Dolls of Hope Read Free Page A

to her back, along with a cushion for the floor of the new classroom.
    “
Otousan
cannot spare more time from the fields,” her mother had warned the night before. “You must walk, as your sister did each day when she worked in Yamada-san’s rice paddies.”
    Okaasan’
s dark eyes had filled with concern. “We know you will make us proud of you, Chiyo-chan. Observe well the girl who is so respected by her teachers.”
    Miyamoto Hoshi.
The name was burned across Chiyo’s mind. That girl was apparently the most perfectly behaved in all of Japan. What could she say to someone like that?
    Yesterday, her last day in the village school, her friend Yumi had hugged her good-bye. “Come back and tell us all about it!”
    Chiyo’s fears leaped to her tongue. “What can I say to the daughters of important men? Do you think they are interested in how the rice grows on our small farm or where to find wild herbs?”
    “They should be,” Yumi answered loyally. “You have something better than their fathers’ importance. You have a loving family. And true friends. That’s worth talking about.”
    Chiyo knew that her family and friends loved her. Since the disaster of the
omiai,
everyone had treated her so gently, she felt even worse. Now, as her family prepared to send her away,
Okaasan
spoke more intensely than was usual for her. “Japan is changing, Chiyo-chan. You must be brave and fierce while learning to change with it. The new school offers you that. Put fear behind and seize this opportunity.”
    Her sister clasped both her hands. “Do your very best, little sister, so Yamada-san will bring you from the school for my wedding in May.”
    A hollow feeling had been building inside Chiyo since she learned of the school in Tsuchiura. Now that hollow began to fill with tears. “I promise to watch Miss Miyamoto,” she said. “I will be like her . . . and I will come home. . . .”
    She couldn’t say more. The next sound would be a sob.
    “It is time to leave,” their mother warned. “Yamada-san will start for Tsuchiura at dawn, and his home is a long walk from our door.”
    Chiyo clung to her mother and then her sister, their hugs made awkward by the bundle on her back. When she left her warmly lit doorway and made her way to the dark mountain path, she longed to rush back to her family.
    Miyamoto Hoshi, the daughter of a high-ranking military man, would not show fear. Neither would Chiyo, the daughter of an ordinary farmer. Keeping her spine straight and her fears hidden, she began the five-mile foot journey down the mountain.
    She pulled Masako’s
kokeshi
from a fold of her kimono and held Momo tightly, drawing comfort from her sister’s love.
    Boulders and small waterfalls and leaning trees made splashes of white or darker shadows. Though the distance was long, the path led downhill and vanished more quickly beneath her steps than she had thought possible. The need to restore her honor to her family kept her hurrying forward.
    She shivered despite her heavy cotton kimono. Walking would soon warm her, although fallen snow still lay along the roadsides. She was used to being out before dawn, but always in the bustle of a busy family. Now, as tree branches threw darker shadows wriggling across the road, she tried to step over them, half-fearing they would grab her ankles.
    “It’s good I am almost grown,” she told the shadows. “I’m not easily scared like Yumi’s little sister.” And as the day began to lighten, there was Yamada Nori’s gate standing open for her. She rushed across gleaming stepping-stones to knock on the door.
    A maid directed her to a room where she might refresh herself. When she returned, another maid pointed the way through a side door where Yamada Nori watched a servant harness his beautiful horse to a light buggy with a bench seat.
    When he nodded to her, she bowed swiftly and hurried to join him. The servant placed her bundle and cushion in the back as Yamada-san lifted her onto the