Falling Through Glass Read Free Page B

control felt like it would explode inside her. She got up and paced across the room.
    “I told him I couldn’t drive him home from the eye doctor. I told him something bad would happen if I did. Why wouldn’t he listen? Why?”
    The tears flooded out, and Emmi’s whole body shook from the force. She had to lean against the desk to keep from collapsing.
    The mirror rattled, and she gripped the edge to keep it from tottering.
     
    * * * *
     
    Kyoto
    1864
     
    Certain he heard a woman crying, Kaemon paused while tightening the ties of his hakama pants as he prepared to depart the Pleasure Quarters.
    “Aneko?” he called, walking toward the partially opened shoji to peer into the connecting room. It was empty, yet the faint sound of crying could still be heard. He realized that it came from behind him. He whipped around, surveying the room, his hand reflexively reaching for the hilt of his katana.
    The crying came from…the mirror?
    His dark eyes scanned the room once more for signs of an intruder. Finding none, Kaemon crept nearer the small cabinet where Aneko had set the mirror the previous night. Using the tip of his sword, he lifted the cloth from the glass. The cry sounded faint, almost like a bird’s distant cry echoing on the summer wind. But it was unmistakable nonetheless. The sound of a woman crying came from within the depths of the mirror itself.
    He leaned forward but abruptly jerked back, afraid that the crying was just a ploy by the pretty oni who lived inside.
    Words tumbled from her unseen lips along with her sobs, and Kae understood a few of the odd words. They sounded like the English that his father insisted he learn to help those who translated imported books to ensure that no references to Christianity remained in the books that were allowed into the country.
    Slowly he began to understand the oni’s lament. Surely an oni would not lament the death of her father? Curiosity overpowered his better judgment, and Kae leaned in. He saw the shadowy shape of the pretty oni at the end of a long, murky corridor. She sat hunched over with her head buried in her folded arms. Her slim shoulders shook from her sobs. Impulsively, he reached toward the glass, wanting to ease the pain that carried across untold distances to touch him.
    “Kae-sama!”
    Kae jumped back, his sword drawn and at the ready. He relaxed. “It’s only you, Aneko.”
     
    * * * *
     
    Kyoto
    Present day
     
    “Oh, wow,” Emmi said as the rental van entered the Uzumasa Movie Village, the Japanese version of Universal’s famed Backlot. She could hear her father’s words from years earlier echo in her mind.
    ‘It was like being home, Em-chan, like walking into all those old stories great-grandfather Maeda used to tell. It was all smoke and mirrors, but it felt so real, just like I had stepped back a hundred years into the samurai clan that our people came from. And being there made me wish that the movie we were working on was true, that I could slip back in time to see it all for real just once… ’
    Though her father hadn’t had a chance during that film shoot, or after, to make a trip to the Kanazawa area where their family originated, Emmi hoped this trip would afford her the chance to do just that both for herself and for him.
    Jake nudged her. “Time for that big break into stardom.”
    Emmi smirked. “You mean time to be filmed and end up on the cutting room floor.”
    “Your scene will stay. Trust me.”
    Emmi smiled, feeling foolish for her behavior the night before. “I’m sorry I acted like such a baby last night,” she said, finally finding the words she’d wanted to say all morning.
    Jake hugged her. “Don’t you apologize.” He pulled back and tilted her chin up. “And don’t you ever think that you’re responsible for the accident.”
    Emmi nodded even though she knew the guilt would haunt her for a long time to come.
    Jake led her to the dressing area and introduced her to a few makeup artists and costume