The cherry blossoms drift down the quiet street. The young boy walks past a wooden house and stops at the garden gate.
Mrs. Sato sits on her engawa with a cup of green tea. She waves a thin hand at him.
He steps inside and pulls a small broom from the hook. The broom whispers-shhh across the stones.
At home, he sorts an empty juice box, a tin can, and a newspaper into three color-coded bins.
Kenji carries her empty tea cup to her step. Something catches his eye on the windowsill.
A single yellow leaf folded into a crane rests on the windowsill.
She touches the paper bird gently. "The cherry wind must have made it," she whispers.
The next morning, he sweeps her path again. She watches from the engawa.
After he finishes, they both sit together on the engawa.
The neighborhood wakes around them — distant train horns, children laughing, warm rice drifting through open windows.