Excerpt: Hi-ya! (The Ninja Dynasty)

Mom looked up as I entered the room, her always pink lips pursed. “Good, you’re here. Now I can get the box open for this one.” She said with a laugh, motioning to Anna. I laughed with her. The sound of it brought out our dachshund, Chuckle. He loved my laugh so much that Mom said he deserved a name he loves. So Chuckle came into being fully named. He barked hysterically at me and licked my bare feet. I giggled at it and picked him up, scratching his wiggling belly and laughing some more. He licked my chin.

“Alright, so where’s she at this week?” I asked, looking at the return address. It was in funny symbols I couldn’t read. “Chinese?” I guessed. Mom took a closer look. “Nope, I think it’s Japanese. You can tell by how much detail the symbols have. I’ve found that Chinese is much more detailed. This looks simpler.” She said. My mom taught 9th grade Asian history, which included looking at the language and learning some simple works. She smiled at me; I just stared at the tape holding the box closes.

“Alright. Let’s see what she’s bought you guys this time.” She said with a sigh, and deftly sliced open the box. The lid popped open, as if the cardboard was spring loaded. I peeked into the box. Pink, white and mint green packing peanuts filled the box. Anna squealed. “PACKING PEANUTS!” she screamed, and grabbed some, rubbing them in her hair and then sticking them to Chuckle. He barked and tried to rid the packing peanuts from his stout red-brown body, running in circles. We all laughed, but feeling bad for my buddy, I brushed them off. They fell behind him, and he turned and growled at them. I gave him a pat. “Good boy, you get those packing peanuts.”

Mom dug into the foam cylinder ocean and pulled out something soft and black, about a foot in length with two long protrusions and one stumpy round one. A small bar of white was on the round stump, with two black points.

“Ooh, I think this is for you Anna.” Said Mom, finding the tag. “It says here that it’s a ninja doll, made to protect children from evil spirits and help them find courage in their hearts. It makes a great gift for boys…” Mom trailed off. The rest of the tag was ripped off. Pinned to it was a small card from Aunt Gabby.

“To my dearest darling little niece, Anna: the monsters won’t hurt you now!” Mom read. Pulling off the tag and note from the doll, she handed it to Anna, who hugged it tightly. “She remembered, Mommy, she ‘membered! ‘Member when I was talking to Aunt Gabby on the phone. I was tellin’ her about the monsters, and I asked her to get me something to scare the monsters away. And she did! Thank you, Aunt Gabby!” she shouted, and ran off to her room.

Mom looked at me, bemused. “The past few nights she’s been saying she keeps seeing live shadows coming at her, like they want to hurt her. She runs to my room every time she sees an opening in them. I was ready to pull my hair out. Why’d you have to give her to room with a door adjacent to mine? She uses it all the time.” I whined. She raised an eyebrow and frowned. “Oscar.” She said in that tone I knew meant this wasn’t the time. I stored away the argument in my mind for later.

She dipped her hand in and pulled out something white and oval shaped, with pink flowers and brown branches painted on it. “Oh, what a pretty vase!” my mom cooed, putting it on the side table of the couch behind her. “Alright, now let’s find your gift, Oscar…” she muttered, shoving her hand in. She moved it around a little, and then jumped suddenly. “Hit something! Treasure ho!” she shouted, and pulled it out. It was long and shiny and wrapped in bubble wrap.

“She got me Japanese bubble wrap! Awesome.” I said sarcastically. Mom gave me a look and handed over the package. “I’ll be taking this into my room.” I said, then dashed for sanctuary. I heard my mom shout something about laundry, so I shouted back, “Okay!” and shut the door. I locked the adjacent door-even though it wouldn’t do much, because you could unlock it from the other side- and put the package on my bed. I looked at the wooden hand-crafted Buzz Lightyear my Aunt Gabby had gotten me a few months ago from Ireland. I hoped this gift was just as awesome.

Peeling away the layers, my breath caught in my throat as I imagined the possibilities. Maybe it was a pike used during the Ming Dynasty, or maybe it was-

My eyes widened. My mouth dropped open.

It was a samurai sword. And it was all mine.