“So Yukio? What’s up?”
Yukio looked at him. She spoke slowly, because when she got excited and nervous, she stumbled over her English. So, she tried to make sure she was understood. "My mother ordered me to get a haircut," she said, looking sensitively at her much shorter hair. It wasn't as short as some of the girls she'd seen.
"Yeah?" Jon said.
"Jon...my mother has never ordered me around...she's a very gentle woman. Even when my father moved us here and she was upset about the decision, she did not once raise her voice. It is not how my family is. Was," she said. She took more deep breaths to focus. "Things are not right."
"I didn't know you spoke English this well," Jon said.
"I took English for several years at home. Many people do," Yukio said. "But...it is not my first language. I have to think, and when I get..." she paused, to think of the word. "disquieted, I cannot think of the right words. My younger brother does not have any problems."
Jon nodded. "This is very...umm...disquieting," he said. It wasn't a word he usually used. "I mean, my younger sister stole all my clothes..."
"She is right, you look very nice," Yukio said. "In Japanese schools, there are uniforms and rules about appearance. It was one of the first things I found very different here. It is not a bad thing, to dress up for school as one would for work?"
Jon nodded. "So, we both agree something is going on, but neither of us understand what, but most people don't seem to notice. What can we do about it?"
Yukio looked at him. "We cannot be the only two who notice strange things are happening...we should find others..."
That seemed like a good idea. He'd never given much thought to Yukio as a person...she always seemed to shrink into the background. If not for this situation, he might have never talked to her even this much. He could see her becoming a friend. Speaking of which, he wondered where Karyn was this morning.
