Weekend at Ida’s

Thursday Evening:

*Karen*

Summer at Tokyo-Zion Academy is really slow. So, we sometimes take summer jobs to kill time. Noiz, Mosh, and Ume-chan went to England for vacation. Miho has gone AWOL. Most of everyone went home for the summer. Well, most of us did. There are still a small number of staffers still in Tokyo at the academy. I am one of them. My friends Amethyst and Brooke are the other two. Okay, there are others, but they don’t count right now.

Anyway, moving on.

What to do to kill time while we are all on summer break? For my girls and I, we need a little extra cash. So, we turned to odd jobs to seek out this goal. Boy, did we score sweet this year!

Amethyst, Brooke, and I are working for this powerful woman named Ida. Yamamoto Ida to be frank. This woman… Whew! Money. Money. Money! I mean, this woman is like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates combined. This woman has it all. Private jet, house in Okinawa and Tokyo, boats, cars, clothes, you name it, she had it. Brooke about had a spaz after seeing most of the treasure.

“Wow!” she said. “She owns all of this?” We even got to ride in the car a couple of times. But, what was our job? All the girls and I had to do was do a little cleaning and paperwork for her in Tokyo. Sounds simple, yeah? We got a nice sum out of it. This summer would be sweet until school started.

That was the plan at least.

Thursday evening started off like it normally did. Amethyst, Brooke, and I cleaned up around Ida’s parlor like she asked us to this afternoon. Just little stuff really. Dusting, vacuuming, all of the like. We expected to be done by six, pick up something to eat, and then go home.

That was the plan anyway.

That’s when Brooke pulled it all apart for a whole weekend. She was cleaning around the desk when she knocked some files off the desk.

“Crap,” I heard her mumble from the hallway.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said. “I just knocked over some papers.” I rolled my eyes.

“Hang on, I’m coming,” I said.

“I’ve got it,” she said.

“I’m coming in there with you,” I insisted.

“I said I’ve got it!” she snapped. I shrugged my shoulders.

“Fine,” I said. I went back to sweeping the hallway floor. But then, I heard a slight pause.

“Kare,” I heard that Kentucky girl said.

“What?” I asked.

“What’s with all of these weird numbers on these papers?” she asked. I blinked at her question.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Come and look,” she said. I lowered my boom and walked into the office. Might as well just to shut her up, right? I peeked into Ida’s office.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Look,” Brooke said as she showed me the paper. I took it and looked over the contents. I raised an eyebrow at what I read.

“These don’t look good,” I said.

“Exactly,” she said. I looked up at my fourteen-year-old friend. “You don’t think she’s…” I began to say. Brooke shook her head at me.

“Nah,” she said. But then, she paused. “At least I think so.” I shook my head with a nervous smile.

“Maybe there is a little misunderstanding,” I tried to reason. I pulled out my cell phone. Brooke gave me a puzzled look.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Calling Ida and letting her know,” I said.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Brooke asked.

“What other choice do we have?” I asked. My younger friend looked on at me with a nervous look in her eye. It makes me worried to see her like this. This has to be dead serious. The phone rang on the other line.

“Hello?” I heard someone ask on the other line.

“Ida-san?” I asked as I almost jumped out of my skin.

“What’s wrong?” our boss asked.

“Uh… uh… Brooke and I were cleaning your office and knocked over some papers,” I explained. “We noticed that some of your records look like you’re skimming off the top. Is something wrong with your company?” There was a long pause on the other line.

“Of course it could be a mistake…” I suggested. She laughed on the other line.

“Sure, sure!” she said. “It probably is. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of it when I get home.” I smiled as I relaxed some.

“Okay,” I said. I stuck up my thumb at Brooke. She smiled at me.

“Anything else?” Ida-san asked. I shook my head to myself.

“Nah,” I said. “We’re about done for the evening.”

“That’s great,” she said.

“Bye-bye,” I said.

“Bye,” Ida-san said back. We both hung up. I turned to waiting Brooke.

“Well?” she asked. I breathed and smiled.

“It’s all good,” I said. “She’ll deal with it when she gets home.” The Kentucky girl grinned at me.

“Sweet,” she said.

“Yes, yes,” I said. “Let’s just finish up here and go home.” Brooke nodded at me.

“Yeah,” she said. And so we finished up with Ida’s house.

*Outside*

Ida leaned back against the bathroom stall wall as she held her phone to her chest. She clenched her teeth as her hand trembled.

Damn it! They have found the records in my office!, she thought. I can’t have this! I have to get rid of them somehow! But how? The older woman took a moment to plot out a loose end to take out.

It would have to be a tragic accident somewhere out of the city. Suddenly, she formed a clever idea in her head. I know! I’ll just invite them out to my beach house in Okinawa this weekend. Ha, that’ll be perfect! Ida grinned to herself.

Perfect! She straightened out her blonde hair and left the bathroom to her dinner party waiting in the restaurant.