Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13 MARCH 25, 2011 NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TOKYO, JAPAN Ben sat between Mom and Harry on the airplane. Soon they would take off. It was two weeks after the wave, and they were heading home. The stewardess came by for the third time and asked Mom to please turn off her phone. Mom was talking to Dr. Sato. They'd been working together nonstop these past two weeks, trying to

get supplies to Shogahama. Mom's friends in the air force were helping. Finally, Mom said good-bye to Dr. Sato and turned off her phone. She smiled at Ben, put her head back, and closed her eyes. None of them had slept much lately. Harry had Nya's cage on his lap. He was giving the old cat one last scratch on the head before he'd have to put her under the seat. Ojisan had asked them to take Nya home with them, to keep an eye on her. Of course they were happy about that. Ben looked at the scar on Harry's arm. "Your scar is cooler than Darth Vader's," Ben said. "Way cooler," Harry said with a grin. It amazed Ben that Harry had come through the disaster with no other injuries. By some miracle, Mom and Harry and Ojisan had managed to stay together after they fell out of the car. The water had swept them into the parking garage of

Shogahama's only apartment building. They'd rushed up the stairway, just steps ahead of the wave. They'd made it to the roof, waiting there with dozens of other people until the water subsided. Like all of them, Harry had seen some terrible things. He was having nightmares almost every night. Loud noises made him jump. Ben, too. Ben knew how lucky they were to be together, that they were safe. But it was hard to feel happy when there was so much sadness all around. The quake had been the strongest ever to hit Japan, the fourth-strongest ever recorded in the world. The tsunami had destroyed towns and cities up and down the Japanese coast for hundreds of miles. Thousands and thousands of people had died, and thousands more were still missing. There had been some happy moments at the school, like when Akira's parents finally came, and then Hidecki's. But

many people couldn't find their relatives. In the end, it was Kazu's aunt from Tokyo who came to pick him up. And just when it seemed the news couldn't get scarier, there was another disaster. The quake and wave had damaged a nuclear power station in a place called Fukushima, about forty miles up the coast from Shogahama. Radioactive particles were leaking out of the power plant. Even small amounts of radiation can make people very sick, especially children. People living close to the plant had to flee their homes. For a while, people worried that the radioactive cloud could spread to Shogahama — or beyond. These past few days, the news from Fukushima had been a little bit better — the winds had shifted, blowing the poisonous clouds out to sea. And life in Shogahama had improved, too. Some of the roads to the village were finally clear, so food and water were coming into the town. Ben

was keeping a close eye on Harry. And of course, they had their Jedi cat to protect them. What worried them all was what would happen to Ojisan. His house was gone. Many of his friends were gone, too. They'd begged him to come back to California with them. "At least for a few months," Mom had said. But Ojisan refused, and Ben came to understand why. Two days ago, he and Ojisan finally took a walk together. They'd made their way into the hills above the school. They looked over at the village below. Ben could see the tears in Ojisan's eyes as he stared at the sea of mud and wreckage. But he also heard the determination in his uncle's voice. "We will clean up," he'd said. "We will build new houses." Already there was talk about building on higher ground.

Ojisan had turned to Ben. "The people here will rebuild Shogahama," he said. "We will work together. And we will go on." We will go on. Ojisan promised he'd come to visit this summer. Dr. Sato was coming, too. He had a medical conference in California, and was staying an extra week to visit with them. The plane backed away from the gate and taxied over to the runway. Ben used to love flying with Dad, how he'd explain every detail of the plane, the meaning of every rattle and hum. Ben could hear Dad's voice now, as though he was right there with him. And suddenly it hit him, a crazy idea: that Harry's wish had come true. Maybe that cherry tree at Ojisan's had been magical after all. Because, in a way, Dad had come back to Ben. It was Dad who got Ben through his moments of panic in the quake, who helped him escape