Yatagarasu Series
Volume 5:
Princess Tamayori
Author: Abe Chisato
Prologue
I fought with my father. I don’t remember what started it. My father kept calling me an idiot, though that was nothing new. I remember that he seemed frustrated with me. Frustrated, and disappointed to the point of heartbreak. Like it hurt him to look at me.
I remember his face, but not what caused it to look that way. Vivid and terrible.
I couldn’t get my point across, so I cried. I looked to my mother to take my side.
“Neither you nor your father is at fault,” my mother said firmly. She never took a side, not once, and my father and I fought fairly often.
Unable to bear it, I fled to my room and fell into my bed.
After a while, my mother came to me. She always came to me after fights. She was not here to admonish or comfort me. She brought me milk and a blanket, both offered with a kind of clinical detachment. Then she sat beside my bed, wrapping me in her arms. My back was curled in; I had bent my back and knees so that I was protecting my vulnerable stomach and heart. My spine was as rounded as a pill bug’s.
“It’s all right. I understand how your father felt when he said that, but he didn’t say it to blame you or to punish you. We don’t want you to get hurt or suffer a loss for the sake of strangers.”
She said this because she was worried about me. Her tone was gentle, indulgent.
“I understand you, too,” my mother said. “We all think we know what’s best for ourselves. So please promise me this. Your father and I want you to be healthy and happy. We want that more than anything.” Her tone was wheedling now. “Because we love you.”
I’ve forgotten what I said then. The memory stutters and flashes out.
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