The
Girl Who Saved the World with Laughter
“No TV till you learn how to behave like
civilized human beings!”
So we try to be civilized, whatever that means. Max plays with his Nintendo, and I read a book, but after about an hour, I can’t stand it.
I go to Dad and whine, ‘Dad--dy, I’m bo-red.”
He puts down his newspaper, gives me a dirty
look, and says:
“Life is boring, kid. Deal with it.”
So I go over to the window and stare out
at the trees with their dark, bony branches. Needle-sharp rain is falling, and
the yard looks like a battle zone strewn with toys and lawn furniture we forgot
to put away for the winter. Try as I might, I can’t remember how the trees and
grass looked when they were green and beaming with life.
“I hate winter,” I mutter under my breath.
An icy wind suddenly shakes the window pane, as if to reply, “I hate you, too!”
Just then I notice someone coming up our
driveway, a tiny woman whose feet barely touch the ground as she walks. It’s
Mitsu Ko, our next-door neighbor from Japan.
When we open the door, the wind sweeps Mitsu
Ko into our foyer. Max and I greet her with shouts of joy, for somehow, without
even trying, Mitsu Ko always manages to cheer us up.
“What’s all this commotion about?” Mom calls
out from the kitchen in a grumpy voice.
“I hope I not disturb you and your family,”
says Mitsu Ko. “A book on Japanese flower arrangement arrived, and I think
maybe you’d like to see it.”
“Oh, how sweet,” says Mom, smiling for the
first time all day. “Mitsu Ko, it’s so kind of you to think of me.”
Mitsu Ko and Mom go into the kitchen to talk
for a while, while my brother and I sit around in the den and get more and more
grumpy. Then Mitsu Ko pokes her head into our room and asks, “How you all
doing, children?”
“Don’t ask,” I say.
“We’re bored,” says Max. “Winter stinks.”
“I see,” says Mitsu Ko and pauses to think
for a moment. “Would you like to hear
story? It’s about special Japanese holiday, festival of laughter. It may make you smile.”
“Cool,” my brother says, and for once I agree
with him. We settle down to listen to Mitsu Ko as she tells us a story that
I’ll never forget.
****************************************
Many years ago, before we Japanese know about Western people and their
religion, we believe that God is a woman, and that She lived in the Sun. She
created the stars, the earth, the sky, the plants and all the animals. She made
people, too, beautiful, yellow-skinned people the color of the sun.
Everything in the world was alive, even
rocks and streams, and everything that lived was happy. The people, too, were
happy and grateful just to see the light of the sun. “We are the people of the
Sun,” they said, for that is what our name, Nippon, actually means in our
language.
But as time passed, the people of the Sun
grew very busy with their own affairs. They built houses which shut out the
wind and cold, but which also kept out the Sun. In these houses people learned
to keep secrets and to do things they would not do in the light of day. They
hoarded things. They cheated and told lies. They quarreled and sometimes they
even killed each other. They forgot all about Sun Goddess.
The Sun Goddess was very disappointed.
“So, this is how my people behave,” she said
sadly. “This is how they treat their mother and creator.”
Since no one paid her any attention, She wrapped herself in a big, dark cloud.
The earth was suddenly dark as night. People
waited and waited for the dawn, but it never came. Many days passed without
sunlight, and the people were very afraid.
“What will happen to us?” they cried. “If the
sun doesn’t come back, our crops and our animals will die, and then we die,
too. What can we do?”
They wailed and sighed and felt very sorry
for themselves, but the Sun Goddess remained hidden.
“After all,” She thought, “the people did
not listen to me when I was nice to them. Now they must learn what life is like
without me.”
In a small village on the Japanese coast
lived a girl who loved to play outside in the sun and hated it when her mother
calls her indoors. This little girl was very sad when the sun disappeared for
she loved the sun best of all.
She wondered, “Why can I do to bring back
sun?” She thought and thought for a long, long time. Then suddenly an idea came to her like a sunbeam
breaking through a cloud.
“Yes!” she said, and smiled to herself.
She rushed to her parents’ bedroom and
shouted, “Mommy, daddy, I know how to bring the sun back.” Her parents were huddled in front of their
last candle. They just shrugged and paid no attention.
But the little girl did not lose
confidence. She rushed outside and shouted to everyone in the village.
“I know how to bring the sun back, I know how
to bring the sun back.”
Most people thought that she was crazy, but a
few of the wiser ones said, “Why not listen to her? After all, we have nothing
to lose.
So the people followed the little girl to the
middle of a field on the outskirts of town. It was dark and cold, and no stars
shone because of the cloud that the Sun Goddess had spread like a veil over the
earth. The people shivered and were gloomy as they waited for the little girl
to bring back the sun.
The little girl stood in front of the crowd
for a long time and said nothing. Then she smiled. Just a tiny little smile.
“See, I told you the girl has mental
problems,” said an old man, smirking.
“Oh hush up,” said his old wife with a
cackle. “You’re no one to talk!”
Seeing the grown-ups bicker, the girl
laughed out loud.
“What’s that strange noise I hear?” wondered
the Sun Goddess as she peeked through the cloud to see what was going on. A
sunbeam fell upon the laughing girl and made her feel warm and happy inside.
“It’s working!” said the girl, laughing with delight.
Seeing the girl glow with laughter, the
villagers couldn’t help chuckling. Some of the village girls started to titter
and giggle. Some of the boys guffawed. Soon everyone was roaring with laughter.
As the Sun Goddess watched this comical
sight, she too began to smile. As she smiled, the clouds parted and blue skies
returned with dazzling brilliance.
“Look,” the people cried. “The sun is back!”
Now everyone was laughing so hard that tears poured down their cheeks. For the first
time in many years, they sang the praises of the Sun Goddess, saying, “O Mother
and Creator, never again will we take you for granted. From now on, whenever
the nights grow long and the days short, we will remember to honor You with
laughter and singing. We will thank You
for Your life-giving light and for the wonderful universe You have made.
“And we will choose a little girl to lead our
Festival of Laughter, for it was a little girl who taught us to laugh and to
sing in the darkness.”
When the Sun Goddess heard these words, she
smiled, and the whole universe shook with glee and merriment.
********************************************************************
As she finishes her story, Mitsu Ko flashes
us a big, friendly smile and we smile along with her. Then Mom comes into the
room, sees us grinning, and says,
“My goodness, all your faces are glowing.”
Mitsu Ko laughs, and explains, “That’s what
my name means in Japanese, ‘one who glows.’” Then she gets serious, turns to
Mom and says, “I did not always think it
was funny to have that name.”
Mom walks over to Mitsu Ko and puts her arm
around her shoulder.
“What does Mitsu Ko mean?” I ask. “Why do you
look serious and sad all of a sudden?”
“Mitsu Ko lived in a city called Nagasaki
when we dropped the atomic bomb, “ Mom explains. “She survived, but some people
were afraid of her afterwards. They thought she might contaminate them with
radiation. That’s why Mitsu Ko came to the United States, and why she never
married.”
“That was long time ago,” says Mitsu Ko, her
face brightening again. “Let’s forget
about it. It’s not imporant. Now I have many friends, and you treat me like
family. I am very happy and grateful.”
Mitsu Ko gives us a big hug, and we thank
her for telling us a story to cheer us up.
Then I get an idea.
“If we’re like your family, can we call you Aunt Mitsu Ko?”
Mom looks very pleased, and says. “Of
course you can. That is, if Mitsu Ko doesn’t mind.”
“I would be very honored,” says Mitsu
Ko, her face really glowing now.
Outside the wind is still blowing and the
rain still rattles the windows, but inside I feel as if the Sun Goddess is looking down at us and
smiling....
