Trying not to turn my head too much, pretending to look for a garbage can for my Black Thunder wrappers, I peek over my left shoulder. The kei truck is back. I wander around as if desperate to find a trash can (which I kind of am). Like a jack-in-the-box, a face pops out from the red noren of the truck as I walk by. The face is smiling at me. It takes me a second to realize it belongs to a human being — the strange man’s eyes and smile are so frozen his face looks like a mask. He snickers. “Psssssssst! Oide, oide!” He waves a hand to say come here. Weird. I fake a smile and walk straight back into Family Mart. Guess I’ll kill a few more minutes by pretending to buy something else. The man’s face is still jutting out of the curtains when I walk out of the conbini empty-handed. (I did promise not to buy lunch, and who am I to shun Manager’s free meal?) The man is still beckoning me. So weird. I guess there’s no better time to head back to Zozo. As much as I might want udon, I don’t have the time for it right now. I wave in polite refusal, then bolt. This whole day is shaping up to be one big ball of weird.

There’s a sea of people waiting for the elevator. They’re all Zozo students and parents, some of whom are in my Baby class. We all greet each other, I high-five the babies, and we pile in. I make faces at Mai, the baby closest to me, who giggles in her father’s arms. I’m so busy crossing my eyes it barely registers when someone shouts for us to hold the door and leaps in.

It’s Zaniel.

“Oh!” he says. “Fancy seeing you out here.”

I work here, I almost say. “Did you leave something behind?”

“No. Didn’t your manager tell you? I’m going to observe a few classes.” He bows as best as one can in a crowded elevator. “Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.”

“Oh. Um … kochira koso,” I reply. The parents around me burst into applause and praise. “Cybelle-sensei, you speak Japanese? Oh! Sugoi! Jouzu!” No one questions who this guy is.

Manager corners me when we all spill out into the Zozo lobby. “Cybelle-sensei! You are back! Please, Cybelle-sensei, take a rest. Don’t worry, I will go out and get your lunch. Eh, soon.”

“Yeah. That sounds like good advice.”

“And, Kamisawa-sensei, okaerinasai!” Manager bows to him. He tells Zaniel in Japanese to have a seat and wait in Room Two. I’m in the middle of changing into my shoes when it hits me that that’s my room.

“Wait. What’s going on?”

“Ah, Cybelle, Kamisawa-sensei is going to watch your Baby Zero lesson today. Is it okay?”