NOVEL: Journey of the Heart (chapter - 2)

Journey of the Heart by Judith Bronte

Chapter Two

A Rebellious Daughter

Mrs. Anna Mizukiyo sat down and began eating the rice Izumi had so lovingly prepared. She took no thought to thank Izumi, or God, for her meal. Anna had noticed the omission, however, for the voice of her childhood in America came rushing back, as if it had been yesterday.

"God bless this food ... (in a whisper) did I say it right, Daddy?"

How happy were those memories!. Then her mind sped to the day she announced to her parents that she was getting married.

"Guess what? I'm getting married!"

Her parents' faces turned grave though, when she told them who she was going to marry.

"Anna, he's not a professing Christian. We forbade you from ever seeing him again. And not because he's Japanese, (her father added, seeing the words on Anna's tongue), but because he openly defies God by his speech and actions. He 'is loud and stubborn;' his 'feet abide not in [his] house.'" (Proverbs 7:11)

"But Daddy, I love him! and he loves me, I know he does! He wouldn't have asked me to marry him if he didn't!"

Anna's father sat down on the sofa beside her and looked into the blue eyes of

his only child.

"Anna, what did Christ say true love was?" He picked up his Bible and turned it to John 14:15 and 24. "If ye love Me, keep My Commandments... He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me."

"Daddy, where does it say in the Bible that I can't marry someone who isn't a Christian? Where?". Anna's "where" had an unmistakable ring of defiance in it.

Her father patiently read Second Corinthians 6:14.

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?"

There was a pause of silence before he spoke again. "Anna, you know this verse by heart. I'm not reading it to you for the first time. To marry a non-believer would be sin. For 'To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.' (James 4:17) You know better."

Anna shook her head.

"I don't see how it's sin to marry someone I love!" As she said this, Anna left her parents' home, and turned her back on everyone who truly loved her. The next day she got married and left America, to live with her husband in Japan. Anna tried to suppress these painful memories, but they came crashing through her consciousness as a giant wave pounds the sand.

Anna thought of the day Izumi was born. She was so proud of her baby! Anna could still see the abundance of beautiful, black hair crowning Izumi's tiny head . And those wide blue eyes!

Nurses from every department of the hospital would come, and gaze at the beautiful Japanese baby with blue eyes. Every feature of Izumi's face was Japanese, except those clear pools of blue staring up at her mother. How special Anna thought her new baby was!

Then Anna remembered her husband's reaction to his new baby daughter.

"Onna no ko," (Japanese for "girl"), he muttered angrily, "what do I want with a girl? I must have a son! I am the eldest son of my father, and someday, all he has I will inherit. I must have a son to pass on the honored name of my family, and keep the inheritance in my name!"

Anna had never seen him so angry before. It frightened her. The days that followed Izumi's birth were check marked with vivid memories of beatings and abuse. It had never stopped, really. Te day Izumi was born, her husband stopped pretending he loved her. However, Anna would never admit this, even though she knew it to be true.

"He loves me," she would argue. "After all, we have been through a lot, and he has never left me. He would have left me if he didn't love me. That proves it!"

"Seventeen years," she sighed. "can it really be so long ago?" She took another bite of rice.

"Someday, I want to go back to my home on Three Mile Bay, New York. I believe Dad & Mom left the house to any children I might have. That's what it had said in the will, when they died.

Knowing my parents, they were 'praying' for my children, and thought they would need a place of refuge or something." At that thought, Anna angrily slammed her rice bowl down on the lacquer table. "As if Izumi needed refuge!"

"Appoint out for you cities of refuge"

~ Joshua 20:2 ~

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

~ 1 John 4:8 ~

*source: judithbronte.com

novel: Journey of the Heart (chapter - 1)

Journey of the Heart
by Judith Bronte
Chapter One

No Longer A Child

"For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee."

~ Isaiah 54:7 ~

A hot Japanese sun shone through the white curtains of Izumi Mizukiyo's bedroom.

(Pronounced 'E - zoo - me Me - zoo - ke - o') She turned over in bed, ignoring the sun's call to wake up. Not to be ignored, it shone into a mirror standing on the right side of Izumi's futon, reflecting a bright glare onto her sleepy eyes.

"Okay, I'm awake," she said groggily, sitting up. Satisfied with her acknowledgement of the new day, the sun dispersed it's reflection, leaving Izumi to rub her stunned eyes.

Though she wanted to move the mirror, the glare served as a useful alarm clock. Sitting up in bed, she began brushing her black hair in the small mirror, talking to the reflection as to a familiar friend. "Did you enjoy my graduation?" Not waiting for a reply, she continued, "I'm so glad you could come! My parents meant to be there, but something came up. I'm sure they would have come, if they could."

Her face fell a little, but brightened upon the next thought, "Mrs. Tanaka, our teacher, called us 'young women' at the ceremony yesterday. She never called us that before," Izumi added quickly, as if Mrs. Tanaka's address to her students was proof enough of her womanhood. Izumi picked up her diploma, and read it again, savoring every word.

The Tanaka Young Ladies School hereby certifies that Izumi Mizukiyo has fulfilled the

requirements needed to graduate. Izumi has honored her teacher, Mrs. Natsumi Tanaka, by finishing first in her class.

She ran her finger along it's edges lovingly, for this small piece of paper represented long hours of tedious work. A satisfied smile parted her lips. "They will be proud of me now."

Izumi's bedroom was not actually a room at all. Wooden partitions fenced off a small square of space from a larger room, making up three of her walls. The bedroom was just big enough to comfortably accommodate a futon and a small mirror given to her by Mrs. Tanaka. The partitions stood up against the wall, encircling the only window in the small apartment. Izumi loved to set her room up around this window, for at night, she would stare dreamily out and imagine herself strolling through a Japanese garden, inhaling the fragrant honey of the nearby flowers. She would keep this picture in her heart as she slept, and would dream of it as a baby craving for it's mother. A peaceful smile would then creep across Izumi's face, making her look beautiful and serene. What a pity that her parents never noticed this nightly transformation!

Izumi carefully folded up her partitions, taking care to do it quietly. Her parents slept in a

partitioned room against the opposite wall. Quietly, she put away the futon and placed her

mirror on the window's ledge. Izumi tiptoed to the kitchen, and knelt next to a small stove with one burner. It stood solemnly beside a tiny refrigerator that sat on the tatami floor. Unstacking some containers in the corner, she pulled out a bag of rice. Izumi measured portions of the white grain into a pan, carefully rinsing it in the kitchen sink. She quietly set the pan on the burner, and turned on the fire. She then went to the closet, and slid open the thin wooden door. Behind the clothes, Izumi pulled out a small table, about a foot tall. Placing it in the middle of the room, she arranged the bowls and tea things on it.

Tiptoeing carefully back to the closet, Izumi stood there shaking her head. Her whole wardrobe consisted of school uniforms. It would have to do for now, but what a way to dress on the first day of her womanhood!

After dressing, Izumi sat down at the table, and eagerly waited for her parents to wake up. Now that she was a woman, and no longer a child, they would be proud to have such a daughter. After all, had she not finished at the top of her class?

Both of her parents had seen the little notes that Izumi had posted around the apartment, in the hope that they would attend her graduation. Neither one had said anything about it, so Izumi hoped that maybe they intended to surprise her by coming after all. In vain, had she searched for them among the crowds of happy students and proud parents. As a faithful dog sits at his master's feet, hoping for a pat of affection, Izumi now waited for her parents, hoping against hope, for some sign of their approval.

"Izumi!" her mother's sudden burst of voice made her jump. "Why aren't you in school? Leave now, before your father finds out!" snapped Mrs. Mizukiyo.

Feeling the disappointed tears welling up inside, Izumi silently bowed her head. "I am dressed for school," she reasoned to herself, "she just forgot." However, this thought was of little comfort.

Assuming, that for once, her daughter had forgotten the time, Mrs. Mizukiyo went about eating the food Izumi had prepared. Izumi left quietly. the hot tears fell fast and thick, but no one noticed the small "woman" crying silently as she walked down the crowded street. She headed towards the zoo and spent her first day of womanhood chatting to the animals.

"O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires."

*source judithbronte.com