Billy announced to Mitsuko that he wanted to walk home alone. She tried to convince him that there would be plenty of time later in the year for him to show what a big boy he was. “Pleeease!” he begged with his cutest smile. “Really, Mit-chan,” argued Yoshiko. “The traffic patrol system is working fine. The other parents are satisfied. Why can’t you be?” “Fifth- and sixth graders? You call that a system? We may have a fence around us, but there are 10,000 people inside this place.” “It’s true,” Goro said. “You can’t tell one tar-paper shack from another, and kids are getting lost all the time.” “Please, Mommy,” Billy started in again. She finally gave in, but just before school ended, she left the newspaper office and secretly followed him until she saw him enter their barrack door. When she arrived home an hour later, he leaped into her arms and boasted, “I came home all by myself!” “Good boy,” she said. Still, she kept up the routine for the rest of the week.
