Cherry Blossom Moon
Getting out of our comfort zone is good for us - isn't it?! This piece is very unlike my normal writing. Inspired by a prompt in Beth Kempton's Spring Light writing workshop.
Cherry Blossom Moon
Cherry is first generation Irish-born of a family that emigrated from Japan. Starting college was supposed to be a carefree time of wild nights and social days. But Cherry finds herself, against her will, drawing together her life in Ireland with her ancestral roots and the echos of Japan. As she crosses Ireland and Japan to find out who she truly is beyond either. Creating her future turns out to be more about her past than she bargained for.
Chapter 1 - Escape!
'You'll be back back for the summer though'.
Keiko turned her face away as she pretended to look for another t-shirt to fold and pack from the now-empty dresser drawer.
Misaki huffed an audible sigh. She hadn't left yet and her mother was already calling her back! Back to the back-arse of no-where, where nothing ever happened and no-one was, to do nothing endlessly day after day. Couldn't she just let her have her freedom!
Misaki bit back her automatic response, which was going to be - that she wasn't sure....that she would see. It was what she'd told her friend Aoife, who was staying on in Ballyknockreif and starting an apprenticeship at the local creche while taking a child-care course online so that she didn't have to move away. It was the truth - Misaki wasn't sure she would be back for the summer. But she had caught sight in the mirror of her mother's hand rising quickly to her face to brush away a tear she wouldn't let anyone see. So instead of always speaking the truth as she had been told to more times than she could remember, Misaki crossed the room to stand behind her mother and wrapped her arms round her. Leaning her face against her mother's back, she breathed in the familiar light flowery smell of her mother's favourite perfume mixed with the laundry detergent that all her clothes had smelled of for as long as she could remember.
'I'll be back for a visit before then! And you could visit me.’
Her mother covered her hands with her own, fingertips worn smooth from her needle work.
'Me! Up in the big city, i wouldn't know what to do with myself there! But I'll be here when you come home.' She said to her daughter. 'And you get so many holidays it will hardly feel like you are gone at all.’
Misaki stepped back and sighed inwardly this time, she didn't want to hurt her mother, but she didn't think she would be coming back to Ballyknockreif willingly any time soon. Unbeknownst to her mother, her diary had little crosses over the plan-ahead calendar in the back where she had been counting down the weeks to getting out of this sleepy slow-paced place. Looking forward to the day when she was finally on her way to a new exciting life in Dublin. She had worked so hard to get the grades she needed for the college place she had wanted so desperately. Everyone was proud of her when the date rolled round and her leaving cert results were far better than she could have hoped, let alone expected! But then there was no inspiration to study hard greater than the escape she had planned! History of Art at Trinity College Dublin. 'And what are you going to do with that degree here!' she could almost hear her father ask, despite the years he'd been gone. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing she could so with that degree here in Ballyknockreif and that was the point. She already knew that she wasn't coming back.
But for now she tuned back to her over-full case, squashing it slightly while wondering if it was ever going to close, and said to her mother 'sure, we've got Christmas holidays in Japan together already and I'll be back here in the spring for the Easter break!'