Tokyo Twins Chapter 26 - Space and time and what's still missing.

a serialized online story

by Tommy Schmitz



Kenji sat on the curb
on Sunday afternoon
about two miles from Shinjuku Station
on a narrow village back street
crowded with village houses
of both modern and traditional Japanese design.

He hadn't seen this street since he left Japan in 1956,
nor this tiny parcel of real estate
deeded to his family centuries ago
for their service
to an early Tokugawa Shogunate.

He felt his cell phone vibrate
with a call
he'd been expecting
sooner or later.

He flipped it open
and said, "do I remember this correctly?
that our own great grandfather
was samurai?"

"You should leave Japan now." answered the other voice.
It was Takunosuke Mori, his eldest brother,
the president of Fuji Television Network.

"And was he not put to death?

"why are you in Japan?

"A samurai forced shamefully to drink poison?"

"what can you possibly hope to accomplish."

"in his very own house, right here, on this property?"

"where are you?"

for his opposition to war...?

"You must leave Japan"

"Do you remember..."

"I only telephoned to tell you to leave."

"what happened that night..."

"I am not discussing it."

"while our family was walking to safety..."

"this is not the time."

"to avoid the coming bombs."

"I said this is not the time!"

"in 1944"

"I don't remember."

"then why does your voice sound like it happened yesterday."

"Only because of you, our sister - a prominent attorney! -
is under house arrest."

"Would you like to know why I am here?"

"No."

"I wonder. Would this new Japan...

"Please stop."

"with all she has forgotten..."

"Please leave."

"listen to our great grandfather now..."

"What new Japan?"

"The one built upon this rubble."

"Where are you?"

"Sitting on the curb outside your house."

"I'm calling the police."

"And I am calling the frogs."

click.

*******



Fariishta and Lilu with their friend Jack O'Brien,
sat near their vehicle by a stream
under cover of tall thick trees
just within the boarder of Kashmir.

Lilu was relating some history of East Timor.
Fariishta was filling in details about the woman known as 'A'.
She had never chatted with 'A' directly on the Internet
early that school year,
but did so extensively
with several of her close followers.

Lilu flipped open her laptop,
and warned Jack that what he was about to see
would be quite painful.
And then she ran the video
from a YouTube downloaded file.

Jack sat quietly at the end of the footage.

"Is she serious?" he said.

"I think we can talk her out of it, Jack." Fariishta said.

Jack looked at the ground. "Where are they," he said.


*******



Taya-san and Kaneko, the Foreign Ministry agents,
sat as usual in their car parked
in front of Obá-chan's house
late Sunday afternoon,
and to an audience of each other
and to the blank exhaustion they both were feeling,
they discussed and worried about the day.

"We're just doing our jobs."
Taya-san was shaking his head and saying with a sigh.

"But you don't really know that, do you...?"
came a voice from the back seat.

There was Kenji, as he was that morning,
lounging with his legs stretched across the seat
and head against the window.

The agents quickly turned their heads,
and this time pulled out their fire arms and aimed.

"...that you are really doing your job?"

Kenji ignored the pointed weapons centimeters from his face,
and continued talking slowly and with eyes that smiled.

"Do you really know what you are here for,
what it means to do your job?
You guys go to the Shinto shrine on New Years day...
You go the Buddhist temple when a loved one dies.
But sometimes you find yourself in temple or shrine
when there's actually no reason to be there... Right?

"Somewhere inside you, sometimes,
you feel that life is bigger than who you are.
And you visit these places,
not because it's your job,
but because you feel connected
to some bigger picture, some bigger life,
and because perhaps you'd like to feel more connected,
and feel more peace of mind?

"Given the miracle, the feeling you have
from time to time of this bigger picture,
how do you know you are "just doing your job"?
how do you know your job is not much bigger than this?"

"Stop talking and don't move." Taya-san said slowly.

"I am not here to hide,
I am not even here to visit,
and I don't expect you to understand
because I'm not even sure I do,
but I am here to do what little I can
to help save the lives
of the mother and father
of Katie and Susan O'Brien.
So please. Give me until Tuesday night,
then both of you, Kaneko-san and Taya-san,
can personally take me into custody.

The agents continued staring at Kenji.

"Oh. Almost forgot. You guys seen my flute?" said Kenji.

And the agents looked at each other
and stepped from their car to talk privately
and while doing so kept their eyes on Kenji,
or so the evidence of their senses told them.
After a moment of talking,
they opened the back door
to formalize their arrest,
but Kenji was already gone.

(End of Chapter 26 - Space and time and what's still missing.)
...