Part One: Awakening

Chapter 1:

“Zhè shì shén me?!” (“What is this?!”)

I can literally see the smoke in the shape of a tiger coming out of my mother’s ears as she is holding my diary. “Uh oh,” I’m thinking. She proceeds to turn to the page dated June 4, 1993. “Are you having SEX?”

I’m stammering because a) she has my diary, b) she read said diary, c) I am a virgin, but she’ll never believe it, d) SHE HAS MY DIARY AND HAS READ IT!

I tried to use the American tactic of switching the blame. “Mom, you invaded my privacy! I can’t believe you read my diary!”

I saw her face turn from blush pink to fire red in a matter of .02 seconds. I started to look around my room, trying to see what I could use as armor in case she threw something at me. “You are living in MY house. You are fifteen years old. You do not pay any bills and do not have any rights. ARE YOU HAVING SEX?” my mother asks again while pointing to the juicy journal entry.

“No, I’m not!” I answered, exasperated.

I wasn’t lying. This was my first full year back from Okinawa, Japan, to the United States. I was born in Wichita, Kansas, but my dad was in the Air Force, and my family of three moved to Okinawa when I was four years old. We lived there for ten years before moving to Oklahoma so that my dad could retire. I had just completed eighth grade at Hefner Middle School, and this was my first summer as an acclimated Oklahoman. Moving back to the United States was not a small adjustment for me.