Law & Order - 1. L & O Chapter 1

I had always been a very intelligent kid, from a very young age, and because of this, I was able to achieve a lot even before entering high school at the age of 11. My father is an Engineer and my Mother is a teacher, so when Dad was transferred to Singapore, we just stored everything that we were not taking with us and flew off to a new country when I was just four years old. The move overseas didn’t matter much at that age, as I had spent a lot of my time at home learning Japanese and Hokkaido from the housekeeper - Ms Keiko Mashiro who had been with our family since just after I was born and was also my tutor.

When I was six years old, instead of travelling home to Western Australia for Christmas, my parents decided that we would travel to Japan, so that we could see some of Ms Keiko’s homeland and so that she could visit her family. By then, I spoke four languages fluently. Apart from English, Hokkaido Ainu and Japanese, I was also fluent in Malay and I was starting to learn Spanish, as my two best friends at school in Singapore both speak Spanish at home, and they taught me the language, so we could talk privately without many people understanding what we were saying.

After our first visit to Japan, my parents announced that we would be visiting again in two years, and that is what we did. We would spend one year, travelling home to Western Australia for a summer Christmas, and the next year would be to Japan for a winter Christmas, and this continued until the year I was to enter High School and where shortly after Ms Keiko decided to return home to Hokkaido Island in Japan.

This was also the time that we permanently returned to Western Australia, after seven years in Singapore, which was horrible as I would be leaving behind all of my school friends, but with the help of modern technology, we planned to stay in touch regularly, and this was also the same for Ms Keiko, who also would email us regularly once a month. Having moved a grade year ahead of kids my age in education, I found it a little difficult at first to settle into the high school environment, especially now that Year Seven is regarded as part of High School.

To combat this I spent a lot of my time in the library when not in class or attending sporting events as was required at most government co-ed schools, like the one that I was attending. I did not tell anyone at school that I was bilingual in five languages, as I felt that I would just get into more strife with the students, and I made sure that my parents had not informed the school about my linguistic talents either.

For sports activities, apart from the regular PE – Physical Education classes, I chose Swimming and Tennis during the Summer and Autumn months, and Field Hockey and Cross Country Running during the Winter and Spring months of school. Puberty hit me just as the school year was coming to a close in my second year at my new school, which is located just two blocks from the Swan River in South Perth. I was thankful in a way that the timing was just right, as I had six weeks to deal with the confusing feelings, and fast increase in growth in height, build and weight.

Since we returned to Western Australia, between Christmas and New Year, I had to make new friends, which for me wasn’t too hard to do over the first semester at my new school. For the following Christmas, after nearly two years back in Australia, we stayed in Perth, and we did very little during the holidays, as both Mum and Dad had to work for most of that time, and I had a very small and quiet 13^th birthday in early March just one month after the start of the new school year, where I would be starting Year 10, as I had advanced two grades in Singapore.

Life had changed dramatically for me and our family when Mum gave birth to a second son – Brodie, in late August of that year, making him nearly 13 ½ years younger than me, and all plans for future overseas holidays were put on hold until Brodie was old enough to understand about travelling long distances. Ms Keiko was thrilled when she was informed that there was a new member of the family and she wished she could jump on a plane to come and visit, but sadly she now had a new job with greater responsibilities, which did not allow her such luxuries.

It was four years later before my parents announced that the family was going on a holiday to Japan for Christmas, which I was a little surprised by, as there had been no interest at all by Mum or Dad to do any more long-distance travelling since Brodie was born. I was almost 18 years old and I was now at University, where I had completed my second year of Computer Science & Law, having completed my High School education two years earlier than usual.

I never allowed any relationship to go any further than just a kiss on the cheek and lots of hugs, which resulted in most of the relationships going bust, as the former girlfriends wanted more, and I refused. This had created a few issues at high school, but nothing of concern currently at University, with rumours that I must be gay, if I didn’t want to have sex with my girlfriends, which I flatly denied, responding by saying I am not interested in girls who just want a relationship to get laid and boast about it to her friends.

I was told that our family will be travelling to Hokkaido Island in Japan, to visit Ms Keiko, and to enjoy another White Christmas, this time including my younger brother – Brodie, who turned three years old in November just gone. “Dalton, can you check on your brother please,” Mum called out to me, and knowing that she was busy finalising the packing for our trip to Japan, I headed to the bedroom next to mine and found my brother happily and quietly playing with his toys on the large rug in the middle of the bedroom.

Sitting down on the rug in front of him I watched as he played with his toys until he stopped and looked at me before pointing to his favourite toy that was sitting up high on a shelf, “Dalt… Get Fuck,” he said to me, and at first I was caught by surprise, until I realised he was trying to say truck, and I smiled at him. “No Brodie, that is called a Truck, T. R.U.C.K,” I said to him before standing up and retrieving the item and sitting down again, but I held onto it. “Brodie, say TRUCK,” I said to my brother, “Fff…” he started to say and I immediately shook my head no to him, “T.R.U.C.K… Truck,” I said to Brodie, “Tuck,” he responded.

“That is close enough buddy,” I said before handing over the toy to him. I stayed watching my brother until he began to get tired, and I lifted him onto his bed, and he was soon fast asleep, as I began feeling tired myself, I lay down on the rug and I too was soon asleep. “Dalton… wake up son, you have a phone call,” a voice said to me, and I slowly woke up and remembered where I was, as I stretched and yawned. “What did you say, Dad?” I asked, “It is your former high school friends on the telephone, hurry up, they are waiting,” Dad replied, and I staggered to my feet, seeing that Brodie was still asleep and we quietly left the room.

“Hello… Jack or Levi?” I said as I picked up the landline phone, “G’day mate, yes both of us here, just wondered what you are doing after Christmas? Do you want to catch up with us and get up to some mischief?” Levi said in reply, which made me smile. “Not sure what I am doing guys, our family is heading overseas to Japan for Christmas, leaving tomorrow morning, and I am not sure of our return date yet,” I responded. “Oh! Well make sure you send us some postcards while you are there and let us know when you are returning, ok?” Jack said to me. “Sure, I can do that, we have been to Japan before, but with a little brother now, this is his first time overseas,” I replied.

After a bit more of a chat, I wished them both a great Christmas, before ending the call and I went looking for my parents, who I found relaxing in the den, “Mum, Dad, how long are we going to be in Japan for?” I asked my parents, who smiled. “That is easy to say, we will be there from December 22^nd, but leaving tomorrow, until December 28^th, so we will be there for six days, but we will not be returning directly home afterwards, we are going to British Columbia, Canada, to visit your Uncle Oliver, my much older brother, who I have not seen in many years since he moved to Canada,” Dad responded, and this news caught me totally by surprise.

“We have an uncle?” I said in shock, “Yes, he is six years older than me, and when he finished high school, he got an overseas university scholarship to study Marine Engineering in BC Canada, and I have only seen him once since then,” Dad informed me. “Is he married and have kids? Do we have any cousins?” I asked, “No, not married, but he does have one son from a past relationship, his name is Tyler and he is 4 years older than you, and I have never met him at all,” Dad replied.

“Wow, so are we going to meet them on this trip?” I asked, “Yes, and we will be spending two weeks looking around British Columbia,” Dad informed me, which I was very pleased to hear. The trip to Tokyo was a very long and tiring 9.5 hours and although we were in Premium Economy Seating, it was still uncomfortable sitting for so long. With Brodie, he was often restless when he was tired which didn’t help at all, as my parents and managed to keep him occupied when he wasn’t asleep or eating.

The flight left Perth at 2155 hours, and thankfully Brodie went straight to sleep once he was settled in his seat next to me, waking briefly as we took off as he had a small afternoon nap and we kept him awake during the airport check-in process, although he did grizzle for most of that time. When we landed in Tokyo at 0830 local time, just an hour after we had breakfast, we struggled with getting through customs and passport control, and when we finally arrived at our hotel, Mum put Brodie to bed again, in the hope that he took a nap, which he did, as did I as I hardly slept at all during the flight. By lunchtime, we were all refreshed and we headed to the restaurant for our first Japanese meal on this trip, and when the waitress came to take our order, I started in fluent Japanese, which caught her by total surprise.

“Sorry, our son is just showing off a bit,” Mum said to the waitress, “No, I am keeping in practice with my language skills,” I responded, and the waitress smiled, as she took my order. After a full day of looking around the capital, we travelled to Hokkaido Island via the Bullet train the following morning, which is a 4 ½ hour journey, that allowed Brodie to walk around a little with assistance of course, and part of that journey was travelling through the 54 kilometre long undersea tunnel from the main island of Honshu to Hokkaido Island, which felt strange being underwater.