The Substitute

Chapter 10

"Reita!"

Reita couldn't speak as his mother ran over to him and began fussing. "Reita! Are you alright? I was so worried!"

"What the… how… what are you doing here?" He finally managed.

"The hospital called me and said you had broken your arm and they needed my permission to give you painkillers because you're still a minor and then I was so worried that I flew here and went to the house to see you, but you weren't there, and it looked like it had been abandoned, so I talked to the neighbors and one of them said they hadn't seen you for months, and then another one said that she remembered that you had been dragged off by some woman in glasses and pigtails and jerseys- AH!" Her speech was broken with a huge gasp as she finally started looking around.

"YOU!" She cried, pointing a finger at a thoroughly bewildered Yankumi, who was in fact wearing her glasses and jerseys. "You're the one who kidnapped my son! I'm going to call the police and have you brought up on kidnapping charges, and you're going to sit in a jail cell and rot for the rest of your-"

"Mom! Nobody kidnapped me!" Reita interjected as soon as he could fit it in.

Blinking, his mother turned to him in confusion. "What?"

"This is my homeroom teacher, Yan- I mean, Sawada-sensei." Yankumi managed a small smile. "And this is her husband, Shin, who subs sometimes." Shin nodded slowly.

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, his mother leaned toward Reita and whispered, "Are you sure you weren't kidnapped?"

Reminding himself to stay calm, Reita responded, "Yes, Mom. I'm sure I wasn't kidnapped."

"Then why did this lady drag you off?"

"Well…" Reita didn't quite know where to begin.

"I thought that it'd be good for him to be somewhere with people looking after him." Yankumi jumped in helpfully.

Or so she thought.

"How dare you."

Yankumi's smile faded. "Huh?"

"How dare you imply that I abandoned my son. I am a good mother!"

"Mom, she didn't say-"

"You're not perfect! What makes you think you can do a better job raising my son?"

"I didn't mean-"

"And who gave you the right to judge me? Who gave you the right to take my son away from his home and act like you're his family? You're not his family!"

"Mom!"

"Who? Come on tell me, who gave you the right?"

"You did!" Yankumi finally burst out, shocking everyone into silence. "You gave me the right to care about him when you left five months ago and didn't so much as call him once! "

Everyone stared. Reita had no idea that Yankumi even paid attention to whether he talked to his mom or not. The thought that she worried about him that much was actually rather touching.

"What if he needed you? What if he wanted to show you something, to talk about something? What if he needed you to encourage him, to tell him the right thing to do? How would you have known if you never talk to him?" Her eyes were almost pleading. "That's what a mother is for, isn't it? To help guide their children when they need it. To be there for them."

His mother stood speechless for a moment, then her jaw set and Reita knew she was going to use her best argument-winning phrase.

"You don't know anything about my life. My husband left me." She announced in a tone meant to shock and shame, then leaned back, daring Yankumi to respond.