My Neighbor Tomoko

"Fray-hay!" Satsuke called her little sister. "There you are! Be sure father eats his lunch, today. He's been awful forgetful since mom went to the big hospital in the sky."

"OK, sis!" Fray said. Since mother was now 'under observation' at a special clinic for 'kicking buckets', their father spent most of his days poring over a great number of scientific journals, which was odd since he was a semi-illiterate truck driver.

But then, their new neighborhood seemed to have had an odd effect on all of them, ever since they moved in that fall.

"You're off to school! I'm so jealous." Fray waved to her older sister.

"Bye, Fray! Be sure to watch out for the dirty sprites!"

Fray groaned a little. Since moving into their new neighborhood, her big sister seemed convinced that they were surrounded by 'dirty sprites'. These 'dirty sprites' stayed up all night, when you weren't looking, and were always doing dirty things. If you looked too hard at what they were doing, you'd become dirty, too. "I'm a little kid," she had told her sister, "but I'm not an idiot."

She didn't believe her big sister at first, but from the very beginning she found that her room upstairs was bathed in an eerie glow every night. She hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks.

In fact, her nerves were fairly well shot, for a little girl, and when her father told her that it was trash day, and to go rake the yard because it was full of leaves, she almost lost it.

"Rake the yard, rake the yard! What am I, the bleeping leaf lady?"

She gasped. Did I really just say – that word, out loud?

Maybe it was true. The dirty sprites were already infecting her mind.

Next door, Tomoko Kuroki was dragging herself out the front door, late for school. Goddammit, stayed up too late with that game, again. And now I gotta take out the trash, too?

All she had to do was carry the bag out to the curb on her way out, but it still struck Tomoko as a tremendous imposition on her, considering she had to go to high school, as well. But as long as she was at it, she also tossed out her bag of trash, from her room. Didn't want anybody going through that shit.

But she hadn't tied it very well, and after dumping it on the ground, it fell over and fell open. Then a big gust of wind caught it, and blew it into the yard next door.

"What the bleep?" Fray cried. "Oh, bleep, I said it again!"

That girl just threw her trash into our yard!

There were tissues everywhere. Used tissues.

"I'm going to be sick."

By lunchtime, Fray had raked it all up, and tissues and leaves and all, and left the trash bags by the street.

"I'm going to give that bleep a piece of my mind," she resolved. "Wait, where am I picking up all of these colorful words? Nobody I know talks like this."

Perhaps it was a sort of magic, as it was Tomoko Kuroki's bedroom window that was keeping Fray up every night. Holy shit, Tomoko said to herself, stripped down to nothing but her tanktop and shorts. I've never played such an intense game, before. The technology has really come a long way! Woohoo!

She chortled, a dollop of saliva drooped out of her mouth, and she reached for a fresh box of tissues.

"What's with that eerie glow every night?" Fray wondered. "Could it be – the dirty sprites?" She pulled the sheets over her head, and tried to stay quiet, so they couldn't find her.

The next morning, Fray noticed that terrible bags were starting to appear under her eyes. What's causing this? It's like a kind of evil magic.

She had remembered her vow to chew out that nasty girl next door, so she waited outside for a very long time. But today, she never appeared.

Where did she go? Did they move? Wait a minute – she couldn't be – one of them!

Terrified, she ran back into the house, hid under a pillow, and listened to her father read long passages from books written in languages he didn't know.

Meanwhile, Tomoko Kuroki was such a wreck that morning, after staying up all night playing a particularly dirty simulation game, that she succeeded in convincing her mother that she was sick, and had to stay home.

So tempting to play on the computer, some more, but that would be pushing my luck. Can't let mom catch me up here playing a dirty game. I need to lay down here in bed, and surf the net on my phone. I can hide it a lot faster.

She did an image search on Gaagle.

Wow! They really do come that big! She appended her search with 'even bigger'. Whoa, that can't even be possible! Heh, on second thought, it's how big I'd get if I were Yuu-chan's boyfriend. Oh, mama!

The next morning, it was raining pretty hard, and Tomoko was pissed off that she chose the wrong day to be sick. Her mother made sure she was getting an early start, but, still, she couldn't help dawdling in front of the house, standing there holding her umbrella in the rain, trying to think of some clever new plan for getting out of school, two days running. A relapse, maybe? She couldn't pretend to get run over by a passing car. That would be a bit drastic, even for her. Besides, in this weather, she might really get run over while trying to pretend to be run over.

Fray ran up to her, carrying her own umbrella. She had seen her through the window, and remembered how mad she was the other day.

"Hm?" Tomoko heard the splashing, and looked down at the little girl who had appeared out of nowhere.

Fray looked up and saw Tomoko's long, limp, stringy hair, like a kappa, and heavy, black bags under drowsy red demon eyes. She screamed at the sight, and ran back into her house, losing her umbrella in the panic.

"What the hell?" Tomoko looked down at the little umbrella. What was all that about?

Fray had locked the front door, and held it as if an extra counter-measure against the invasion of evil spirits. She's one of them! A dirty sprite! She's the one giving me these baggy eyes!

"My umbrella!"

She unlocked the door and cracked it back open.

"My umbrella! She stole it!"

Tomoko wasn't really sure what to do with the umbrella that the strange girl had just dumped on the ground, so she picked it up. Now that I think of it, what am I going to do with it all day? Maybe I should have gone back and left it with mom.

But there was no going back. By then, she would have made herself late for school, despite an early start. And she didn't think a stray umbrella and a weird little girl would be enough of an excuse to skip altogether, again.Nah, got to face the music, today.

In the end, she just left the extra umbrella in the stand near the lockers, along with her own. She was curious by that time, anyway. She figured she'd take it back next door, herself, after school, and find out what that little girl was up to.

At home, Fray busied herself with drawing pictures of the wild Tomoko-monster she had witnessed that morning, and showed them to her big sister when she got home.

"I've seen her," Satsuke said. "Her name's Tomoko. Her brother goes to my school. She's weird, you probably need to keep away from her. Wait a minute, somebody's at the door."

Tomoko, huh? Fray looked at her scary drawings. She couldn't quite believe this thing was human.

"Oh, Tomoko!"

"Wha–wha–" Tomoko stammered. She didn't know there was an older girl in the house. Satsuke was just old enough to make her nervous, like those brats from Tomoki's school who showed up at their door every once in a while.

"Your, um, sis–sister, left–"

"Oh, her umbrella! She thought you stole it!"

"What? No! She was the one who–I mean, no, she left it, and I didn't know what to do, so I–brought it back. Heh."

"Oh! Well. Thank you! I'll give it back to her for you!"

"Th–thank you."

By this time, Fray had gotten bored with her drawings, and folded the sheet into a paper airplane, and was pretending to have it fly around the room while making the 'neeee-yow' sound.

"That was Tomoko. She brought back your umbrella."

"Really?" Fray said. "I didn't hear anything."

Tomoko shot the house an evil look and swore. "Two bitches living in the house next to me. That's all I need."

From somewhere nearby, music…

Who leaves her trash

For you to find,

Blowing out of the bag,

Junk all over the yard,

What's with all those old,

Wet tissues, there?

It may seem like a dream,

Just you try not to scream.

It will be the same thing day after day!

As long as you're with

To-mo-ko, Tomoko!

To-mo-ko, Tomoko!

Playing her magical games,

Keeping you awake for a very long time!

There's no escape from

To-mo-ko, Tomoko!

To-mo-ko, Tomoko!

You'll be awake for a very long time!

"Sis, when's mom coming home?"

"Um," Satsuke said. "I think I'm going to have to teach you a new word today, Fray. The word is euphemism."