeah in two months." She finally looks at me. "Well, let me go look."

She comes back with the big pink fabric covered book and places it between us. "Here's the ultra sound," she muses. "And the baby shower. Look how young Grandma Betty looks."

"Wow."

"Your dad, sleeping at the hospital." She tsks. "You know why he was so tired? Because he was up all night working on one of his stories. Surprise, surprise."

I sit through several more pages with my mom's ambient narration which is more to herself than to me. Finally, the dark, feathery baby hair is staring me right in the face, enclosed in a plastic bag.

"And here is some of your hair," my mom says. "From right before your first haircut."

I nod and let her go through another page before I start yawning. "Can I look at this in my room?" I ask.

"Sure," she says. "Maybe I'll want to add a new entry in a few weeks."

I get up, holding the book to my chest.

"A final entry," she says softly.

My feet come to a halt. "What?"

"For your birthday," my mom says, her attention back on the TV. "This is an important one."

I try to smile. "Yeah."

The next night after dinner, I'm lying in wait when my dad finally enters his office for the evening. I turn around in his drafting stool as he clicks on the light.

"Mai-chan," he says calmly. "Now you like to sit in the dark?"

"Maybe," I say.

"Weird daughter," he says, turning to examine the different pens that line one shelf. Then he pulls out a spare chair and sits across from me.

I hold up the vial. "Is this my hair?"

He blinks at me, Mr. Nerves of Steel, then says simply, "Yes."

"Really? So mom saved her own in my baby book? I thought you were the only sentimental one."

My dad holds out his hand. "Give me the vial."

I slap it into his palm. "Fine, but I took some out already and it's in an envelope addressed to the DNA place," I fib. "Is it going to come back half Japanese, Dad?"

He wraps his fingers around the vial tightly before holding it up for inspection. "Saa," he says finally. "What do you want to know?"

"I need to know," I reply. "Everything."