Free Dolls of Hope by Shirley Parenteau

were you out there?”
    Chiyo looked back in anguish. “I wanted an orange. My money fell on the platform! Sensei, it’s all I have!”
    “Take your seat, Miss Tamura. Now.”
    Chiyo stumbled to her row. “Someone locked the door,” she told Hana, gulping back tears she would not shed. “Most of my money bounced off the train and the rest is on the platform!”
    “Miss Tamura,” Sensei warned again. “Sit down.”
    Hana exclaimed, “Someone locked her out there!”
    Sensei’s mouth got thin. “Did you see someone lock the door, Miss Nakata?”
    “No, but Chiyo was locked out.”
    “We will blame the wind or a faulty latch.” Oki-sensei’s tone forbade argument. “Miss Tamura is now safely inside, where she will remain. The matter is closed.”
    “Not to me!” Hana said with fire still in her voice.
    Oki-sensei returned to her seat beside Watanabe-sensei and frowned all the girls into facing forward.
    Hana said fiercely to Chiyo, “It was Hoshi!”
    “We think that because of her threat.” Feeling hollow inside, Chiyo stared out the window. She remembered Yamada-san warning that Miss Nagata was known to be high-spirited. After losing her money, she didn’t want to get Hana in trouble, too.
    “We’ll get even with her,” Hana said, as if hearing the thought. “You wait! We will!”
    Chiyo drew a deep breath, longing to run to the door to see if even one sen remained. In her mind, she pictured all her coins bumping and spinning off the platform, but one might be lying flat. The yen might still be there. She would look carefully when they left the train in Tokyo.
    I am not here to shop,
she reminded herself.
I’m here for the American dolls. I don’t need shopping to make sure Hoshi doesn’t hurt one of them.

A s they approached Tokyo, Chiyo marveled at thatched-roof homes stretching to either side. “They’re as close together as a farmer’s cabbages.”
    Hana laughed. “I’m glad you’re able to smile again.”
    “This might be my only chance to see the city,” Chiyo answered. “I’m not going to ruin it over coins I didn’t expect to have in the first place.” But she couldn’t help wishing that she could have given a nice gift to her parents.
    The thatched homes gave way to taller buildings. Soon the train pulled into Tokyo Station, billowing steam. Wheels shrieked as the cars lurched, forcing those in the aisles to clutch seat backs. Chiyo stumbled toward the aisle. She meant to be first to the platform at the back, but a large woman with a basket stepped in front of her, then let everyone ahead into the aisle, including Hoshi and Kimiko.
    Chiyo’s stomach clenched. She wasn’t even surprised to hear Hoshi exclaim loudly, “Look, Kimiko! A shiny new yen. Maybe it will bring me luck!”
    Hana shouted past Chiyo’s shoulder, “You know that belongs to Chiyo!” But the train whistle blew, a fresh burst of steam blasted in from the open door, and everyone still aboard hurried to reach the station platform.
    Chiyo resisted a need to shove past them all. Rude behavior might be reported to Headmaster, and that side of the scale was getting heavier.
    Hana said, “We should tell Sensei.”
    Chiyo shook her head. There wasn’t anything she could do except add another mark against Hoshi’s name in her mind.
    When they stood on the station platform, the smell of smoke and hot metal made their noses wrinkle. Oki-sensei bustled about, locating luggage and guiding the girls into waiting rickshaws. As their bearer hurried them through crowded city streets, Chiyo, Hana, and Tomi sat together, pointing out one sight after another. Automobiles rumbled past, startling Chiyo with their speed and power. And what was coming along the street now?
    “It’s an electric streetcar,” Oki-sensei called from the rickshaw ahead as a large vehicle whizzed past on tracks laid in the street. It looked scary to Chiyo. People sat on long benches facing the street while the car traveled rapidly along. How