The setup: I found it in a creative writing textbook. The instructions are to write a page or two about a black sheep or eccentric person you know or heard about.

Takanobu Yusuke

In middle school in between classes Yusuke would walk the halls and pretend to be a velociraptor. He would stomp his feet and keep his forearms raised at chest height while his fingers contorted into claw shapes. When the teachers tried to talk to him he would make screeching noises. In class when it was his turn to go up to the board and answer a question he would freeze and no amount of coaxing could get him to give a proper answer. The teachers would tell him, “Just take a guess, anything is fine”, but he would just say, “I don’t know”. He got into a mediocre high school, but he didn’t have the grades to go onto college. He ended up dropping out of high school and moving in with his grandfather because his parents were fed up with his lack of ambition.

His grandfather taught him how to work on cars. Before his grandfather retired he was a mechanic in the Japanese Self-defense force. He mostly worked on small engines. Yusuke was quick to pick up anything that his grandfather taught him. He showed him how to change a tire, how to change oil, how to change a spark plug, and how to diagnosis different engine sounds. Yusuke soaked it all up like a sponge. Eventually, Yusuke got a job as tech at a mechanic shop in Fukuoka, a few hours away by train from his grandfather’s home in Tokushima. He met a pretty girl by the name of Kaori and they dated for a time, but his awkwardness and inexperience with girls eventually ended the relationship.

His grandfather died, but his parents didn’t tell him. He found out a year later when the summer gift he sent to his grandfather was returned and marked return to sender. He tried calling, but the number was disconnected. He took the train back to his grandfather’s hometown. He knocked on his grandfather’s door and announced himself, but to his surprise a new family had moved in. When he asked about his grandfather the man of house said, “I’m sorry to tell you this, but the previous owner died.” Yusuke, apologized for the intrusion and let himself out. He felt numb all over. He nearly tripped on one of the pavers that lined the path back to the street. He sat down in the street with his back against the wall to what used to be his grandfather’s garden wall. Some school kids walked past him on their way home from school. “What’s that guy doing”, “What’s wrong with him” they said to each other when they thought they were out of earshot. Yusuke didn’t care. He let the tears roll down his cheeks. When the tears finally stopped, he picked himself up, and went to get something to drink. He found a bar near the station and ordered shot after shot of shōchū until he blacked out.

The next day, he woke up flat on his back in the street with a splitting headache and ache in his heart. He cleaned himself up in the train station bathroom. He went to the cemetery where his grandfather’s marker was. He washed the dust off his grandfather’s tombstone, it was next to his grandmother’s. He said a short prayer and went back to his apartment in Fukuoka. He never talked to his parent’s again after that. He went on to become a mechanic and opened his own shop. It was very successful and he ended up opening a chain of mechanic shops. He never did marry, but he had several long term girlfriends.

Did you enjoy that short story? It’s fiction, don’t feel too bad for Yusuke. Let me know what you think.