Tokyo Twins Chapter 29 Part 4 - Why not?

a serialized online story

by Tommy Schmitz



On Monday afternoon
Kenji made his way back to Hebiyama
for one more shot at finding his Gandhi flute.

He rummaged through the rubble of his camp to no avail again,
and considered inquiring about the flute one last time
to Taya-san and Kaneko-san,
the ever present Foreign Ministry Agents.

"Nope." he said to himself, "There's my oldest brother
arriving right now. Not good timing just yet for us to talk."


*******


On Monday night Katie and Susan O'Brien
were ostensibly doing homework,
in the bedroom of their temporary home-stay hosts
in the Setagaya Tokyo village of Gotokuji,
their bodies spread out over tatami mats,
books and papers scattered across the remaining floor space,
pens in their mouths chewing on some unspecified vigilance,
feet moving like windmills up and down and up and down,
in a restless working out of their restlessness.

Their coach, Godotnova-sensei, knocked on their door.

"Would you like tea, girls?"

"Yes, please. Thank you." the girls said.

The coach slid the door open with one hand
and carried in a tray of tea and rice crackers with the other.

"How can you study in the dark like this? Said their coach.

"We can't." Katie said.

"Right now, we like the candle light."

"Do you mind if I hang out with you for a while?" said the coach.

"Not at all," the girls said, "thank you for the tea."

"I feel obligated to be here
should your uncle Kenji make another appearance."

"Yeah." said Susan.

"I'm proud of the wonderful training you did this afternoon." said the coach.

"Thanks," said the girls.

But you've been unusually quiet today.

"Not much to say in the middle of a storm." said Susan.

"I noticed you've been writing in your journal since we woke up this morning." Katie said.

"Yeah." said Susan.

"Must be something to say?" said the coach.

"Yeah," said Susan, scooting into a sitting position,
"I guess I do, but..." she paused and searched for words to continue...
"You know how sometimes you dream in your second language?"

"Like in English?" said Katie.

"Like in Japanese for me?" said the coach.

"I had one of those dreams last night." Susan said.

"What happened?" said Katie.

"Our grandfather from Iowa was playing the piano
in our bedroom at home." Susan said.

"Cool." said Katie.

"He was playing his lullaby."

"You mean the one in your competition routine?" said the coach.

"Yeah." said Susan. "But the weirdest thing was happening...
he was singing to it."

"Huh. He always said there were no lyrics for it." said Katie.

"Exactly." Susan said. "but he was singing to it.

"Weird." said Katie.

"In English."

"Really weird."

"And this morning I could remember most of the words. Susan said.

"That's impossible." said Katie.

"Been writing them down, off and on, all day."

"From your dream?" Katie said.

"Yeah... or from grandfather, i don't know.
The words were so clear.
I could not have written these words, Katie."

"I wanna see." Katie said.

"Here. Wait! What's that?" said Susan.

"That's Uncle Kenji's cell phone ringing." Katie said.

"You girls have a cell phone?" said the coach.

"It's in my bag. Hold on." said Susan.
"Uh oh. It's Uncle Takunosuke!"

"He must be trying to reach Uncle Kenji." Katie said.

"Here, you answer it!" said Susan.

"No way." Katie said.

"Maybe it's about Mom and Dad!" said Susan.

"No way." Katie said.

"Katie come on!"

The phone stopped ringing.

"How did you get this cell phone?" said the coach.

"Uncle Kenji is letting us use it."

"In case of emergency."

But of course, he is not your real uncle, correct?

Uh. Oh. Yeah. Long story. He is our uncle, Sensei.

Did he leave a voice mail? Said Katie.

I am confused, said the coach.

Let's see. Yeah, he did. Said Susan to Katie

"Let's listen to it. Might be important." Katie said.

"That's not a good idea." the coach said.

"No it's not. And what better reason to check it." said Katie.

"Hold on. I'm checking it." said Susan. "Oh, he sounds very
angry with Uncle Kenji."

"Here. Lemme listen."

"Wait. He wants Uncle Kenji to leave Japan."

"Susan! Let me hear it!"

Katie took the cell phone and pressed repeat and listened.

"Whoa. He is angry. What's that all about?"

"Quiet." said the coach placing her hands on the girls' shoulders,
"You hear that? Perhaps you can ask Uncle Kenji yourself.
I believe he's outside the window." the coach said.

"Susan," said Katie, "blow the candles out. I'll get the window."

And with her back against the wall next to the window,
Katie extended one arm to slide it open.

And Kenji came sliding over the sill
like some unknown form of water
and moved to the center of the room and sat.

"Good evening." he said in the dark. "I'm glad you're all here."

"Uncle Kenji, your eldest brother just tried to call you on your cell phone."

"Oh? What did he have to say?"

"We didn't answer it." said Susan, "But..."

"...but we checked the voice mail he left." Katie finished,
with an embarrassment Kenji could feel in her voice.

"You're most helpful. Thank you." he said.

"Here. You listen." said Susan.

"It's okay. I'll just see him tomorrow."

"Really? He sounds so angry with you."

"Yes. He is."

"But why, Uncle Kenji?"

Perhaps tomorrow evening,
at Fuji Television's Headquarters
you'll find out.

"We'll see him there too?"

Yes. And your Oba-chan.

Oba-chan too?!

Oh, I'm not so scared now.

And you're invited, too, Sensei" Kenji smiled.

"Um, no thanks. I'll stay here and guard the fort."

"Good idea." Kenji said.

"Which means I'll miss out on
the big mystery of your brother's anger," the coach said,
"can't you tell us all now?"

"Hmm... it's something that happened a long time ago." said Kenji.

"What did you do to make him so mad." said Susan.

"And for so many years." said Katie.

"He is angry about something...
something that he did." Kenji said.

"I don't get it," said Katie.

"How can he be angry at you for something he did?" said Susan.

"Well... think back a moment into your own experience ...
perhaps there you will find some clue..." said Kenji.

"I get angry," said Susan, "especially at myself... but not like that."

"Oh I get it," Katie said, "Yeah. Okay." She
paused and inhaled sharply. "Okay..." she was
ready to go on... "Three years ago,
I forgot to catch Susan
while she was doing a tumbling run.
She was expecting me to catch her.
I don't know what happened.
I didn't forget to catch her.
I just blanked out.
She fell hard, and you could here a loud crack.
Her leg was broken below the knee
and her bone was sticking far out of her skin."

Susan pulled her legs up to her chest
and buried her head in her knees.

"And I began screaming at her," Katie continued,
"and I just kept screaming at her...
the coach had to escort me out of the gym
while Susan lay there broken."
Katie was shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's okay," Susan said.

There was quiet now in the room.

"Guilt." said Katie. "It felt so wretched
and evil that getting angry... eased my own pain."

Kenji was nodding his head now just a bit.
"Yes. You understand." he said.

"But what did Uncle Takunosuke do, Uncle Kenji, said Susan,
"It happened the night of the bombing
when you were children, didn't it?"

"Yeah," said Katie, "the night you were lost
and then found buried under the rubble of your house the next day."

Kenji continued nodding.
"Yet, it was nothing that warranted
62 years of beating up oneself.
So again, perhaps tomorrow night,
you will learn what happened."

"Now," he continued, "I'll retrieve you
"around 5:00 tomorrow evening,right here,
is that okay with everybody?"

"Yes." said the girls.

"Question." said the coach.
"How will they know these friends of yours."

"Excellent," Sensei. "Thank you for asking.
They will know them and also be known to them
by a password."

"And may we ask what the password is? Said Katie.

"I don't know." said Kenji.

"How simple." the girls smiled.

"What?" said the coach.

"That's a good one." said Susan.

"Thank you" Said Kenji. I have a rather simple mind.

"I think I missed something." the coach said.

"The girls will explain it to you.
And I must leave.
Thank you for this meeting."

"Hey, you find your flute?" Susan said.

Kenji just shook his head a bit
and slipped out the window,
and the girls finished their tea and crackers
and went on with their conversation with their coach
reading now and discussing
the lyrics to the lullaby
that Susan dreamed last night.

(End of chapter 29 part 4 - "Why not?")