The Book of Heroes Read Online Free Page B

decided, I’m in shock. Don’t people go all hollow inside when they’re in shock?
    Yuriko fell back on the bed, lying on the quilted coverlet her mother had made. The bedsprings squeaked.
    The coverlet smelled of her brother.
    How could someone disappear, leaving nothing behind but a jacket hanging on a chair and a smell? How could they not find him no matter how hard they looked? Things like this weren’t supposed to happen.
    Yuriko looked up at the ceiling and slowly closed her eyes.
    I don’t believe it. It can’t be true.
    How could something like this happen to her family? How could a life she had taken for granted get smashed to smithereens in the blink of an eye? She never knew how important it all was to her until it broke.
    Something welled up inside. Yuriko got ready, steeling herself for the sobs that were to come. Part of her had been waiting for it. Crying would save her. With each gasp she could spit out a bit of that black lump she felt inside her chest.
    But nothing came. Yuriko gritted her teeth.
    Why?
    What came instead was this question. Why? Why? Why? Why did her brother stab his friends? If he was having some kind of trouble, why didn’t he say anything about it? If he ran away, why didn’t he tell even his family where he was going? Why didn’t he call them now?
    I’m mad, Hiroki. I’m really mad.
    Yuriko lifted her feet off the floor, rolled over, and curled up in a ball on the bed. She felt suddenly sleepy. That’s right. I’ll just go to sleep. When I wake up, maybe this nightmare will be over. This has all been a really long nightmare.
    When she closed her eyes, the smell of her brother from the coverlet filled her head and her mind. She breathed in deeply. It felt good. Yuriko was more tired than she had imagined. Her body needed rest. I’ll just sleep. Sleep…
    A scene spread out before her closed eyes, dimly at first.
    This was a dream too. Or the fragments of a dream. The feel of the fabric beneath her, the warmth, and the sleep that filled her head brought back a dream she had dreamt before. The scene was familiar—like a breeze flipping through the pages of a book, giving her just a glimpse, then receding.
    When did I last see this place in my dream? A week ago? Ten days ago? It might have been longer ago than that. Her brother was in the dream. She saw him in his room through a crack in the door. Yuriko stood in the cold hallway outside. The door was open only a few inches—
    The lamp on the bedside table is on. Hiroki is over by the window, kneeling. There’s someone standing next to him, facing him, a large black silhouette. He’s curled up at the figure’s feet.
    It must’ve been the middle of the night. She had wanted to go to the bathroom, so she had dreamt of going there, and on the way, by accident, she had looked into his room. It almost felt like spying to see him and the shape in her dream.
    The silhouette was large, looming. Bigger than a regular adult and round and swollen like a balloon. There was something on its head. A ring of pointed spikes—like a crown. That was how it looked to Yuriko in her dream. She’d thought it a very strange dream at the time. Or maybe it was a very strange thing to see, and that was why she remembered it as a dream. She was half asleep anyway.
    Wait. If I was half asleep, does that mean I wasn’t sleeping?
    I was dreaming, wasn’t I?
    She remembered how the hard floor had felt cool beneath the soles of her feet. She had walked with her toes curled. The bathroom seemed impossibly far away. And she had to leave.
    Now he’s kneeling before the big figure with a shape like a crown on its head.
    That’s right, he’s awake. Maybe he’ll look in my direction. Maybe I should tell him I’m going to the bathroom. Because I drank too much milk before going to sleep.
    He’s bowing up and down now, bumping his forehead on the floor. Now he’s whispering something. He’s singing. He’s talking to the silhouette. He’s making an