Don't Turn Around

When the final classes of the day had finished, students hurried off to get a start on the rest of their day. Like most days, Shizuko lingered. She stayed behind for the simple fact that she didn’t want to get caught in the rush of students. That way she could avoid those awkward situations where she might bump into someone and have to utter an apology.

But unlike most days, where Sayuri and her friends were among the first to make their escape, the four had stayed behind. They gave Shizuko quite the scare when they jumped out at her from around the corner of the hallway.

“Hey, Shizuko, do you have plans?” asked Nami.

“You want to go to the beach with us?” asked Aika.

“I don’t know if I should,” replied Shizuko. “I’m not supposed to go anywhere after school. I’m supposed to go straight home.”

“But the beach is so close,” said Nami.

“You’ll be home in no time,” added Aika.

Hana placed her hand on Shizuko’s shoulder. “Don’t you want to be our friend?” she asked, trying her best to sound as if the words coming out of her mouth had been formed out of sincerity and not from malice.

Shizuko looked hesitant to answer as she took a moment to look at all the smiling faces around her. Oddly, the only face that wasn’t smiling was the one most familiar to her. Sayuri looked so miserable, and when Shizuko’s eyes met hers, Sayuri looked away. Even so, seeing Sayuri’s face was enough to make Shizuko smile. “Okay,” she replied.

The girls wasted no time in catching the next bus headed for the beach. Hana, Nami, and Aika shared a seat at the front, while Sayuri and Shizuko shared one in the back.

“Since transferring to your school, I was wondering when we would get a chance to hang out again,” said Shizuko, who wore a smile that looked so strangely out of place on her. “I’ve been wanting to talk to you, but you’re always with your friends, so I didn’t want to bother you. But now we get to be friends again.”

“Why did you come back?” asked Sayuri.

“After my mom died, my dad and I didn’t have a choice. My dad’s salary wasn’t enough to cover all of the medical bills. Even after selling our house, we still couldn’t get out of debt. We could barely afford the rent on a one bedroom apartment. So my aunt invited us to come back here so we could live with her.”

“I didn’t know your mom had died,” said Sayuri. “I’m sorry.”

Even from the back of the bus, Sayuri and Shizuko could hear the wild laughter coming from the others. Had Shizuko been able to look away from Sayuri, she surely would have seen that the laughter would come only after the others had taken peeks back at them.

Sayuri had noticed the peeks, though. And she was well aware that the laughter was all at Shizuko’s expense.

“It’s not so bad,” said Shizuko. “At our apartment I could only stare out the window, but at my aunt’s house I can lie on the grass and stare at the sky at night. I try to see how many stars I can count. I know it sounds dumb, that’s why I only count them on the nights where there aren’t that many. Remember how we used to do that when we were young? No matter how many I counted, you were always able to count more.”

“That’s because I lied,” replied Sayuri. “I would always let you go first. That way I could just make up a bigger number.”

“So that’s how you did it.” Shizuko then let out a small laugh, prompting Sayuri to do the same. It was happening gradually, but Sayuri was growing comfortable with Shizuko, making it feel as if their time apart had never taken place.

Sure that the others were going to play a prank on Shizuko, Sayuri decided she would tell her friend before the others had the chance to make a fool out of her.

“Hey, Shizuko,” said Sayuri.

Before Sayuri could finish what she had to say, Hana popped up from behind the seat in front of them. “Hey, why aren’t you two sitting up front with the rest of us?” she asked. “You're making us feel left out.”

“We were just talking,” replied Sayuri, a tremble in her voice.

“We’re trying to figure out what we’re gonna eat after we go to the beach,” said Hana. “Nami wants donburi. But Aika says she won’t eat donburi because her mom made her eat it last night. And I don’t want donburi either. So what do you two want?”

“Can we have udon?” asked Shizuko.

“Udon?” asked Hana. “How about you, Sayuri-chan? What do you want?”

“I . . . don’t know,” replied Sayuri.

“You can’t even choose what you want to eat?” asked Hana. “I thought a choice like that would be an easy one for you to make.”

A short time later the girls arrived at the beach.

Nami and Aika wasted no time in sprinting toward the sand, looking like a couple of children as they did so.

“Hey, get back here!” demanded Hana. “We didn’t come here for that!”

Both girls were smiling halfheartedly when they returned to Hana’s side. It was evident that having been yelled at had frightened them.

Rather than frolicking by the surf, the girls led Shizuko down a narrow path just off to the side of the beach. They had insisted Shizuko cover her eyes with her hand to keep from spoiling the surprise that awaited her. To keep the girl from falling in her blind state, Nami and Aika guided her by the shoulders the whole way.

“Where are we going?” asked Shizuko.

“It’s a secret,” replied Nami.

“So no peeking,” added Aika.

“Stop right there,” said Hana when Nami and Aika had led Shizuko to the perfect spot. Shizuko was now standing only steps away from the edge of a cliff overlooking a grouping of jagged rocks below.

“What are you doing?” Sayuri asked Hana when she found just how dangerous a prank the others had decided to pull on Shizuko.

“You can look now,” said Hana.

When Shizuko removed her hand from her eyes, she nearly lost her balance when she found herself near a fall that would most certainly lead to an untimely death.

Before Shizuko could turn around or begin backing away from the cliff, Hana spoke up in a most unpleasant tone. “Hey, Shizuko-chan,” she yelled, stopping the girl. “Don’t turn around. You don’t want to know what'll happen if you do.”

“What is this?” asked Shizuko.

“You think you’re so high and mighty, don’t you?” asked Hana. “What makes you think you’re better than us? Your dad’s just a janitor!”

“Your breath smells like a dog’s!” exclaimed Nami.

“And your boobs are small!” exclaimed Aika.

“Why are you doing this?” asked Shizuko.

“Please stop this,” said Sayuri, her voice barely loud enough for Hana to hear despite the fact that the two were standing next to each other.

“What are you talking about?” asked Hana. “You knew we were going to do this.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Dog breath!” Nami and Aika shouted in unison. Nami then picked up a rock and threw it at Shizuko, narrowly missing hitting her in the foot. Aika then threw a rock that hit Shizuko in the foot, nearly making the poor girl lose her balance.

“Stupid, what are you doing?” whispered Nami.

“It was an accident,” Aika whispered back.

“Sayuri-chan,” whispered a sobbing Shizuko. “Why?”

“Stop it,” exclaimed Sayuri, knocking the rocks out of Nami and Aika’s hands.

“Whose side are you on?” asked Nami.

“Yeah, we agreed that we were going to do this to her,” said Aika. “We’re all in this together. So stop acting so high and mighty.”

“No, I never wanted to do this,” said Sayuri. “I’m nothing like you.”

While the three argued and even began shoving, Hana picked up a rock and threw it at Shizuko, hitting her in the back of the head. The impact dazed the girl so badly that she lost her balance and fell over the edge of the cliff.

Seeing this, everyone came to an immediate halt. It felt as if the world had stopped just for them and because of what they had done.

“She lost her balance,” said Hana. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

The girls ever so slowly made their way to the edge of the cliff. Sprawled out on the now bloody rocks below was Shizuko’s lifeless body.

“Shizuko!” screamed Sayuri.

Unable to stomach such a sight, Nami ran off, but she was forced to bring her retreat to an abrupt halt when she began vomiting violently.

Hana also ran from the edge. But she had only run off to collect Shizuko’s book bag. When she returned, Hana attempted to throw it off the cliff but Sayuri snatched the bag away from her before she could.

“What the hell are you doing?” asked Hana. “We have to throw it over so it looks like an accident. If she doesn’t have her bag, the police will get suspicious.”

“No, I won’t let you,” exclaimed Sayuri, holding the bag close to her chest as if it was her most cherished possession.

“We need to get out of here,” said Aika, who was tending to Nami. “If somebody sees us, they’ll know we had something to do with this.”

Hana stood chest to chest with Sayuri. “If anybody finds out about you having that bag, we’re all going to be executed,” she said. “Do you understand? I’m not going to die because of someone like her.”

Hoping to establish an alibi, the girls hurried back to town and stopped in at the nearest restaurant. Hana insisted the girls eat despite their unsettled stomachs and act as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. As far as the other customers and staff were concerned, the four were just regular teenage girls spending a night out.

“I don’t want donburi,” said Nami, who was fighting a losing battle to keep her tears at bay. “I just want to go home.”

“Shut your mouth already,” said Hana. “You haven’t stopped whining since we got here. Do you want everyone to see you crying? If they see you, they’ll know something’s wrong. So shut up and eat. You’re the one that wanted donburi, remember? You’re always complaining that we never do what you want. Well, now we’re doing something that you want. So why the hell are you complaining? Huh?”

Hana had scolded Nami so loudly that some of the other customers couldn’t help but look in their direction.

“Sorry,” said Hana, a polite smile on her face.

“Or maybe we can go back and I’ll make you eat all that stuff you threw up,” said Hana, this time much quieter. “So help me if they pull your DNA out of it.”

“It’s okay,” said Aika. “I kicked dirt over it.”

An ambulance sped by the restaurant. Its lights were flashing and its siren was blaring. The girls were noticeably startled by it.

Acting as if the ambulance had done nothing to bother her, Hana began eating. Though she was ruthless, her hands were shaking visibly as she did so.

As she had been doing since the group arrived at the restaurant, Sayuri kept her gaze on the floor. This prompted Hana to cast a most unpleasant glare at her.

After their impromptu night out, the girls went their separate ways. Sayuri went straight to her room after making it home.

What had happened to Shizuko played itself out over and over in Sayuri’s head. It wasn’t so much the blood on the rocks that disturbed her so nor was it the awkward positioning of Shizuko’s mangled limbs. It was her eyes. Every time that scene replayed in her mind, Sayuri couldn’t help but feel as if Shizuko was staring directly at her, making it seem as if the girl who had lost her life wanted to know why Sayuri would play a part in such a thing.

Having made sure her door was locked, Sayuri opened Shizuko’s bag and began looking through it. At first glance, there looked to be nothing out of the ordinary inside. There was nothing but books and other school supplies.

Sticking out of a book was a piece of paper. There was nothing odd about a piece of paper placed inside a book, but something compelled Sayuri to take it out. When she found what it was, a stabbing pain immediately inflicted itself upon the pit of Sayuri’s stomach. What she had found was a picture she had drawn years ago when she and Shizuko were in elementary school. It was of the two of them in a grassy field under a starry sky. Sayuri had given it to Shizuko after telling her she hoped the two would be friends forever.

“Shizuko,” whispered a now sobbing Sayuri. It was immediately after calling her friend’s name when a floorboard creaked. Sayuri was hesitant to turn around, thinking her mother had entered through a door that hadn’t been properly locked. If that was so, then she surely would have heard Sayuri speak the name that would soon be referenced numerous times in newspapers and on news broadcasts. Mustering the courage, Sayuri turned around but found no one there.