Chapter 10 – Tricycle

It was almost 20:00 o’clock when Makoto finished her volunteer work. Today, she decided to drop off the siblings named Haruhisa and Touma to their home. Therefore, she would come home late.

“Eh, you’re going home with sensei?”

“I’m jealous!”

Some children complained like that while they were going home with their parents. But, on her way to the sibling’s residence, Makoto did not meet other children. The city felt quiet as if the adults also refrained from leaving their houses. The minimarket, which was usually full of people, also looked quiet. The whole city seemed to be more cautious, exceeding Makoto’s expectation. However, the mother of these siblings ordered them to go home alone. Even if they were in their senior years of elementary school, the sun had already fully set. Did their mothers find that this wasn’t dangerous? If there are parents who became too protective after the incident, there were also parents who are just too lenient and didn’t care.

After they arrived at the apartment complex, Makoto entered the elevator along with Haruhisa and Touma. Suddenly, when the door nearly closed, a boy who rode a tricycle tried to enter the lift along with a girl that seemed like his younger sister.

“Hey, be careful! It’s dangerous.” Makoto hurriedly held back the door. The boy just kept riding his tricycle and entered the lift with the girl following behind him.

“Did both of you just come back from playing alone? Isn’t it dangerous?”

After Makoto confirmed that both of the children already entered the lift, she removed her hand from the door and let the door slowly close.

“It’s fine. We were just playing in the apartment’s park.” The boy answered with an annoyed tone and then pressed the button to the fifth floor.

Suddenly there was a crash sound when the lift began to go up.

“Aw, that hurts!” Touma moved his body. When Makoto checked the situation, it turned out that the boy had intentionally moved his tricycle so that the front wheel rolled  onto Touma’s foot.

“Hey! It hurts, you know?” When Touma was about to kick the tricycle’s front wheel with his other foot that was not rolled on, Makoto stopped him.

“Could you move back a little?” Makoto warned the boy, but he pretended not to hear.

“Brother, don’t be like that.” When the girls wanted to pat the boy’s shoulder, he brushed her hand aside while he said, “stop being fussy!” The sister immediately cried.

Ding!

The elevator let out a classical sound when it arrived on the fifth floor. As if nothing had happened, the boy moved his tricycle to go out of the elevator. The front wheel of the tricycle went over Touma’s feet, while the rear wheel intentionally rolled on Haruhisa’s feet. His sister just followed him from behind while she kept crying.

“Hey! You must apologize!” Makoto shouted angrily, but the elevator’s door closed and started to go up again.

“Are you fine?” Makoto asked Touma and Haruhisa.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“But he’s annoying.”

The siblings pursed their lips after answering that. When they arrived at the sixth floor, the place where these siblings lived, Touma became noisy and said: “Ah, my shoes became dirty.” His new sneakers became muddy because of the wheels.

“Ah, it’s a pity. Isn’t that your new shoes that was given to you by your mom on your birthday?” Haruhisa asked in a disappointed tone. Their mother was a single mother. Makoto could feel that even though they were children, these siblings really loved and wanted to protect their mother. Then Makoto crouched down and cleaned the mud with her hand.

“Ah, it’s a pity. But I bet it will become clean again if you wash it.”

“Yes…” Touma answered while still putting on an annoyed face.

“It’s done. Just forgive him, ok?” Makoto asked as she looked at Touma’s face.

Only then Touma said, “Okay.” He seemed to be feeling better.

Makoto rang the doorbell where these siblings lived and then their mother came out.

“Wah!” The woman seemed surprised to see Makoto at her door. Her face flushed. She seemed shy because she was dressed in sports clothes, and then said “I’m sorry for giving you more trouble to take them home.”

“Well,” the woman continued, “if you don’t mind, would you like to have dinner here first? It’s nothing special, but…”

“It’s no problem. I’m doing this because of that accident. I think it’s dangerous if I let them come home with just the two of them. “

“In that case, Sensei, feel free to visit us next time. These children are idolizing Sensei. They always talk about Sensei. They said you are cool.”

After interrupting the mother’s speech, which seemed to continue if she did not stop it, Makoto left the house where the siblings lived. After making sure that the door to the sibling’s house was closed, Makoto descended from the 6th floor using the stairs. One floor had ten homes in it. Makoto walked slowly from end to end. Maybe because many residents on that floor had small children, there always was: bicycles, kickboards, or a set of tools to play in the sand near the front door. Makoto looked at these items one by one. Finally at the eighth door, Makoto found the tricycle that did not seem foreign.

A tricycle with a yellow color.

Makoto stopped in front of the house, and sharpened her hearing. Faintly, she heard the sound of a boy and a girl. The girl was still crying. Makoto read the name written with a marker on that tricycle.

Sanbongi Satoshi.

Makoto raised her head to check the ceiling. There was no surveillance camera on it.

“Oh, I see.” Makoto nodded alone.

Suddenly one of the doors opened. A woman came out carrying a large plastic bag with both hands to throw out the trash.

“Good night.”

When Makoto greeted her with a smile while bowing, the woman bowed back with a normal bow and then entered the elevator. She didn’t consider Makoto, that was standing there with a school uniform, strange.