A Long History

Generation One
Chapter One

It had been a good eighteen years since Fiona had been a single pregnant young woman on the verge of giving birth wondering if she could make it on her own. And now her daughter was on the cusp of young womanhood.

River was strong-willed, a perfectionist which meant that she was diligent in her schoolwork and not prone to doing anything but her very best at academics. Getting good grades would stand her in good stead if she wanted to pursue her life goals. And she had studied intensively when she wasn't hanging out with her best friend. Her aim was to stay on honour roll all the way to graduation - that would give her a fighting chance at obtaining a scholarship to UBC.

Looking back at her life Fiona thought to herself that it had been a long tough slog for her. Having to go to night-school to get enough education to pursue a career as a journalist was hard especially when her daughter was an infant and needed taking care of. But she had wanted a better life for River and thus she scrimped, saved, went hungry so that she could get food for River and have enough left over for tuition. Luckily she was able to have a few friends who would help her along the way.

Considering that she was a beautiful woman, she had no shortage of suitors. But asides from a few dalliances to; indelicately put; scratch an itch, she abstained from getting into a relationship.

~flashback~

There had been another young baby at the natal care centre that River was at when she was born and their bassinets had been side by side. And it had turned out that the young infant beside her daughter's bassinet; during her stay in the natal centre, always seemed to reflexively move towards her daughter's side of the crib when she cried as if to comfort her. The nurses said that it was an involuntary startle reflex with nothing more behind it, but Fiona liked to think that there was something more to that. But all too soon she and River discharged from the birthing centre ward and headed home to start their new life together as mother and daughter. And all was forgotten about the curious interactions as they were too busy trying to raise their two respective children to wonder about the curious interaction between the two infants.

Other than one conversation that they had regarding what the state of the house finances was, she didn’t recall much interaction other than “Thank you for month’s rent.” when she paid the monthly rent. Except for one conversation that was in regards to the dissolution of the rental situation...and a formal talk about what was going to happen to the house. Yasunobu had offered up a solution that he thought would be equitable for both sides.

“You need place to live...” Yasunobu had said. “But you also need own house for River sake, ne...” Ne pronounced neh was the Japanese way of saying, y’know. “Maybe you own this house?”

“I’d love to, Yasunobu, but the price of this house is completely out of my price range.”

“Hmmmm...maybe we solve problem...” Yasunobu said “You pay month rent...not much higher maybe one hundred more month...we put half rent; half payment; you pay over ten year...then you own house.”

And that was that, She paid §1000 a month in rent and half of that money went towards ownership of the house. And Yasunobu had been as good as his word. Every month that went by, he’d deposit half the rent money in a separate bank account to accumulate interest and each rent that Fiona had paid him he split in two and put one half in the bank account and the other half was for him and Mayumi. He’d show Fiona every month how much had accumulated towards her equity in the house.

It was two years hence, from the date of that table conversation. Yasunobu was busy himself, making sure that the mortgage on the Asilomar was paid off monthly. Fiona had never seen such a diligently hard worker as he was.

The Chikamoris and Fiona McIrish got up early on Monday morning since Fiona and Mayumi had work. Mayumi was a high-school teacher subjugating her students to mental torture. She truly had no interest in teaching other than the power-trip that it gave her to be in control of a classroom of thirty students every hour and being able to subject their very educational whims to her wanton mercies. Jocks quailed at the thought of having to subject themselves to a class with Mrs. Chikamori. She, on the other hand, enjoyed humiliating those "big, dumb apes..." as she was wont to call them, exhorting them to exert their educational efforts or be left behind stuck driving a 70 Pinto delivering pizza for the rest of their lives as pathetic failures of the British Columbia Educational system.

Fiona on the other hand, enjoyed her employment, being a freelance writer. Which meant submitting articles written to the paper as well as books, writing reviews on places where she'd been and simply writing about anything of note within the community. Her place of employment was Doo Peas Business Tower where anyone who was either in business or journalism had a desk or office in the building. It was interesting to note that the Vancouver Province had accepted a few of her submissions and she was thus able to establish her credentials as a freelance writer. It would help bring in some income.

Yasunobu had on a whim, since he was stuck at home minding the two toddlers, that he would go take the two to Central Park. There he would meet up with Fiona after her shift at work as a Freelance Reporter. And it would make for a nice day out for the two young toddlers; a nice sunny morning, warm temperatures and hardly anyone at the park. He noticed some trees out there in the park that had fruit ripe for the picking, so he was going to use the time that Haruo and River sat and played with each other to harvest some of the trees. He'd noticed that there were lemons and he was quite willing to learn how to make key lime pie which was absolutely a delicacy. There were a lot of plants out in the park that would work for bringing in extra income. So before they ventured to the park, he told both River and Haruo to play with the block table while he went out and worked on the garden. Needless to say both toddlers behaved themselves and they were able to make their way to the park.

Haruo and River's time at the park was quite interesting and they would probably need baths as well since they were busy pawing around in the grass as well as in the dirt. Toddlers get into all sorts of things so that was par for the course for bringing them to the park. When they started getting fussy, Yasunobu started packing them up and headed for home. After bath-time, the two toddlers ended up playing at the block-table. Tomorrow, Yasunobu would work on their talking and walking.

After all, having played in the sand-box at the park, Haruo and River had both managed to get themselves covered in sand, both in their clothes, as well as in their hair when they each tried to toss several handfuls straight up in the air and it showered down all over them. What a mess. When he'd finished bathing the two little toddlers who had gotten themselves into a quite a mess after he told them, "I make dinner, you play block table, don't get into anything..." Both River and Haruo nodded mutely...and crawled over to the block table, each picking up a block.

While Yasunobu was busy making hot-dogs, Haruo and River were playing together with the blocks. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw River giving Haruo a side-long glance. It was a playful toddler glance; nothing in it at all, but it looked so adorable, he could barely resist a small smile. River and Haruo enjoy play together. So good, Haruo have friend now.

At this age, there was nothing untoward about River's glances towards Haruo, it was just innocent play. It was more an "I like you as a friend, will you play blocks with me?" sort of glance. Haruo was too busy gnawing on the blue block he had in his hand. River had a red triangle shape grasped within her hand and to Yasunobu, it was clear that the two of them were fast friends who would spend plenty of time with each other over the coming years.

...so Yasunobu went outside to put the dogs on the grill and watch over them as the two youngsters were consumed with play-time.

...and then it was just a matter of watching over the children until River's mother came home to take care of River.

"Nice weather, isn't it?" Fiona ventured as she came in the front door from work

"Hmmm, yes. Nice day. Maybe weather hold today, maybe tomorrow too..." Yasunobu said in halting English searching carefully for the proper words. An immigrant to the country, sixteen years of living in Canada hadn’t removed an accent; nor would it as he’d come over as a young adult.

"I hope it stays this way. I wouldn’t like having to go to work in the rain" she stated, pausing for a moment before asking..."How is Har-u-oh doing?" I’m not sure if that’s the proper pronunciation...but...oh, close enough. Yasunobu hadn't named his son an easy name for a Westerner to pronounce, did he? But Fiona made her best attempt at it. She smiled at Haruo and he gave her a wide grin.

"Oh, Okay...doctor say he grow good." He looked startled but nodded, "And your baby...uh...River?" he offered and they shook hands.

Fiona thought to herself, that Yasunobu was a rather handsome man and he had nice dark brown eyes that were deep and expressive. And his toddler was absolutely adorable with his cute little button nose, she observed. "...my daughter..." she said with a sweep of her hand towards River sitting on the hardwood floor eyeing Yasunobu's son who was holding a blue wooden blocking. "Dr. Ellis says that she’s doing fine." She inquired taking a look at the young toddler after grabbing some autumn salad from the fridge to hush her ravenous cravings for food since she had missed lunch.

"That’s good. Eat well, grow up strong." Yasunobu grinned at her and Fiona felt a stirring within her. How the poor man had ended up with a snotty bitch of a wife, she would never know.

Fiona and Yasunobu were so engrossed in their conversation that neither noticed that River and Haruo were staring at each other intently, each holding their own blocks eyeing each other trying to figure out if the other one was friendly. After all, they would be living in the same house and being friends was the best way to have an amicable relationship under the same roof.

There were many things that the parents had to do once everyone was back home. This was all a part of parenting. One of them was giving the children basic skills that they would have to in order to grow up. Potty training, learning to walk, learning to talk, playing with blocks; and the xylophone; all of which were necessary to advance into a well-rounded individual.

Haruo was taught by his father to walk. “Haruo-kun. Ī ne... (that’s good)” He smiled as Haruo tottered towards him with outstretched arms and held him as Haruo lost his balance and fell into his father’s arms. Haruo looked up with wide eyes and Fiona felt an overwhelming sense of appreciation for a man that she knew was not available. What a pity, she thought. He takes care of his son in a way that Caeden never would have done for River.

Fiona did the same for her own daughter by sitting down with her on the hardwood floor and teaching her to talk. It was painstaking and repetitive work as her beloved daughter had a mind of her own and was easily distracted by other things going around her. Several hours would pass before River managed to be able to repeat back a few words and still more time would elapse until she was able to converse at a basic level appropriate for her age.

Mayumi on the other hand, got the stinky job of teaching Haruo how to go potty. Needless to say it was not a very pleasant experience as she had to clean out the potty as well after each time that Haruo had to go. Between that and having to fumigate the washroom every time that a training session happened did not make Mayumi a very happy camper or any less indisposed towards being mean to her son. Nothing made her happier than to heckle him or steal a lollipop from him.

Whatever she wasn't allowed to do to her school students she brought home and dished it out on Haruo. When she wasn't teaching him how to talk and letting him know how disappointed she was in the fact that he wasn't a genius...

...she made sure to let him know that he was smaller than her and that she could do anything that she wished to make his life absolutely miserable.

River, on the other hand, was absolutely furious, even though she didn't know what was going on between her best friend and his mother. Due to her age, she didn't yet understand family dynamics, but all she knew was that her best friend was miserable and that made her angry.

...and of course, it wasn't any better when Mayumi picked up Haruo and took him off to the bedroom, just so that she wouldn't have to hear him cry, shoving him in the crib and leaving him to scream and tantrum because he was being ignored. After all, Mayumi needed quiet and she was going to get it...one way or another.

Meanwhile Yasunobu made dinner which was spaghetti with veggie sauce owing to the fact that Fiona was a strict vegetarian and meat dishes made her feel ill. So Yasunobu did what he could to alleviate her discomfort by cooking vegetarian dishes on the side for her. And Fiona was working on her first book, a science fiction mystery which had her glued mostly to her laptop (author's note: yes, I know...back in those days, we didn't have laptops per se. We had big huge things that weren't easily portable from one place to another - just work with me here).

Unfortunately; though Yasunobu had hoped that the weather would hold out, in the morning it was clearly apparent that the sky had opened up and it was a downpour. On top of that the fog had moved in and the rain fell to wash over the town.

Five Years Later

"River, are you going to see Star Wars?" Haruo looked over at his friend as they stood in the rain at Central Park. It was a cloudy day and the downpour had totally drenched the both of them. 1977 had had an interesting passel of movies being released by Hollywood; George Lucas’s grand space adventure being one of them. Haruo was itching to go see it since all his friends at school were talking about it.

"I don't know..." River replied; she understood Haruo’s desire to go see the movie and she knew that Mayumi would gleefully prevent her son from going to see it since that was how Mayumi was. "It looks totally rad. You?"

"My mom says she's not letting me go." Haruo said looking frustrated. "She says I'll get scared of the bad guys."

"Man, your mom's a square!" River exclaimed, "Look, if my mom lets me go, I'll tell you all about it."

"i got the Scholastic book catalog the school gave out." Haruo gesticulated excitedly as he got a mischievous look on his face, "I gotta see if my dad will let me get one book from the Catalog."

"That would so cool..." River exclaimed, "you could get that Star Wars Picture Book." Haruo's face lit up in response to River's exclamation.

"Don't let her get to you..." River continued, with wisdom beyond her seven years of age, "I know she's a square and she gets on your nerves but y'know, we got eleven years and then we're adults and we can go see any movie we want then."

Haruo nodded as he knew she was right. They would be able to do a lot more when they were adults but it just seemed so long of a time between being seven years old and eighteen.

River impulsively pulled him into a hug. "Cheer up. Haruo...I'm your friend and I'm gonna be right beside you...all the time. So..if you have complaints about your mom, talk to me about it. OK?"

"Yeah." The two friends grinned at each other. It was summer holidays and River and Haruo spent as much time as they could playing together on the swings in the park and on the playground at the school before they would walk tired back to their respective houses to, in River's case to help with chores that a seven-year old could do and Haruo to a bout ten sheets of math problems. His mother was a real drag.

"Hey..." River suggested, "You wanna kick the soccer ball around or something?" Haruo nodded in response and they decided to go over to the soccer net.

"You be Graham Mosely, I'll be Bobby Lenarduzzi." Haruo suggested, "...and then we'll switch positions."

"I betcha, I'll make the stop..." River smirked at him.

"Yeah...sure..." Haruo said. "I betcha I can get the ball past you..."

No...he wasn't able to. By the time that the game was over...River had managed to score on him once and he hadn't been able to get one single ball past her into the net.

"Wow...you did good." Haruo exclaimed as he picked himself off the ground after barely managing to block yet another one of River's goal attempts. His fingers stung and man, she didn't kick that ball like a girl.

By the time they got home to their house, they were sweaty and tired. But River had homework that she had to do so she set about doing it.

There was nothing more boring than multiplication and addition tables, but well, that was how one learned back in 1977. Mimeographed sheets with blue ink that could potentially smear if it wasn't fully dry. And one could smell the ink used. It was a pungent odour that permeated the nostrils and that was the scent that told you that you have homework. But River being a diligent student sat at the table and no matter how boring it was, she put her effort into learning her addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables. And the worksheet gradually filled up with carbon scoring as her pencil made lines and squiggles denoting numbers filling up the answers to the equations asked.

Haruo, on the other hand, having done his homework already lay on the bench and slept after a hard day of school and then playing soccer at the park.

...and that was where Mayumi found him stretched out on the bench in the backyard asleep. "Just what do you think you're doing?!" Mayumi screeched. "Don't you have ay homework to do? Why are you being lazy and not doing your homework like..."

"I DID MY HOMEWORK!" Haruo snapped back.

"Don't you talk back like that at me...young man! I'm sure you're just lying to me. If your teacher didn't give you homework, I'll give you twenty sheets of equations that you can do."

...and you'll get that every night for a week until you learn to not talk back to your betters." Mayumi looked smug as she looked at him with her beady eyes. "No son of mine is going to lie to me." Haruo looked frustrated and angry as he had done his homework and the fact that he was being called a liar even when he was telling the truth made him angry beyond belief. "You can start your twenty pages of equations tomorrow but for now, you can sit on that chair on the porch and think about what you said and about your lying to me."

Haruo could only fume impotently as he stalked off to sit down in the chair and wish that his mother could disappear. When River got finished her homework, he defiantly got up out of his seat and walked over to the bench to sit with River. River could tell something was wrong with Haruo. "Your mom?" was all she asked.

"She thinks I've lied about doing my homework...and now I get to do twenty sheets of questions for a week...because she says that I talked back to her." Haruo aired his grievances about his mother to River who nodded patiently. River thought to herself that she was really starting to not like Haruo's mother.

"River, I don't know how I'm going to put up with this for another twelve years..." Haruo frustratedly waved his hands and looked up to the sky. "It's like she hates me or something."

"It's not the twenty pages of questions...I have to do...but she's doing this so that I can't spend time with you." he looked over at her, anger on his face. "And she knows that I like to go to the park with you and everything. So she's trying to stop me from doing that."

"It's so unfair..." he said. "I don't think she even likes me."

River nodded as she stared at the grass and contemplated Haruo's words. "I know you did your homework at school because I saw you in the school library before we headed to the park, but the unfair part of it is that even if I tell her she won't believe me." And that simple fact made River hate Mayumi too. She was always picking on her son, if not heckling him; out right denigrating him for even breathing the same air as she had to stand in.

Trying to deal with this kind of harassment from his own mother would set anyone at the end of their rope and Haruo looked frustrated to the point where he was about to curl up in a ball and cry out of frustration. As a child of seven, he shouldn't have had to deal with this kind of behavior, especially out of his own mother. Mayumi wasn't fair and she had a chip on her shoulder and a focus for her negative behavior and River was sick of it. Even if she couldn't place a word on how she felt about Haruo as a friend, she was protective of him and only wanted him to be happy. It was a pity that his own mother couldn't feel the same way.

"I don't know what to do..." Haruo said...sounding half as if he was about ready to break-down and half like he was about to go nuclear. And River understood completely.

I'm your friend, Haruo...When you feel like this...talk to me." River said. "That way you don't get so ticked off." She said, "I can't do anything about the extra homework, but I can be someone you can talk to."

"We can sit here together and dream about what it would be like to travel the world and see different things. If we were able to do that. Where would you want to go?"

"...anywhere..." Haruo said, a hint of vehemence evident in his tone. "Anywhere away from here and away from my mother." River figured as much and Mayumi wasn't going to like the fact that she would be losing her meal-ticket. She sort of got the impression that Mayumi was just grooming Haruo in order to leech from him. She could see the distinct difference between how her mother treated her and Haruo's mother treated him. The difference was like night and day. Her mother treated her like the most precious thing in the world and Haruo's mother treated him like the dirt under her shoes.

But to get her friend's mind off that she said dreamily, "I'd want to go visit France and the Eiffel Tower." she paused, "That would be like a dream vacation, y'know. Being able to see everything that France has to offer."

Haruo nodded, even though he was more of a homebody, he thought about going sightseeing around the world. However he was more cautious about things. The only people he trusted in his life were his father, River and Fiona who behaved more like a mother should to him as well as to her own daughter.

It was hard to know what would happen in the future...let alone a few years from now, so they knew that they had to work hard to learn the basics of what would enable them to become functional, upstanding citizens in the future.

On other days, Haruo went swimming with River at the rec centre and it was nice to get in the cool water during the hot day. They splashed each other and challenged each other to breath holding contests which River usually won. The pool was nice on a hot day which served to cool them off. La Petite Shark Swimming Pool in town was a place to go if one wanted to go swimming and it was always fun to dive in and do laps of the pool.

River would usually end up getting splashed in the face with pool-water by Haruo and River woudl playfully return the favour which always resulted in a water fight with more water getting splashed out of the pool and a reprimand by the pool safety monitor.

And their breath holding contests were legendary insofar as length of time that River was able to hold her breath underwater. Nearly every time that they had an underwater breath holding contest, River won the match. Haruo always felt his lungs burning with the need for oxygen and he'd claw his way up to the surface, gasping for air when his face broke the surface.

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