Never free

Following a few feet behind her fathers quick strides, not a word was spoken. Entering the dining hall, Hiromi's mother was already sitting at the table. She rose when the doors open and saw the pair, and gave a small smile.

"Ah, dear", she greeted, spreading her arms. "It's good to see you back. How did it go with ther-e Australian investors?"

Hiromi's father gave her a peck on the cheek, "Hello", he returned, "Things didn't go too badly. It took days worth of convincing, but we eventually came to a settlement. We should have a new branch in Sidney after New Years."

The parents continued on, while Hiromi just poked at her food, both disinterested in the affairs of the adult world, and still bothered about earlier.

"Hiromi", Her father called again as she straightened up, "How is your piano practice coming along? I noticed that you seemed to be daydreaming when I entered."

"Sorry, Father," she apologized once more, "Something happened at school today, and it's been causing me a mild degree of concern."

"What could possibly concern you that much", asked her mother, "With your grades, you should have no reason to worry about anything. Or, are there still people in your classes that envy your intellect?"

"Pitiable fools", her father disparaged, "Don't they realize that some people are naturally smarter than others?"

Hiromi looked down and poked at her salad, 'If only some people were so inherently gifted', she silently bemoaned.

"I've never heard a piece such as that before. I thought I told you to practice the Moonlight Sonata while I was on my business trip?"

Hiromi bit the inside of her lower lip and silently cursed.

"What were you playing?"

"I honestly don't know", she answered, "It was something that a boy at school was playing and I've had it stuck in my head all afternoon."

"Hmm", her father responded with a dismissive look on his face.

"Who was this boy?", her mother inquired, "Is he a friend?"

"No, he's just a boy from my language arts class."

"Which boy is he?" her mother asked

Hiromi quietly drummed her fingers on the table, "He's the other person in my class in that poetry competition."

Her father slowly sipped his wine, "Did he say something to upset you?"

"Not necessarily. He's just... he told me something that ... that I've been considering."

Her father folded his hands and rested his elbows on the table, "Is it something that will affect how you proceed in the competition?"

Hiromi hurriedly shook her head, "No, Father. It's just something that-"

"Good", he interrupted, "It's only fitting. You're a member of the Domon family, and as such, you are held to a higher standard. Some seek mediocrity, some seek greatness, but we strive to achieve perfection."

He rested his chin on his hands, "I trust that you haven't forgotten this fact."

It wasn't a question.

"Of course not, Father."

He merely grunted in response and the dinner returned to the busy and dull affairs of the adult world.

Hiromi left the table, her stomach full, but another part of her felt so gapingly empty. Inside her bedroom that equaled the size of a small apartment, she lay down on her queen size mattress.

She bent over to look next to her bed, 'Good, the staff emptied out the trash can. It was getting too full yesterday.'

One of the staff had set her schoolbag on the nightstand. From her color coordinated separators she took out her language arts notebook. In neat uniform writing was her notes, but halfway through, there were numerous X's, and slash marks. At the top of these marred pages was a part that had been so constantly written and erased, that some of the old writing blended in the older.

Biting her knuckle, 'What am I going to do if I can't even decide on a title?'

Hiromi sat on her front, gazing at the words she had written. She grabbed a pillow and repeatedly hit herself in the face. Rolling off the mattress, she walked through a door in the side of her room that led to a small library. Immediately, she approached a shelf and pulled down a dictionary. Laying back down on her bed, she flipped through the massive book for a short while before slamming it shut.

Slackly hitting a button on the wall, "Kana, is the bath ready yet?"

Through the intercom, a politely amused voice responded, "Mistress, you have your bath at the same time every night. Of course it's ready by now."

Grateful for the chance to take a break, Hiromi traveled to the bathroom where the enormous tub was sitting, steaming for her arrival. Sinking up to her shoulders in the water she followed the lazy swirls of the steam. Puckering her lips, she blew at the steam as it billowed up and dissipated to the vents.

'It looks so welcoming, but at the slightest sign of resistance, it retreats.'

"Mistress."

Hiromi turned to see a young woman in her twenties, standing outside the tub with a towel tucked under her arm, "Come now, if you spend too much time in the water, your skin is going to be nothing but wrinkles."

Hiromi chuckled lightly as she emerged from the water and the woman draped the towel around her mistress's shoulders.

Hiromi turned to her servant with a troubled look, "Kana, do you believe that people need passion in order to succeed?"

Kana was a little taken aback, her mistress rarely asked such questions.

"What brought this about Miss Hiromi?"

The petite girl looked down at the floor, "You know that doing things creatively has never been one of my strengths."

"Well, yes, ever since childhood, you enjoyed occasionally reading but overall, you usually seemed more at home doing stuff like mathematics."

"But, Father expects me to be good at every subject, and I feel like I can't disappoint him."

"Mistress, isn't it enough that your grades are good? You don't have to be a master at every single thing you do."

Hiromi turned to Kana with her face contorted, "I wouldn't care so much if it weren't for that boy."

Kana put her arm around Hiromi's shoulder and guided her to her room, "The boy you're competing against in your language class?"

Hiromi flailed her arms, "Of course it's him, what other boys do I talk about?"

Kana took a quick breath, "To be fair, mistress, you don't really talk about your friends, let alone strangers."

Hiromi let the towel drop as she waited for Kana to grab her pajamas, "It took me days to come up with my entry and it won, but then he not only also wins, but then he tells me that he spent a total of thirty minutes working on it at the last minute."

"It's just as you said, mistress", Kana called out while rummaging through the closet, "Creative subjects aren't your greatest strength, there's no helping what your specialty may be. After all, you can't tell a rock to grow leaves, can you?"

"But, I put all my effort into writing that stupid poem, and I surprisingly won", Hiromi complained, seating herself on the mattress, "but then he comes along and not only wins with little effort, he told me that when I play music, it doesn't have any feeling in it."

Kana slipped a nightgown around Hiromi's shoulders, "Do you feel like he's right? Stand up for a moment."

Hiromi stared at the ceiling while Kana buttoned her front, "I'm not sure. That boy never seems to apply himself to anything, but when I saw him play, he looked... different. As if, the whole world had disappeared."

"Well, I think you just answered your own question there, mistress."

Hiromi dropped her head to look at Kana, "What do you mean, you haven't even given a proper answer yet."

Kana gestured at the bed and Hiromi sat down.

"Mistress, do you know the difference between people who love what they do and those who don't?"

Hiromi shook her head.

"Someone may be good at a particular task, but if they don't have a passion for it, their devotion to their craft may be... stunted. Compared to those who are passionate about what they do, they focus all their energy into that thing. And while it may be difficult to ascertain how useful that passion is in real life, you can always tell when someone has put their all into what they do."

"So your saying I don't have passion in my playing?" Hiromi solicited

"I'm saying that everyone has things they love and depending on how much you love something, you can see the world flourish with your devotion."

Hiromi looked down and smiled.

"That will be all for now, Kana. Good night."

"Sleep well, Mistress." Kana lightly called as she shut Hiromi's bedroom door

Hiromi rolled over and took out her chaotic notebook and mulled her caretaker's words. Unknown to her, she mirrored the object of her frustrations when she wondered, 'Family, huh? When was the last time I had one of those?'