This is Amiko, Do You Copy? by Natsuko Imamura

Author:Natsuko Imamura
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Steerforth Press
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

The sounds continued. One day, either in the first or second year of junior high school, Amiko was staggering down the hallway when she saw Nori coming toward her. It was probably in the second year because she felt she hadn’t seen him in a long time. Nori had grown taller and his hair was longer, which made him look all the more handsome. “Nori!” she exclaimed as she approached him.

Nori stepped to the side to avoid her, but Amiko grabbed his sleeve. “Listen, on my balcony, there’s…” Nori shook her off. A girl who had seen this exchange yelled out, “Eew, gross!” and another boy shouted, “Run, Nori! Run, run!”, clapping his hands. Nori ran. “Run away! Amiko is coming after you!”

Amiko didn’t run after Nori. She watched as he ran away, away from the whirlpool of laughter.

One autumn night, Amiko walked downstairs with a blanket over her head. It had been too noisy to sleep. The strange sounds, which were muffled at school, were the loudest from the balcony of her room. She had tried closing her eyes tight, but that only made her head hurt.

Normally, on the days she skipped school, Amiko had a regular routine of eating snacks, reading manga, watching TV, and taking naps, while doing some made-up exercises in between. But her energy was so depleted by the lack of sleep day after day that even those activities felt like a burden. At school, the boy sitting next to her asked if she was taking baths. She thought about it but couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken one. “I’m gonna be real. You stink,” the boy told her.

It all started with the sounds. Amiko felt so weak that she lost all energy to eat and bathe. It was difficult for her to keep track of time, and she was regularly tardy or absent from school. On several occasions, she would arrive at school with her hair all over the place and find out it was already time to go home. But, for some reason, no one scolded her like they used to when she was little.

When Amiko opened the door to her parents’ bedroom, it was dark and quiet. She lay down quietly in the corner near the door.

When she woke up, she was back upstairs in her own room.

She could still feel the ache in her left shoulder where her father had shaken her awake a few hours earlier. Wrapped in a blanket, in a daze, she was forced to stand and go up the stairs one by one. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Father’s voice echoed in her ears as he steadied her to be sure she wouldn’t fall backward. Then he pushed her into her room and closed the door.

The next time Amiko stepped into her parents’ bedroom, she announced, “I’m gonna sleep here from now on, okay?”

The bedroom was crammed with two futon mattresses, which covered almost the entire floor space. Mother seemed to

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