5.18 A Swerve - Sea & Sand

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18. Heading South

Next day Kimura leaves and Kimi has little to do. Mornings she opens and sorts mail; rest of day she is at home.

   Obtaining food is becoming a problem twice a month with ration book and waiting on lines for 15 kilograms of rice to be measured into brown paper bag. Also salt, clothes, soap are rationed.

   Available foods are changing. Cans are off shelves because tin is essential. Foreign foods disappear; milk, cheese, butter and eggs are only on black market or in countryside to barter with farmer who grows rich, as farmers do on the losing side in wars. And cigarettes are shortened by several millimeters. Cognoscenti like Olga claim the tobacco has been denatured with horse dung – she can tell by smell.

   Entertainment is ended; dance halls and cabarets are closed and pubs must close by 11 PM. Movies are propaganda in which screamy-meemy soldier performs impossible heroics.

Harumi comes home from work early. To Kimi’s “What ?” she replies  “They sacked the un-marrieds today.”

   “What will you do?”

   “Unless I go to work at factory I will be denied ration book.” Harumi sits and thinks.
   Face brightens. “Kimi! I have relations near Nagasaki, the beach is beautiful and the ocean warm now. Let us head south, you will love it.”

   Kimi had not been on a beach since her village; she feels an urge for sea and sand. “What about Olga?”

   Harumi is stuffing things into a small battered valise. “She shan’t miss us at all. She hates outdoor exercise.”
   For next, now, click 5.(19-20) Arrival - The Secret Christians