Murasakino

Sushi

   The man began to pour some of the mild curry into the bowl, but I stopped him.
   "No, don't worry," I said, breathing in heavily to get rid of the heat. "I'm okay for now."
   "You only had one spoonful!" he said, pouring more into the bowl. "Please, take some more!" He held it out to me, almost begging me to take it from him. "It would normally be very expensive!" he offered.
   "Alright then," I smiled, taking the bowl from him. "Mind if I take this bowl round with me?"
   "No problem! Just return it when you're done, okay?"
   "I will!" I continued down the street, passing stalls selling fruit, vegetables, confectionery and drinks, as well as non-edible things, like home-made brooches and knitted hats. The people at the stores were all using different methods to sell their products; some just sat at their stalls and waited, some had signs and banners declaring that everything was on offer and some were even shouting it themselves.
   "Free samples!" a man yelled, holding a tray covered in small, fruit shaped sweets. The front of the tray had the words Marzipan Fruits written on the front in red permanent marker, and behind the man was a stall with similar writing on the front. There were small bags of the marzipan, larger boxes and some bars of it in wrappers, as well as a box of different coins and notes separated into sections.

   I walked over, taking another mouthful of curry. This one was still spicy, but nothing like the first one I tried. It had much less curry paste in it, I suspected.
   "Free samples!" the stall-holder shouted, turning to see me with my bowl. "Would you like one?" he asked, offering the tray up to me.
   I was about to say yes, but remembered the other girls, and thought that they might want some too. "Um... can I take a few? For my family?" That was the first time I had used the word to describe the girls, Dr Takeda and Cathy, but it seemed exactly right to call them that. Dr Takeda was basically my father, the girls my sisters and Cathy... I guess, she was like my mother, but not married to my father. And they were the perfect family, too. They owned a house... well, a laboratory, but somewhere to live. Cathy had a car, and all of us had jobs. Then I wondered; what is Cathy's job? She doesn't work at the lab or the supermarket, and she's always available to bring us to work, but...

   "Of course," the man told me, and I realised I had been stood silently for a minute or two, which probably looked very odd in public. I took eight of them, but the man looked suspicious of me, one of his eyebrows rising.
   "You know," he said, "if these are really all for you then you're gonna have to pay for 'em."
   "Oh, no. There's one for everyone! I wouldn't eat this many marzipans myself!" I paused, trying to think of a reason that I wouldn't manage eight small sweets in one go.
   "Me neither, actually. Too sweet... I mean, just a little bit too sweet for me."
   "Thank you, Sir!" I said, looking for somewhere to put them. I realised that when the fire alarm had gone off I had picked up my lunchbox, which had a big strap like a handbag, and put it over my shoulder. I was able to fit the marzipans inside it, as we had little boxes of sushi that took up less space than sandwiches today.

   Walking past the man, I spotted a very intriguing stall; home-made cakes. I had tried a few of Cathy's before, but really wanted to try more to see if they could be any better. As I approached it, a tall tower with a clock on the front came into view from behind a corner. Twenty-five to Eleven. We usually had our lunches a lot later, but I was desperate to get some cake and keep it in my lunchbox. Of course, I would get some for everyone. So, I sat down at a bench to finish the curry and start on my sushi. There were four small ones with various vegetables in them, two larger ones with salmon and what looked like tofu, and a tiny fish-shaped bottle of soy sauce. I picked up a small one with something green in it and put a couple of drops of soy sauce on top, but when I put it in my mouth I didn't taste a vegetable, but wasabi. Not quite as hot as the thai curry, the heat was just bearable and I managed to swallow it without it burning my throat. The other ones were carrot, cucumber and tuna, and the larger ones salmon and tamago (the one I thought was tofu).

   I put the box in a bin and stood up to approach the cake stall, the women behind it handing a paper bag to a man and him placing his money in a box by the cakes. Getting a closer look I found that there were brownies, other traybakes such as shortbread and flapjack, sponge cakes, cupcakes, a large chocolate gateau and a pie with a beige filling. One of the women took an empty plate from the display and put it underneath it, then placed another plate in its place which had a similar looking pie on top. This one had white icing over the top, and a small cherry in the centre.
   "Is it possible to get a free sample?" I asked, pointing to the brownies.
   The taller of the two looked at me and said, "Sorry, but we can't do that. You'd need to pay."
   "We would give you some if we could, honest," the other woman added. She was bald, and I had only ever seen bald men before.
   "That's okay. Thanks anyway!" I said, shuffling out of the way of some children looking at the cakes. Sighing, I sat back down to finish my lunch. A person wearing jeans stopped in front of me, so I looked up to see who it was. To my surprise, I recognised her instantly.