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Akira, I was delighted to learn, had returned to Shanghai not just for a visit, but for the foreseeable future, with plans to resume at his old school in the North Szechwan Road at the start of the summer term. I cannot remember if the two of us celebrated his
Akira, I was delighted to learn, had returned to Shanghai not just for a visit, but for the foreseeable future, with plans to resume at his old school in the North Szechwan Road at the start of the summer term. I cannot remember if the two of us celebrated his return in any special way. I have the impression we simply picked up our friendship where we had 5 left off the previous autumn with minimum fuss. I was quite curious to hear about Akira’s experiences in Japan, but he persuaded me it would be childish—somehow beneath us— to discuss such matters, and so we made a show of continuing with our old routines as if nothing had ever interrupted them. I guessed of course that all had not gone well for him in Japan, but did not begin to suspect the half of it until that warm spring day he tore the 10 sleeve of his kimono. When we played outside, Akira usually dressed much as I did—in shirt, shorts and, on the hotter days, sun hat. But on that particular morning we were playing on the mound at the back of our garden, he was wearing a kimono—not anything special, just one of the garments he often wore around his house. We had been running up and down the mound 15 enacting some drama when he suddenly stopped near the summit and sat down with a frown. I thought he had injured himself but, when I came up to him, saw he was examining a tear on the sleeve of the kimono. He was doing so with the utmost concern and I believe I said to him something like: “What’s wrong? Your maid or someone will sew that in no time,” 20 He did not respond—he seemed for the moment to have forgotten my presence entirely—and I realised he was sinking into a deep gloom before my eyes. He went on examining the tear for a few more seconds, then letting down his arm, stared blankly at the earth in front of him as though a great tragedy had just occurred. “This is third time,” he muttered quietly. “Third time same week I do bad thing.” 25 Then as I continued to gaze at him somewhat baffled, he said: “Third bad thing. Now mother and father, they make me go back Japan.” I could not, of course, see