An Okinawan Affair

by Herb Blanchard

  “Yeah.”

  “Can you do less? Not 6 years, but maybe like two, or four more years?”

  “Sure. The bonus would be less.”

  “I know that you love it on Okinawa, but would you even like being some other place in the Seabees? You have said that you do not like the base in California and would do anything to avoid going there.”

  Brad had stretched out on the tatamis as they talked. He reached for Tomi’s hand and gently pulled her closer to him. The sun had set some time ago. The slider was still open and they lay quietly watching a fishing boat’s masthead lights slowly swaying with the ocean’s swell as it came into Tomari Port.

  Tomi rolled over pressing against Brad and laid her left arm across his chest. Soon her fingers were probing and undoing the buttons on his shirt and he felt her warm hand caressing his chest. They kissed softly for a long time. Brad gently ran his hand on her bottom and snuggled her tighter against him.

  Tomi pushed herself up. Kissed him hard and rubbed her breasts against his bare chest. “I have to shower. I am not like some people who get off work in the middle of the afternoon and can shower before supper. Will you make our bed, dozo?”

  “Hai, I am your humble slave, my Dear Tomako.”

  “And put our supper things away. And warm up the futon for me?”

  “You are so good to me.” she said. Fresh from her shower and smelling of scented soap, she slid under the covers next to Brad. “It is a nice night. A sukoshi warm. Is that why you used a small blanket to cover us?”

  “Yes. I want you to get cold enough to snuggle up to me all night so I can feel your soft velvety skin on me.”

  “That does feel nice, neh? What else did you talk to Mr. Winters about?”

  “How do you know we talked about something else?”

  “My Love, we have lived together, slept together, almost every night for almost two years. I know when you have something in your head. Is it as hard as reenlisting?”

  “Not even close. Arlene and Don want me to do them a favor out at White Beach.”

  “Oh, is that a problem? You go out there a lot at all hours of the day and night.”

  “It’s a two-day favor and I’ll have to do it on a weekend. The only way I can do it in two days is to work from sunup until sundown and maybe a little later one night.”

  “So you will stay out there maybe two nights, neh? What is the favor?”

  “Arlene’s club wants to build a gift shop on the base out there. The place they can have is very low and must be built up about as high as your waist.”

  “Built up?”

  “Yeah. Bring in dirt to fill a hole so they can build a building.”

  “Okay. You will do this alone?”

  “You got it. The good part is I get three days off whenever you can make a deal with Mama-san to work for you.”

  “You can’t have the days off unless Mama-san works for me? I wakaranai, umm, I do not----. What is the word, Brad?”

  “I think that you are trying to say that you don’t understand, neh? I won’t take the days off until you can also have the days off. I want to take you on a small trip. Maybe to a ryokan up north.”

  Tomi turned to him and placed her upper body across his. Nose to nose, she looked into his eyes. “You want to take me to a nice ryokan where we can soak in oyu and stay in bed for three days?”

  “Yes. You told me once, over a year ago that you wanted to do that and you knew just the place you wanted to go.”

  “Oh yes, but that was when Mama-san was still working. Oh yes, I do want to go.”

  “Good, talk to Mama-san for anytime after next weekend. I’ll go to White Beach next Friday night and stay until late Sunday night. When the job is finished, I’ll come home.

  I already talked to Mama-san. Tonight before I came to the coffee house. She said okay.” Brad informed Tomi.

  “Thank you.” She hugged him and kissed him passionately pressing herself against him and wrapping her legs against his hips. “You are bad. You have no clothes on.”

  “You’re one to talk. Brazen hussy you are.”

  “What is a hussy?”

  “A woman who is bold and goes after the man she wants.”

  “Like this?” She asked when she threw off the blanket, sat up and straddled Brad’s hips rubbing and thrusting against him.

  “I want to go to White Beach with you.”

  Brad opened one eye carefully. It was sunny and warm. The delicious smell of fresh brewed coffee wafted by his nose and he felt a movement of air like a warm spring day bearing the fresh coffee scent. He opened his other eye.

  She was holding the coffee cup five or six inches from his nose and blowing gently towards him. “Smells like morning doesn’t it. This is Arlene’s coffee. Is it a payoff to me to let you go to White Beach or paying you off to let me go with you?

  You know that you will have to sleep alone if you go without me. If you take me, you can have me----to warm your bed that is.”

  “It’s a Navy Base, Tomi. You can’t sleep with me there.”

  “There’s a sukoshi Okinawan hotel in the village before you get to the base. I think the sailors call it Village One.”

  “That hotel is where the bar girls take the sailors, Tomi.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “But you have to work Saturday. It will be a long taxi ride after working all day. Besides, the hotel is in Village One and a Half.”

  “Oji-san will bring me to you. I can leave the coffee house earlier. And Sunday is always my day off. I can go to the base with you all day Sunday, neh?”

  “Yes.”

  “It is okay then. It is what we will do. It will only be Saturday night in the hotel. Just like a sailor and his girl friend for a night

  What is the hotel like, Brad? I always wonder what those hotels were like.”

  “I have created a monster.

  Can I have some coffee now that you have disturbed my sleep so early in the morning?”

  “Hai. This is your kohi. I have already poured mine in the kitchen. I’ll get it and come back to bed. It is not early.”

  “Domo. What time is it. I’m afraid to look.”

  Tomi came over to the futon, set her coffee on the tatami next to her side of the futon, dropped her robe on the end of their bed before sliding in next to Brad. “It is 0830.

  Have you thought more about whether we will reenlist?” She asked him.

  “We? I guess that’s true. If I reenlist, it will be you and I doing it.

  Not really. I slept very hard and don’t think that I even dreamt about you last night.”

  “You dream about me?”

  “It must be you. I remember a black haired nesan, dark, almost black eyes, bangs that come to her eyebrows. Oh yeah, she’s slim with a cute butt, small breasts and sleeps next to me naked.”

  “You are so bad. You tease and pick on me all the time. You know that it is me that you dream of. And I love that.” Tomi commented quietly.

  “Now answer my question, Brad. Are you thinking about how many years we are going to reenlist for?”

  “The question is now how many years? Not whether we are going to reenlist or not?”

  “Hai. We really have no choice if we want to have time together. Unless you have takusan dollars that you have not told me about. We must also choose each other. Are we going to stay together no matter what, or shall we forget each other except when it is convenient for you to come to Okinawa?

  I don’t want anybody else. I will not live with another man or even sleep with another man. I have a very good job and do not need a man to pay for me.”

  “Independent woman aren’t you? I’m totally committed to you, Tomako. I’ll always be true to you and don’t want another woman in my life. But we have to know in our minds and hearts that being separated from each other can sometimes be for a very long time and a long ways from each
other.”

  “For the first 35 years of my life I had no long time relation with a man. Especially one who gave me warm feelings everyday. Then I met you. Though we didn’t make love, we slept together the first time that you made a pass at me.”

  “I didn’t----“

  Tomi placed her fingers across his lips. “No, I want to talk.”

  Brad nodded and kissed her finger tips.

  Tomi smiled. Removed her fingers and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

  “In our first two months of knowing each other, we slept together three times, yet we never made love. I knew that I loved you even though you didn't know. I couldn't tell you. Then we became one here in our home, and we made love many, many times and have not stopped. I know that you also love me as much and also know that we will be committed to each other for the rest of our lives. I don't fear being away from you. I will miss you very much, but I will read your letters and maybe hear your voice on the denwa and know you are mine and will be coming to me when you can.”

  They lay together watching the fishing boats leaving Tomari Port and the shadows grew shorter as the sun climbed higher in the cloudless azure sky.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Since he was running late, Brad called Tomi at the coffeehouse before he left the base. He had been in White Beach all day getting ready to start the job for Arlene Winters and her Wives Club the following Saturday. And he still had to make a stop in downtown Naha before he went home.

  Tomi was with Michako at the hostess station when Brad came through the coffee house door.

  “You are not so late.” Tomi said when she stepped into his arms for a hug and kiss. “I thought you would be later.”

  “It actually worked out alright. O’Brien was going to White Beach so he dropped me off at home on his way.” Brad didn’t tell her that he and Tom made a side trip to lower Kokusai Dori to run an errand before he was dropped off in Tomari Port.

  “I don’t think the fried rice is ready yet. I will go find out.”

  “It’s okay, Tomi. Finish what you are doing with Michako while I get the yakamesa.”

  “Why are you in a hurry to get home tonight? We could have eaten at the coffee house and you could have had a biru or two.” Tomi remarked as they settled themselves in the back seat of a cab.

  “I wanted to spend more time with you at home. Our time together is important to me.”

  “Is something wrong, Brad?” Tomi asked with a touch of panic in her voice. “You got orders to California?” Their worst nightmare had jumped into the forefront of Tomi’s mind.

  “Iie?” It’s alright, Tomi.” Brad reassured her, slipped an arm across her shoulders and drew her closer. “I just want to spend some good time with you and I do have something of interest for you.”

  “You bought me something? Something that could not wait until after we had supper?”

  “You could say that. But I’m not going to.”

  Tomi looked up at him. Wrinkled her nose with a new expression for her which translated into ‘mess with me and I’ll get even’.

  Brad had felt her retribution on a couple of occasions. Once when for two weeks she had hid a James Michener novel he had been reading. Another time when she had kept promising to bring sashimi home for a nighttime treat and she kept 'forgetting' for a week. He still could not recall what he had done or said to provoke her.

  “I am not doing anything wrong so don’t get that attitude.”

  “Really. You look like you are sliding on very slippery kori.”

  Brad couldn’t help but laugh even knowing it was putting him in danger of stirring Tomi’s ire even further, though he knew most of it was put on.

  “You are laughing at me again. Why?”

  “I think you mean that I’m walking on a slippery slope.”

  Without missing a beat Tomi continued, “you are, and it is about to dump you into very cold mizu.”

  Brad was paying off the cab and Tomi had started up the stairs to their apartment. “You know that I love you.” He spoke loudly enough for her to hear him.

  She turned, hurried back down the stairs and they met on the bottom step as the cab drove off.

  Jumping into his arms she asked, “what did you get me? Something to wear? What, Brad-san?”

  Kissing her passionately, he picked her off her feet and held her tight against him.

  Breathing rather heavily, Tomi looked around them before speaking. “It is good that Oji-san put these stairs here away from everybody else’s apartments. The nesans and oku-sans would all be jealous of me for having such an over-sexed boyfriend.

  Put me down and we can go upstairs and be alone.”

  “Good idea. Besides I’m sure the yakamesa is getting cold, and I am hungry.”

  “You are always hungry for food and for me.” She smiled her mischievous smile as she took his hand and started up the stairs. “I can put the yakamesa in a wok and heat it fast. Remember I run a coffee house and we have a kitchen.”

  “Do you want to take a shower while I fix supper, Tomi?”

  “Hai, that would be very nice Brad. I smell like old cooking I know. It is always so good feeling to come home to you and a very hot shower. You first, then the shower.”

  “I’m glad that I’m still on the top of your best things list. You will let me know if I fall down?”

  “Never happen my Love. You give good back rubs.”

  “That’s all I’m good for? To give back rubs?”

  “Iie, you give me very nice foot rubs after I have worked hard all day.

  And you warm me up on cold nights.” She added standing in the bathroom doorway and was finishing getting undressed. “Oh.” standing naked, she turned towards Brad who was starting to work in the kitchen. “And you make me feel all-woman when you look at me like you are now.”

  With a smile she closed the door and turned on the shower.

  Brad had put on a nemaki while Tomi was in the shower and had their supper on the table when she came out of the bathroom looking fresh and delectable in her light blue flowered nemaki.

  “You are very beautiful and you make me wonder what I did to have you, Tomako Tomanaga.”

  Stop, you make me red faced, but I like it when you say such nice things to me. Please do not ever stop.” She contradicted herself.

  “I won’t. Are you ready to eat?”

  Tomi looked a little disappointed for a second then her smile flashed across her face like a bright flash of sunlight.

  “Hai, I am hungry. We usually eat earlier.”

  “I have something you might find interesting. I got a really good deal on it. My friend Aranaka, the motor pool dispatcher, found this for us on lower Kokusai Dori.”

  Brad went into the kitchen and from the bottom pot and pan cupboard, pulled out a fairly large cardboard box. He placed it on the tatamis next to Tomi before going to where his plate was on the table. He started to eat while from the corner of his eye, watched to see her reaction.

  “What is it? It’s oki.”

  “Really? Why don’t you open it. I already cut the tape.”

  Tomi tilted the box and stared at the image of a typewriter imprinted on the sides of the box.

  “Honto, Brad-san?”

  “Hai Tomako.”

  Without opening the box, she turned and crawled onto his lap covering his face with kisses and not caring that her robe had opened and its ties were hanging down tangled up in her legs.

  “Your are too much. Oh, I love you so much. Arigato goziemashita, Brad. Thank you.”

  “We have less than a week to give Mr. Winters an answer. I think that we both know what we want now. Six years is a long time, though the potential of such a huge bonus is there. Honto?”

  “Hai. As you say, Brad, we cannot completely trust the Navy to do as it says, but we know that it could be okay. You will stay here or go to Vietnam shortly. From there you can come to Okinawa more easily
than from California, neh?”

  “And I’ll make more money than being in California.”

  Tomi, still sitting on his lap turned to look him in the eyes. “I know that you will be okay in Vietnam and will come to me whenever you can and I will be okay here with Mama-san and Oji-san.

  I’ll be able to type and tell you everything that happens while you’re gone.”

  “Twelve more days and you start school. You will be really fluent in English and using the typewriter before I have to leave.”

  “Hai.” A tear rolled slowly down her right cheek before she could turn away from Brad.

  He reached up and tenderly wiped the tear away without a word, then kissed both eyes.

  “I’ll talk to Mr. Winters on Monday morning when we come back from White Beach.”

  “Will he be happy for us?”

  “Yes. He understands about us and how we are connected to each other.”

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  With the decision made, Tomako and Brad had most of the summer to strengthen their bond to each other and just enjoy life. They had both agreed not to talk about the events that would change their lives and also agreed to accept what life threw at them with no regrets.

  “It isn’t as if we will always be apart." Had become a common theme in their lives.

  They did however speak of their future together. How they could have three years together after Brad come back to Okinawa from his sea duty tour with a battalion. Then possibly a three year tour of stateside duty on a West Coast Naval Air Station such as Miramar or North Island in San Diego. Even as an instructor in Port Hueneme at the Naval Schools of Construction or the Seabee military training facility wouldn’t be too awful. Tomi was becoming more accepting to be with Brad on a stateside tour as long as they stayed together and Brad wasn’t shipped out to leave her alone on a faraway base somewhere.

  “When we come back from Vietnam, we will have three years here, neh?” She asked.

  Again, their connection to each other grew. Brad’s tour was now theirs and Tomi would accompany him in spirit if not physically.

  “If all goes as we hope, we will, Tomi.”

  It will give us a lot of time to do the marriage paperwork so if they do send you stateside, I can go with you, neh?”

  Under the light futon cover, Brad caressed the velvety skin on her bare stomach, then drew her to him. Their bed was in front of the slider their favorite spot in the apartment, and they were laying on it in the darkened room watching for fishing boats to come or go from Tomari Port.