text: The small digital alarm clock went off at 05:30 am. Aiko was already awake. She rose from her bed with a tear in her eye. She turned off the alarm and got out of bed. Her husband was still sleeping in bed, his alarm would only go off at 06:30 am. She put on a robe and proceeded directly to the kitchen. As she passed Chieko's closed bedroom, she briefly stopped, touched the frame of the door and said a short prayer. Arriving in the kitchen, she turned all of the lights on. The small, functional kitchen came alive. It was small, with one tiny sink and only space for two small pans. It was on the eastern wall of their cramped living room. Things were piling up in the small room but neither Aiko, nor her husband, Kasturou, paid much attention to it. They mostly ate outside and only came home to sleep. Aiko only used the kitchen to prepare Chieko's bento boxes. Kasturou used the kitchen at night, when Aiko was sleeping, only to empty and clean the boxes. He did so once a week, after having made sure that Aiko was asleep. Aiko opened the fridge. She noticed the pre-cooked tonkatsu that she had bought a few days back and decided to use that for Chieko's box. She took the tonkatsu out of the fridge and placed it on the kitchen countertop. She went back to the fridge and picked an assortment of vegetables that would make the tonkatsu pop in the bento box. Once everything was set, she put some rice to cook in the cooker. She took the tonkatsu and placed it in the oven with a two minutes timer, just enough to get it warm. While waiting, she washed three cherry tomatoes and a piece of lettuce, cut a piece of broccoli, and readied some radish. She dried each of them before the timer went off. She took the tonkatsu out of the oven and placed it next to the vegetables. By then, the rice was ready. Before she could assemble everything, she needed to get a bento box. She crouched and opened the bento box cupboard. She lost her balance and had to prop herself with her right arm. Stoic, she steadied herself, holding back tears and forcing herself to focus on the cupboard. It was filled with bento boxes that had been donated to them years back, when Chieko was born. She grabbed a Hello Kitty vintage box. It was made out of wood, and she only used it for special occasions. She took the box out and silently counted the months: 27 months. She placed the rice first, on the left side of the box. She pressed it in, making sure that it was compact and would not fall out of place when travelling. She placed the tonkatsu on top. Delicately, she then proceeded to arrange the vegetables in the space that was left in the box. She placed the lettuce at the bottom, to make a bed for the other vegetables. She added the radishes, the cherry tomatoes and the piece of broccoli. She grabbed some salad sauce out of the fridge and sprinkled light droplets on the vegetable side of the box. Once she was done, she grabbed a pre-made tonkatsu sauce from the fridge and lodged it between the rice and the vegetable. She hoped it would help maintain the food arrangement together. Once she was done, she looked at the box with some pride, she let out a sigh. She had spent only about twenty minutes, yet she felt a lot better, relieved of a weight. She let the box cool there on the kitchen countertop as she cleaned the kitchen. She then walked to the bathroom, disrobed and took a long burning shower. When she returned from her shower, Aiko made sure that the bento box was cool. She placed the Hello Kitty wooden lid on top of it and took the box in her hand, solemnly. She walked to the far side of the living room, by the window. She placed the box on a small cabinet beside two other boxes she had made the two days before, below a large framed picture of Chieko in first grade. She took a pen and added a tally mark to the paper by Chieko's picture. She touched three of Chieko's pictures that were positioned precariously on the edges of the small cabinet, each time saying a short prayer. Several tears rolled down her cheek, but she did not let herself sob. Before leaving and getting ready to go to work, she wiped the slate that was hung on the wall above the cabinet. She took a piece of chalk and wrote the number 822.