The Dragon Tree (5 page)

             
                            CHAPTER FIVE

              Hiroki first fell in love with cameras when he discovered his father’s Polaroid as a four-year-old. Every chance he got, he snagged the camera and started clicking. The photos slid out of the camera immediately, but you still had to shake them a few seconds before you could see the image. Those few seconds were almost unbearable for Hiroki. His parents laughed at their precocious toddler as he frantically shook photo after photo like his life depended on it, then squealed with pure joy when the image at last appeared.

             
He still had his father’s Polaroid camera. More than any particular photograph of his father or any other object Reiko kept in the house, it was the camera itself that helped Hiroki remember who his father was. Ten years after the car accident that claimed his father’s life, Hiroki still found himself gulping back tears when he laid eyes on the Polaroid.

             
For Hiroki’s father, photography was nothing more than a hobby. But for Hiroki, it had become an obsession. He saw the world through his viewfinder, and he felt more at home here – in the Alpine High School darkroom – than anywhere else on the planet.

             
“Yes, I know a Japanese guy with a camera is cliché you prick,” muttered Hiroki as he stooped over a row of chemical baths. Billy wasn’t in the room with him – no one was – but Billy’s words kept popping back into his mind uninvited.

             
The darkroom wasn’t as dark as its name suggested. There was an eerie red light from a bubble light affixed above the door. The same light fixture was outside the door as well, to warn anyone who thought about entering that they better knock first. Too much light at the wrong moment and the photos would be ruined.

             
Hiroki was developing the photos from his good camera. His
film
camera. He prized it even more than his beloved Buick. When Billy’s horseplay sent the camera sliding over the cliff face the day before, the sight was almost as painful to Hiroki as the news that his father would never come home again.

             
The tension had remained in Hiroki’s gut until now. The camera didn’t appear damaged, but who knows how many rocks it had struck on its tumble down the cliff face before snagging on the tree branch.

             
This was the moment of truth. These photos would tell him everything.

             
The photos were… perfect.

             
There were more than a dozen photos of Eva standing regally at the edge of the cliff. Her raven hair was floating on the wind. Hiroki momentarily forgot his concern about his camera and focused on her contemplative expression. What was she thinking about while she stared at the ocean.

             
Was she thinking about Hiroki? Was she thinking about… Billy?

             
With a sigh, Hiroki moved on to the next chemical bath. He used tongs to remove the photos submerged in the toxic fluid and hung them up on a line to dry. It normally took as long as an hour for the photos to develop in full, but Hiroki’s teacher had shifted to fast-acting chemicals and the images were born much faster.

             
He could already see that these photos weren’t his. The framing was terrible and the contrast was worse. It gave Hiroki great satisfaction to notice that the photos were even
upside-down
.

             
“Anybody can take a photo, dude,” he mocked, in his best Billy impression.

             
It was hard to make out first, but the subject of these photos was a tree. Its sinewy trunk extended down through the frame of the photo rather than up; its dark branches mostly reached down as well. Large black leaves on the branches were sticking out in all directions, offering no clue as to which way was up and which was down.

             
Hiroki picked up a loupe lying on the counter and inched closer to the pictures. He leaned in close, the loupe an inch from his eye and an inch from the still-wet photo dangling from the line.

             
There was a detail in the background of the photo. A bird in flight.

             
The bird was right side up.

             
Then the photos were right side up too.

             
Hiroki moved the loupe an inch to the left and took a closer look at the branches of the tree. They were as black as Billy’s description, sure enough. As twisted and tangled as he described. And hanging from the branches were dark objects the size of ovular tennis balls.

             
Billy was right
, thought Hiroki bitterly.
I hate that guy.

             
But his bitterness was soon an afterthought when he lowered the loupe and looked at the photo in its entirety. He had to back up a few steps to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. But no, he wasn’t.

             
Oh my god.

***

              Eva was sitting in her History class across the aisle from Aidan. He was scribbling on scraps of paper and tossing them in the general direction of her desk. So far none had actually landed on her desk, so she pretended she didn’t notice them.

             
Mr. Windsor was in the middle of a lecture on World War II that had put most of the class to sleep, but Eva loved every school subject and history was in her top three.

             
“Most people in the United States were so frightened of our enemies abroad,” said Mr. Windsor in his signature drone, “that they didn’t raise any sort of protest when stores owned by German immigrants went up in flames and Japanese immigrants were shipped to internment camps all along the West Coast. The complicity of the American public in these disgraceful acts remains, in my mind, one of the darkest moments in the history of our great country.”

             
That moment, one of Aidan’s notes landed squarely in the center of Eva’s desk. She couldn’t very well ignore this one, so she glanced at Aidan. He was smiling as he gestured for her to open the note. With a heavy sigh, she did just that.

             
Whatever I did to upset you, I’m sorry. Forgive me?

             
Eva refolded the note and tucked it into her pocket. She forced herself to turn Aidan’s direction a second time and offered him a tiny nod. He melodramatically wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, mouthed “phew” then flashed his absurdly white smile. But his smile disappeared when he caught sight of something at the classroom door.

             
Eva followed Aidan’s eyes and saw Hiroki standing in the hall. He was staring right at her and waving his arms. She shook her head to let him know she didn’t understand, but he shook his head right back and beckoned her into the hall.

             
With a quick glance at Aidan, Eva wandered to the front of the class and asked Mr. Windsor for a bathroom pass. Without stopping his lecture, he rummaged in his desk for the pass and sent her on her way.

              Hiroki was carrying a folder against his chest. Even though the hall was empty, he was protecting its contents like he would protect an infant in a jostling crowd. He was so excited as they walked that Eva had a hard time keeping up with him.

             
“There really is a tree down there,” said Hiroki, speaking at rapid pace. “Billy was telling the truth about that. And it looks just like he said it does. Black branches all twisted together to form a trunk and other branches going all over the place. Lots of fruit like that nasty fruit he ate. And yeah, the whole thing is upside-down just like he said! I thought the pictures were upside-down since he’s such an idiot—”

             
“He’s not an idiot,” Eva interjected.

             
“Okay, he’s not an idiot. And he didn’t take the photos upside down.” Hiroki had to speed up to match Eva’s pace, now. She was headed straight for the girl’s bathroom. “What are you doing?”

             
“I actually do have to go,” said Eva as she walked into the bathroom. “Are you coming?” she hollered from inside.

             
Hiroki looked up and down the hall to make sure no one was watching, then gulped and followed her in the bathroom.

              Eva was already inside a stall, so Hiroki leaned against the row of sinks.

             
“Don’t listen to me pee!” Eva pleaded. “And don’t look through the crack in the door!”

             
“I’m not… I wouldn’t—” Hiroki protested weakly, but his protests sounded to him more like confessions. “You have to see the photos, Eva. That tree. It isn’t a normal tree.”

             
“Yeah, I get that you’re impressed by this tree. I get it. But calm down and take a few deep breaths.” She flushed the toilet inside her stall and stood to pull up her pants. “It’s still just a tree.”

             
“You haven’t seen the pictures yet!” Hiroki insisted. “You have to see the pictures.”

             
Eva opened the stall and stepped out. “Fine, show me.”

             
Eva froze in place and tilted her head toward the bathroom door. There were two female voices in the hall, and it sounded like their owners were headed toward the girls’ bathroom. Hiroki was frozen where he stood. Eva grabbed his shoulders and dragged him across the floor. He struggled to hang onto his folder as she pushed him inside one of the stalls, dove in after him and slammed the door.

             
Hiroki landed hard on the closed toilet seat. Eva sat down on his lap and cleverly lifted her feet.

             
Hiroki was holding his breath. He was experiencing a strange blend of abject horror that he might get caught in the girls’ bathroom and utter elation that Eva was sitting across his legs with her arms around him. The elation was getting the better of the horror, until he peeked through the stall crack and saw an 8”x10” photo lying on the bathroom floor.

             
Hiroki looked down at his folder. Half of the photos were hanging out from between its covers. He had dropped one! He gasped aloud, but Eva slapped her palm across his mouth to keep him quiet.

             
Penny Hobkins and Grace Delaney sauntered into the bathroom, their cheerleader’s skirts swishing on their skinny thighs. They went straight for the sinks and mirrors where they started unloading their purses: lipstick, lip balm, lip glitter.

             
Grace had planted one white shoe directly on top of Hiroki’s stranded photo. “After practice I just like, hung out at the field for like an hour. I was on the bleachers, but like, I was standing instead of sitting to make sure, like, the boys could see me.”

             
“Oh my god, did they see you?” asked Penny in her shrill whine.

             
Grace nodded as she applied the first layer of product to her lips. “And guess who saw me the most?”

             
“Aidan?”

             
“Totes,” said Grace with a satisfied smack of her redone lips. “And I mean
totes
. He was glancing over at me so much he like, totally messed up throwing the ball. I was like, kind of honored.”

             
“Did he come over and talk to you after practice? Oh my god he totally did, didn’t he? He totally did!”

             
Grace turned to face Penny, pivoting on the shoe that was planted on Hiroki’s photo. It crinkled audibly under her heel, but neither girl noticed. “Of course he came over after practice. I mean,
of course
. The poor guy has been dealing with Eva’s cold fish routine for so long he’s ready for a little heat.”

             
Penny hooted and shook her head, leaning forward to apply her own lipstick in the mirror. But she stood up straight suddenly when she saw the reflection of a pair of shoes under a stall door. She latched onto Grace’s arms and turned her to look at the stall.

             
Inside the stall, Eva was shifting her weight uncomfortably in Hiroki’s lap. She was having a hard time keeping her feet off the ground, and not sure she could take much more cheerleader babbling. Hiroki was struggling as well, his thin legs quivering under Eva’s weight.

             
“Did you enjoy eavesdropping?” said Grace in the direction of the stall. “Hope you did!”

             
Giggling, Grace headed for the door with Penny right behind her. As soon as they were outside of the bathroom, they resumed their cackling conversation.

             
Eva jumped off Hiroki’s lap with a groan and threw open the stall door. He followed her out, rubbing life back into his thighs.