The Japanese Lantern by Isobel Chace

For the first time since she had arrived in Japan she had lost that feeling of confusion. Mitchi Boko might have scraped up an acquaintanceship with Jason, but Edward was obviously nothing more than an overgrown schoolboy, and great f un to be with!
    “It sounds exciting,” she said.
    “It might be,” he agreed, “if things go as well as I plan.”
    She looked up at him enquiringly.
    “Do y ou really want to know?” he asked, and then when she nodded: “I thought you were quite the prettiest girl I had ever seen in Manila—you may have noticed that I was practically flattene d ? And now that I’ve got you to myself for a little while, I don’t plan to waste a moment!”
    Jonquil felt uncomfortable. It was flattering, of course, that he should have gone to so much trouble for her entertainment, but she wasn’t really sure that she wanted him to think of her that way.
    “I—I—” she began.
    He smiled reassuringly.
    “I don’t expect much,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to put in an early claim. I shan’t mention it again, but just remember that I’m around, will you?”
    “Of course I shall!” she exclaimed. “Oh, Edward, I thought you were going to tell me about the temple, n ot — ”
    H e laughed.
    “You’re very sweet. I really believe that you would rather hear about the temple at that ! ”
    She blushed and made a deprecating movement with her hand, anxious not to hurt him ,
    “The temple,” he began. “They’re celebrating — perhaps commemorating would be a better word —the death of Nichirin Shonin, the founder of the Nichirin sect of Buddhism.”
    “And that means — ?”
    “A nice, pretty little festival for you and me to go and watch!”
    They laughed happily together, and Edward took her hand in his and held it loosely as he drove along. Jonquil would have liked to release herself at first, for she couldn’t believe that anyone could drive in Tokyo w ith only one, hand, but after a few minutes she got to like the sensation and found that she didn’t mind in the least when he took a slightly firmer grip.
    I t had been dark some time, though it had not been so noticeable in “Downtown Tokyo”, as everyone seemed to refer to the area around the Ginza. But, further out, the streets seemed very dark and mysterious. An occasional street light would show up some narrow turning, down which who knew what lay? This was Tokyo proper that had hardly noticed the American occupation. The Tokyo that was still purely Japanese.
    Then before them was the temple, its outlines blurred against the black sky, the forecourt one mass of people carrying lanterns.
    “Oh, it’s beautiful ! ” Jonquil exclaimed.
    “We’ll go and take a look,” Edward promised.
    He managed to park the car and hurried her after him towards the thronging pilgrims. Little stalls along the way blazed with a myriad of tiny lights, most of them selling tourist objects or food, sweets and decorations for the lanterns.
    Jonquil’s eyes took in the scene with delight. Never had she seen so many human candlesticks. The lights flickered and blurred into each other until it seemed like a continuous river of light, fed by tributaries of yet more pilgrims as they arrived.
    One new group of women particularly caught her attention, for they were all in national costume, stepping carefully in their high wooden sandals. At first she was too busy looking at their beautiful clothes to notice their faces, but someone in the crowd lowered a lantern and the glow fell full on the face of one of the girls.
    “Edward, look! There’s Mitchi Boko!”
    She turned round quickly to make sure that he had heard her, but there was no one behind her. Somehow she must have been parted from him in the crowd. At first she thought that he too must have seen the Japanese girl and she pressed forward into the mass of people, trying to reach the spot where she had seen her. The pilgrims parted obligingly to let her through, but then they knitted