Zenjiro sat up quickly. The cold air hit his chest. He checked the small digital clock on his desk. The red numbers glowed brightly. It was 7:45 AM. They usually left the house at exactly 7:30 AM.
"I'm getting up," he said.
She stepped back. She gave him physical room to get out of the bed. She waited quietly by the closed bedroom door while he changed his clothes. She didn't run out to the front porch to wait alone like she used to. She just stood there and watched him tie his shoes.
They hurried out into the kitchen. Clara was wiping the low table with a damp white cloth. The smell of dish soap hung in the air. She looked up when they rushed into the room.
"You overslept," Clara said. She reached onto the counter. She handed Zenjiro a thick piece of toast wrapped in a paper napkin. "Eat on the way."
"Thanks," Zenjiro said. He took a fast bite of the dry bread. It scratched the roof of his mouth.
"Let's go, Onii-chan," Liora said.
She reached out. Her small fingers grabbed the loose sleeve of his uniform shirt. She tugged the fabric lightly. "We have to run."
Clara stopped wiping the table. Her hand froze completely on the wet wood. She stared at Liora's fingers gripping the dark fabric of his shirt. Her blue eyes widened slightly. The hard tension in her jaw relaxed. A soft, incredibly warm smile broke across her pale face.
She didn't say anything and she didn't point it out. She just watched them run out the front door together.
The one-meter rule slowly eroded over the next month. Zenjiro tracked the physical distance like a complex math problem. He calculated the shrinking gap every single day.
It took two weeks for the gap to shrink to ninety centimeters. They were walking home from school. The autumn wind blew dead brown leaves across the concrete path. A heavy rainstorm from the previous night left a massive puddle near the curb. The dirty water blocked the right side of the sidewalk. Liora stepped left to avoid the water. She moved closer to him. She didn't step back away when the puddle ended. She stayed right there. The new distance became the baseline.
Eighty centimeters. She stopped him in the hallway at school. She asked him to carry a heavy library book for her. The hardcover was big and thick. It contained colored pictures of European castles.
He took the heavy book and shoved it into his leather bag. The zipper barely closed. She walked beside him on the way home. She stayed just close enough to keep her eyes directly on the zipper of his bag to make sure the book didn't fall out.
Sixty centimeters. They walked past a narrow alleyway. A loud, aggressive dog barked violently from behind a rusted chain-link fence. The sound was sharp and sudden. Liora jumped in pure fright. She side-stepped directly toward him. Her shoulder almost brushed against his left elbow. Her breathing hitched. She stayed pressed near his arm until they were two full blocks away from the dog.
The gap closed a little more every single day. The heavy silence was entirely gone now. She didn't talk constantly, but she talked enough to fill the void. She complained about the hard math homework. She complained about the salty cafeteria food. She pointed out strange cats sitting on the concrete brick walls.
She was adjusting to her new reality. Her biological father was permanently gone. The loud screaming matches were gone. The shattered ceramic vases were gone.
She likely realized that this quiet house was completely secure. She likely realized that Zenjiro was a safe entity. He never yelled at her. He never pushed her away and he never demanded anything from her. He just let her exist in his space.
So she claimed more of it.
It was late November. The air was violently cold. Frost coated the sharp metal edges of the street signs. They walked home under a heavy gray sky. Liora wore a thick red scarf wrapped twice around her neck. The wool covered her mouth and her nose. Her hands were buried deep in the pockets of her dark blue winter coat.
She walked about forty centimeters away from him. It was close enough that he could hear her breathing over the loud sound of their footsteps on the pavement.
"I hate math," Liora said. Her voice was muffled through the thick red wool. "Fractions are stupid. Why do I need to cut a fake pie into eight pieces?"
"Because whole pies are too big to eat at once," Zenjiro said. He kept his eyes focused on the paved road ahead.
"I could eat a whole pie," she muttered. "If it was apple."
"You would get sick."
"Maybe."
They reached the final block before their house. The sidewalk narrowed drastically here. A tall concrete retaining wall lined the left side. The busy street occupied the right side.
There was no metal guardrail to separate the pedestrians from the traffic. The cars rushed past in a loud, continuous blur of heavy metal and spinning rubber.
Zenjiro walked on the street side, as usual. Liora walked near the concrete wall.
A loud, piercing air horn blasted from the blind intersection directly behind them.
Zenjiro turned his head.
A large white delivery truck took the corner way too fast. The driver misjudged the sharp angle. The heavy rubber tires squealed violently against the cold asphalt. A thin cloud of white smoke kicked up from the friction. The heavy vehicle swerved. The big rectangular back end swung wide. It drifted straight toward the narrow concrete sidewalk.
The driver panicked. He slammed hard on the air brakes. The heavy wheels locked up completely. The truck skidded sideways. It turned into a massive wall of white metal hurtling directly at them.
Time slowed down to a crawl. Zenjiro calculated the physical trajectory in a fraction of a second. The back corner of the heavy steel bumper was going to clip the raised edge of the concrete curb.
It was going to sweep the sidewalk. Liora was walking slightly ahead of him. She was standing right in the center of the impact zone.
"Liora!"
He didn't think about his own safety. He just moved.
He lunged forward. His left foot planted violently onto the concrete. He reached out with both hands. He grabbed the thick blue fabric of her winter coat right at her shoulders. He locked his grip and he yanked her backward with every single ounce of strength in his small body.
The brutal physics of the pull threw them both completely off balance. Liora gasped loudly. She flew backward through the air. Her back slammed hard against his chest. They tumbled together in a messy tangle of limbs. They hit the cold, hard ground.
Zenjiro took the total brunt of the fall. His back scraped against the rough asphalt. The sharp impact punched all the air out of his lungs. He grunted. The pain flared hot and bright across his spine.
A massive rush of freezing wind exploded over them.
The white steel bumper slammed into the concrete curb. The heavy metal corner missed Liora's head by less than six inches. The sound was absolutely deafening. It sounded like a bomb detonating in a trash can.
The truck bounced violently off the concrete lip. The suspension groaned. The driver corrected his steering path, hit the gas pedal, and sped away down the street without even touching the brakes again.
A thick, dark cloud of exhaust smoke washed over the sidewalk. It smelled terribly like burning rubber and toxic diesel fuel.
Zenjiro lay flat on his back. His chest burned like fire. He gasped desperately for air. Liora lay completely sprawled on top of him. Her heavy pink backpack pressed right into his stomach. Her full body weight pinned him to the ground.
The street fell entirely quiet for a long, heavy second. The only sound was the ringing in his ears.
Liora didn't move. She just lay there on top of him.
"Are you okay?" Zenjiro wheezed. His throat was dry. His voice was hoarse and weak.
She slowly pushed herself up. Her bare hands pressed flat against his chest. She knelt on the cold ground beside him. Her yellow school hat was gone. It lay upside down in the dirty street gutter. Her blonde hair was a messy, wild tangle across her face.
Her blue eyes were wide and completely blown out. Terror locked her small features in place. Her pale skin was the exact color of crushed chalk. She stared at the empty street where the big truck had just been.
She realized exactly how close it was. She probably felt the violent wind of the heavy metal passing right by her face. She probably heard the scrape of the steel against the curb.
She looked down at Zenjiro. He sat up slowly. He winced and rubbed his sore lower back.
Liora lunged at him.
She wrapped both of her arms around his right bicep. She gripped his arm with terrifying, desperate strength. Her small fingers dug deep through his thick coat and clamped right into his muscle. She pressed her face hard against his shoulder.
She started to shake. It was not a small shiver from the freezing wind. It was violent, uncontrollable, full-body trembling. Her teeth chattered loudly together. Her breath hitched in her throat in broken gasps. She didn't cry and she didn't scream. She just clung to his arm like he was the very last solid object left in the entire world.
Zenjiro froze. He looked at her blonde head buried deep against his coat. He felt the rapid, terrified thumping of her heart beating violently against his arm. The rhythm was frantic.