Chapter 1

I hardly knew why we were bundled up and sent off deep into the bamboo forest, somehow I had it in my muddled mind that Gojiro had attacked the city again, but no one ever bothered to explain the real reason- it couldn’t have been? In any event, I and my two older sibs, Hoji and Miksu (Miksu the Mouse, we called her, the two boys ganging up- unless it was the two eldest tormenting the younger, me). We squabbled as sibs do, but we were all pretty quiet as the rattle-trap nissan pickup knocked and shook even more than the rutted dirt track would warrant, creeping along at a pace that looked to take just as long as the first part of the journey.

Our driver, a local apparently trying to earn enough to keep his vehicle running, grabbed the envelope stuck to the bamboo trunk and barely giving us time to remove our scant belongings was leaving in a billow of blue smoke and a few random small parts I hope were not essential.

We looked at each other, our rivalries forgotten as the situation forged us into a defensive herd. Clustered up nearly back to back, we surveyed our surroundings. Besides this small clearing at the end of the seemingly endless dirt track through the seemingly endless bamboo forest, there wasn’t anything to see, aside from the envelope which our erstwhile driver had taken with him, but which seemed to suggest at least that we were where we were supposed to be, and not somewhere random. There did not seem to be any pathways, and the bamboo was too dense to thread through, and to where, anyway?

We built a tiny fortress from our luggage, and sat atop it, leaning against one another as much for reassurance as for support, and waited. after a time, I whispered to Miksu that it was a test, and she told Hoji to endure like a Samurai, and so we waited, not speaking, sitting in the middle of a seemingly endless bamboo forest.

It was Miksu who noticed him sitting there, so much a part of the surroundings not because he blended in at all, but just because there was such a familiarity between the scrawny scraggly haired old man and the forest around, as if he belonged just as much as every tree in the wood. She nudged me and Hoji, and when we all looked over at the man she had discovered so nearby (the clearing had barely been big enough for the Nisan to turn around in) He stood smoothly from his cross-legged seated position, and asked if we had recovered from the drive in, and would we now like to see our new home for now.

I know I for one boggled, and I was too busy gawking at the unkempt scarecrow who had seemingly appeared from nowhere to check if my sibs were reaching for the ground with their chins. I am certain we presented a humorous tableau.

Where are my manners, he continued, reminding my sibs and I of our own fine upbringing, and introduced himself as Sensei Rubpo, and said he was our Mother’s second cousin, and that we would have lots of fun in what ever time was given for us to share. I wondered if the fun would be of the sort like where he appeared from nowhere, seemingly. Gathering up our luggage, we followed Sensei Rubpo, or cousin Rubpo as it may be into the seemingly solid wall of bamboo, but a gap appeared that was unseen before, going sideways behind an outcrop of forest wall which all blended into a solid deep green.

We walked quite a ways, but it was a nice change from the bumpy ride out and the interminable wait atop our luggage, and even lugging it along down the narrow pathway was a nice change after a fashion, so there was no complaining or bickering. Plus, we were still minding our manners meeting a new stranger adult. (None stranger!)

His bamboo house (of course) was of an open plan, the outhouse was twenty meters down a twisty trail that provided all the privacy available, as the ‘house’ part was merely a roof over a platformed hole, the better to commune with nature, the dense thick green wall that towered up and up, leaving daylight just a suggestion above. The large open house had a concrete blockhouse at the interior of the airy springy structure which provided secure environs for cooking, and a point to attach the electric meter. Not that much was used, just lights and such, although it had been cheaper than running the phone line alone. Yes, a phone, how else had arrangements been made for us?

The small clearing permitted more light although it was still a gloomy place, the shadows diffuse yet constant. Yet enough stray light filtered down in the short time after the daily morning fog and before the sunset to keep every stalk of bamboo deep green from top to bottom with hopeful chlorophyll just on the off chance of a ray of sunshine. Plants are so very optimistic!

Sensei Rubpo told us we had to make our beds before we could sleep, and the fact was, there were no beds for us yet, and we had to construct them if we wanted to sleep in a bed tonight. Meanwhile, he would build some walls for our rooms. I did say it was an open plan abode? We were shown how to cut down the green bamboo trees, luckily one would be enough for a bed. A saw or a knife was demonstrated to be practically useless at severing the dense fibrous stalk-wall, best was a hatchet to chop through in small sharp bites.

Then, a small but sharp knife with a hook instead of a point was used to split the trunk in half, then into strips, the strips thinned by shaving the softer inside down, and by then Rubpo (Who we all called ‘Sensei’ to his face) had made one wall and was working on the second. He took the time to direct us on how to use our thin strips to weave into a flat surface(‘bumpy side down, see?’) which held the frame it was built around together. When we were done, he gave us each a blanket, wished us nice dreams, and that he’d see us in the morning light. By then it was fully dark, the only light a few LED (light emitting diodes) glimmers around the blockhouse, and along the trail to the ‘outhouse’. With our own goodnights, we were soon asleep.

When it got light enough to move about, Miksu began to scuttle about, exploring all the nooks and drawers, and when challenged on the propriety of such actions contrasted to our upbringing, she rebutted ‘our home for now. We live here, and should help. Go get some water from the well.’ Working together we soon had breakfast ready, ‘Sensei isn’t our house lady, and neither am I. Wash and chop these vegetables.’ Sensei Rubpo looked pleased as he appeared in time for breakfast and tea, and he even helped with the clean-up. Then he declared it was time for games.

He said ‘You are going to play Hide and Seek, and I will be It. When I tag you, You become It, and seek to tag anyone else you can find, whom will then also be It. I will then be hiding, and once I hide, I won’t change location. If you can find me and tag me, you win.

I hurried away towards a place I had noticed the Sensei vanishing from nearby before, and found some narrow trails, one of which had another trail partway down it that cut back at a sharp angle which one might miss going in this direction. I turned back down it, and was lost in a maze of narrow intersecting aisles. Not really, I broke a stem to mark the exit, and lost myself, turning at random until I came to a dead end, then I burrowed into the forest just off the trail.

After I had settled, I heard what must be Sensei Rubpo giggling unless there were an unknown creature sharing the forest, then his voice scolding Hoji. ‘You weren’t even trying, you must give everything you do your full effort. There is no phoning it in, this is life, you must live it. Only rice for you tonight!’

Upon hearing the quality of dinner was at stake, as much as I love rice I didn’t want to miss out on any of the other parts of the meal, so I decided to give this game my full effort. I concentrated on being a rock, wait, better if I was a vole, worried about a snake. I settled into my immobility, trying to only think worried vole thoughts, and trying to make my heart beat less forcefully. I let the noises of the others as they played the game wash over my little vole brain, meaningless, or I didn’t process the information, holding it in abeyance for now, just more worry for a hiding vole, snakes were what I was focusing my attention on locating.

I heard them find the maze, they were not trying to be quiet at all, so I just kept still and worried about getting eaten by a snake as they blundered about becoming confused and lost. The morning fog permitted no direction to be discerned from the Sun. When the Sun did burn through, it was high enough in the sky to give few clues.

My vole brain became aware of a yelling, that was new, I started to process the words. “You are not It, Come in Free!” Huh, I had won? When I made it back to the house my sibs were embarrassed and grumpy, they had not been able to defeat the maze and had to have Sensei Rubpo lead them out. Sensei was very proud of me as he couldn’t find me by listening to the bamboo, it told him exactly where my sibs were the entire time, but he couldn’t get a hint of my location. Plus, I had entered and exited the maze with out difficulty. I told him I had cheated and broken a stem but he scoffed and said he had cleared away the tell shortly afterward. I guess I had just gone out the way I came in, but the maze was designed to confuse and mislead.

As to how I had ‘vanished’ from the bamboo, I told how I had only thought vole thoughts, and that was good enough to satisfy the forest as to what I was. Sensei Rubpo was very happy if the twinkle in his eye and his unabashed grin were any clue of his feelings. He was so happy he relented and permitted Hoji to eat anything he wanted of what was presented for the meal, as long as he promised to fully engage in what ever activity he was pursuing. He sure lived up to his promise as far as dinner was concerned! After clean-up and a quick trouncing of us all by Sensei in a rapid-fire series of Go!, we went to our beds, Me being told that I was It tomorrow, and to try to learn how to hear what the forest was telling me.

On awakening the next morning I found the tea still almost hot, and a plate for me that was delicious. But no one else about, I took my time, relaxing into the quiet morning, listening to the normal morning sounds- which were absent in two different vectors. I assumed Rubpo was thinking voleish if he hadn’t already known that trick, which by the grin from last night I suspected he hadn’t. I tidied up, then strolled to where the forest was most quiet and bopped Hoji on his shoe as I said ‘Tag, I don’t know if you are It, but you are at least out.’ He sat up and complained ‘How did you find me?’ and I had to sound all mystical and full of crap when I honestly told him the forest gave him away. I put my finger to my lips shushing him mysteriously, and gestured him to follow me as I snuck along at my most silent, which needed a lot of work, but Hoji joined in and also tried his best. Once I had heard the forest speaking to me, my own footsteps seemed a shout. It helped me moderate my movements to disturb the environs as least as possible as I led my brother straight (well aside from the twisty pathways) to my sister’s hiding place. She joined us in trying to quietly find our Sensei.

I stopped and listened, putting my attention on the message from the forest. Miksu and Hoji seemed to also be trying to experience what I was receiving. All seemed normal, vole thoughts or not, Rubpo was part of his forest. Something about the light though. The fog had just burned off, and the dappled sunlight seemed dimmer somehow in one direction, so I signaled my sibs, and we spread out and encircled the suspect area, and there up in the treetops was Sensei Rubpo, using the Sun to keep us from looking in his direction. With us on all sides though, the jig was up.

He was most pleased with us, but wanted to work more with Hoji and Miksu, so tomorrow I was to explore the forest, but without leaving the treetops and coming to the ground. He had us play interactive games the rest of the afternoon, throwing darts at targets, the reflex game, memory lists we created, each listing the items in order then adding our own at the end until something gets forgotten. Then the same game only using body movements, or facial emotions, or percussive beat-boxing. The next day after breakfast he had my sibs concentrate on listening to the forest while he sent me off to explore.