In this time period, even if you had money to spare, you couldn’t go out and spend it all willy-nilly to buy each and every little thing you wanted. Sometimes, when there were shortages, you had to barter or trade for things you wanted or needed with those who had access to them.
Just as I was about to place the bundle of fresh produce from Takano in my basket, I thought I heard a sound coming from somewhere nearby, so I turned my head.
“…Is someone there?” I asked.
There was no reply. And yet, I was all but certain I’d felt a presence. I walked over to the edge of the property with my basket in hand to take a look—and then gasped. Leaning up against the fence to the next house over, there was a small boy collapsed in a heap on the ground.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Are you not feeling well?”
As I got a better look at him, I found myself at a loss for words. Both the arms poking out from his filthy button-up shirt and the legs extending from his half-length suspenders were skinnier than any limbs I’d ever seen in my entire life. The phrase “skin and bones” came to mind.
“I’m hungry…” he said. “I’m…thirsty…”
The boy—he couldn’t have been any older than ten—slowly lifted his head and looked up at me with vacant eyes. His cheeks were gaunt, and his lips were dried and cracked. Through the collar opening of his loose-fitting shirt, I could see his ribs.
I glanced down at the basket in my hands, full of ripe, fresh produce. It all looked so delicious—far juicier and more appetizing than the produce you could get around here, which was generally just yams or pumpkins. You certainly didn’t see leafy vegetables and tomatoes in this neck of the woods; that was for sure—which was why Tsuru had traded one of her few precious kimonos just so she could offer the kamikaze pilots who came to the mess hall something a little special for once.
I knew that. But I couldn’t help myself.
Looking back over my shoulder, I could see that Tsuru was still busy chatting it up with Takano at her front doorstep.
Forgive me, Tsuru-san, I whispered in my mind, then grabbed a vegetable from the basket and held it out in front of the boy’s face. He practically snatched it out of my hands before I could say a word and sank his teeth right into it in no time. I could only imagine how long it had been since he’d last had anything to eat.
“…Take your time, now,” I said. “You can have the whole thing, don’t worry.”
The boy calmed down a bit at this, then nodded in understanding.
Once he was finished eating, he tried to get up and run off, but I grabbed him by the sleeve. He turned to face me and mumbled a simple, artless “thank you.” I smiled at him, then plopped my hand on top of his head. But in the next moment, his face twisted as though he was in agony.
“Wha… Oh, I’m sorry!” I said, flustered. “Did I hurt you?”
The boy shook his head, but there were still tears welling up in his eyes.
“Then what’s the matter?” I asked. “Are you injured or something?”
Concerned, I grabbed the boy by his frail, bony shoulders.
“…I got beaten over the head,” he confessed.
“What? Beaten? By who?!” I demanded.
“By the grocery store man…” As he spoke, his voice turned into a whimper, and tears began to spill out from the corners of his eyes. “Ever since my mom and dad died, I don’t have any food or money anymore… So I get hungry and go try to eat the stuff at the store, but the man there beats me every time… Over and over and over again…”
By the end, I couldn’t even make out what he was saying through the sobs.
“That’s horrible…” I said. “What kind of monster would do such a thing…?”
I said this without really thinking it through, but in reality, I knew the shopkeeper was probably struggling to put food on the table himself. Having someone steal some of the valuable goods he’d painstakingly acquired in the hopes of making enough income to support his family probably wasn’t something he could just allow.
I understood that. Really, I did. And yet.
“…I’m so sorry to hear that,” I said. “That must be really scary.”
Unable to do anything else for him, I held the boy tightly in my arms. He was so thin and frail that even a relatively small girl like me was able to wrap him up tight. Eventually, I could feel myself starting to cry as well. This poor boy had lost both his parents, been left all alone to starve, and when he finally resorted to stealing in order to keep himself alive, he got beaten ruthlessly for it.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to think.
Why did such horrible things have to happen in this world? Who was to blame for it? Who was at fault? Who should we direct our anger at? Who could we hold accountable? I had no idea. It was a scary realization.
The emaciated boy just kept on crying. He’d probably been holding it in for quite a while now. But with no one to rely on anymore, he didn’t even have a shoulder to cry on.
How lucky was I to have been rescued by Akira and Tsuru so quickly after I first arrived in this time period? Or to have food on my plate every day, even if it wasn’t a lot, in an era when so many little kids were starving and dying on the streets?
I wished there was something more I could do to help this boy—but I knew I didn’t have the means or the authority, and that was painful to me. I was in no position to lift someone up out of poverty in any meaningful way, as someone who was only off the streets myself thanks to Tsuru’s good graces. And even if I could help this single boy somehow, I couldn’t possibly save the countless others who were in similar situations, both here and all across the country. There was nothing I could do—it was simply a fact of life.
And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder.
If this boy had been born in my time, in an era without war, he never would have had to go through all this suffering. He wouldn’t need someone like me to offer him food just to survive; he and his family would all still be alive and living happily together.
“…This war just needs to get itself over with already,” I said—my voice surprisingly loud, compared with the boy’s convulsive sobbing. “We just need to hurry up and accept the fact that we’ve lost.”
With watery eyes, the boy looked up at me. I gently rubbed his head.
“Don’t you worry…” I continued. “Soon enough, we’ll all be able to go back to our normal lives… Japan’s going to surrender… I promise it will be for the best…”
“You there!” shouted a voice from behind me. “What did you just say?!”
Startled, I seized up for a moment. Then, turning to look over my shoulder, I could see a man in a police officer uniform standing directly behind me. He was taller than me and had a burly, muscular build.
“…Can I help you, sir?” I asked him curiously. The man, who’d been looking at me with a stone-faced expression thus far, suddenly grew infuriated.
“Don’t play dumb with me!” he barked. “If you think I’ll let you off easy just because you’re a woman, you’re dead wrong!”
I was flabbergasted by this sudden, violent outburst. Why was this man I didn’t know blowing up at me out of nowhere? I was so startled that I couldn’t even formulate a reply—but my confusion only served to aggravate the man further, his face turning bright red.
“You think I didn’t hear what you just said?!” he shouted. “Well, go on! Say it again!”
“I…beg your pardon…?” I said.
“Out with it, now! I already told you, playing dumb isn’t going to work on me!”
As the man yelled at me, he reached for his waist and pulled a long, thin baton out from a holster in his belt. Recognizing it to be a weapon, my blood ran cold, and I reflexively moved to protect the little boy, hiding him behind my back.
“…It’s not safe here,” I said. “You should run.”
The boy looked at me, then at the police officer, fear in his eyes.
“Go on,” I said. “Quickly, now.”
I pushed him lightly on his shoulder, and the boy fumbled to his feet and staggered off, looking back at me several times with concern as he went. I flashed him a smile to reassure him I’d be okay, and waved him goodbye.
“Are you trying to make a fool out of me?!” the officer shouted.