Summer Reading Essay by Leona G

“Things Fall Apart”, Chinua Achbee
“Norwegian Wood”, Haruki Murakami


On a college campus in Tokyo Japan, with the Sakura trees blossoms floating everywhere in the spring sky. Benches were everywhere near the school building, I noticed a girl sitting all alone. She looked lost and confused. I walked over to her and asked her “Excuse me, are you lost?”
She answered “Yeah I’m trying to find my distant cousin, Toru.”
“Toru? As in Toru Wantanabe?” I asked.
“Yes,”
“OH!” I exclaimed. “He’s my best friend I was actually going to visit him right now! I’m Naoko.” I reached out and took her had and started shaking it.
“Hello, I’m Ezinma. It’s nice to meet you.” She said back smiling.
“So where are you form? Around here?” I asked her. I really had no idea who she was, even though Toru was a very good friend of mine.
“Me? I’m from the Umoufia Clan.” She seemed confused and scared but in a confident way. I couldn’t read her that well.
“Oh” I said kind of confused. “I don’t really know what that is.
She laughed. “No one really does. My dad sent me here to spend some time because out family got exiled from the clan because of my dad… he just messed up during a sacred holiday.”
“Oh, that’s not good.” Her culture seemed to be very different than ours. I was confused by it. She was pretty though. She had Long dark brown hair. She didn’t look Japanese though; I guess she really is a distant cousin with Toru, very distant.
“Do you live on this campus too?” She asked me, but I was too distracted thinking about how they were related.
“Huh? What?” I said quickly and very stupidly sounding.
She giggled and asked again “Do you live on this campus too?”
“Oh, no I don’t. our best friend just… well.” She looked at me with a very questioning look on her face.
“Recently our friend, my boyfriend at the time, took his own life.” I said very quietly.
“OH! I am so sorry! I had no idea!”
“Its okay, lets walk and find his room.” We were still sitting on the bench under the Sakura trees just enjoying the day.
“Alright sounds like a good idea.”
We started walking and I was waving to my friends that were on campus and people that I was an acquaintance with. It made me feel very popular. Girls in Japan don’t really go to college we are just meant to stay home and clean and take care of the children and our husband. I don’t really agree with that but It was my plan before that terrible night happened.
“How did you meet Toru?” Enzima asked out of the blue.
“He was the best friend of our deceased friend.”
“Oh, and you guys became close after the fact that happened?”
“Yeah, well we became closer.” I said kind of sadly thinking about the day. She noticed a little bit and stopped talking. “So what about you? You’re here because your dad sent you here not for school or anything?”
“No, no not for that, because my dad sent me about the whole family exile thing and I made a vow I wouldn’t get betrothed until my family moves back into the village.” She said.
“Oh, yeah, that’s a big vow. I mean I guess if you don’t have a significant other than it doesn’t matter that much.” I said not really knowing what to say. “oh! Were here I wonder if he’s even home, but hey I have to go now. We took a really long time to get here and I have to be somewhere.”
“Oh alright, I’m sure I can find it from here. It was really nice meeting you I’m sure I will see you around.”
“Yeah, definitely! You, Toru and I should go out sometime soon. It was wonderful talking with you. See you soon. Sayounara!”
“Good night” Ezinma was saying as I started to walk away waving.