Placing his fork gingerly onto the plate scattered with broken-up shrimp-tails, Mr. Koiwai addresses his daughter sitting next to him.

"Yotsuba, what gave you the idea to leave on your bike and go to the noodle shop?"

She turns her head, looking at him with several long udon noodles stringing from her mouth. "Ummm..." she says, trying to find an excuse. She slurps the noodles into her mouth.

Her Daddy sighs (is she even listening to me?), adjusting his elbow onto the table, his knuckles holding up his chin. "You know its not safe- how many times do I have to tell you not to go off on your own?"

"But I can when I ask permission first!" objected the girl.

He widens his eyes in mild surprise. "But did you?"

"N-no..." the child looks down at her bowl. She stares at the warm, brown soup inside, her eyes growing large with shame. Tears shimmer, waiting to spill out.

He watches her quietly for a moment before saying her name. "Yotsuba."

She looks at him miserbly.

He lowers his hand into his lap. "Thankyou for not lying to me." he says softly. He gives her a rewarding grin.

"I'm...not in trouble?" She brings a hand across her dripping nose, snorting.

"Nope." He removes his hand from his lap and brings his fist over her hands. "Open them." he says lightly.

Yotsuba opens them obediantly, her mouth open in excitement. "Oooh, what is it? Is it ice-cream?"

Her Daddy drops a wrapped fortune cookie into her palms.

"Huh?" Her face turns sour, her mouth tensing up in disapointment. She holds the wrapped treat in the air by one end. At last, she says, "What the hell is this?"

"You've never eaten a fortune cookie...?" He takes another from a bowl on the table and says, "Watch what I'm doing."

The little girl leans over, placing both hands on the table with the cookie inbetween them, like Daddy is doing. When he pulls the wrapper in opposite diections, she follows suit, and a hissy-pop sounds as the cookie is released from its vacuum-pack prison.

"I did it!" she cries. She swings a head to her Daddy, who begins pulling the cookie apart in the middle. A slip of paper falls out. "What's that?" she asks, pointing. "A tape-worm?"

"Your fortune." he replies.

"Like a future-telling?"

"Uhh, yeah. Something like that." He picks it up and reads it outloud: " 'Life is short; cherish your time with the ones you love.' " Seeing his confused, smiling adopted daughter, he leans over and kisses her on the head. "I cherish the time I've spent with you." he says sweetly.

Yotsuba giggles, and digs out her cookie from the popped wrapper. "Me next!" she says loudly.

(I didn't think we were taking turns..) Mr. Koiwai picks up his own cookie, then takes a bite out of it. As he chews, Yostuba is shattering hers against the table, crumbs shooting across the place.

"Hey, be more courteous." says her Daddy. "Someone's going to have to clean that up later."

The five year old takes out her fortune from the mess of crumbs, and opens her mouth to read it. But she shuts it, her eyes widening in horror.

"What's wrong?" asks Mr. Koiwai, amused.

"N-nothing..." she tries again, reading: " 'Later, Daddy will take me- I mean Yostuba, to the Zoo.' "

"Hmm...Does it really say that?"

"Uh-huh!" protests the girl quickly, sweat forming on her face. "I'm not making this up, no way!"

He offers his hand out to her. "Let me see it."

Her hand trembling, she hands over the slip of paper.

" 'Your best friend may be an enemy.' " Blinking, he looks at Yotsuba, whose expression is much like one you'd have after seeing a kitten get run over by a car right before your eyes.

(Why does she look so upset? Am I her best friend...?) Finally, getting out of the chair, he says, "Come on."

He takes out some money and sets it at the table as payment. Yotsuba hops onto the floor and stares up at her Daddy with fearful questioning silence. He walks out the door and waits outside by her bike. She goes out hesitantly and stands a few feet away, her hands working nervously in front of her.

"Do I really seem like an enemy, Yotsuba? Is that how you see me?"

"N-no... but the cookie..."

"-is wrong." He interupts. "Fortune cookies tell- what, what do they tell?"

"Fortunes..."

"And are fortunes good or bad?"

"Good.."

"And your fortune was bad, correct?"

Yotsuba looks up, eyes shining. "You're right!"

He smiles down assuringly at her.

She smiles and looks ahead, across the street at nothing. He joins her, and they watch people drive in their cars, on their bikes, and shuffle into different shops.

"That was a bad cookie." Yotsuba decides at last, eyes narrowing.

"Mhm."

Mr. Koiwai reaches down and takes her hand.

End