Introduction
Taiga’s grandfather was a Dutch shipowner who made most of his fortune in the Dutch enclave of Dejima during Rengaku. He wedded his only child, a daughter, to a rich Japanese merchant way older than her but who could help him establish his commercial domination.
Taiga spent most of her childhood in Japan until her father’s death. After that, she sailed with her mother to Holland to return to her grandfather. Taiga’s mother died regrettably of typhus during the journey - now her only family was her grandfather, but to her, he was a perfect stranger...
She settled to his house, and quickly found out how much of an irascible man he was: short-tempered and violent, he couldn’t stand being contradicted, which means he took it really badly when his granddaughter - who was a Hot-Headed too - retorted to him that no, she would not marry the rich heir of a printer and publisher who was well-known for his unconditional love for opium, alcohol and prostitutes.
Her grandfather saw red and threatened her: if she refused to obey, he would lock her in a convent where she would spend her entire life! Neither choice sounded good for Taiga, so she decided to run away and sailed to England: here, with a whole sea between her and her grandfather, she would be safe...
When her ship docked to Twinbrook, she decided to not go further and settle in this town. Her grandfather was very cheap and would only give her his own mother’s dresses to wear, because there was no way he would spend a penny on fancy outfits. So there she was: a foreign girl who only spoke Japanese and Dutch, dressed like an old lady with dusty old clothes that used to be fashionable half a century ago, with no possessions but a bag to sleep in - the only thing she had time to grab in her flight.
She started living la vie de Bohème. She would spend her days in Twinbrook Community Gardens harvesting vegetables and fruits that she would eat or sell in seasonal fairs.
Life was hard and lonely. Since she did not speak English, Taiga had almost no contacts with Twinbrook residents, who only knew her as “the young greengrocer”. She slept on the outside, under the stars: it was summer so nights were not cold, and she tried not to think about the imminence of autumn. She still had a few month to save enough money to be able to spend the winter...
She managed to save a bit of money, but when autumn came up she only had half of what she needed, and there were less much potatoes, lettuces and tomatoes to harvest and sell... One day, she had nothing to eat anymore and had to register to a pie eating contest in order to put something in her empty stomach. She didn’t win, but she didn’t care: at least she had a free meal.
Since she couldn’t garden anymore, she started to work in the park as a city worker for a few pounds a day.
One day, she was raking leaves in the park when she found a chipmunk near the bin! She befriended it, and soon she was carrying her chipmunk everywhere!
Winter came soon enough. She could not sleep on the outside anymore, so she found an empty building in the community garden where she could stay for the night and not freeze to death.
That’s where she spent her whole winter, when she was not working in the park or dumpster diving in order to find things to sell, with only her chipmunk to end her solitude.
Alas, this friendship couldn’t last forever, and one morning, when she woke up, the chipmunk had run away.
One day, she saw a real estate poster in the park indicating the sell of a plot of land for a derisory sum. The deal was too wonderful to be true, and Taiga ran to the city hall to have a clear assessment.
She was told that no one wanted to buy this land because of its marshy ground: one would need to drain the swamps in order to build something on it! Taiga had managed to save enough money. There were no way she would miss this opportunity: she bought the land. Finally she had a place to call home.
