by Jan Morrill
Jubie smiled, too. “You like it?”
“I love it! But, it’s your ma’s.”
“She say nobody do the jitterbug in that skirt the way you do it. So she say I could give it to you. ’Sides, that’s the skirt you wore the day we became sisters.”
Sachi grabbed her sister and squeezed tight. “I love it, Jubie. I love you,” she whispered.
What can I give her?
At last, she knew. “I have something for you, too! Wait here,” she said, before turning to run to her suitcase.
She grabbed the doll that rested against it, then hurried back to Jubie.
“Sachi-chan, wait!” called Mama.
She rolled her eyes and turned back. “Yes?”
“I see that Jubie gave you that red skirt.” She opened her suitcase. “I would like for you to give this to Jubie … from me,” she said.
The red kimono?
“Mama? Really?”
Mama held the neatly folded kimono toward Sachi. “So you and Jubie will always have its magic.”
She couldn’t believe it and didn’t know if she was happier because it meant her mother forgave her, or because she accepted Jubie. She bowed to her mother as she accepted the kimono. “Thank you, Mama.” Then, swelling with joy, she wrapped her arms around her mother. “It’s the best gift ever!” she said.
Papa checked his watch. “Sachi-chan, you will need to hurry. It is almost time to get on the bus.”
“Okay, Papa. I’ll just be a minute.”
A minute. Then, she would have to say goodbye.
She hid the kimono behind her as she approached Jubie.
“Whatcha got?” Jubie asked and tried to peek.
Sachi drew the kimono from behind her with great drama. “This is for you. It’s from Mama and me.”
Thrill spread over Jubie’s face like a sunrise, from her wide eyes to her bright smile. “Oh, my Lord!” She ran her hand over the red, splotched silk. “Your mama’s kimono!”
“Mama said it’s so we could keep our magic.”
Jubie stared at her, quiet and still. This time, Sachi didn’t mind her quiet. She knew what Jubie was thinking without a single word.
Your mama accepts me.
“Sachi-chan,” Papa called. “We must go now.”
Her heart sank. “I guess I have to get on the bus.” There were still a thousand things left to say, yet doing so would release a flood of tears. A good, long hug would have to do.
“It’s okay,” Jubie whispered. “You go on and cry. I be crying, too.” She drew away from Sachi and looked her in the eyes. “But you know what? Like I keep telling you. We be sisters forever. Especially with this kimono!” She smiled that crooked smile Sachi would always remember. “I’ll write you ever day. And guess what? Ma told me we’d find a way to come up and visit you sometime real soon. It ain’t so far away. Least it ain’t California.”
The stones lying on the ground around them blurred through Sachi’s tears. She knelt and picked one up. “Remember when we first met, I told you what Papa said about stacking rocks? That it was a good way to take my mind off things that bother me?”
“Yeah.”
“Want to help me put this one on top? Maybe we won’t feel so sad.”
“Sure. I’ll help.” She knelt beside her and placed her hand on Sachi’s.
Together they let the rock hover.
A deep breath.
They let it touch the stone below it.
Another deep breath.
And together, they gently let go.
THE END
Suggested Reading and Resources
Non-fiction
Inada, Lawon Fusao, ed. Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 2000.
Rohwer Outpost (Rohwer Internment Camp, Arkansas). 1942–1945.
Takei, George. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994.
Tunnel, Michael O., and George W. Chilcoat. The Children of Topaz: The Story of a Japanese-American Internment Camp. New York: Holiday House, 1996.
Uchida, Yoshiko. Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982.
Fiction
Dallas, Sandra. Tallgrass. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007.
Guterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1994.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973.
Schiffer, Vivienne. Camp Nine, Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas Press, 2011.
Documentary
Time of Fear, directed by Sue Williams. Perf. George Takei. (PBS Home Video, 2005), DVD.
Websites
The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, www.butlercenter.org/news/rohwer-collection.html.
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, www.densho.org.
Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, www.heartmountain.org.
The Japanese American National Museum, www.janm.org.
JAN MORRILL was born and (mostly) raised in California. Her mother, a Buddhist Japanese American, was an internee during World War II. Her father, a Southern Baptist redhead of Irish descent, retired from the Air Force. Many of her stories reflect memories of growing up in a multicultural, multi-religious, multi-political environment. An artist as well as a writer, Jan is currently working on the sequel to The Red Kimono. Visit her at www.janmorrill.com.