Haha To Kodomobeya Oji-san No 1--- Nenkan No — Nari...

He reached into the room, turned off the light, and whispered to the empty bunk bed:

But it was a station.

Kenji looked at the bunk bed’s lower mattress. He’d been sleeping there, curled like a shrimp. The upper bunk held his boxes. Sometimes, at 3 AM, he’d climb the ladder and just sit up there, knees to his chest, staring at the ceiling’s glow-in-the-dark stars. Haha to Kodomobeya Oji-san no 1--- Nenkan no Nari...

She climbed the ladder to the upper bunk. Sat there, legs dangling, just like when she was eight. Kenji stood below, looking up at her.

“You need to make dinner tonight,” she said. He reached into the room, turned off the

Kenji stopped grating. “Dad? Cried?”

“I don’t know how.”

Then he took down the rocket-ship wallpaper border. Carefully. In one long, continuous strip. He rolled it up and tied it with twine.

His older sister, Yumiko, folded her arms. “You’re not here to remember. You’re here to sleep, eat, and find a new job. Six months. Tops.” The upper bunk held his boxes

“The rocket ship still works, huh?”