Koji applied the brakes again, slowing the train as it passed the newly burned field, an uneasy feeling rising in him again. Ever since the eruption and Daniel’s return, a growing restlessness nagged at him like a dull ache. Koji looked across the blackened cane field and saw himself in its desolation. He’d become acutely aware that he had little to show for a lifetime at Puli. He’d spent the past forty years on the plantation having taken the easy way out, working for lunas who admired his discipline and cutting skills and had even struck up casual friendships with him, while others only saw his worth in the amount of cane he could cut. Deep down he had always prided himself at being the best, which may have been his greatest weakness. The bosses who lived in their big houses on the other side of the plantation had persuaded him to stay by giving him what he wanted, to be left alone and allowed the freedom to come and go. For that he stayed out of trouble and cut all the cane they wanted. Mariko and Daniel had always been his real prize, even if they never really belonged to him. The preferential treatment he’d been given had caused problems with some of the other workers at first. One late afternoon when Koji was returning from the fields, he was stopped by two brothers from his own Kazuko village.

“Who you to get special treatment?” the older of the two asked.

The younger brother jumped in. “I see you buddying up to those bastards. You spy for the boss man, yeah?”

Koji shook his head. He didn’t want trouble, but he wasn’t about to run away from it either. “I’m just minding my own business, eh. You both should too,” he added.

Things escalated quickly from there. Koji couldn’t remember which brother threw the first punch, but the fist slammed into the side of his jaw. After that, he made quick work of the older brother when the younger one rammed him from the side, both falling and wrestling in the dirt.

It was Razor who came running, breaking them apart and also getting hit in the melee.

“Dammit! Stop!” Razor yelled. “When you assholes can cut cane as fast as Koji then you can complain, yeah. Not before!”

Even after the bruises faded, things were never the same with the brothers, but Koji ignored them and was always grateful Razor stood by him. In turn, he had let Razor down time and again, missing so many labor meetings, but still his best friend had always returned and understood. Koji looked out toward the fields that hadn’t been burned yet, realizing he hadn’t seen Razor in more than a week.