Yasu's Diary

Philip Jensen had been working for the Old Town Coin Shop for five years now. It was the main store of a twenty store chain of coin shops. He started working there because he needed to pay for college, but now, a year after graduation, he worked there simply because he did not want to leave and enjoyed the atmosphere. He had majored in Archeology in college with a special affinity for Japan. He could speak almost fluent Japanese and could read it even better.

His immediate boss was an old lady of seventy that stories went around that she had worked for the present owners grandmother. Although the old lady, Gertrude Hamilson, was slowing down physically, she just seemed to get shrewder every year.

The owner was a lady of reportly twenty five although every time he talked to her, he had the feeling he was talking to someone much older. She had taken over the business in 1986 after her mother died and was running it quite well for only having six years of experience. Yasu Michamo, the owner, was five foot tall with blond hair and large green eyes. He thought that she had never age in the five years he had worked for her, and although she had a strange abnormality that caused her ears to be pointed, she was the most beautiful woman he knew or had ever seen. She spoke with a faint Japanese accent and often wrote poems in the same.

This year, Philip was taking more and more responsibilities in the store. Now, he would regularly be the person who would lock up the shop. On one such night, he was sweeping the shop up after locking the door when he noticed a book on the counter. Curious at what it was, he picked it up. After he picked it up he recognized it; It was the diary of Ms Michamo. "She must have left it when she went to the shop", He thought. Unable to resist the temptation, he picked up the book and started leafing through the book. The first four pages were written in something he had never seen before but seemed to flow across the pages. He continued to skim through the book. It seemed to be written in a form that would indicate synopsis of major events. Page five was written in Japanese and he could not stop himself from reading it.

He stopped reading and started looking at the paper. It was of the same material as you would expect for paper from eighteenth century Japan. It also looked and felt the right age. It also appeared to be in the same hand as the owner. He could not help but think about Gertrude calling Ms. Michamo "Old Lady". Still, he could not help but to continue reading. He flipped many pages forward and started reading what he flipped to. It was also written in Japanese. Tears welled out of his eyes as he finished this synopsis. He flipped a few more passages and noticed that soon they were written in English. This writing was so much like Ms. Michamo's handwriting, it could not have been done by her mother and the aging of the book would have cost a fortune if it was a fake. "Is this real or am I working for a Mad Woman", is his thought. His curiosity kept him reading though. He did not know why, but for some reason he felt all this writing was real and not fiction of lunacy. He launched himself further along getting entangled further into the diary. The heading of the next chapter appeared more terse. As he read, He believed more and more that he was actually working for a two hundred plus year old lady. He thought about all the conversations between the Ms Michamo and Mrs Hamilson and the way they talked about events. He flipped to the last written page in the book next, preparing to lock it up for the owner thinking it might be best to run as far away as he could. He almost dropped the book as he saw that both Ms Michamo and Mrs Hamilson were watching him from the back.

"Would you care for a cup of tea, Philip?"

By Kitsune (E-Mail Kitsune).

Copyright © 1998, Kitsune. All rights reserved.

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