Categories > Cartoons > Avatar: The Last Airbender > The Sake of Hope
“SAKIE!” I heard Zen shout probably just about as loud as her lungs would permit.
“Yes?” Normally I would have ran to see what was the matter, with her being the biggest heap of trouble any living soul could ask for, but seeing as it was Sunday, I was up to my elbows in hot soapy water doing the wash.
“Tell Mizu and Matsu to clean up their mess!”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever mess it was, I knew Zen could hardly care less if it stayed on the floor or not. What she did care about was getting the twins in trouble. It was obvious she had created the mess.
“Just a second, Zen,” I said, as I grabbed the towel next to me to dry off my arms. Aunt Jun would be home soon and she’d be grumpy as it was without an extra mess to help it along. Today was her grocery shopping day and she hated going into the market. I don’t know why, but any time she had to leave this shell of an inn she got all antsy. Whereas, if it were me, I’d go grocery shopping 7 days out of the week. This place wasn’t exactly my choice of a “hang out.”
“ZEN! What did you do?!” my eyes were huge as I saw what “mess” Zen had caused in the front room. The floor was covered in shards of pink glass- shards that were once Aunt Jun’s painted vase. The one her husband bought her before he passed. I knew there would be hell to pay.
“Me?! I didn’t do ANYTHING!” and she stormed off, sulking, trying to convince me she was innocent.
“You’re not going to tell Mama it was us are you?” little Matsu looked up at me and I could tell he thought he was in trouble.
“Yah, ‘cuz it wasn’t. Zen did it, honest,” his brother piped up. They were both on the verge of tears, being only six years old, and I couldn’t help but feel very sorry for them. True, they were the trouble makers of the family, when it came to innocent fun, but they knew when to stop; such as in their mother’s front room, which was supposed to stay SPOTLESS for the guests. And then there was Zen who was just the terror from the underworld. Scary thing was she was the youngest of the crop- she was three. You couldn’t tell it though. She was strong as a zebra-ox and braver than a polar boar. She was always getting the twins into trouble- it was her pride and joy- and she was the one person they were afraid of. I ruffled their heads of brown hair and crouched down to their level.
“I know it wasn’t you, guys. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. Go play,” and an extra smile was all they needed to know they could vacate the scene of the crime.
“And stay out of trouble- please!” I shouted back as the front door swung shut a couple of times.
I went and got the broom and dust pan out of the pantry and started to clean. Just as I had dumped the rest of the broken porcelain and was about to go back to the laundry, I heard a cry from a back room. I sighed, already fed up for the day. Sad thing was, I’d been through this so many times, I knew exactly who was wailing and why.
“Zen! Leave Hokou alone! Go outside or something!” and to my complete and utter shock she ran down the stairs and out the front door. Hokou was another one of her older brothers, but only by a year. He was four and the two kids above him were the twins. You’d think Zen was the baby of the family, but Hokou definitely took that prize. He still clung to his mother as often has he could and he was the most susceptible to Zen’s torment. When his mother wasn’t home, like now, he was a sitting duck. If it wasn’t so funny, it might have been sad.
Just as I expected, Hokou came blubbering down the stairs and into the kitchen. Immediately he clung to my leg- I was his replacement for the couple of hours he couldn’t get to my Aunt. In case you hadn’t figured it out, Aunt Jun was all of these kids’ mother, and all of these kids were my cousins. Their father, my uncle, had died from the plague just a month after Zen was born, three years ago. With it, the plague also took my older sister, Kamiko. She was twenty-one. With her, I also had an older brother. Well, “have”, I guess. His name is Daiko and five years ago he left to fight in the war and for four years he kept in touch, but about 10 months ago all of the soldiers from my city stopped writing. No great battle was said to have claimed them, it was just as if they all fell of the face of the earth, which I wouldn’t put past the power of the Fire Nation.
But anyway, after Daiko came me and then my brothers. The first one, Botan, is fourteen, two years younger than me, and then Natsu, who’s twelve. They live here in Dim Jan with me, our cousins, and our Aunt. And as for the entire list of my Aunt’s offspring, there’s Zen, three, Hokou, four, Mizu & Matsu, six, Ima, nine, Aimi, eleven, and finally Zakuro, twelve. So yah, basically, I live with at least nine demons- sometimes more if the try hard enough…
So Hokou soaked my pant leg and told me about how Zen was poking him and that was actually all I could get out of it, he’d muffled his mouth so well. I tried, successfully, to walk across the room to the washroom and to the water bin to finish the wash while he rambled on and I gave him a few “awes” and “ohs” every now and then just to make him feel better. But in the end it didn’t matter much anyway because I heard Aunt Jun bustle through the front door. I heard a few sacks in the floor and the clang of the new pot she set out to buy, but strangely enough I also heard her voice, but it wasn’t directed to me. By now Hokou stopped mid sentence and bolted for his mother so I dried my arms again so I could go see why she was talking to herself.
“Sake, put some tea on- we’ve got new guests,” I heard her voice ring out (Aunt Jun had one of those voices that can stretch across miles) which surprised me because, a) she hadn’t noticed her vase missing and b) we never had guests…
“Yes?” Normally I would have ran to see what was the matter, with her being the biggest heap of trouble any living soul could ask for, but seeing as it was Sunday, I was up to my elbows in hot soapy water doing the wash.
“Tell Mizu and Matsu to clean up their mess!”
I rolled my eyes. Whatever mess it was, I knew Zen could hardly care less if it stayed on the floor or not. What she did care about was getting the twins in trouble. It was obvious she had created the mess.
“Just a second, Zen,” I said, as I grabbed the towel next to me to dry off my arms. Aunt Jun would be home soon and she’d be grumpy as it was without an extra mess to help it along. Today was her grocery shopping day and she hated going into the market. I don’t know why, but any time she had to leave this shell of an inn she got all antsy. Whereas, if it were me, I’d go grocery shopping 7 days out of the week. This place wasn’t exactly my choice of a “hang out.”
“ZEN! What did you do?!” my eyes were huge as I saw what “mess” Zen had caused in the front room. The floor was covered in shards of pink glass- shards that were once Aunt Jun’s painted vase. The one her husband bought her before he passed. I knew there would be hell to pay.
“Me?! I didn’t do ANYTHING!” and she stormed off, sulking, trying to convince me she was innocent.
“You’re not going to tell Mama it was us are you?” little Matsu looked up at me and I could tell he thought he was in trouble.
“Yah, ‘cuz it wasn’t. Zen did it, honest,” his brother piped up. They were both on the verge of tears, being only six years old, and I couldn’t help but feel very sorry for them. True, they were the trouble makers of the family, when it came to innocent fun, but they knew when to stop; such as in their mother’s front room, which was supposed to stay SPOTLESS for the guests. And then there was Zen who was just the terror from the underworld. Scary thing was she was the youngest of the crop- she was three. You couldn’t tell it though. She was strong as a zebra-ox and braver than a polar boar. She was always getting the twins into trouble- it was her pride and joy- and she was the one person they were afraid of. I ruffled their heads of brown hair and crouched down to their level.
“I know it wasn’t you, guys. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. Go play,” and an extra smile was all they needed to know they could vacate the scene of the crime.
“And stay out of trouble- please!” I shouted back as the front door swung shut a couple of times.
I went and got the broom and dust pan out of the pantry and started to clean. Just as I had dumped the rest of the broken porcelain and was about to go back to the laundry, I heard a cry from a back room. I sighed, already fed up for the day. Sad thing was, I’d been through this so many times, I knew exactly who was wailing and why.
“Zen! Leave Hokou alone! Go outside or something!” and to my complete and utter shock she ran down the stairs and out the front door. Hokou was another one of her older brothers, but only by a year. He was four and the two kids above him were the twins. You’d think Zen was the baby of the family, but Hokou definitely took that prize. He still clung to his mother as often has he could and he was the most susceptible to Zen’s torment. When his mother wasn’t home, like now, he was a sitting duck. If it wasn’t so funny, it might have been sad.
Just as I expected, Hokou came blubbering down the stairs and into the kitchen. Immediately he clung to my leg- I was his replacement for the couple of hours he couldn’t get to my Aunt. In case you hadn’t figured it out, Aunt Jun was all of these kids’ mother, and all of these kids were my cousins. Their father, my uncle, had died from the plague just a month after Zen was born, three years ago. With it, the plague also took my older sister, Kamiko. She was twenty-one. With her, I also had an older brother. Well, “have”, I guess. His name is Daiko and five years ago he left to fight in the war and for four years he kept in touch, but about 10 months ago all of the soldiers from my city stopped writing. No great battle was said to have claimed them, it was just as if they all fell of the face of the earth, which I wouldn’t put past the power of the Fire Nation.
But anyway, after Daiko came me and then my brothers. The first one, Botan, is fourteen, two years younger than me, and then Natsu, who’s twelve. They live here in Dim Jan with me, our cousins, and our Aunt. And as for the entire list of my Aunt’s offspring, there’s Zen, three, Hokou, four, Mizu & Matsu, six, Ima, nine, Aimi, eleven, and finally Zakuro, twelve. So yah, basically, I live with at least nine demons- sometimes more if the try hard enough…
So Hokou soaked my pant leg and told me about how Zen was poking him and that was actually all I could get out of it, he’d muffled his mouth so well. I tried, successfully, to walk across the room to the washroom and to the water bin to finish the wash while he rambled on and I gave him a few “awes” and “ohs” every now and then just to make him feel better. But in the end it didn’t matter much anyway because I heard Aunt Jun bustle through the front door. I heard a few sacks in the floor and the clang of the new pot she set out to buy, but strangely enough I also heard her voice, but it wasn’t directed to me. By now Hokou stopped mid sentence and bolted for his mother so I dried my arms again so I could go see why she was talking to herself.
“Sake, put some tea on- we’ve got new guests,” I heard her voice ring out (Aunt Jun had one of those voices that can stretch across miles) which surprised me because, a) she hadn’t noticed her vase missing and b) we never had guests…
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