as a little girl, walking along the river. As she walked, she could feel many animals alive and thriving under the brush. A white mist fell onto the forest.
“The forest is going to sleep…” Jet whispered as Satoko, too, fell into slumber.
Jet held onto Satoko’s vision, filled with rich green and cool white air. She could almost smell the sap in the crack of a tree before the branch snapped off, the earth under her feet before the rain.
“Tell me the end of the story,” Satoko murmured.
But Jet didn’t know the end.
When I grow up, can I be like the brave girl who freed her people? Jet had always asked her mother as the story ended.
Of course you can, her mother had always replied. Because you already are.
But Jet had never heard her, just as Satoko, deep in the dream of the beautiful green forest she’d soon be walking upon, didn’t hear her daughter end the story this very last time.
CHAPTER 3
約束 Yakusoku
The Promise
They dressed Satoko in a white paper kimono, left side folded under the right so she would travel in the correct direction in the afterworld. J-Bird set fire to the paper, which burned from its edges with a rushing sound.
The paper turned in upon itself as the flames spread, taking her mother with them. Jet watched the map of her past burn with her mother’s life. She held her tears close to her body, as if they were a prayer book only she could read. She couldn’t believe her mother was really gone. Only yesterday, on the mountain, she’d been so fierce, so strong. Determined to live.
J-Bird leaned toward Jet. “There’s more your mother wanted to share with you. You should never use your real name, Rika. Kuroi—your family name—means ‘black’ in Japanese, so you must use that instead. Use your nickname in Japan. Just in case.”
“Why?” Jet was alarmed. “Was Mom in that much trouble?”
He sighed, looking worried. “I promised Satoko I’d help you, but I don’t know much more. We have to act quickly.”
Jet swallowed, gazing at him in the half-light. Her mother had nicknamed her Jet when she was a little girl, because she ran like a rocket. J-Bird was the only one who knew.
They stood in silence as the fire consumed her mother’s body.
Rika Kuroi is dying in these flames. Jet Black is being born. She felt her mother’s presence guiding her thoughts. Why had she gone so quickly? Why wasn’t there more time?
When the fire died down, Jet picked Satoko’s bones out with long chopsticks and placed the white shards in a small urn. She poured the ashes into it, watching them stream before her, unable to believe that this dust had been her mother, a woman who had seemed capable of anything—surviving anything.
Later that evening, J-Bird and one of the elders, Neil Bluewolf, sang Navajo prayers in deep melodic voices, sending Satoko’s spirit safely into the Big Sky. Jet watched their shadows sway on the wall, getting bigger or smaller in the candle’s flame.
All those times I made you go up to the mountains, Satoko had said, frail and struggling to draw enough breath to speak– all that hard training, you will soon understand why I made you do it. I hope you’ll forgive me.
Of course, Mom, Jet had told her, though she didn’t really understand. Almost every night since she could remember she’d had to train in the forest behind their trailer. Or in dusty fields along the highway. She’d often shown up at school with her clothes mud-caked and torn, and had told her teachers it was from soccer practice. Then there were the bruises, scratches, and scars. Other kids called her crazy, but she couldn’t explain. When the school bully started picking on her, she couldn’t even use her training to fight back.
Though Jet was exhausted, she rarely found relief in sleep. When she turned over in bed, her bruises ached. Her heart ached, too, for even when she fell down and begged her mother to stop, she kept pushing her.
“Keep moving! When you give up, it’s time to die,” Satoko had said.
Spurred on by her mother’s voice, she tried to avoid the barrage.
“Why do I always have to do this?” she pleaded, though she knew the answer.
“You have to protect yourself. I won’t always be here to do it for you,” Satoko had cautioned every time.
Even when her mother came back from work at dark, she took Jet to the desert, making her jump from tree to rock or run until her breath gave out, rolling on the ground until her clothes tore to shreds. On cold winter evenings, she forced Jet to hide behind boulders without moving.
And whenever Jet had asked her mom to explain why she’d fled Japan, Satoko’s answer was always, “Later. We’ll talk about it later.”
But “later” never came.
Would she finally learn more, now that her mother was gone?
“You see,” J-Bird confided, “The Kuroi family has a treasure. People all over Japan want it.”
“Treasure? What kind of treasure?” Jet asked, picturing pearls, jade, and gold.
J-Bird shook his head. “I don’t know. But I do know that your grandfather and your mother have been protecting it. Now that’s up to you. Without you, it’ll be lost forever. That’s why you have to go back to Japan.”
Jet frowned. “Why didn’t she tell me this sooner?”
J-Bird closed his eyes and nodded. “Satoko knew that many people would try to find you to get it. Some of them even want to hurt you. The less you knew, the safer you were. I made a vow not to tell you, either. Until I had to. Until now.”
Jet shook her head, disbelieving. “Why would anyone want to hurt me? I didn’t do anything!”
“It’s not what you’ve done, it’s what you haven’t done. Yet…” J-Bird said.
“I don’t understand!” Jet said, voice quavering.
He put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t really either, but I do know that that’s why you must protect yourself. You must use the skills your mother taught you. You’ll have to dig deep down. Can you do that for Satoko?”
“What choice do I have?” She hated fighting and hated harming things. She always picked up ants, snails, and worms off the sidewalk and put them on trees to make sure they didn’t get stepped on.
“I’m sorry, Jet. I really am. I wish I had been able to tell you more.” J-Bird cast his eyes down.
Jet looked away, tears welling. His words troubled her deeply. All those years of training, and her mother had never mentioned any of this. How was that possible?
And what had Satoko meant about risking everything for the future?
Jet gripped the rolled-up map, hoping it might
