Kataomoi

by Hildred Billings

  “It is rather odd for you.” Michiko had never dated anyone outside of casual sex when she lived in Japan. All Reina knew about her romantic life was the girlfriend who died sometime long before she moved to Japan. “Is it kataomoi, then?”

  “Hm. Sou kana…I guess something like that. She’s a little younger than me, too.”

  “Younger! How much younger?”

  “I think she’s in college.”

  “Well, that’s not so bad. What does she look like?”

  Michiko shifted in her seat as if she were being interrogated by the Cupid police. “She has blond hair and green eyes. She’s rather tomboyish. Not your type.”

  “Amerikajin-rashii, naa…” Blond hair and green eyes almost didn’t get much more American.

  “Actually, she’s part Japanese too.”

  “Really! Blond hair and green eyes?” Reina laughed. “Is it natural?”

  “Of course it is! She’s only a fourth Japanese, I think. There are full-blooded Japanese people with blond hair, you know.”

  “Oh, yes, we’re teeming with them.”

  Michiko shook her head. “I’m done talking about such matters. Let me show you what I learned in the military.”

  She got up and cleared a spot on the floor. Reina peered over the table and watched Michiko throw herself into a series of pushups, each one shoving her arms harder than the last. Sharp breaths zipped through her clenched teeth as she counted off. All Reina could pay attention to was how sexual it was.

  “Saa, that is pretty cool.” God knew she couldn’t do that.

  “Watch this!” Michiko flung an arm behind her back and continued to do pushups single handedly.

  “Suge!” Reina stood from her seat. “Like an action star!”

  Michiko hopped up, her face flushed red from the exertion. “It’s normal for my colleagues to do that. We have to be in top physical shape.” She frowned. “Ah, all that movement made me have to go to the toilet. May I?”

  Reina pointed through the kitchen and down a narrow hallway; Michiko disappeared into the toilet room.

  An American, huh? She wasn’t surprised Michiko would fall for another American. Deep inside she was American through and through, although she had learned not to argue about cultural differences with Reina or anyone else. Maybe she wouldn’t have rejected me if I were an American. No matter how much she considered that thought, in the end she couldn’t imagine herself American. First of all, she couldn’t speak English.

  Water flushed through the pipes before Michiko swung the door open and marched back down the hallway. She pulled her sleeves down and opened her mouth to say something – but was held back at the kitchen entrance, her expression tossing into bleak shock.

  Reina followed her gaze out the large window.

  “Who is that?” Reina asked, following the outline of a tall, thin figure on the other side of the fence. “Friend of yours?”

  Michiko blinked. “My father.”

  “Your father?”

  A blur tore through the living area as Michiko disappeared into the genkan. She muttered to herself in English. “I’m going to go check on why he’s here,” she called in Japanese. The door opened and closed.

  Reina should have let well enough alone. She didn’t care for interacting with men, especially foreign men, and especially men she had cause to suspect were not the best for their daughters. Michiko didn’t talk about her father much. But if this was the man responsible for her best friend’s cushy lifestyle, Reina decided she should go suss him out. Michiko had a habit of surrounding herself with toxic people. Aside from Aiko and me, of course.

  Thus she followed her friend into the yard, and then into the street where a small conglomeration of neighbors gathered to see the foreigners: or the main foreigner, for Michiko’s father was a giant of a man. He stood taller than the tallest man Reina had ever seen before, his soft-white hair trimmed neatly around his ears and nose sniffing the last of the flowers in Mrs. Uchiyama’s yard. When he turned around to face his daughter, he graced the street with a lean countenance and pale skin. Reina concluded she had never seen someone so…foreign. She wished Aiko were there to help her speak English.

  Michiko rattled off to him in their shared language, her brows furrowed and finger wagging in his direction. Such insolence! Only foreigners. Reina hung back so she wouldn’t be associated with this filial floundering. But when she glanced at the neighbors coming out of their houses to poke around, she noted they stared in wonder at the man’s appearance instead of the actions of his daughter. Michiko continued to berate her father in English; he continued to cast a serene look upon the neighborhood. A camera hung from his hand.

  He mumbled something in English, Reina only picking up the word “friend” from the entire conversation. Michiko turned. “Reina! What are you doing out here?”

  “Being nosy. Are you going to introduce us or not? Does he speak Japanese?”

  “He’s still learning.”

  Strange. She knew for a fact Michiko’s mother didn’t speak English, even after living in America for a few years. The story her friend always told her was that her parents met in a bar for American servicemen and had an unfortunate one night stand. Must have been really unfortunate if they couldn’t understand each other. Oh, the language of lust.

  “Father,” Michiko said slowly for Reina’s benefit. “This is my friend, Reina.”

  He grunted in her direction.

  Reina bowed. “Hajimemashite,” she greeted.

  “This is my father. His name is…” Michiko paused and counted on her fingers. Doesn’t she know her father’s name? “Gregory. Call him Gregory.” She said the name as if she had never encountered it before.

  “Guregori-san.” Reina bowed again.

  He grunted again, pointing his camera at the flowers in Mrs. Uchiyama’s garden. The owner herself hung around, blushing at the sight of the striking man.

  Michiko snapped more tidbits at her father. “For goodness sake.” She rejoined Reina on the other side of the street. “He’s found a butterfly. He’s obsessed with them.”

  Mrs. Uchiyama giggled upon being presented with a rose from her garden. There he goes, making more Michikos. Not that Reina wanted to contemplate how babies were conceived.

  It looked as if Michiko didn’t either, giving the way she recoiled at her father’s interactions with the locals. “Just leave him be and hope he doesn’t embarrass everybody.”

  Reina looked down the street. “There’s a festival going on about ten minutes away. Let’s go.” Anything was better than watching Gregory flirt with Mrs. Uchiyama.

  Hesitating, Michiko finally walked with Reina down the street. She never looked back at her father.

  For an early autumn day the air was cool and the sun relenting. October was one of the only months in the year in which the weather was mostly amicable, with clear skies and temperate atmospheres. Reina walked in nothing but her jeans and T-shirt while Michiko traipsed beside her. Once they rounded the street corner they linked arms like giddy schoolgirls.

  Michiko’s trembled a bit inside Reina’s. “Are you okay? Do you want to go get your father?” the latter asked. She didn’t like the idea of being chaperoned by an overbearing father figure, but if it meant Michiko was happy, then…

  “No.” She shook her head for emphasis. “He can take care of himself. I was just shocked that he followed me here, that’s all.”

  Reina rubbed her bare elbow along Michiko’s soft sleeve. An electric spark shot between them, whether from static or the sexual intensity they used to share, Reina couldn’t tell. “He’s very…white.”

  Their steps fell on the pavement once more before Michiko’s smile returned, parting into a laugh that echoed down the street. Reina apologized and insisted she meant to say “tall.” “Are you surprised he is half of my DNA?”

  Reina studied her friend’s face, thoroughly Japanese, as far as she was concerned, aside from the breadth of her wide eyes. And while Michiko wa
s taller than most women around there, Reina was tall too, so it never entered her mind. “Are you here visiting him? I thought you were staying at your mother’s.”

  “More like he and I are visiting together. He followed me here from America.”

  “You came together?”

  “I said he followed me.”

  Reina shook her head. Perhaps it was a good thing Gregory stayed far behind, sniffing around Mrs. Uchiyama’s yard. They deserve each other.

  She changed the subject to the happier topics of earlier, eliciting more of the familiar smiles and giggles she recognized and loved from her friend. Their meandering led them to the humble neighborhood festival going on in another part of town: while only boasting a few food and goods stalls, people still crammed the streets to enjoy the holiday. Michiko yelped and jumped out of the way when a boy launched himself into the street wearing a monster mask.

  “Bikkurishita!” She clung to Reina’s torso, heart palpitating.

  Content to let her friend hold her like a lover, Reina wrapped her arm around Michiko’s shoulders and directed her to the far side of the road. Once this would have made me the happiest woman in the world. She tried not to think about Michiko’s rejection.

  But she was here now.

  “Irasshaimase,” came an old, haggard voice. Reina turned both their bodies to confront an old woman in front of a table, a stack of tarot cards on one end and a cup full of tealeaves on the other. A sign reading, “Fortunes For 100 Yen” in handwritten Japanese graced the front. “Such a young couple must have their love fortunes told. Just 100 yen for a couple, because two hearts are conjoined as one.”

  Reina opened her mouth to protest their relationship, but Michiko pulled a coin from her pocket and slapped it on the table. She then recurled her arm around Reina’s waist, head on shoulder. We really look like a couple? A lesbian couple, or a straight couple? It wouldn’t be the first time an auntie pegged Reina as a boy.

  “Tell us about our relationship,” Michiko bade the seer. “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

  “Ah, yes.” Cards shuffled in the old woman’s hands and then appeared side-by-side on the folding table. “Hm.” She scrunched her nose and wiggled her brows. “There’s lots of affection between you two. One of you is a very old soul and the other has been born this life – thus leading to your powerful dynamic.”

  I must be the old soul. Cynicism seemed a good indicator of that.

  “Great distances keep you apart, but your bond is strong and you will always find ways to reunite. Yes, this is good. Your signs point to a long and happy relationship.”

  Michiko squirmed. “But?”

  The old woman considered her with clear brown eyes lined with a whole lifetime’s worth of crow’s feet. “Do you want me to say it?”

  A silent moment of approval.

  “You are not soul mates.”

  Reina shrugged; Michiko sighed.

  Another hundred yen coin appeared on the table. “Tell me more about my soul mate then, if you would, Auntie.”

  The seer recollected her tarot cards and put the coins away in a pouch. She flicked through the cards with her eyes closed and asked Michiko to pick three. Reina looked on with mild curiosity.

  The woman contemplated each of the colorful cards, stroking her chin and tilting her head to the side. “Your true soul mate is as old as you, in terms of spiritual energy. It is possible you have met this person before already. Hmm.”

  “What is it?”

  “This is peculiar, but it says you have lived many lives, and so has your soul mate.”

  “Does it say when we will be reunited again?”

  “Patience.” The old woman lifted the palm of her hand. “That’s what it says. You must have patience. Time turns slowly, and spiritual energy is infinite. When the time is right your paths will cross again. And you will be tested many, many times.”

  Michiko inclined her head. “My thanks.”

  The old woman looked to Reina. “Do you desire to know about your soul mate?”

  She had to stifle a laugh. “No, thanks.” Reina didn’t believe in any of that. On one hand the old woman may not say Aiko, and that would put a damper on their relationship forever; on the other she might say Aiko, and that would make Reina feel trapped forever. No, best to not believe any of that. Reina was about as spiritual as a dust bunny rolling down the hallway.

  Regardless, Michiko put one last 100 yen coin on the table. “You might as well read her something. This girl needs about as much guidance as she can get.”

  What does that mean? The old woman peered at Reina, discerning her. She picked up the cards and shuffled them again. “Choose three,” she said.

  Reina did, pulling the top three from the deck.

  “Ah,” the old woman said again, her eyes perusing every card. Reina was crestfallen to see that none of them contained naked ladies. “Yes, yes, you are a young and fresh soul. Yet you are already wise beyond your years in the matters of love.”

  Saying nothing, Reina sniffed.

  “You will face tough choices and decisions that few you know must also make. Even your friend here will not have to decide between man and woman.”

  Cold stilled in Reina’s skin. What does that mean? She remained silent as the woman studied the final card. “You will soon see the end of a relationship you cherished before.”

  Reina had no choice but to receive the news graciously, although impatience grew in her. Michiko thanked the old woman for her time and joined her friend back in the street, their walk taking them toward a cotton candy stand.

  “What a bunch of bullshit,” Reina said as soon as they were out of the old woman’s hearing range. “Why’d you make me sit through that?”

  Michiko laughed. “Maybe you learned something valuable. Who do you think you will break up with?” She paled. “Not Ai-chan! You two aren’t splitting up, are you?”

  “What? No! Maybe it’s you.”

  Chuckling, Michiko laced her hands behind her back. “I have no intention of dumping you as my friend.”

  Only as my lover. Reina remembered her best friend in bed, naked, satisfied, and beautiful. Her musky perfume would always leave a pleasant scent behind on Reina’s pillow whenever they had sex. Now all Reina ever smelled was Aiko’s cooking, not that she minded. “Are you staying at your mother’s?”

  Michiko counted the rest of her change after looking at the cotton candy menu. “Of course. Why?”

  “I was thinking that maybe…you could stay with me tonight.”

  Wide eyes blinked in her direction. “Would Ai-chan allow that?”

  “I don’t mean have sex. Not yet.” Not until Ai-chan comes home. “Just sleep together. It’s been a long time since we cuddled.”

  Within a minute Michiko had her small serving of cotton candy, which she plucked and offered to Reina. “I may be able to, granting I can get my father to go away.” She checked over her shoulder to make sure no tall foreigners followed. “Sure. God knows I’ve missed you.”

  The confection melted on Reina’s tongue in an explosion of strawberry-flavored extremes. She begged Michiko for one more piece before wrapping her arm around her friend’s shoulders again. “I’ve missed you too. It’s good to have you around.” Especially when girlfriends were on the other side of the country drooling over women in drag.

  The whirlwind Aiko threw herself into ended up becoming one of the most memorable nights of her life. The show she saw was more than worth the cost and trouble: it was, in a word, glorious.

  Sparkles! Glitter! Feathers! Practically all of Aiko’s favorite things in the world. She and her friends had seats near the front, where they could appreciate the blinding lights, exuberant make-up, and flashy costumes coming from every direction. Even when the lights were low and mournful solo songs echoed in the theater, Aiko was reminded of glamour so scandalous it was like Golden Era Hollywood. When she came down from her high of shiny things and shinier women, she had to admit the
singing was professional grade and the storyline entertaining.

  Of course, she didn’t appreciate it in the same way most of her friends did.

  Mio was in tears by the end of the show, although she managed to not start sobbing until they were on their way back to the hotel. Mari insisted on picking up a vat of ice cream to shove in her mouth and bemoan the fact that none of the actresses were her girlfriends. Kari holed herself up in the room she shared with her sister and called her lover to “have a private chat with.” Yatsumi was the only unaffected one, although she was willing to engage in discussion about the technicalities of the show.

  In the end it took all of them to convince Mio to not hang around the theater and await the departure of her favorite actress. They returned to their hotel in a fiery chatter. Aiko shared a room with Mio and Yatsumi, who insisted on using a bed together while Aiko kept the other to herself. They then departed to go get a late dinner, leaving Aiko behind when she said she wasn’t hungry.

  She phoned Reina back home. That Friday was a holiday, and Reina had another day off before, so Aiko was particularly curious as to how her girlfriend was doing alone. Starving to death, most likely. Or drunk. When Aiko thought about it, she didn’t expect anyone to be home. Reina was probably half-dead in Ni-chome.

  To her pleasant surprise, Reina answered the phone after the second ring.

  “Moshi moshi?” she greeted, foregoing her name.

  “You’re home!”

  “Eh? Of course I am! It’s late.”

  Aiko sank into the bedding. “I’m so happy to talk to you! I miss you.”

  Reina teased her, saying she should be able to leave for two days without feeling bad about it. Aiko remembered why she had come out to Hyogo Prefecture and regaled her girlfriend with tales of luscious musicals. She left out the part where it was almost better than them role playing Gone With the Wind.

  “We should go see a show sometime when they are in Tokyo,” she said. “I think you would like it live.”

  “Perhaps.”