CREATIVE WRITING

Name of Learner: __________________________ Score: __________

Grade Level/Section: ________________________ Date: __________

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

Examining Creative Writing Activities

Background Information for Learners

Literary Elements
Literary elements are present in every piece of literature (really!), They're a
good place to start when it comes to developing your analytical toolbox. In this
lesson, we'll give you the literary element definition: the characters, the setting and
the plot. These essential elements keep the story running smoothly and allow the
action to develop in a logical way that the reader can follow.
A literary element's definition is pretty similar. Literary elements are the things
that all literature—whether it's a news article, a book, or a poem—absolutely have to
have. Just like a house, the elements might be arranged slightly differently...but at
the end of the day, they're usually all present and accounted for. Literary elements
are the fundamental building blocks of writing, and they play an important role in
helping us write, read, and understand literature.
1. Character - a person in a fictional story; or qualities of a person.
2. Setting - time and location that a story takes place.
3. Plot - is how the author arranges events to develop the basic idea; it is the
sequence of events in a story or play.

a. Exposition (introduction) - Beginning of the story; characters,

background, and setting revealed.
b. Rising Action - Events in the story become complicated; the conflict is
revealed. These are events between the introduction and climax.
c. Climax - Turning point of the story. Readers wonders what will happen
next; will the conflict be resolved or not? Consider the climax as a three-
fold phenomenon:
d. Falling action - Resolution begins; events and complications start to fall
into place. These are the events between climax and denouement.
e. Resolution (Conclusion) - Final outcome of events in the story.

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
Learning Competency:
MELC: Conceptualize a character/ setting/ plot for a one-act play.
(HUMSS_CW / MPIj-IIc-17)

Directions and Instructions

Hello, learner! You are about to check your learning/s on the different topics under
Creative Writing in a five-stage exploration (1-Load, 2-Engage, 3-Advance, 4-Refine,
5-Nurture). Just follow the instructions given for every task.

LEARNING CONTRACT
AGREEMENT: By signing the contract, you are hereby accepting the responsibility to finish the activity
package and submit it to your teacher (____________________) on (____________________).

LOAD

Activity 1. Read the story “The Switch Bars” and answer the questions below.
1. Who are the two main characters in the story?
a. Sam and Jane b. Tess and Gabby
c. Mary and Bea d. Angelo and Gee-Em
2. What is the story’s setting?
a. The Capitol Building b. Washington, D.C.
c. The White House d. A Fancy Restaurant

3. Arrange the story’s events in order.

1. Tess cooks dinner for Gabby’s family.
2. Gabby shares Grandpa’s gift with Tess.
3. Tess and Gabby switch places.
4. Tess and Gabby decide to return to their own lives.

a.1,2,3,4 b. 2,3,1,4
c.4,3,2,1 d. 2,3,4,1

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
4. What is the main problem in the story?
a. Tess’s mother is very busy with her job and doesn’t see Tess very much.
b. Tess and Gabby are both jealous of each other’s lives.
c. Gabby’s baby sister won’t stop crying.
d. Gabby and her family don’t have enough room in their apartment.

5. What is the solution to the problem in the story?

a. Gabby tells Tess how lucky she is to be the daughter of the president.
b. Tess learns how to cook pasta and help’s Gabby’s family with dinner.
c. Tess and Gabby appreciate the difficulties in each other’s lives.
d. Tess and Gabby decide to stay switched.

ENGAGE

Activity 2. Read the story entitled “Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima and
identify its literary elements (character, setting and plot).

Questions:
1. Who are the characters in the story and their characterization?
2. What is the setting of the story?
3. Give the plot of the story by using graphic organizer.
4. What is the theme in “ Swaddling Clothes” by Yukio Mishima?

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
 ADVANCE
Activity 3. Conceptualize a character/ setting / plot in a one-act play about the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which placed the entire Philippines under a
state of calamity.

Score: 10 Score: 5 Score: 3

Features intriguing Original, Flat, vague or

relatable sympathetic cliché Sketch
Characters characters. The characters need “types” – one
protagonist more dimensional only.
confronts a conflict development.
and as a result is
changed in some
small or large way.

Setting, though Mostly practical Setting is not

Setting minimalist, and effective, but described, or too
creatively may need difficult to stage.
enhances the simplification and
drama. clarification.

Plot Just complicated Intriguing and fully Too simple, or too

enough, and paced realized. complicated, or just
well to reach a doesn’t make sense.
dramatic climax.

REFINE

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
Activity 4. Write it out. Based from your output in Activity 3 Advance complete and
provide examples of literary elements.

Literary Elements Definition Example

1.Character

2.Setting

3.Plot

NURTURE
Activity 5. Write a reflection paper on how you feel about the importance and benefits
of knowing the literary elements. The rubric for the paper should be as follows:
 50% Content
 20% Language
 20% Organization
 10% Mechanics

Reflection

Reflect on what you have learned after taking up this lesson by completing the
K-W-L chart below.

What I KNOW What I WANT to know What I have LEARNED

I thought that … I want to … I learned that …

References

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zfhk7ty/revision/3

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https://blog.prepscholar.com/literary-elements-list-examples
https://www.slideshare.net/guest6bbfe8d/elements-of-plot
file:///C:/Users/Downloads/Elements%20of%20a%20Story.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-act_play
file:///C:/Users/688_1732_442035_bb15db61-a8b7-4107-9c9b-
2e1988c398fd_82357_4_1.pdf
https://fantastrik.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/analysis-of-yukio-mishimas

Answer Key
Activity 1:
1. B
2. C
3. B
4. B
5. C

Activity 2:
1. Characters and Characterization
The main character of this story is Toshiko. Besides Toshiko, there are several minor
characters that support this story such as Toshiko’s husband, Toshiko’s baby’s new
nurse, the doctor, Toshiko’s husband’s friends, and unknown man who assaulted
Toshiko at the end of the story.
a. Toshiko
Toshiko is a protagonist character. She was a married woman, a wife of an attractive
actor. She was raised in solid comfort life. Toshiko is pictured as a thoughtful,
sensitive, and kind woman. She felt bad for the newborn baby, being left by the
mother and treated as if he was a trash by the doctor. She was dumfounded to hear
her husband and his friend laughing at the incident as if it was an amusing story. She
kept thinking about the newborn baby until the end of the story.
b. Toshiko’s Husband
Toshiko’s husband is not named in the story. He is one of the minor characters.
Toshiko’s husband was an actor in Japan. He is pictured as an uncaring,
unsympathetic, and insensitive character in the story. He treated the incident like it
was an amusing story to tell and laugh at.
c. Toshiko’s Husband’s Friends

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
Toshiko’s husband’s friends are also minor characters in the story. The only
appeared in the beginning of the story, laughing to Toshiko’s husband’s story about
the horrifying incident two days ago. They are pictured as an insensitive people.
They, along with Toshiko’s husband, laugh at the horrifying incident which was for
Toshiko was not funny at all.
d. The New Nurse
The new nurse is pictured as irresponsible woman because she left her son lying on
the floor in its newspaper wrappings. She is also a minor character in the story.
e. The Doctor
The doctor is a minor character. He was seen as a cruel and heartless character in
the story. Doctor, who was supposed to be caring and kind, left an innocent newborn
baby wrapped in the newspapers lying on the floor just because the baby was an
illegitimate baby.
f. The Unknown Man
The unknown man is the picture of the future newborn baby in Toshiko’s head. He
reminds her about the baby because she found him slept on the bench covered by
layers of newspapers. He is also the symbol of unrespectable man, a lonely rat, and
crime that illegitimate children will be in the future in the eyes of many people’s eyes.

Character Revelation
a. Toshiko
Toshiko is pictured directly as an oversensitive woman by the author. It is showed in
the second paragraph.
Toshiko had been oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature. As a result of
constant worrying she never put on weight, and now an adult woman, she looked
more like a transparent picture than a creature of flesh and blood. Her delicacy of
spirit was evident to her most casual acquaintance.
She is also kind. It is showed by her action.
Overcoming her disgust at the entire scene, she had fetched a brand-new piece of
flannel from her cupboard and, having swaddled the baby in it, had lain him carefully
in an armchair.
Her thoughts about the illegitimate baby and her own baby show how thoughtful she
was.
Even if that baby should grow up in ignorance of the secret of his birth, he can never
become a respectable citizen, reflected Toshiko, pursuing the same train of
thoughts. Those soiled newspaper swaddling clothes will be the symbol of his entire
life. But why

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
should I keep worrying about him so much? Is it because I feel uneasy about the
future of my own child? Say twenty years from now, when our boy will have grown
up into a fine, carefully educated young man, one day by a quirk of fate he meets
that other boy, who then will also have turned twenty. And say that the other boy,
who has been sinned against, savagely stabs him with a knife….
a. Toshiko’s Husband
Toshiko’s husband is insensitive man. It is showed by how he told the birth story to
his friend as if it was a joke or humorous story.
‘It’s a fantastic story,’ he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to
outweigh the attractions of the dance band. ‘here this new nurse for our baby arrives
from the employment agency, and the very first thing I notice about her is her
stomach. It’s enormous- as if she had a pillow stuck under her kimono! No wonder, I
thought, for I soon saw that she could eat more than the rest of us put together. She
polished off the contents of our rice bin like that…’ He snapped his fingers. ‘“Gastric
dilation”- that’s how she explained her girth and her appetite. Well, the day before
yesterday we heard groans and moans coming from the nursery. We rushed in and
found her squatting on the floor, holding her stomach in her two hands, and moaning
like a cow. Next to her our baby lay in his cot, scared out of his wits and crying at the
top of his lungs. A pretty scene, I can tell you!’
Besides insensitive, the husband was also uncaring and unsympathetic. Instead of
helping the nurse first, he rescued their rug from the floor and their floor by spreading
a blanket for her to lie on.
‘Indeed it was! And it gave me the shock of my life. You see, I’d completely
swallowed that story about ‘gastric dilation.’ Well, I didn’t waste any time. I rescued
our good rug from the floor and spread a blanket for her to lie on. The whole time the
girl was yelling like a stuck pig. By the time the doctor from the maternity clinic
arrived, the baby had already been born. But our sitting room was a pretty
shambles!’
b. Toshiko’s Husband’s Friends
Like Toshiko’s husband, his friends were also insensitive. Instead of feeling bad and
sympathetic, they laugh at the story.
‘Oh, that I’m sure of!!’ said another of their friends, and the whole company burst into
laughter.
c. The New Nurse
The new nurse had no self-respect and did not respect others. She had sex and got
pregnant before married. Not only that, but she also lied about her pregnancy. What
makes everything worse was she dared to give birth beside Toshiko’s son’s crib
while the baby crying. The event was told by Toshiko’s husband at the night club
when he was telling his friends about the incident.
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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
‘It’s a fantastic story,’ he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to
outweigh the attractions of the dance band. ‘here this new nurse for our baby arrives
from the employment agency, and the very first thing I notice about her is her
stomach. It’s enormous- as if she had a pillow stuck under her kimono! No wonder, I
thought, for I soon saw that she could eat more than the rest of us put together. She
polished off the contents of our rice bin like that…’ He snapped his fingers. ‘“Gastric
dilation”- that’s how she explained her girth and her appetite. Well, the day before
yesterday we heard groans and moans coming from the nursery. We rushed in and
found her squatting on the floor, holding her stomach in her two hands, and moaning
like a cow. Next to her our baby lay in his cot, scared out of his wits and crying at the
top of his lungs. A pretty scene, I can tell you!’
The new nurse is also pictured as an irresponsible woman. She left her newborn
baby at Toshiko’s home, on the floor being wrapped by newspapers to be exact. It
was revealed by Toshiko’s thought.
I am the only person to have witnessed its shame, the thought occurred to her. The
mother never saw her child lying there in its newspaper wrappings, and the baby
itself of course didn’t know.
d. The Doctor
The Doctor is also one of uncaring characters. Instead of wrapping the baby with
proper swaddling clothes, the baby was being wrapped in newspapers. Not only that,
but he also left the poor baby on the floor, for god’s sake!
Toshiko was sure that the doctor had done the whole thing out of spite. As if to
emphasize his scorn for this mother who had given birth to a bastard under such
sordid conditions, he had told his assistant to wrap the baby in some loose
newspapers, rather than proper swaddling. This callous treatment of the newborn
child had offended Toshiko. Overcoming her disgust at the entire scene, she had
fetched a brand-new piece of flannel from her cupboard and, having swaddled the
baby in it, had lain him carefully in an armchair.
e. The Unknown Man
The unknown man is pictured as a homeless young man. His appearance was
described in the story.
It was a man in a brown jersey who lay there, curled up on layers of newspapers,
other newspapers covering him. No doubt this had become his normal night
residence now that spring had arrived. Toshiko gazed down at the man’s dirty,
unkempt hair, which in places had become hopelessly matted. As she observed the
sleeping figure wrapped in its newspapers, she was inevitably reminded of the baby
who had lain on the floor in its wretched swaddling clothes. The shoulder of the
man’s jersey rose and fell in the darkness in time with his heavy breathing.
It seemed to Toshiko that all her fears and premonitions had suddenly taken
concrete form. In the darkness the man’s pale forehead stood out, and it was a
young forehead, though carved with the wrinkles of long poverty and hardship. His

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
 khaki trousers had been slightly pulled up; on his sockless feet he wore a pair of
battered gym shoes. She could not see his face and suddenly had an overmastering
desire to get one glimpse of it.
The man was also seems like a cautious and fast person. When he realized
Toshiko’s presence, he acted quickly and assaulted Toshiko.
But Toshiko had approached too close. In the silent night the newspaper bedding
rustled, and abruptly the man opened his eyes. Seeing the young woman standing
directly beside him, he raised himself with a jerk, and his eyes lit up. A second later a
powerful hand reached out and seized Toshiko by her slender wrist.
She did not feel in the least afraid and made no effort to free herself. In a flash the
thought had struck her, Ah, so the twenty years have already gone by! The forest of
the Imperial Palace was pitch dark and utterly silent.

2. The setting of the story: Warm night, April, Spring, and Japan

3. Plot of the story “Swaddling Clothes” using graphic organizer:

CLIMAX

• . She took a walk in the park and spotted

an object covered in newspaper, as she
got closer to the object she noticed that
it’s a human

• She got closer to the human wondering

who he is.
RISING ACTION FALLING ACTION

• Toshiko’s husband continues talking about “the • As she got closer to the young
Incident”. man she is reminded of the
child that was born and covered
• They left the night club and Toshiko’s husband puts in newspaper.
Toshiko in a cab and tells the driver where to drop
her off, he then goes somewhere himself. • When she approached the man,
the man opened his eyes and
• Toshiko keeps thinking about “the incident”. pulled her towards himself.
• She wondered about the future and this horrible
secret she had to keep. EXPOSITION
RESOLUTION • Toshiko’s husband talked about “the
incident” as if it was a joke and it disgusted
• It didn’t state how the story ended, it
Toshiko.
ended with a cliffhanger.
• It gets her thinking about what will happen
to the nurse’s child.
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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
  Plot
The story starts from the present time. However, there is a flashback appearing in
the third paragraph. The flashback is one of the important parts of the story. It tells
the reader the event that is portrayed as the root of the problem or conflict in this
story. The story begins with the scene of Toshiko being disappointed because she
had to go home alone. Then, she recalled the earlier evening in the night club. She
remembered how her husband told his friends about the incident that happened at
their house two days ago.  She was dumbfounded to hear her husband telling the
horrifying incident as if it was an amusing story to tell about to his friends. She finally
left the night club alone. On the way home, she kept thinking about the new born
baby that led to the thought of the future of her own baby. When the taxi approached
Hanzomon and drove past the compound of the British Embassy, Toshiko stopped
the taxi and decided to go and view the blossoms of the cherry trees in the dark
night. At the paper, she saw some passersby crush the newspaper beneath their
feet. The sight of the newspaper made her mind going back again to the horrifying
incident happened in her house. It made her think about the illegitimate child’s future
again. Lost in her own thoughts, she walked on through the park until she saw a man
slept on a stone bench, covered and curled up on layers of newspapers. The man
covered by newspapers was what Toshiko pictured the illegitimate child will be in the
future. When she approached the man too close, she got assaulted by the man. The
climax appears to be the last paragraph of the story. The last two sentences mark
the irony and conclude what have happened to Toshiko. “Ah, so the twenty years
have already gone by! The forest of the Imperial Palace was pitch dark and utterly
silent.” indicated that what she had thought before about the future of the illegitimate
child become real. She had thought that twenty years from that time, the illegitimate
child will meet her own son and stab him with a knife. However, she insisted to take
her son’s place when the time comes. So, it can be inferred by the last two
sentences that she got assaulted by the young man that she pictured to be the
image of illegitimate child’s future. The emphasis on the forest of the Imperial Palace
that became pitch dark and utterly silent shows that she fell into unconsciousness,
whether she was fainting or dead, it is not told in the story. The resolution depends
on readers’ interpretation. For me, personally, I think Toshiko was not dead. She was
being attacked by the man until she passed out and then robbed because the man
was a poor man who needs money. There is a possibility that she will be found by
people and then brought to the hospital. Maybe after that incident, she will do
something about the illegitimate baby so that the baby will not turn up like the
unknown man she met before.

Activity 3
Answers vary

Activity 4
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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
Outputs vary

Activity 5
Explanations vary
ACTIVITY 1

The Switch Bars

Tess dumped her books on the floor. Another Friday, and she had no plans. "Irving,"
Tess complained to her stuffed monkey, "Living in the White House is SO boring!"
Then she got a text from her friend Gabby. Gabby lived in a basement apartment
downstairs, because Gabby's father worked for Tess's mom as the White House
chef. Mom was the President.
Gabby told her she just gotten a magical gift, and she wanted to show Tess.
Soon after, she came up to Tess's room. "I love it up here!" she said. "It's nice and
quiet."
Tess raised an eyebrow, then asked, "So what's your magical gift?" It looked like
Gabby was just holding granola bars.
"Grandpa sent me Switch Bars," Gabby explained. "You eat them with someone you
want to switch places with. When both people are ready to switch back, they each
take another bite and return to their own lives."
"I know who I would want to switch places with," said Tess immediately. "YOU!"
"Me?" laughed Gabby. "Well, I was hoping to switch places with YOU."
"Let's try it, then!" Tess said. They broke a granola bar in half and each took a bite.
Tess felt her arms tingling. She looked down. It had worked. She had turned into
Gabby! She was in Gabby's apartment. Gabby's three brothers were zooming
around with their toy trucks and yelling. Gabby's parents were watching them and
laughing. Gabby's baby sister was cooing and giggling. This apartment was where all
the fun was!
Gabby's father, Mr. Fletcher, flew out the door, carrying his chef's hat. "I'm doing a
big state dinner tonight. See y'all in the morning."
Mrs. Fletcher was bouncing the baby in her arms. Mrs. Fletcher turned to Tess and
asked, "Gabby, can you get dinner started?"
Tess forgot that Gabby had to help around the apartment. Tess followed Mrs.
Fletcher's directions. She chopped vegetables. She boiled water to make pasta. She
added spices to the sauce.

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After dinner, Tess hoped she could take a break and read. But there was no quiet
place in this home. Gabby's brothers were so loud, and now the baby was crying.
Tess couldn't concentrate on her book, and the apartment was too small to escape
them.
"Gabby! Come and help me with the dishes!" Mrs. Fletcher called.
More chores! Tess sighed and got up. She hadn't realized how much work—and
noise! — was in Gabby's life.
Meanwhile, Gabby was delighted to find herself in Tess's skin. She had this big,
beautiful bedroom all to herself!
Tess's mom came in and reminded Gabby that there was a big state dinner tonight
because the prime minister of Belgium was visiting. Gabby was thrilled. Tess always
got to meet such exciting people.
Later that afternoon, Gabby decided she wanted to get a smoothie from the juice
shop nearby. But then Elijah, the Secret Service officer in the family quarters,
reminded her that he would have to come with her if she was leaving the White
House. Gabby forgot that Tess needed to have a chaperone just to go down the
street.
As Gabby and Elijah walked downstairs, they passed a group of students going on a
tour of the White House. When the students saw the daughter of the president, they
all pointed and murmured. Gabby felt her face turning red. She didn't want all this
attention!
Suddenly she saw a girl who looked exactly like Gabby's old self running toward her.
It was Tess.
"Gabby, being you has been fun," Tess said. "But I think I'm ready to switch back."
"Me too!" said Gabby, and they shared the granola bar that would turn them back
into their normal selves

ACTIVITY 2
Swaddling Clothes
by Yukio Mishima, translated by Ivan Morris

HE WAS ALWAYS busy, Toshiko’s husband. Even tonight he had to dash off to an
appointment, leaving her to go home alone by taxi. But what else could a woman expect
when she married an actor—an attractive one? No doubt she had been foolish to hope that he
would spend the evening with her. And yet he must have known how she dreaded going back
to their house, unhomely with its Western-style furniture and with the bloodstains still
showing on the floor.
       Toshiko had been oversensitive since girlhood: that was her nature. As the result of
constant worrying she never put on weight, and now, an adult woman, she looked more like a
transparent picture than a creature of flesh and blood. Her delicacy of spirit was evident to
her most casual acquaintance.
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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
       Earlier that evening, when she had joined her husband at a night club, she had been
shocked to find him entertaining friends with an account of “the incident.” Sitting there in his
American-style suit, puffing at a cigarette, he had seemed to her almost a stranger.
       “It’s a fantastic story,” he was saying, gesturing flamboyantly as if in an attempt to
outweigh the attractions of the dance band. “Here this new nurse for our baby arrives from
the employment agency, and the very first thing I notice about her is her stomach. It’s
enormous—as if she had a pillow stuck under her kimono! No wonder, I thought, for I soon
saw that she could eat more than the rest of us put together. She polished off the contents of
our rice bin like that....” He snapped his fingers. “ ‘Gastric dilation’—that’s how she
explained her girth and her appetite. Well, the day before yesterday we heard groans and
moans coming from the nursery. We rushed in and found her squatting on the floor, holding
her stomach in her two hands, and moaning like a cow. Next to her our baby lay in his cot,
scared out of his wits and crying at the top of his lungs. A pretty scene, I can tell you!”
       “So the cat was out of the bag?” suggested one of their friends, a film actor like
Toshiko’s husband.
       “Indeed it was! And it gave me the shock of my life. You see, I’d completely swallowed
that story about ‘gastric dilation.’ Well, I didn’t waste any time. I rescued our good rug from
the floor and spread a blanket for her to lie on. The whole time the girl was yelling like a
stuck pig. By the time the doctor from the maternity clinic arrived, the baby had already been
born. But our sitting room was a pretty shambles!”
       “Oh, that I’m sure of!” said another of their friends, and the whole company burst into
laughter.
       Toshiko was dumbfounded to hear her husband discussing the horrifying happening as
though it were no more than an amusing incident which they chanced to have witnessed. She
shut her eyes for a moment and all at once she saw the newborn baby lying before her: on the
parquet floor the infant lay, and his frail body was wrapped in bloodstained newspapers.
       Toshiko was sure that the doctor had done the whole thing out of spite. As if to
emphasize his scorn for this mother who had given birth to a bastard under such sordid
conditions, he had told his assistant to wrap the baby in some loose newspapers, rather than
proper swaddling. This callous treatment of the newborn child had offended Toshiko.
Overcoming her disgust at the entire scene, she had fetched a brand-new piece of flannel
from her cupboard and, having swaddled the baby in it, had laid him carefully in an armchair.

             They left the night club and Toshiko stepped into the taxi that her husband had called
for her. “Take this lady to Ushigome,” he told the driver and shut the door from the outside.
Toshiko gazed through the window at her husband’s smiling face and noticed his strong,
white teeth. Then she leaned back in the seat, oppressed by the knowledge that their life
together was in some way too easy, too painless. It would have been difficult for her to put
her thoughts into words. Through the rear window of the taxi she took a last look at her
husband. He was striding along the street toward his Nash car, and soon the back of his rather
garish tweed coat had blended with the figures of the passers-by.
       She walked to the head of the bench and looked down. The man’s head was half buried
in his arms, but Toshiko could see that he was surprisingly young. She noticed the thick
eyebrows and the fine bridge of his nose. His slightly open mouth was alive with youth.
       But Toshiko had approached too close. In the silent night the newspaper bedding rustled,
and abruptly the man opened his eyes. Seeing the young woman standing directly beside him,
he raised himself with a jerk, and his eyes lit up. A second later a powerful hand reached out
and seized Toshiko by her slender wrist.
       She did not feel in the least afraid and made no effort to free herself. In a flash the

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PRACTICE HYGIENE PROTOCOLS AT ALL TIMES
thought had struck her, Ah, so the twenty years have already gone by! The forest of the
Imperial Palace was pitch dark and utterly silent.

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