Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky (17 page)

Mom stood on the platform beside the quilt, because she was in charge of the raffle. The master of ceremonies introduced her and asked her to tell about the quilt. Tomi hadn’t wanted to come to the Fourth of July celebration at all, but Mom had insisted the whole family attend. She said they would dishonor Roy if they stayed away. So Tomi stood beside Pop, who scowled. He didn’t like Mom standing up there talking to all those people.

Mom didn’t pay any attention to him, however. She came forward and told how the women had learned to quilt in a class at Tallgrass. They had never quilted before, she said, but they learned quickly. She gave the names of the women who made the quilt, and people clapped. “Now it’s time to draw the name of the winner,” she said, and
looked around until she spotted Tomi. “I think we should ask the girl who sold the most raffle tickets to draw.”

Tomi shrank back as Mom beckoned to her. She didn’t want anything to do with the quilt now.

“Come on, Tomi,” Mom said, but Tomi stepped behind Pop. Then Pop looked at Mom and shook his head no. “I guess she’s shy,” Mom said, looking around. She spotted Ruth and said, “Ruth Hayashi, will you draw the winner?”

Ruth was shy, too, but still, she stepped onto the stage. Mom picked up a big glass jar of ticket stubs and swirled them around with her hand. “Now, Ruth, you pick the winner,” she said.

Ruth reached into the jar and pulled out a ticket, holding it at arm’s length. Then she grinned at the crowd and said, “Sorry, I picked my own name.” She dropped the stub back in the bowl. The crowd laughed, but Tomi didn’t. She wished Ruth, too, had refused to pick the ticket. But Ruth’s father hadn’t been sent away to a prison camp. She didn’t feel the way Tomi did.

“Okay, this one,” Ruth said, choosing another ticket and handing it to Mom.

Mom took the ticket and squinted at it. Then she said, “The winner of the Tallgrass Sky quilt is Rose Iwasaki.”

A woman in the crowd gasped and put her hands over her face. People began to move away, but Mom called, “Wait a minute. We have a surprise. We raised so much money that we are giving away another quilt. It is the first quilt we made.”

Tomi felt jealous when Mom and Ruth grinned at each other.

“Okay,” Ruth said. She held her hand over the jar for a long time. Then she snatched up a ticket and gave it to Mom.

Mom read it and frowned. “Oh, American names are so hard to read,” she said.

Everyone laughed, except for Pop and Tomi. In fact, Pop looked annoyed that Mom was having such a good time entertaining people. Tomi thought that later Pop might tell Mom that Japanese women were supposed to be shy and quiet, the way Mom used to be. Since she’d arrived at Tallgrass, she’d become outgoing and enjoyed entertaining people.

“The winner is Mary Stroud,” Mom said.

“She has the farm across the road,” a woman behind Tomi whispered. “Her husband was the first one to give jobs to boys from the camp. I’m glad she won.”

People moved away from the platform and went back to the tables for dessert. After that, the townspeople began to leave. As Tomi passed one of the Girl Scouts, the girl said, “You Japs sure know how to throw a party.”

“We
what
?” Tomi asked.

“You Japs.” The girl thought that over. “Sorry. I guess you say Japanese.”

Tomi didn’t reply. Instead, she stuck out her tongue at the girl.

1944 | CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

WHAT’S WRONG
with
TOMI?

“I’M
disappointed with Tomi,” Mrs. Glessner told Mom and Pop not long after school started in the fall. Tomi was in the ninth grade; Mrs. Glessner was her teacher again. She had come to the Itanos’ apartment one afternoon to talk about Tomi’s behavior.

Pop frowned as he glanced at Tomi. She was sitting on the bed, staring at the floor. “Is she a bad girl at school?” Pop asked.

“No, nothing like that. Tomi has always been polite. She is a nice girl.”

“Then what is the matter?” Mom asked. She had fixed tea, and now she handed one of the special cups to Mrs. Glessner, who took it with both hands.

Mrs. Glessner took a sip. “Such good tea,” she said.

“That’s because my wife uses real tea, loose tea, not American tea bags,” Pop told her. “And no sugar and milk in it, like you Americans.”

“Sam,” Mom said, putting her hand on his arm.

Pop shook it off. “I will say what I want in my own apartment,” he told her.

“I understand, Mr. Itano,” Mrs. Glessner said. “Relocation has been hard on you. It has been hard on everyone. And I know it is hard on Tomi.” She glanced at Tomi, who still didn’t look up.

“I thought she had adjusted to Tallgrass,” Mrs. Glessner continued. “She was doing so well with her schoolwork. She was my best student.”

“And now?” Mom asked.

Mrs. Glessner took another sip of tea. “Now, she doesn’t turn in her homework. She doesn’t participate in class discussion. Tomi doesn’t care about school anymore. I think something is wrong.”

Mom glanced at Tomi, then shrugged.

“Maybe she is worried about her brother in the army,” Mrs. Glessner suggested.

“What’s wrong is she is locked up in this camp,” Pop said, anger in his voice. “Wouldn’t you be upset if you
were treated like a criminal? What would you do if someone took away your home and made your family live in one room? Look at this ugly building and those dirt streets. This isn’t home. This is a jail. And you expect Tomi to be happy? And work hard at school? For what?” Pop slammed down his cup so hard that it shattered.

“Oh!” Mom said. The cups had been a wedding present and were her most precious possession.

Pop looked down at the broken pieces but didn’t say anything. Instead, he reached for his cane and left the room. They could hear his cane tapping as he walked down the hall and went outside.

“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Glessner said, picking up the broken pieces of porcelain. “Such a lovely cup. Can it be mended?”

“Do not concern yourself,” Mom replied. “I am more worried about whether Tomi can be mended.”

“I’m not broken,” Tomi spoke up for the first time. “Pop’s right. Why should I care about school? All I’m ever going to be is an internee.”

“The war will be over, and then you’ll have lots of opportunities,” Mrs. Glessner told her.

“Sure,” Tomi said. “Even if we leave the camp, what
will happen to us? People will hate us. They’ll still call us Japs. We won’t ever be able to return to California.”

“You don’t know that, Tomi,” Mom said.

“Do you think Mr. Lawrence will let us go back to our farm?” Tomi asked.

“He promised we could,” Mom said.

“He hasn’t even written you a letter. Martha hasn’t written me either. I bet she threw away Janice.” Janice was the Japanese doll Tomi had left with Martha for safekeeping.

“They don’t know where we are. How could they write?” Mom asked.

“They don’t care. Nobody cares about us. Why should I care about us either?”

Mrs. Glessner set her cup carefully on the table and stood up. “I am sorry you feel that way, Tomi. You are a bright and clever girl. I have been told it is the Japanese way to look ahead with hope, not to look back with anger. But perhaps I am wrong.”

“No,” Mom replied. “You are not wrong.”

After Mrs. Glessner left, Tomi said she was going outside.

“No, you will stay and talk to me,” Mom said.

Tomi sighed and curled up on the cot with her back to Mom.

“You will sit up and look at me. I miss my happy little girl who was so helpful,” Mom said.

Tomi sat up and stared at Mom, a stern look on her face. “You’re going to tell me I have to do better in school. Well, I don’t care about school, and that’s that.”

“You are so angry now. Is it because of Pop?”

Tomi shrugged. Mom already knew the answer.

“He has changed a great deal, and I worry about him. I wish you would help him. Instead, you support his anger. You make it worse,” Mom said.

Tomi shrugged and didn’t answer.

Mom stared at Tomi for a long time. “Now you may go,” she said in a sad voice. “Go play with Ruth.”

“Ruth doesn’t like to play with me much anymore,” Tomi said.

“You are not much fun to be around. Do you blame her?” Mom asked.

Two weeks later, when Pop was out, Mom took a letter from under a pillow and gave it to Tomi. “This came for you. I hid it because it’s addressed to you, and I didn’t want anyone else to open it,” she said. Pop believed he had the right to open any mail that was sent to a member of the Itano family. Tomi had never received a letter. “I think it’s from Roy,” Mom added. Roy wrote every week, but the letters were always addressed to the family.

Tomi snatched the letter and tore it open. “It
is
from Roy!” she said. “He wrote a letter just to me. Should I read it out loud?”

Mom smiled. “If you want to.”

Tomi sat down on a chair and held the letter in front of her.

Dear Tomi
, she began. She liked the idea that Roy had written just to her, and she read the beginning again,
Dear Tomi
.

She continued.

This letter is just between you and me, because I need your help. We all need your help
.

Tomi looked up at Mom and frowned, then returned to the letter.

I am worried about Pop and what he is doing to our family. Since you are the favorite child, I think you are the only one who can help him
.

“I’m the favorite?” Tomi asked.

Mom shrugged. “There is no favorite. But if there were …” She smiled.

What I’m asking you to do will not be easy
.

Tomi stopped and began to read to herself.

“Well, what does he say?” Mom asked.

“It’s my letter.”

Mom nodded.

Tomi read silently.

I worry about you, too. You never let anything get you down before. You were the one who kept our spirits up. You helped everybody adjust to Tallgrass. Remember Carl’s Christmas tree and how it made all the difference for Helen? That was your
idea. But after Pop came home, he made you unhappy. You changed, and that made the rest of us unhappy
.

Tomi stopped and took a breath.

I think you are the only one who can help Pop. I don’t know how, but you have to think of a way or our family will never be the same
.