Cherry Blossom Baseball Read Online Free PDF

stroke the mamma cat’s back. “We’ll have to help you raise your family,” she said. “That’s what good friends do.”
    When she looked up at Mrs. Morrison, the woman’s eyes were filled with tears.
    That night, Sadie and Kaz joined them for a farewell banquet of roast pork, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. An enormous loaf of bread with a buttered furrow along the top stood beside a dish of homemade pickles. In their honour, Mrs. Morrison had opened her last jar of red currant jelly. She followed the meal with a deep dish of apple crisp slathered with heavy cream and cups of strong black tea.
    Michiko and Sadie did the dishes while their stout and generous friend rocked Hannah in the wooden chair in her kitchen.
    â€œWhy didn’t George King’s father go off to war?” Michiko asked in a voice low enough for her mother not to hear from the living room, where Kaz and Hiro played “horsie.” George King talked a lot about fighting and taking sides. She wondered why his father was one of the few men in town.
    Edna Morrison shifted the sleeping baby into Sadie’s arms, poured herself a fresh cup of tea, and sank back into the rocking chair. Michiko listened to the wooden rockers thud against the hardwood floor for a few moments before Mrs. Morrison spoke. “You know George’s mother was my best friend all through school.”
    â€œShe was?’ Michiko couldn’t suppress her surprise.
    â€œWhen she told me Robert King wanted to marry her, I tried to look pleased,” she said. “That man was nothing but charm, hair grease, and a thin-lipped smile. But he always got what he wanted. After one year of marriage, my best friend became a woman who had to look at her husband before she could even ask the price of potatoes. I never liked that man.”
    Michiko looked up at Sadie, and they both grinned.
    â€œHe saw himself being far too important a man to enlist,” Edna whispered. She chuckled. “I’ll never forget the day my chickens came at him. Animals know who not to trust, you know.”

    Michiko wished they could take the upright concert piano, but it wasn’t theirs to take. Even though her mother had reupholstered the threadbare stool, it had come with the apartment.
    The security truck was making a special trip to the train station that next morning. Mr. Hayashi, the security officer, invited Mrs. Morrison to accompany Michiko’s family, but she declined, which left space for Clarence. She had already said her goodbyes.
    Sadie hung on to Michiko for so long, she hardly breathed, and then she released her and took Hannah into her arms. “You could leave her here with me,” she said, nuzzling the little girl’s head.
    â€œYou are welcome to keep Hiro,” Michiko offered, which earned her a kick on the shins from the angry little boy.
    Her mother took Hiro by the hand and led him over to Clarence. She took Hannah from Sadie’s arms and placed her in their wicker laundry basket. “We don’t want to miss our train,” she said sharply.
    Kaz loaded their possessions into the back of the truck, stood at Sadie’s side, and put his arm around her.
    They all waved until they were out of sight. As they passed the RCMP guardhouse, Michiko wondered if there would be one like it on the road of their new home.
    The Kootenay Mountains came into view as they left town. In some places the pine trees marched right down the side of the mountain to the edge of the road, as if waiting to cross. Their branches grew right to the ground. Hiro would have climbed them like a ladder.
    A sign for Arrow Lake Loggers pointed down a dirt road. “That’s where your Uncle Ted works,” her mother said, pointing it out to Hiro.
    A white peak touched the only cloudless piece of sky. Michiko looked up to see a rectangular patch of ground carved out of its side, as if a giant had shaved a patch of beard. “See,