The Dragon Tree (9 page)

             
Salty. Like seawater
.

             
William had seen the tear. He shook his head, his anger gone. “I’m not trying to hurt you Billy. I’m trying to
raise
you. Don’t you understand that? You were born with a head as thick as your old man’s, I know. But Billy… I don’t want you to end up like… I don’t want you to spend your life on that mountain either.”

             
William shook his head sadly as he shuffled out of the kitchen.

             
“Do what you want, Billy. No more rules. No more punishment. If you want to get yourself tossed out of school, if you want to stay out all night and get into trouble… I won’t stop you.”

             
He scooped up the keys to his truck and kicked his way through the trailer door. A moment later, Billy heard the squeal of tires as his father peeled out and rocketed up the street.

             
When Billy finally let go of the kitchen counter, a chunk of the cheap material was still in his hand. He stared at it for a moment – not at all surprised by his strength – then tossed it in the kitchen sink.

             
I need to sleep. I just need to sleep.

***

              Hiroki woke up around noon to find his grandfather sitting quietly at the foot of his bed. He was badly startled, but managed not to scream. “What are you doing, grandfather?” he asked in clumsy Japanese.

             
“I was sitting in your car all morning,” Hideo answered. “It smells wrong.”

             
“I don’t understand,” said Hiroki, his speech slurred by his gummy mouth. “What do you mean it smells wrong?”

             
Then Hiroki noticed the manila envelope sitting in his grandfather’s lap. He recognized it immediately as the folder that held Billy’s dragon tree photos. Hiroki leaned forward frantically to snatch the folder away from Hideo, but Hideo raised a hand to stop him. He then reached into the pocket of his cardigan and removed two ovular black objects covered with coarse hair. He studied them for a moment – not for the first time, clearly – and set them down on Hiroki’s blanket. He set the folder down beside them.

             
“The photos and the fruit. First we burn them all in the fireplace,” said Hideo firmly, leaving no room for debate. “Then we find your friends.”

***

              Hiroki had to fill up the Buick’s tank again before trekking out to Hudson to pick up Billy. His grandfather waited in the back seat, his hands folded in his lap like usual, while Hiroki banged on the trailer door.

             
No answer.

             
He walked around all four sides of the trailer, impatiently banging on everything in front of him until he heard Billy holler an obscenity from inside. A moment later, Billy pushed open a window and stuck out his head. His blond hair was matted comically and his eyes squinted in the afternoon sun.

             
“Come on,” said Hiroki with no ceremony.

              Eva was harder to collect.

             
Hiroki had to talk his way past two eleven-year-olds before he even made it inside Eva’s house. The twins followed him all the way up the stairs, tripping over high heels they were too small to wear. They remained on either side of him as he rapped on Eva’s bedroom door.

             
“Can you go for a ride?” he asked when Eva opened the door with a groan.

             
“A ride? Hiro, I have to get ready for the wedding tonight. My mother will never let me—”

             
“That’s right,” said Myra. “Mom will never let you.”

             
“Never ever, ever,” said Anita.

             
“She’s at her appointment, though.”

             
“Yeah, her
hair
appointment.”

             
“So she might not notice if it’s just a short ride.”

             
“A
very
short ride.”

             
Hiroki pulled the twins close and covered their ears. “I’ll get you back in time,” he whispered. “It’s important.”

***

              Hiroki didn’t care for the seating arrangement.

             
His grandfather was in the front seat – at Eva’s insistence – leaving Eva in the back seat with Billy. During twenty minutes of silent driving, Hiroki rarely took his eyes off the rearview mirror.

             
“Grandfather,” he asked in Japanese. “Where are we going?”

             
“Nowhere,” said Hideo. “Circles fine.”

             
It took Hiroki a moment to realize what was strange about his grandfather’s words. When he did realize, he nearly swerved into oncoming traffic. “Grandfather! You don’t speak English!”

             
“Incorrect,” said Hideo indignantly. “I listen CDs from mail, learn English in room. So can understand American TV and so can... people talk English… what word?”

             
“Eavesdrop?” Eva offered from the backseat.

             
Hideo nodded eagerly. “So can eavesdrop.”

             
“That’s awesome,” Billy laughed.

             
Hiroki shook his head in disbelief and tried to focus on the road. “I read my poetry
out loud
in front of you.”

             
Hideo nodded. “Was funny.”

             
“Funny?!” Hiroki gasped.

             
“You write poetry?” asked Eva with pleased surprise.

             
“I could have told you that,” Billy added. “Look at his jeans.”

             
Hiroki pounded the steering wheel angrily. He couldn’t bring himself to look in the rearview mirror again for fear that Eva might be looking back at him. Or worse, Billy. “Can we just… can we talk about
anything
else?”

             
“You correct, Hiro,” said Hideo. “We talk dragons.”

              Hiroki was too shaken up to continue driving in circles, so he pulled his Buick into the parking lot of Alpine High School.

             
“Alpine sucks,” Billy muttered under his breath.

             
The foursome climbed out of the car and wandered to a nearby swing set. The boys each grabbed one of the three swings without a thought, but Eva made sure to offer Hideo a swing. Only when he declined did she sit.

             
“I tell what I know. You tell if I correct,” Hideo offered.

             
Billy pumped his legs and swung higher. “Sounds fun, sir, but did I really get out of bed early for this? I mean, I need to rest up before tonight.”

             
Hideo turned to Hiroki, his always-sharp eyes even sharper than usual. “You correct. This boy not smart.”

             
“Oldest person who’s ever insulted me,” said Billy with a grin.

             
“Go ahead, Mr. Tanaka,” said Eva. She was sitting still on her swing, her toes digging into the dirt. “We’re listening.”

             
Hideo took up position in front of the three teens, his fingers laced together behind his back. “I go first, young Billy, so you know I speak true. I not just hear you story and nod pretend knowledge. Understand you?”

             
“Understand me,” said Billy. He earned an angry glance from Eva for his sarcastic tone. “Sorry. Yes, I understand.”

             
Hideo nodded and began. “Kids find strange tree with strange fruit. Get juice on clothes. Get clothes in Hiroki Buick before was my Buick. Correct?”

             
“You’re right about the tree, Grandfather,” said Hiroki. “You could be right about the juice from the fruit. Some might have leaked out and gotten in the car. But it would have been a very small amount. Not enough for you to smell, I don’t think.”

             
“I smell dragon blood before,” said Hideo. “I
know
smell.”

             
“Where did you smell it?” asked Eva, leaning forward in her swing.

             
“My grandfather possess blood. Glass vial. From his grandfather and his grandfather’s grandfather. So on. Pass down. Understand you?”

             
The three teens all nodded.             

             
“Blood very old. Thousands year old. Since before Japan is
Japan
. Pass down every new son. Smell stays strong. I smell as boy.” Hideo turned to Hiroki. “Your father smell too.”

             
“My father?”

             
Hideo nodded solemnly. “He smell when he become man. When I sure he become man. Older than you, Hiroki. Took father long time stop acting little child and become man. Longer than took you.”

             
“Hiro’s car smells the same as the vial of blood your family has passed down through the centuries?” asked Eva. “To me it just smells like an old car.”

             
Hideo glanced back at the Buick, parked in the nearby lot. He sniffed and wrinkled his nose as if he could still smell it. “Strong. Stronger than morning,
this
morning. Blood in vial never smell so strong like this.”

             
“Where’s that vial now, huh?” asked Billy. “If it even exists.”

             
Hideo’s eyes narrowed and he took several steps toward Billy, who was still swinging high. Billy panicked, afraid he was going to hit the old man with his legs, but Hideo stepped out of the way and calmly grabbed the swing’s chains. The chain abruptly halted its movement in Hideo’s grip, but Billy went flying.

             
“Not smart boy, I no accept disrespect from your mouth.”

             
Hideo stood over Billy as he climbed back to his feet and brushed dirt of his pants. Billy had never noticed before, but there was no frailty in the old man’s body or voice. He could have been forty-years-old for all the intensity in his eyes. Had he always looked so young? Billy wasn’t sure.

             
“Grandfather, where
is
the vial?” asked Hiroki.

             
Hideo let go of the chain and sat down on the swing he helped Billy vacate. “Buried. With father.”

             
“With
my
father?” Hiroki asked. “Why would it be buried with my dad?”

             
Hideo’s intense eyes went soft as he looked at Hiroki, his beloved grandson. The resemblance between them was uncanny, despite the generational difference. “I no could accept his death, Hiroki. I no could
accept
. Blood powerful. This much I know. So I bury with your father. I hope… I hope somehow…”

             
Eva covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes welling up with tears. “You thought the blood could bring him back?”

             
Hideo’s eyes were moist as well. His shoulders slumped and he lowered his head, suddenly unable to look at the three teens. “Yes,” he whispered.

             
“That wouldn’t work,” said Billy. “Your son would have to
drink
the blood for anything to happen. And if he was already dead – if he was already, uh, passed away – then he couldn’t drink the blood.”

             
Eva glared at Billy. He backed up a step in case Hideo lashed out at him again. But Hideo remained in the swing with his hands folded gently in his lap.

             
“Was foolish hope. I know. Hope of mourning father. Of
desperate
father.”

             
Hiroki hurried to his grandfather and dropped to his knees in front of him. He reached for his grandfather’s spotted hands and gently took them in his own. “Grandfather, even if he had been alive to drink the blood… It would have been bad. He would have
changed
.”

             
Billy and Eva exchanged a panicked look, afraid that Hiroki was about to reveal the previous night’s harrowing events. Hiroki didn’t look back at them. He was focused only on his melancholy grandfather.

             
“I know, Hiroki. I know what does the blood.”