The tiny pricks scattered across Lucy’s fingers burned as she struggled to thread her sewing needle, trying her best to keep up with Yuko while the older woman somehow managed to master the impossible craft seemingly overnight.
“This is ridiculous, can’t we just rip off the other sleeve instead?” Lucy muttered just loud enough for Yuko to hear.
No matter how hard her strained gaze maintained focus, the cursed string went every which way but through the eye of the needle, and Lucy had half a mind to throw the entire monstrosity of a shirt in the trash and the needle on a chair for her uncle to sit on.
“I told you.” Yuko murmured as she gracefully weaved in and out of her own holey blouse. “If you would simply allow yourself the time to thread it like I showed you before-”
Lucy grunted, swiping away the beads of sweat sticking her fringe to her damp forehead. “Okay, your way of threading takes way too much time, it’s much faster to just jam it through!”
“Is it?” Yuko raised a brow at Lucy’s prickly red fingers.
Lucy was gripping the needle with still no string running through its eye after 10 straight minutes of groans and expletives pouring from the poor girl’s mouth.
“Fine.” Lucy rolled her head backwards, plopping the miserable needle and sleeve in Yuko’s lap as an offering. “You win, show me how to-”
“Shit!” Both women gasped and dropped their work as Alfred’s sudden cursing trailed from the kitchen into the living room.
“What! What the hell is it!?” Lucy yelped, her and Yuko now tripping over the other’s feet while running through the hallway to the kitchen entrance.
“Ah!” Yuko didn’t know what surprised her more: the family of little brown mice that had just made an escape in between her feet or her fiancé frantically charging towards her with a stick and an open sack.
“Little shits were eating our carrots! Why the hell didn’t you hide them somewhere?” Alfred pushed by Lucy, shooting her a glare as he chased the tiny mother and her babies down the hall and towards the entryway.
“They were by the kitchen sink, I was going to wash them after fixing your screwed up shirt!” Lucy threw a fist in the air as she yelled, fantasizing that it was pummeling into her idiotic excuse for an uncle instead of colliding with the wall beside her.
“Al, stop complaining and just get them out!” Yuko shouted from atop a stool in the kitchen, adrenaline simmering through her body as she shook.
We cannot have those things in here when-
“AGH-”
“Well, hello Mieko! Takako, good to see you!”
Amidst the ruckus, two feminine shrieks sounded from the front door, an almost comical contrast to Alfred’s sudden jovial greeting.
“This can’t be happening.” With two fingers cradling the bridge of her nose, Yuko struggled to find the will to carry on with today’s plans.
How on earth was she going to slap on her hostess face and explain away three mice running out of their home?
What the hell, they’re one hour early! The nerve of that woman.
Lugging her body from her stool sanctuary, Yuko’s disdain for Takako and the dread of the oncoming afternoon boiled beneath her skin.
As Lucy and Mieko’s fondness for each other grew during the passing weeks, Yuko found herself entertaining Takako and Mieko on two different occasions under the guise of “an English club” - a lie supposedly carefully curated by Takako herself, one with a set of rules which she made certain the Hamptons abided by for the sake of Mieko’s reputation.
“Mieko really enjoys her time with Lucy.” Yuko recalled Takako’s chipper voice and forced smile from their second meeting. The bile in Yuko’s throat rose bit by bit at every condescending nod thrown her way across the living room table. “It would be appreciated if they could continue to see each other but just…not where we live.”
A sharp pain shot through her mouth as Yuko felt her teeth grinding away in frustration. To her dismay, the same insufferable voice from her memory rang out in strained laughter from the front door.
“Oh, there’s rats? Oh my, haha…”
“Hello Mister Alfred!”
“Call me Al, Mieko! And don’t worry ladies, we got all of ‘em out, I think she just had twins!”
Taking hold of Lucy’s still-clenched fist, Yuko dragged both of them down the hall to the literal three-ring circus beginning an hour early.
“Oh my god.” Lucy groaned under her breath, biting her tongue for the sake of Yuko’s dwindling reserves of hospitality.
“Say your prayers now.” Yuko mumbled.
“Miss Takako, Micchan! I’m so sorry, Alfred left the back door open while we were tidying the kitchen.” Yuko laughed while shoving Alfred behind her and Lucy, greeting Takako with a curt nod before beaming down at Mieko. “Oh, Micchan you always look so cute!” Fruitlessly attempting to make light of the disaster from moments prior, Yuko bowed and gestured for the two women to come in. “Blue really suits you.”
Before Mieko could thank Yuko and comment on her own beautiful patterned skirt, Takako cut in as she cautiously entered the house.
“Yes, well, we make an effort to maintain a presentable appearance in the face of our hosts.” She made a concerted effort to have her inspection of the floors and walls noticed by Yuko, who, with Lucy steaming beside her, held back the waking urge to throw the unwelcome guest out on the street.
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“Ah.” Yuko laughed as the group entered the sitting room. “One can only make so much of an effort in a proper appearance when all of their concentration is devoted to proper manners.”
Takako was silent as she took a seat, quaking lips refusing to falter into a frown at the sudden slight.
“Well I think you look great!” Plopping down next to Lucy, Mieko innocently piped in. “Lucy’s hair looks really nice pulled back, doesn’t it?”
“Mmmm.”
“Actually.” Yuko forced herself to interject. “Why don’t you and Lucy go upstairs and start? I heard talk that it’s going to rain later today, and I would hate for you two to get caught in the middle of it.”
“Ah, yeah that’s right! Okay!” Completely unaware of the stoney demeanor simmering between the two older women, Mieko sprung up to follow Lucy out of the room towards the stairs, one of them eager to learn and the other simply thankful for a moment’s rest from the eruption brewing under a guise of lighthearted chatter.
“Finally, thank god, I couldn’t last one more minute of that.” Lucy sighed as she slid the door closed to their makeshift study room.
“What?” Mieko questioned, settling down next to a pile of paper and her bundle of books she brought from home.
“Surely you noticed the cross-fire we just avoided.” Gathering her skirt around her knees, Lucy settled herself next to the small table cluttered with pencils, more paper, and a handful of rice crackers.
“No…” Mieko scrunched her nose as she tried to make sense of Lucy’s sentence. ‘Cross-fire?’ Her newfound friend always spoke in riddles, and it frustrated Mieko to no end! “Well, anyway, we’re really thankful that you allowed us into your home again. And for being so nice to teach me!”
Lucy held back a chuckle as she waved away Mieko’s compliments. “It’s nothing, but I wouldn’t call it ‘teaching’ when it’s with a girl who never went to secondary school.”
Before Mieko could inquire what a “secondary” school was, Lucy fussed with her hair and started to babble. “And sorry about the crackers, I know they’re not good, but it’s better than nothing I guess? That’s what Yuko said. You don’t have to eat them if you don’t want them-”
And with that, as a wave of duty splashed over her, Mieko found her hands grabbing for not one nor two, but for three of the thin crackers as her friend showed no signs of starting their lesson anytime soon.
“Lu-chan, I will eat these crackers! No matter how plain and drying they are!” With her mouth open wide and dropping crumbs on the floor, Mieko muffled her approval as she munched.
“I said you don’t have to! Wait, ‘Lu-chan’?”
“Your nickname. Yuko says it all the time, right?” Mieko continued to drop crumbs on her kimono and the floor. “And even if they don’t taste good, it’s what friends do! I can eat these crackers if you help me study. It’s 50/50!”
“Gee, thanks…” Lucy allowed herself another giggle, taking the grammar book from the floor and opening up to where she had slid the bookmark in after last week’s session.
“Oh!” Mieko bonked her head with a pencil, running her rehearsed lines through her head one last time. “Speaking of 50/50, do you remember last week, I talked about my friend Kazu who is coming home from New York?” Her legs tensed as Lucy furrowed her brows.
“Um, yeah, the guy who works with your dad?” Lucy asked as her brain jumped between English and Japanese. Mieko’s language was constantly shifting between the two and while it was endearing (and something Lucy herself was guilty of doing from time to time), it was exhausting all the same.
“Yes.” Mieko nodded. “I told him about you and Yuko and Al, and he wants to visit!”
“Visit?” Lucy’s voice lowered, eyes squinting and a line forming on her forehead as she forced herself to press further. “Why?”
-would a rich yuppy want anything to do with our mess, let alone visit?
Is what Lucy had truly wanted to ask, but she restrained herself.
She stared across the table and reminded herself, however, that the Takahara heiress herself willingly visited weekly, sat in this stuffy room, and even called Lucy a friend, so perhaps the notion wasn’t that far-fetched.
Fiddling with her fingers as a blush spread across her nose, Mieko chose her words carefully. “I’m very thankful that you let me visit, and you help me study.” Taking a breath, she continued. “And…I don’t have many friends, so coming here and seeing you and your family is the best thing that’s happened to me in a long time. Sometimes I feel like I might be taking up a lot of your time, barging in every week, but…”
Lucy shook her head, just about to assure Mieko that she was welcome at any time, but then Mieko slammed her fist on the table.
“But I still want to!”
“Hah!” Lucy covered her mouth with a hand, taken aback and holding in the sudden wave of tears and laughter.
“Why are you laughing!” Mieko burst out again as soon as Lucy’s laughter could no longer be contained. “Listen, I want to thank you for all of your help, so my friend wants to come and talk to Al and Yuko about work!”
Lucy’s quivering shoulders froze and laughter ceased, her hand once resting over her mouth now nervously fidgeting with the pages from the grammar book. “O-oh…uh…that’s…a lot, Mieko.”
“I know, it’s sudden for me to say, but I want to help like you’re helping me!” Reaching for Lucy’s hand, Mieko tried to explain further. “Al always goes on about how no one wants to hire him because he can’t speak Japanese. My friend speaks English, and he’s worked with Americans! It’s the perfect fit!”
“Mieko.” Lucy let out another chuckle as she closed her eyes. “Me helping you with some English homework doesn’t merit you and your friend putting your lives on the line.”
Lucy recalled the multiple stories Mieko had told her of her father, Mister Takahara, and his tight grip around her and his workers. It was already thin ice having Mieko visit this ragtag “English Club” without her father growing suspicious. Who’s to say how long his ignorance would last if they added one more scheme and one more person to the secret?
“Nonsense.” Mieko rolled her eyes as she snorted. “You teach me much more than my actual teacher. And as long as I'm with Kazu, my father won't get suspicious. Plus, now while Yuko and Takako are talking we can tell Al!”
“But tell him what exactly?”
“Easy, that my friend will help him make money! Can we just ask him at least?” Mieko pleaded. “My friend already said he’d come and discuss possibilities!”
“That’s right, you already asked, didn’t you?” Lucy sighed, knowing well by now that once Mieko had a resolve to accomplish her goal, getting in her way was as good as jumping in front of a train. “...Just don’t bring Takako again, for Yuko’s sake.”
“Deal! Before we go down to Al-” Mieko was beaming as she freed Lucy’s hand, eyes zeroing back in on her beloved textbook. “I just have to know, what’s the ‘subjunctive present’?”
“The what-ive what now?”