Chapter 1

...PAGE - ONE...

...1955...

A chill rolled down my back as my friend Riru

and I gazed up at my new house. The house was

dark gray with peeling paint. Black shutters

tilted at the dust-smeared windows.

Under the sloping roof, one attic window was

broken and covered with cardboard. The wind

whistled into the window, high above our heads.

It sounded like someone screaming.

I wanted to scream.

"It's a haunted house," I said. “It belongs in a

horror movie."

"Your mom will get it cleaned up, Asahi,"

Riru said.

I knew Riru for only a couple of weeks. She

was the first friend I made since we moved

to Sunshu Village. She was cheerful Miss

Sunshine all the time.

I told her that. She said, “I'd rather be Miss

Sunshine than someone howling at the full moon."

Does that make any sense?

Riru was always saying things like that. But

I liked her anyway. She was cute. She was fifteen,

like me. Tiny, with a pointed chin and pointed

little nose.She had short blond hair and green eyes. And she usually wore the same green sweater witha lacy white collar. I guess because it matched her eyes.

“I couldn't get to sleep last night,” I said. “I

kept hearing a tap-tap-tap above me. I knew what

it was. It was mice running across my ceiling."

“Tap-tap-tap is better than thump-thumpthump," Riru said. That made me laugh.

I turned away from the house. It made me sad

that Mom and I had to live in such a creepy old

wreck of a place. But we really had no choice.

My dad was in the war. And Mom was working two factory jobs to earn enough money for us to get by. I almost never saw her.

"You're the man of the house now, Asahi,"

Mom told me the day we moved into this horrible

place. "It's a tough time for everyone. And being

gloomy isn't going to help.”

"But Gloomy is my middle name," I said.

"Asahi Gloomy Tokugawa."

I was trying to make her laugh. She hardly

ever smiled these days, and she had these lines

under her eyes she never had before.

She swept her black hair behind her shoulder.

"Promise me you'll do your best,” she said.

I raised my right hand and swore I'd do

my best.

"We are lucky to have a house," Mom said.

"Lucky," I repeated.

She tugged at the brown leather bomber jacket

I liked to wear because it made me look tough.

"Asahi, that jacket is getting small on you,"

she said.

"I'll try not to grow anymore," I told her. I

tightened my stomach and hunched down to my

knees.

That made her laugh.

Now, Riru and I stood in front of the house with

the October wind gusting around us. Fat brown

leaves danced around our legs.

"I guess the worst part is living across the

street from a graveyard," I said.

Riru poked me in the ribs. “Are you scared?”

she asked in a singsong voice. “Is little Asahi

scared of a graveyard?"

“I'm not scared," I said, poking her back. "It's

just ... depressing."

“Ooh. Big word,” she said. "So? You live in a

haunted house across the street from a graveyard. What is the big deal?"

The truth is, maybe I was a little scared. I'm

not a tough guy. Sometimes I have nightmares

that make me wake up all sweaty and shaky.

And I've never been in a fight with another kid.

I always find a way to talk my way out of fights,

or Captain Marvel, the new comic book heroes. I

When I was little, I pretended to be Superman

wore a towel for a cape and had my underpants

over my pajama pants. And I ran around, pretending to "leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

I think I really believed there were these powerful guys in capes and tights who were around

to fight bad guys and protect everyone else. But

then my dad went off to war, and I had to grow

up a little and forget that comic book stuff.

Riru leaned into the wind and trotted across

the street, her blond hair bouncing behind her.

"Hey, wait up!” I shouted. “Where are you

going?”

I could see where she was headed. Into the

graveyard.

Our shoes crackled over the brown leaves as

we followed a path through the tilted stone graves.

Wind gusts made the old gravestones creak and

groan.

"Why don't we go to the candy store instead?”

I asked. I pointed to the little store on the corner

past the graveyard. “I have a nickel. We could

load up on root beer barrels and licorice sticks."

“Mom said not to ruin my appetite for dinner,"

Riru said. "Don't you like walking in this place?

Some of the graves are so old —”

"It's... my first time," I said.

The sky darkened. I looked up and saw storm

clouds rolling overhead. The wind rattled the

limbs of the old tree beside us.

I shivered. I raised the collar of my bomber

jacket. My eyes gazed all around. The blowing,

crackling leaves made the whole place seem

alive.

Riru pointed. “That grave is so tiny. Do you

think a child is buried there?”

Before I could answer, I saw something that

made me gasp.

I grabbed Riru's arm. “Look. Riru. Something

just moved — by that tombstone.”

We both stared into the gray light.

"Oh, noooo," I moaned.

I watched, trembling in horror as someone

climbed out of a grave.

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