Eri’s voice was usually a pleasant thing, especially when she was happy. She reminded Aino of his sister, Keiko, in that way. Her emotions tended to seep into her words, coloring them with beautiful hues of excitement and jubilance.
But it was also obvious that Eri was Keiko’s daughter when she was unhappy, as she was now.
“Please, Uncle Aino, I only have a birthday once a year!” she pleaded. “Last week, you said I could go to Suanluz with Nana to celebrate.”
Aino took a deep breath as he continued to chop the vegetables he’d just purchased for tonight’s meal. Washing more vegetables beside him, his wife Kora smiled. Ever since they’d adopted the girl, Aino had prided himself on handling her as if she were his own child, which meant no special treatment from him or Kora. However, as Eri had grown to remind him more of his sister, it was getting more and more difficult ot do so. Even his own daughter, Nana, had noted that it was a pity she didn’t resemble Keiko more since it seemed to provide certain benefits.
“And you still may, Eri,” he said sternly, “but your birthday isn’t for two days. You and Nana can go then. Anyway, it’s late, and I’m already making dinner.”
If Aino wanted to be completely honest, he was not very keen on allowing the girl to go anywhere unsupervised, even if it was with Nana and even if it would please her. After all, Torch was still fairly unfamiliar to them. Torch had just recently opened its doors to the refugees of the Lillimayan expansion attempt, after nearly a full decade of denying them entry. Unfortunately, there were just too many of them, so most of those who had survived led nomadic lives, while a very small number attempted to rebuild once the Twin Cities had finally answered Lillimay’s aggression. Inzaine was desolate, a shadow of its former self. A few farms had popped up on the outskirts, but so few Inzainese had chosen to return. Since his position of bank manager was not needed in his home city-state, Aino had accepted a job as a cook at a Torchi restaurant and had oly been in Torch for four months, the rest of his family less than that, since they had only followed once he was certain that his new job was secure enough. Even Kora was uncomfortable straying too far from the apartment, which was luckily only a few blocks from the market. It also didn’t help that he wouldn’t be paid for another two days, so he couldn’t even pay for her entertainment even if he wanted to.
“But Irika is going to be at Rajura tonight!” Eri protested. The desperation was turning her words sour.
“And just who is this Irika?” he asked, setting down the knife on the counter. “You’ve never mentioned her before.”
Eri’s eyes widened in disgusted astonishment. “She’s a singer, Uncle Aino! From Sarkor. Don’t you know anything?”
Kora laughed but quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Eri could have been Keiko right at that very momebt, right down to the slight tilt of her left eyebrow.
“I don’t believe that’s a tone you should take if you are really wanting to go,” he scolded, picking the knife up again to resume his task.
The girl huffed and plopped down at the kitchen table. Aino glanced over to her and noticed an all-too-familiar look of calculation. He shared a silent exchange with Kora, who had noticed Eri’s demeanor and nodded, agreeing to join him in this fight.
“Eri, I don’t even think Nana will be able to go tonight,” Kora said, placing the towel she had been using on the edge of the sink. “I just spoke with her, and she won’t be home for a few hours now. And she’s likely to be exhausted from her trip.”
When Nana had announced she was joining the Torchi military, she joked that it was to emulate her deceased aunt so that maybe she could get away with murder, too. Aino knew better, though; his daughter wanted to help him provide for the family, as small as it had become. They’d lost so much when the Lillimayans invade Inzaine: the youngest child, Tomo, their home, their lives. Eri had witnessed the death of both of her parents, although she had always claimed to have not remembered it. Kora’s leg had been amputated due to an infection from a wound she’d gotten while fleeing, and she walked using a single crutch that she’d repaired countless times. For the past eight years, Aino had been supporting the entire family on what little income he earned; jobs for refugees were not plentiful, especially for one who had a very limited grasp on Trade, and most of those tended to be temporary. When she had shown him her enlistment papers, Nana had said, “We’ll stay here, Papa,” and nothing else needed to be said.
“So we can celebrate her return and my birthday!” Eri sat up straighter and grinned. “It’s perfect! She loves Irika, too.”
“She’ll probably want to rest, Eri,” said Kora gently. “And in a week, she’ll be going back for six more months.”
“Well, then let me go by myself!” She crossed her arms. “I’m nearly an adult now and -“
“Eri!” Kora rarely raised her voice. After a moment, she continued, much more calmly, “I’m sure that htis singer will not just have one performance.”
“What singer?”
Everyone turned around to see a smiling Nana standing in the doorway of the kitchen, decked out in a green Torchi military uniform and carrying a medium-sized rucksack. She had only been gone for a few months, but she seemed so much older now. Or maybe Aino just hadn’t recognized the age in her eyes before.
“Nana!” Eri sprang up from the chair and ran to wrap her arms around her cousin. “It’s Irika! She’s performing tonight at Rajura!”
Nana beamed. “That’s right! I heard some of the other recruits talking about it, but they’re all pretty much popped. Five months straight of camp is … exhausting.”
Disappointment crossed Eri’s face, but she tried to hide it as best she could. She offered to take her cousin’s sack and placed it next to the table, while Aino and Kora hugged their daughter.
“You’re home early!” exclaimed Kora. “Dinner’s not even ready yet.”
Nana took off her cap and set it on the table. “I’m not really that hungry right now, actually,” she said, pulling her hair out of a tight, high bun and tying it into an easy ponytail at the nape of her neck. “Ahh, that feels so much better.”
“The uniform suits you,” Aino complimented with a smile. “You have made us proud, Nana.”
Their daughter’s eye twinkled. “I never thought green would be my color.”
Eri leaned forward with her elbows on the tabletop. “Do you know if any of your army friends are going to the show tonight?”
Aino frowned. “You have to let this go, Eri.”
A few minutes passed where no one said anything. Even though she could have stormed off, Eri instead sat and steamed, forcing everyone to feel the wrath radiating from her, while Kora prepared a simple salad from the vegetables Aino had sliced. Nana touched her father’s hand and nodded toward the front door of the apartment.
“Excuse us,” Aino said, following his daughter outside.
The last time they’d stood on the small porch together was the day she had left for basic training. She had seemed so much smaller back then; the young woman who was next to him now seemed to stand taller, and it wasn’t just the crisp tailor lines of her uniform or her noticeably toned forearms.
“Let me take her, Papa,” Nana whispered.
“After her behavior? I think not.”
“Papa,” Nana sighed. “You can’t keep her inside forever. She doesn’t really ever leave the house, and she knows less Trade than you do. Mama does her best to homeschool her, but Eri? She needs to go to a Torchi school, learn the town other than our front doorstep.”
Aino had found little nine-year-old Eri sitting cross-legged next to her mother’s body while the sounds of battle echoed around her. She wasn’t making any noise, only crying silently as she held Keiko’s bloody hand. As he picked up the terrified girl, he’d made a promise to his sister that he’d protect Eri until he could no longer do so. He had woken up in the middle of the night to calm her after she’d had nightmares. He’d soothed her when she’d fallen down and scraped her knee on the sidewalk. As she’d gotten older, he’d chased off any eyes who’d lingered too long on her, much as he’d done for his own sister as they were growing up. This vigilance hadn’t seemed to bother Eri, at least until recently; this had been their third disagreement in the past week.
“Aunt Keiko wouldn’t want her to miss out of the world, Papa.”
He looked out over Torch, so full of many possible dangers. He knew he wasn’t wrong about the hostility of the world, but what would living in fear teach his children? He rested his hand on the railing and sighed.
“You’re right.” He shook his head; at only twenty years of age, Nana was showing a maturity he’d never recognized, maybe because he’d been so immersed in raising Eri. “But that doesn’t change the fact I can’t afford to pay for her tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it, Papa,” said Nana cheerfully. “You have help now.”
His eyes welled up, and he felt Nana reach to embrace him. She was a much better daughter than he deserved. After a few moments, she pulled away and grinned.
“Let’s go tell her,” she said, going back into the house. “You only turn seventeen once!”
Aino waited to take a deep breath before heading back and hadn’t even gotten inside before he heard Eri squeal in delight. She ran to her uncle, nearly toppling him over as she hugged him, and then scampered up the stairs, with Nana following more leisurely behind.
“Nothing too revealing!” Kora called after Eri.
Ten or so minutes later, both Eri and Nana descended the stairs and into the living room. It was obvious Nana had advised her cousin to dress modestly, if for no other reason but the approval of her aunt and uncle; Eri had chosen a high-necked khati and a flowing sarong with beads on the fringe, and Aino couldn’t believe how much like her mother she looked. But he noticed that she’d chosen yellow as the prominent color. Keiko had always hated yellow, saying it made her look washed out, but Eri glowed. Nana had chanaged out of her uniform and was wearing a slightly more revealing khati with blue cropped pants and her favorite embroidered flats that Kora had made for her.
“What do you think?” asked Eri, twirling around, the tiny beads on her skirt tinkling together like tiny bells. She was ever that much more feminine than her mother, something to which Aino hadn’t before paid attention.
“You look lovely, Eri,” cooed Kora, who had taken a seat on the sofa and propped her stub onto the cushions.
“We should get going,” Nana suggested, peering at the window at the setting sun. “Irika’s show will be harder to get into if we don’t arrive early.”
Eri clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “Uncle Aino, this will be the best birthday ever!”
Nana and Aino shared one last happy glance as the two girls headed out the door. It was a first step, he knew, but it was a large one for him. His niece hadn’t been out of his sight, unless he was at work, since he and Kora had taken her in, and he felt simultaneously relieved and petrified. It was long past time, he decided; he couldn’t reverse Keiko’s death or his son’s murder by sequestering Eri.
He looked over at Kora, who had not stopped staring at him with concern since he came back inside with Nana.
“Well, it looks like dinner is just between the two of us,” he said with a smile. He helped her off the sofa, and husband and wife entered the kitchen, for the first time in over ten years, by themselves. She leaned against the counter next to her crutch and scooted the salad bowl to the side so she could hop onto the counter.
“Just us,” she said softly, caressing the side of his face.
He dropped the knife into the sink, nearly yanking Kora off the counter as he hungrily kissed her almost like the first time he realized he loved her. It seemed so long ago, as if he’d made it up to cope with the pain of simply living. They’d made love plenty of times since leaving Inzaine, but it was always fettered with a sense of loss and inconsolable sadness, almost a robotic satiation of their animal needs. But her she was, older and somehow more beautiful than he remembered her ever being. Kora pulled her face away, trying to breathe. She giggled and lightly traced her husband’s lips.
“I’m glad you let Nana take Eri,” she said as she ran her fingers through his hair. “What made you change his mind?”
He thought about it for a second, staring into Kora’s golden brown eyes that she had passed to their daughter. “I suppose there’s just a moment when you realize … you have to release them. Let them go.”
Aino then picked up his wife and carried her to their bedroom, both laughing with total abandon the whole way.
a little more juju 