Chapter 26
Cold Hands, Warm Heart
“Katsumi, what about your relationship with Mason? You’ve told me up to December and your relationship with him is pretty much nonexistent,” I said getting to the point.
She gave me a bittersweet smile. It still hadn’t been all that long since she found out he was still alive. “That’s because it was,” her words fell hard in the nearly empty room. “I saw him everyday in class, but hardly spoke to him because we didn’t sit near each other. My free time was filled with my friends, Shane, chores, Juno and the others. Aside from that kiss and the project I hadn’t spent any time at all with him until the dance…”
“Which…?”
“The Winter Dance, that was the first domino to fall,” Kat sighed.
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“Two more days! Count ‘em! One! Two!” Harper cheered, energetic as ever, as she pranced around in the school court yard on a Wednesday morning. “Christmas break in just two days!”
“Winter break, you have to be political correct,” Tuesday said without looking up from her book.
“Stop being a Grinch, Tuesday. No one’s feelings are gonna get hurt by saying Christmas,” Shane took the book from her, she had been reading it nonstop the last few days.
“Yeeaah! I’m not running for governor,” Harper said.
“Kat, do you celebrate Christmas?” Tuesday asked me catching me off guard. I hadn’t really been paying all that much attention to what the had been saying.
“Hai, Merii Kurisumasu...I like Christmas. I don’t care too much for the movies though,” my English still wasn’t as good as it should be. I had to thinking before I spoke.
“So are you Christian or…”
“I grew up with both Christianity and Buddhism. My father was an German American that came to Japan. We didn’t really practice either religion. Just on New Year’s we would go to shrines, egg coloring for Easter, attend some festivals during the year, and presents on Christmas,” I said briefly.
“You’ve never talked about your parents before,” Shane said while twirling strands of my hair. He was what I would guess many would call the perfect boyfriend. He always found some way to be close to me, always trying to get to know me better, and always showing me how much he cared. But something in me just wouldn’t let me do the same for him.
“Well there isn’t that much to say, they’re just parents,” I didn’t want to get into my family, so I continued with the holiday talk. “Did you know Christmas is celebrated a little differently in Japan?”
“Really?” Harper asked taking the bait.
“It’s more than just a day for family, it’s a really popular couple’s date night,” I remember one year when Nyomi and Haku went out leaving Renji and I at the house. We played in the snow until our hands went numb then drank our fill of Kirin Poppo Cha, a warm ginger drink.
The bell rang pulling me out of my memories. “Since you won’t be with your family this year, why don’t you spend Christmas with me,” Shane asked. Tuesday shook her head, but there was a tickled smile on her face.
