Summertime of the Dead (12 page)

I sat on a bench beneath the shade of a tree and got my breath back. The Lump rode up, and putting the bike on its stand she took a seat. She looked more than a little uncomfortable; she must have known I'd tried to lose her. Then she noticed the dirty look I was giving her and she started to whistle. But she couldn't and so she checked her cell instead. She never stops checking that damn cell! ‘Who ever calls you on that? Go on, tell me!'

She tried to speak but the words wouldn't come. It happens that way sometimes, especially when she's under pressure. I suppose that's why she only says a few words at a time. But I have to admit I felt bad then. ‘It doesn't matter,' I said. ‘Forget about it.'

But the Lump took a deep breath and tried again. ‘Mum and Dad and sister, Hatsu,' she said.

She looked away so I couldn't see her face, but I knew she was lying. No one ever calls her. She stayed here for a whole month last May and she checked that cell ten times a day. But she never got
so much as a text message. I'm not surprised. Her mother's selfish, her father's a phoney and that sister of hers is spoilt rotten. They couldn't care less about her. And they certainly didn't care enough to call her. They never even bought her the cell – she won it in a school raffle. She put the cell in her rucksack and pulling out that shrunken head she smoothed back its black hair.

‘What is that?'

The Lump held up the head and looked at it lovingly. ‘Om,' she said.

‘Om?'

‘Best friend Om!' said the Lump. Then something caught her eye. ‘Ants!' she shouted. She jumped off the bench and squatted on the ground. That was another thing about the Lump. She has this thing for ants. They kind of amaze her.

‘Thirty-two,' said the Lump.

It drove me insane when she did that. You'd never know if she was right or not and so you'd end up trying to count them. One time she told me there were twenty-four. And it really looked like there were twenty-four. But you couldn't tell because they kept moving around.

Another ant came out of a hole. ‘Thirty-three,'
said the Lump. And then she tiptoed out of them to make sure she didn't stand on any.

‘Come on,' I said, and walked back to the house. I had a lot on my mind and the Lump was confusing things.

‘Cherry blossoms,' said the Lump.

‘The season's over.'

‘Cherry blossoms,' she said and pointed. And there, among the trees, was one small cherry tree just beginning to blossom. I couldn't understand it. They only blossomed for ten days a year and the season had ended a month ago. When I looked at the Lump she was looking kind of pleased with herself.

‘Come on,' I said, and walked away.

By the time we got back to the house Yoshe had gone. The Lump pushed the bike into the garden and I went to my room to think about my next move. I was still determined to kill Riko. But I knew the yakuza would be on guard now and so there was nothing I could do. Not for the moment anyway. And so I went out on the balcony to see what the Lump was up to. She was inspecting things in the garden. She gazed at the lotus blossoms in the pond and the plants on the patio. She even stared at a rusty old watering can for a time. Then a big blue
butterfly fluttered into the garden. The Lump got on to it straight away and followed it around, wide-eyed, like she was blown away by its beauty. But then it fluttered upwards and flew over the wall. She waited to see if it would come back, but it didn't, and so she sat on the bench and checked her cell.

I felt kind of sorry for her then, she looked so alone. But I don't think she felt sorry for herself. She looked happy to sit and wait for the next big thing to happen, and then it did. One of Grandmother's cats came out. The Lump tried to befriend it, but it was the fat ginger cat that was friends with no one. It just climbed on top of the shed and went to sleep in the sun, which is all it ever did. And so the Lump returned to the bench.

I felt a little stressed over last night's killings, and as I had nothing better to do I decided to get a shinai from the shed and do some katas. If I couldn't battle I might as well train. I went downstairs, and cutting through the kitchen I went out into the garden. As soon as the Lump saw me she jumped up like we were going somewhere. But I just ignored her, and taking a shinai from the shed I did some stretching. I didn't need to warm up because it was so hot, but I did some stretches just in case. Then I did the power
exercises. I squatted on my legs and jumping forward I struck with the shinai. It was a hard exercise but it built my thigh muscles and taught me balance. Balance is important in kendo, because if you lose your balance you've lost control. I did the strikes and the katas from the different stances and then I started to move fast, jumping forward and thrusting at an imaginary opponent.

The Lump looked amazed. Her eyes were wide and her head was twitching from side to side. ‘Me!' she said.

‘No.'

‘Me!' said the Lump.

She was so annoying. ‘There's another one in the shed.'

The Lump scurried into the shed and came out with a shinai. She screamed as loud as she could and started slashing the air like a little barbarian.

‘Stop that!' She stopped and looked up at me. ‘Stand behind me.' The Lump stood behind me and to the left. ‘Now watch.' I held the shinai in the
chudan
stance and screaming I struck straight ahead, stamping my foot as I did so. ‘Now you.'

As she raised her shinai the Lump looked deadly serious. Then with a loud scream she struck straight
ahead and froze in the stance. It was a solid strike. She even stamped her foot at the right time. I walked around her and looked for a fault in her stance but I couldn't find one. She even stayed stone-faced and looked straight ahead.

‘OK, watch this.' I moved across the patio doing all the strikes, blocks and blows you could do from the
chudan
stance. Then turning quickly I came back, striking and thrusting as I came. I stopped when I reached the plants and turned to her. ‘Now you.'

The Lump was buzzing. Even her palm tree looked electrified. Crying out she struck and thrust her way to the wall. She did every single move the same as me. Then she spun around and crying out she came back. She was frighteningly good! She even flicked the shinai with her wrists rather than striking with a heavy blow. And I never even told her to do that. She came to a stop and looked up at me.

‘You've done kendo before!'

‘No,' said the Lump.

I glared at her but she never looked away. I think she was telling the truth.

‘Go and put that helmet on.'

The Lump bolted in the shed and came out wearing the helmet.

‘If I hit you on the helmet I score a point. If you hit me anywhere you score a point. Understand?'

The Lump nodded.

I bowed to the Lump and she bowed back. Then she cried out and charged. I wasn't expecting such a ferocious attack. She hacked and stabbed with all her might. Then she whacked me on the ankle. I nearly fell in the pond.

‘Stop! You can't hit someone's feet!'

‘Why?' asked the Lump.

‘Because I said. Now step back.'

She'd got lucky because I'd never fought someone so small. But I was away from the pond now, and I had space. We eyed each other up and circled the patio. I struck her on the helmet. I did it again. And then again. The Lump was livid but she couldn't do anything about it. I hadn't taught her how to block. But then she hit my big toe. And I was in my bare feet too!

‘I said not on the feet. You did that on purpose.'

But the Lump ignored me. Then crying out she attacked. But I blocked her blows with ease.

Her eyes went shifty and she moved around me
in a sneaky way. She was looking for an opening, I could tell. I'd met her type before. But then she kicked something at my feet. I looked down to see what it was. Suddenly she thrust the shinai into my face. The rubber end struck the tip of my nose, bringing tears to my eyes. Then she whacked me on the head. I stumbled over the flowerpots and fell into the plants.

‘What the hell are you doing?'

‘Accident,' said the Lump.

‘You liar! I try to teach you something and this is how you behave!' I got to my feet. ‘You little fat lump! No wonder you've got no friends!'

Her head went down like she felt bad. But I'd had enough of her. I threw the shinai on the patio and went upstairs to my room. Then I went out on the balcony. I was expecting to see her sulking on the bench, but she wasn't. She was practising with the shinai and she looked like she was having fun. She'd only pretended to feel bad! I ran into the bathroom and grabbing the plastic bucket I filled it with water. Then I went out on the balcony and called her. ‘Come here, you. And take that stupid helmet off.' She took it off and came running over. Then she looked up at me like a real dummy. Before she had a
chance to move I dumped the bucket and drenched her. Then I laughed out loud. ‘That'll teach you!'

The Lump looked livid. She grabbed the shinai and ran in the house. When I heard her coming up the stairs I locked my door and lay on my bedroll laughing. I heard her bang into it. ‘It's locked, you dummy!' I laughed some more and she kicked the door and walked away. It felt good to laugh. I hadn't laughed since the twins … but then I felt tired. I didn't sleep well last night because of the killings. And when I did sleep the nightmares came. I kept dreaming I was trapped in the car park and I couldn't get out. Either that or I was having a conversation with Louise's corpse. But when my eyes closed the sunshine and the warmth sent me to sleep. It was such a beautiful sleep too. I could feel myself falling deeper and deeper and then …

‘Argh!!!' I couldn't breathe! The shock and the cold were too much! I saw the plastic bucket hit the floor and feet running. As I got up I stood on ice cubes. She'd put ice cubes in it!

‘You're dead!' I ran to her room and tried to get in, but she'd locked the door. ‘Let me in!'

‘No.'

‘Are you laughing?'

‘No.'

But she was laughing – I could hear her! ‘I'll get even with you! You see if I don't!' I slapped the door and went back to my room. There were ice cubes everywhere, and the futon and the bedroll were soaked. I hung them on the balcony and then I stood there, puzzled. I'd locked the door. I know I had. She couldn't have got in, not unless she had a key. I went back to her room. ‘Open up, you!'

‘No.'

‘Are you hungry? There's chocolate cake in the fridge.' She never answered but I knew her tiny mind was ticking away. ‘Yoshe made it specially. She makes the best chocolate cake in the world.'

‘You'll get me.'

‘No, I won't. Look, I soaked you and you soaked me. We're quits.'

I heard the door unlock. As soon as it opened I grabbed her arm. ‘You tell me how you got in my room, you annoying little lump!'

‘Chocolate cake.'

‘Tell me first!'

‘No!' The Lump got aggressive. ‘Cake first!'

I let her go. ‘One piece. That's all you're getting. And then you better tell me!'

We went downstairs and I took the cake from the fridge. The Lump sat at the kitchen table smiling like it was her birthday. But I cut the smallest, thinnest slice possible, and putting it on a plate I pushed it towards her.

The Lump looked disgusted. ‘Small! Very small!'

I laughed. ‘Tell me and I'll cut you a bigger piece. You found a key, right?'

‘Drainpipe,' said the Lump.

‘You liar!'

‘Drainpipe,' said the Lump, and reached for the cake.

But I pulled it away. ‘Let me see you climb it.'

‘Cake!'

‘Climb it and you can have all the cake you want!'

The Lump was out of that chair so fast. I ran upstairs and went out on the balcony. She came into the garden and took hold of the drainpipe. But she never climbed it. She just looked up at me.

‘I knew you were lying.'

Then I could hardly believe my eyes! The Lump climbed that drainpipe as fast as a monkey. She clambered over on to the balcony, ran through my bedroom and back downstairs. ‘Chocolate cake!'

I was kind of dumbfounded so I never said
anything. I couldn't even climb it that fast. The Lump was turning out to be a sneaky person. Very sneaky. Maybe I could use her in my fight against the yakuza.

It had just turned dark as I came out of the east exit of Shinjuku station. The whole area was swarming with people and there were hundreds of teenagers gathered in groups. There were bright lights and billboards, and huge TV screens advertising the latest must-haves. And it was so humid the air felt sticky. I made my way through the masses of people and headed down to the Kabukicho, which is like Tokyo's version of a red-light district. Kane had once told me that Riko managed some massage parlours there, and I was hoping to bump into her. But I hadn't brought the sword with me; this was just a scouting trip – I'd brought the Lump instead.

‘Lights!' said the Lump.

I figured if the yakuza were looking for a single assassin, it'd be best not to go alone. And the Lump would make a good decoy. After all, who brings a kid with them when they go to kill someone? That said, I wouldn't put the Lump in any real danger. She was my cousin after all.

I looked down at her and she went to speak. But then her hands dropped to her sides as though the wonder of it all had taken away the only word she was going to say. She looked a little pained that she couldn't express herself. But then she blurted it out. ‘Beautiful!' she said. I'll say one thing for the Lump – she never minced her words.

We headed into the bustle of the Kabukicho, where the lights shone bright and the music blasted from the bars. The streets were lined with touts, in suits, enticing girls into various places, and there were girls dressed like geishas enticing guys into various clubs. I was glad the place was packed so I could lose myself in the crowd, but then I lost sight of the Lump. You couldn't take your eyes off her for a second! And then I saw her trying to dance to the music. The Lump couldn't dance a step, but she danced every chance she got. Then she danced after this group of girls who were heading into a nightclub. But I grabbed her before she could go through the door. ‘Where are you going?'