Miscegenist Sabishii

by Pepper Pace

  We went to a local Asian market and my eyes were so busy scanning all of the strange packaging that I didn’t realize that I had become the center of attention. Several older Asian women were staring at me in a mix of awe and confusion. I looked over at Mrs. Y who was watching me proudly. She spoke in sharp Japanese to the group of spectators.

  In unison I heard them all sigh. “Awww.” Mrs. Y just watched me with pride before finally speaking in her familiar, choppy English. “Nikki these the ladies from my cultural group. We meet on Saturday, talk, play mahjong, eat and drink tea.” Then Mrs. Y placed her hands on my belly and I grinned. She was showing me off to her friends. It made me feel so special, it was the first time that she made me cry but it wouldn’t be the last time. She was so accepting of the baby that I began to wonder how she knew things about this baby before me. So buying into the entire supernatural-Asian thing, one day I asked her if the baby was Tony’s. We’d never talked about this. She never treated the baby as if it wasn’t her grandchild. I thought maybe she knew something that I didn’t.

  Mrs. Y poured me a cup of tea before answering. “I don’t know.” She said plainly.

  “Oh.” I felt both disappointed and stupid.

  She gave me a long look. “Nikki, I knew you were pregnant. The signs are clear if you know what to look for. It’s not mysticism. I don’t know if the father is Tony. I just know that as long as you are my daughter then this baby is my grandchild.” That was the second time that she caused me to cry.

  I told Tony that I wanted to dress in traditional Japanese attire for our wedding. I wanted to do it for a lot of reasons, to pay tribute to both Tony and his heritage, to give back to Mrs. Y and because I was frankly too big to fit comfortably into anything but a Japanese kimono. Mrs. Y was so surprised that this time it was me that made her cry. She insisted on making my white shiromuku, and Tony’s black montsuki.

  They were beautiful. I know that I’m supposed to be the gorgeous one but when I saw T standing under a real rose trellis wearing the traditional black kimono and pants I almost lost my breath. His hair was long enough to tie back and he stood there so straight, and I knew that it was all for me; for us.

  Of course, when he saw me he seemed to be doing the same thing. It was a true union. We had the pastor from church actually perform the service. And then in an act of humor, Mrs. Dura and my cousin Jay placed a broom across the velveteen red carpet for us to jump over. Tony and I laughed so hard. I held my tummy and then tentatively jumped over the broom. Everyone cheered for us and I felt like I was on top of the world.

  After the wedding we had a Japanese reception called a kekkon hiroen. And then we all lined up and did the electric slide; what wedding would be complete without it? Even Mr. and Mrs. Y joined in.

  On top of all that Mrs. Dura had done for us, as a wedding present she gave us the antique Geisha lamp that Tony had admired.

  “Mrs. Dura…” He tried to hand it back to her. “This is too much, I can’t accept this-“

  She made a hmph sound. “There really is no place for it in my condo. If you don’t take it, it will go in storage and then I’ll just will it to you when I die.”

  Tony’s chocolate eyes twinkled. “In that case, thank you! I absolutely love this piece.” He kissed her and that seemed to make her day.

  It was closing in on midnight before we went off for our honeymoon; which was back to our apartment with Wu-Tang and a movie. There was absolutely no place that I would have rather been.

  TONY

  Nikki sighed and I played particular attention to the tight knots around her neck and shoulders. I gave her a massage every night because at this stage of the pregnancy she was fairly uncomfortable. Mostly it was her feet and legs but tonight it was her shoulders and neck.

  “What’s wrong, babe?”

  She peeked at me. “Why do you think there’s something wrong?”

  “Because your neck feels like a heavy weight boxer’s.”

  She sighed again and then rolled over and struggled to sit up with me helping her. “Baby…a house just came on the market. I know I shouldn’t but I’ve fallen in love with it. You know how you see something when you’re not even looking for it, and it’s everything that you ever want?”

  I gave her a knowing look. “I know that feeling exactly. It’s the feeling I had when I first saw you.”

  She smiled slowly. “Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed me.

  “Tell me about this house.”

  She sighed and stood up, stretching. “It is so perfect. It’s like…US.” She grinned. “There’s a real Japanese garden in back, with a koi pond and a small bridge! Can you believe that?” But then her expression dropped. “But it’s a Frank Lloyd Wright and you know what that means; when it goes on the market there’s going to be a bidding war!”

  “Babe, I didn’t know that you were anxious to get into a house-“

  “No, I’m not. I mean, it’s just that this house came out of the blue, and it’s in perfect condition. The owner’s have retained all of its character. There’s a Victorian kitchen with very little update other then appliances! Baby, it’s beautiful.”

  “Well I think we should make an offer. I mean, I’d like to see it first but-”

  “Tony…we can’t get a home loan in this economy; not without jobs.”

  I wasn’t used to hearing those words. They were foreign to my ears. The idea that I couldn’t buy something because I had no job almost floored me. I had been thinking about all of the money I had tied to me, but when it came down to it, I was still an unemployed man…I had never realized that until just now.

  “I want to see the house.” I said finally.

  She nodded. “I’ll set up an appointment.”

  Nikki was able to set the appointment to see the house that same evening. The owners were a gay couple that loved the house but needed to move out of state fairly quickly. When we drove up the driveway my heart was beating a mile a minute. There was something about it that felt like home; from the stone and brick, to the leaded glass windows to the front porch beneath the roofline…I loved it and I hadn’t even been inside of it yet.

  The owner’s took great pride in showing the house. It truly had the wow factor and I couldn’t help but to comment on the beautiful woodwork and inset shelving. I asked if it was on the registry and it was.

  “We’d like to see it stay. I realize we can’t dictate what the new owners will do-”

  “What idiot would buy a Frank Lloyd Wright and not keep its character?” I interjected. The two guys looked at each other and then one spoke to Nikki.

  “This is your third time here.”

  She blushed. “I know. I’m sorry. I just really wanted my husband to see it before it went on the market.”

  “Are you going to put a bid in?”

  She shook her head slowly and looked down at the beautifully polished wood floor.

  “We’d like to.” I answered for her. “But our lives have had a few unexpected changes.” Dan, an older white-haired man looked at Nikki’s belly.

  “Your first?”

  Nikki placed her hand over the considerable mound of her belly. I put my arm around her. “Yes.” She smiled. “We’re newlyweds.”

  Dan and Jack exchanged looks. “We first moved here in 1987. We were the first gay couple that many of our neighbors had ever met. It took many years but they grew to accept us.” Jack said.

  “And for the most part, to like us. This is a great neighborhood for an interracial couple. You can say that we’ve broken them in.” Nikki chuckled and then her eyes grew wet.

  “Sorry!” She said quickly. “I’m sorry. Hormones.” She rushed to the bathroom and Dan and Jack watched me with concern.

  I looked after her disappearing form. “Um…you see the problem is that we both were just let go from our job and neither of us expected to start house hunting until later…at least I didn’t.” I admitted.

  “Ah, I see.” Jack said.

  “It
’s not the money, it’s the fact that we aren’t currently working…” I felt like a bum admitting this to them. “Excuse me, I’m going to check on her.” I hurried to the bathroom but Nikki was just returning and wiping her eyes with tissue.

  “I’m sorry.” She apologized. “Look, we’ll get out of your hair-”

  “Mr. and Mrs. Yakamoto, put an offer on the house. If you pay what we’re asking then we’ll sell to you.”

  “But…” Nikki stuttered with big surprised eyes. “This house is going to create a bidding frenzy. You’re going to get much more then you’re asking.”

  Dan shrugged and went to the kitchen. We followed. “It’s never been about the money.” He opened the refrigerator and grabbed lemonade. “We had an image of someone that should live in this house. It was someone who would love it enough to cry over it, like we have.”

  Nikki looked at me quickly. “But…”

  I took her hand. “I told them about the job situation.”

  “But you have a Real Estate license so actually you’re the owner of your own business, right?” Dan said. I stared at Nikki. In actuality it was even more than that. Once Nikki had sold Mrs. Durdak’s house, then the buyer wanted her to sell theirs. It turned out that there were several other affluent people in the neighborhood in need of a good real estate agent and though she didn’t have a shingle over a shop, we had some cards printed with her name on it and Nikki Yakamoto, Real Estate Agent was born.

  “It could work.”

  Nikki jumped up and hugged them both.

  ***

  Several weeks later my phone rang while I was at the grocery store picking up dinner. Nikki and I were both in a funk. Our house had gone on the market today and there were already several bids on it. I know that I should stop thinking of the craftsman as ‘ours’ but we both fell in love with it at first sight.

  Because I didn’t have a job and my name had to appear on the contract, we just weren’t eligible to receive a loan. As a matter of fact, if Nikki had applied for the loan herself just a few short weeks earlier—before our wedding, then she might have qualified. But I was the liability; even with my great credit and funds in the bank an unemployed man in America was just that; unemployed.

  I felt so bad. I even began dropping my resume at other mortgage companies. It gave me a unique perspective to be on the receiving end of a denial, one that I wouldn’t soon forget. I even put in a resume at a massage parlor; when I had only been freelance in the past. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted to be a masseuse any longer. Certainly I enjoyed rubbing my wife’s body parts but…Hell, I’d even thought about Nikki and I starting our own real estate business. But I didn’t have a real estate license and she did. And besides, that was her passion, not mine.

  My phone rang as I was thinking these thoughts. I dug the phone out of my pocket. “Hello.”

  “Toi Yakamoto?”

  “This is Toi.” I was hoping that it was a company interested in my resume, though I had only just started putting them out only a few days before.

  “Toi, this is Lloyd Cummings.” I stopped walking and stood in the middle of the aisle. Lloyd Cummings was the president of my old company.

  “Okay.”

  “Toi. I wanted to talk to you. Do you think that you and I can meet?”

  “Talk about what, Mr. Cummings?”

  “I heard that you were putting in resumes at several other companies.” We didn’t have a

  non-compete clause. I hoped they weren’t trying to stop me from pursuing a job with perspective competitors.

  “Yes.”

  “I wanted to talk to you about returning to AmeriCom.”

  My breath froze in my chest.

  “You’re offering me my old job back?”

  “No. I’m offering you Roger Milton’s job.”

  I almost choked. “Roger’s no longer with the company?”

  “No, he’s been let go. Because of him we’ve been under the scrutiny of the FDIC for mortgage fraud. Toi—”

  “Um…no one calls me Toi. Just Tony.”

  “Oh, ok, Tony in the past we were a company that cared about the little man but somehow that changed. I take responsibility for not being aware of those changes, or maybe for being an ignorant corporate figurehead. All I saw was the numbers. It took the BBB report to open my eyes. And now the FDIC is investigating. Tony, this company is my baby. And I refuse to let it fail because I didn’t know what’s what.

  “When I asked the people in the know, I was told that you were the person to get back on board. I know that the official paperwork states that you were let go for fraternizing…and I also know that Roger Milton actually let you go because you weren’t pushing through the fraudulent accounts. Tony, I want to thank you. I want to thank you and Nikki Mason-”

  “Yakamoto.”

  “Yakamoto?”

  “Yes. Nikki Yakamoto. She’s my wife.”

  “Oh, I didn’t realize…well congratulations-“

  I sighed. “Mr. Cummings, I appreciate what you’re saying, but why would I take on that headache especially with the added scrutiny of the FDIC?”

  “Because I have documentation that states you denied a loan that the company tried to push through. Who else would I trust more then you? I’d like to have you and your wife back with the company and I’d make it financially worth your while.”

  I didn’t answer immediately. “Mr. Cummings, I need to discuss this with Nikki. Can we talk again later?”

  “Certainly. How about we meet at the office tomorrow at noon?”

  I hesitated. “I don’t know. I’ll call you once I’ve made a decision and we can meet if it’s yes.”

  There was a short pause. “Of course. I’ll be waiting for your call.” I hung up and swallowed something that tasted like sawdust. Then I immediately called Nikki.

  “Baby, you’re not going to believe this.”

  NIKKI

  We got the house.

  Jack and Dan’s real estate agent almost shit her pants when they accepted our lower offer. I ain’t gonna lie, I cried during closing and Tony shook his head at me.

  “I can’t believe you, Nikki. You didn’t even cry during our wedding.” I kissed him.

  “Because I knew I had you, babe.”

  He smirked.

  We got the key and the first thing to get moved into the house was the Geisha lamp from Mrs. Dura and I had to admit that it looked absolutely beautiful in front of the leaded glass bay window.

  We then put Wu-Tang on a leash and went walking around our new neighborhood. When we saw our neighbors sitting on their porches or about to get into their cars we always waved and said hello and most of the time that lead to some conversation and we got the opportunity to introduce ourselves. Later, we got take out Chinese and spent the rest of the day out in the garden where Dan and Jack had left all of the outdoors furniture for us.

  “T?” I asked as we rocked in the redwood swing.

  “Hmm?” He was in the nearby matching Adirondack chair watching Wu-Tang investigate the garden and making sure she didn’t start digging.

  “You didn’t take that job with our old company because you wanted us to get the house, did you?”

  “Yeah, I did. But I also took it because I think that I can do something meaningful there. I’ve learned a lot over the last few months and I’m pretty sure that it will make me a better employer. Are you sure that you don’t want to come back to work there?”

  I laughed. “I’m positive. If we want to stay married, I think we better not work so close to each other.”

  “Mmmm. You might be right about that. You don’t really follow directions very well.”

  “Huh? Because I happen to always be right!”

  “Whatever, babe. But spanking you in the office is a bit too tempting.” I chuckled. Yeah, we really didn’t need to work together.

  When the sun went down we didn’t bother to light the outside torches. We went inside and made love on the mattress and box spr
ings of the bed that we still needed to put together. Besides the lamp it was really the only furniture that we’d brought. We’d already decided that we wouldn’t move either of our furniture in since the house demanded something a little more unique than a modge podge of styles. So we were going to sale our unwanted furniture to a consignment shop and slowly furnish it, choosing each piece with care.

  The baby’s room was different. We’d already found dark mahogany furniture and T and the boy’s planned to paint the baby’s room a mellow green which was a unisex color. Neither of us was interested in learning the sex of the baby…there was more important things to consider.