The hairnet

The hairnet sits on the dressing table where she left it on Friday evening. It is just an ordinary hairnet, a brown elastic mesh that food hygiene regulations require her to wear. She sits in front of the mirror putting her long hair up in a bun. Since it is a style she has not tried before it takes several attempts before it stays more or less in place. Once it is done she shakes her head experimentally a few times and smiles when it does not unravel.

She moves to her bed and checks that her backpack has everything she needs for the day. Satisfied that she has forgotten nothing she puts the hairnet on top of the canvas roll that contains the knife set Lilly had given her as a graduation present when she returned from Scotland. She replays the route to college in her mind to pass some of the time that remains before she has to leave: her apartment is five minutes walk from the nearest station and the main building is a three minute walk from Yoyogi Station. ’Eight minutes walking, that’s not even five hundred seconds,’ she thinks. ’And I can read my book on the train, I’ll be out of sight.’

Seeing that is almost time to leave she stands and checks her clothes one last time. She is wearing light khaki pants and a white t-shirt, tighter than she would normally choose but the instructor had emphasised the hazards of loose clothing in the kitchen. Putting on her favourite denim jacket she realises that her cap will not fit over the bun so leaves it hanging on the back of the door.

She steps into the hallway and calls, “I’m l-leaving a bit earlier than normal this morning Lilly. I should be back a-at the normal time.”

“Good luck with your first practical class, I hope to hear all about it when we meet this evening,” Lilly replies from the kitchen.

As she opens the front door she feels a momentary urge to retreat to her room and lock herself away, but it is only an echo of the old Hanako. The new Hanako is the woman who singlehandedly tracked down the Yamaku book thief, who travelled the country with just a friend and a camera, who teased Miki about her awful diet so relentlessly that she actually blushed! She steps out of her apartment and walks purposefully to the station.

After an uneventful four minutes and thirty-three seconds she arrives at her platform. The electronic sign shows that a train is due almost immediately and she is thankful that she walked a little quicker this morning; she finds standing in crowded places the most uncomfortable part of her commute. Her tactic of waiting near the end of the platform works again and she finds an empty seat at the rear of the train. Sitting down with a relieved sigh she opens her book and spends the next thirty minutes engrossed in Gurgeh’s struggle to master the game of Azad. She has almost come to the conclusion that she prefers Banks’ Culture to the empire depicted in Dune when her destination is announced and she readies herself to leave the train.

The streets outside Yoyogi station are packed with commuters hurrying to their workplaces, too preoccupied to pay attention to the people around them. Catching an earlier train has left Hanako with plenty of time before her class so she stops to watch a pair of buskers, one beat-boxing the other playing a bass guitar. She does not particularly enjoy the music but shows her appreciation of their virtuosity by tossing a hundred yen coin into the guitar case. The very handsome bass player responds by winking and blowing her a kiss. She turns and walks towards college with a smile joining the blush on her face. After a few hundred metres she feels a familiar prickling sensation on the back of her neck and a nervous scan of the crowd reveals a scruffy old man staring at her. Her rising panic is replaced by indignation when she realises that he is ogling her breasts. ’Dirty pig!’ she thinks, then decides to add a bounce to her step, smirking when she sees the eyes almost pop out of his head as the bounce propogates.

Giving him no further thought she walks the remaining distance to Hattori Nutrition College and stands looking up at it for a few moments, thankful for the scholarship that allows her to attend such a prestigious school. She is determined to make the most of the opportunity she has been given.

Hanako makes her way up to training kitchen two, the first to arrive, opens her backpack and sets the hairnet on her head. She takes her jacket off and folds it neatly, putting it into her pack in place of the knife roll which she tucks under her arm. She looks through the glass door at the gleaming stainless steel worktops with integral hobs, the demonstration station at the front where the instructor will perform a step-by-step walk-through of the recipe they will be practising, the large video screens that will relay the demonstration to the back of the room. Not that she will need to watch a screen, she has decided to take a station as close to the front as possible. Just looking at the facilities excites her, makes her wish that the class had already started so she can begin to learn how to use them. She is so engrossed in the sight that she does not notice the instructor arrive and is startled when he speaks.

“It’s good to see you here bright and early Ms Ikezawa, impatient to get into the action eh?” He lowers his voice and leans towards her slightly. “Next time you can use the staff changing rooms to get ready, no-one will resent you being granted that privilege.”

“N-no thank-you professor, I appreciate the kind offer but i-it’s fine.”

And it is true, it really is fine.