The Daydreamer Detective Braves the Winter

by S. J. Pajonas

  “This was only the retail area. I was told that they kept hundreds of brushes in stock at all times, and people shopped for them in here.” Yasahiro waved his hands in a circular motion. “But there’s a workshop in back. Come.” He pulled me to a sliding door that led to the back.

  Now I understood how the space was divided up. The back half of the building was covered in old tatami mats and low tables. The woodworking tools were gone, but I imagined craftspeople sitting at these tables, making brushes. There was a bathroom off to the right, but a big window to the left let in natural light to a small kitchen.

  “They probably worked here, made lunch for everyone at the little kitchen, and smoked cigarettes out in the back alley.” Yasahiro laughed, shaking his head. “I bet this was a lively place with lots of inside jokes and friendly banter. I can even imagine people meeting and falling in love here.”

  I smiled, dragging my fingers through the dust on the long tables. He was a romantic, always thinking the best of a place or situation. When I daydreamed, I wasn’t always so easy on myself. When Yasahiro daydreamed, he went to the moon and back.

  “So, what do you think of the space?” he asked, sitting on a stool across the room from me.

  “I think it’s fantastic. I’m surprised you didn’t make it into a restaurant. You should, you know? This is a prime location, right in the center of the business district, as small as that is. I know this isn’t near the station, but I’m sure you could make something of it.”

  “Well, I’m glad I didn’t because I have the perfect tenant in mind.”

  “Did someone contact you while you were in Paris?” He had seemed distracted while he was there but I’d assumed it was due to all the classes he taught. “I’m sure you’ll make a lot of money off this place.” I wondered what it would be like for him to live above a new business that wasn’t his own. I hoped he liked the new renter otherwise this could have been a real problem. But that was just me thinking negatively…

  “Making money is not my first priority in this instance. Creating someplace that’s good for the community and good for you is my top priority.” His eyes met mine across the room, and he was intense, staring straight into my soul, knowing more than what he was telling me. My mind swirled in a torrent of thoughts, trying to put together what he was saying and what he wasn’t saying.

  “What are you talking about?” But deep inside, I could feel the excitement growing. I thought… No, I believed…

  “Merry Christmas, Mei-chan. I want you to have the space. I want you to turn this into whatever you need it to be. Make it a home away from home for people who are lonely. Make it a place full of love.” His jaw quivered, and I crossed the room in three long steps to get to him as quickly as possible. I stood so close to him, his emotions flooded over me. “Whatever you make of it, it was meant to be.”

  I slid my hands into both of his and looked around once more. This all could be mine. Oh god, this was all mine. How would I handle this big of a commitment? Could I handle it?

  “Are you sure? I don’t even think I can pay rent.”

  “No rent. And we’ll work together to renovate it. I have some ideas, too. I’ve always wanted another place in town to sell bento boxes to the workers of this area.”

  I gasped and cover my mouth. “Yes! That’s brilliant! An outpost of some sort? And bentos! It would be a tribute to Etsuko as well.”

  He smiled and pulled me in for a hug. “Perfect. We’ll get started in the new year. Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to have met you? I’m so lucky.”

  We both turned away from each other to face the space and stare at it. Maybe now, my luck had finally turned to good.

  “We’re both lucky.”

  So many possibilities ahead for us, and we’d face them together.

  End Book Two

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  Thank You!

  Thank you so much for reading The Daydreamer Detective Braves The Winter. I hope you enjoyed the second book of this series! This is certainly not the end for Mei and her adventures, so please stay tuned!

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  If you want the next book in the series… The Daydreamer Detective Opens A Tea Shop is now available! >> PURCHASE The Daydreamer Detective Opens A Tea Shop now!

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  Thank you again for reading and being awesome! I look forward to writing many more books for you to enjoy.

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  xo, S. J.

  Acknowledgments

  BIGGEST THANKS GOES to my critique partner, Tracy Krimmer. She continues to be my sounding board and best writing buddy. I heart her.

  To Amy Evans. She gave me great ideas and helped me brainstorm even better ones for further books in this series. I can’t wait to show you how Mei grows!

  To Cori Wilbur. She reads everything I write. I’m so grateful for her!

  Thank you to my entire ARC team! You all know who you are. They get the books before anyone else, read them, and then jump at the chance to review. Reviews are so important, and this team helps me get the lead on such a daunting task. I love them!

  Big thanks to Lola Verroen of Lola’s Blog Tours who helped me promote this book and get some new eyes on my work.

  I continue to be grateful for my family especially my mother and father, Claire and Ray Bush, my brother, Brendan, and his family, my Pajonas side of the family, Vic and Karen, all of my husband’s brothers and sisters. Thanks to my girls, C and D, again for letting mommy work in the afternoons and evenings after homework was done! My husband, Keith, still thinks I’m nuts but that’s okay. I still love him.

  Once again, thank you Japan for continuing to be an inspiring place that makes me happy to have met your people, traveled your lands, and eaten your awesome food. You’re the best.

  Check out the first chapter of The Daydreamer Detective Opens A Tea Shop…

  The shovel sliced into the earth with a solid crunch, and everyone broke into applause. As the president of Midori Sankaku lifted the spade full of dirt to the cameras, he laughed, excited to be at this stage. It had been three years in the making, but the groundbreaking ceremony for the new greenhouse was finally taking place, and soon, many more new people, businesses, and traffic would grace our small town with their presence.

  I smiled and clapped with everyone, a burst of pride for my tiny community lifting my chin. Chikata had gone from dilapidated and dying five years ago to renewed and prosperous. People in the surrounding towns and prefectures were sitting up and taking notice. It had been a long time since a farming community in Japan had turned itself around, and we were leading the way for other communities to accomplish the same goals.

  “Thank goodness this is really happening. I thought I’d never see the day,” Mom whispered, continuing to clap and smile at the surrounding people.

  “Indeed.” There were several times in the past year I was as good as dead, so being at the groundbreaking ceremony meant a lot to me.

  Everyone was here today except my good friend and neighbor, Akiko. Mom’s friend, Chiyo, stood next to us with her son, Goro and his wife, Kumi. Goro was also accompanied by his partner, Kayo, and other members of the Chikata police force. We all exchanged happy smiles as the applause died out.

  I turned to Yasahiro, my boyfriend, the head chef and owner of Sawayaka, our famous slow food Japanese restaurant in town, and threaded my arm through his, squeezing and resting my h
ead on his shoulder. For once, the weather was calm, and the sun shone upon us, even if it wasn’t warm yet. Spring had come to Japan. The cherry trees around town had bloomed a month ago in April and now held small green leaves on their branches. Today, we’d be content with sunny skies and a light, cool breeze.

  Yasahiro lifted his chin and smiled, but he kept his attention on the podium as another Midori Sankaku representative spoke of the opportunities their business would bring to Chikata. It was a good speech, and I held a lot more faith in Midori Sankaku than I did a few months ago when they arrested Fujita Takahara for killing Etsuko. In my mind and in my heart, I needed to separate the two. It was horrifying what Takahara had done, but his actions had nothing to do with Midori Sankaku.

  We clapped again as the speeches concluded, and everyone dispersed to walk the twenty minutes to the park at City Hall. We walked beside Kumi, her hand on her hip and a grimace on her face. She was in her second trimester of pregnancy and already experiencing the aches and pains of carrying a baby. Her belly had rounded and so had her cheeks, but she loved being pregnant because she wasn’t too sick, just in pain.

  “Shall I go get our car?” Goro asked, squeezing Kumi to his side and helping her.

  She shook her head and let out a long breath. “No, I’ll be all right. The doctor says I should get more exercise. I might have fewer aches and pains if I loosened up a little.”

  “That book we read said your joints will loosen up on their own.” Goro, always the student, had been reading all the pregnancy and baby books he could get his hands on. Whenever I visited him at his desk at the police precinct, he was poring over another book, marking pages with post-it notes and highlighters.

  “I still think it’s better for me to be walking.” She patted his arm. “Don’t worry about it.”

  When we reached the park, we set out a blanket and sat in the sun. Mom and Chiyo popped open their picnic baskets and handed out drinks and rice balls to everyone.

  “Now I suppose I’ll be hearing a lot of construction in the next couple of months,” Mom said taking a bite of her rice ball and staring off toward home. The new greenhouse when completed would be on the cleared land closer to town. Administration buildings for Midori Sankaku would be located on Akiko’s back farmland.

  In January, Akiko sold her farmland but not the house. As a full-time nurse, she didn’t have time to tend the fields anyway, but it would take many months for the details to work out. The administration buildings wouldn’t be built for another two years.

  “At least we have the pine trees to block the noise. I’m sure Akiko will hear most of it.”

  “Where is she again?” Mom asked, pulling more boxes of food from her picnic basket.

  “She’s at a conference all week in Kobe.”

  I took a moment between bites to stretch out my arms. Mom and I had spent the morning in the fields, turning the soil, adding compost, and preparing for a second planting. I lived at home during the week, working most mornings outside, and then spending my afternoons in town getting my new tea shop ready for opening in two weeks. My body ached in places I didn’t know existed.

  “Did you hear from my contact in Kumamoto?” Goro asked Yasahiro, passing him a pair of chopsticks and a bento box. Usually it was Yasahiro handing out the food, so it was nice to see him get a break for the day.

  “Yeah. Mei-chan and I are set to go this weekend. We know where we’ll camp, and we’ll be helping people recover lost items from their houses for the week.”

  Chiyo brought her hands to prayer position. “I’ll be waiting by the phone every day to hear from your mother on how you’re doing.”

  “We’ll be fine,” I reassured her. “There haven’t been aftershocks there recently. We’ll be extra careful.”

  Yasahiro and I were both struck by the hardship of everyone in Kumamoto during the earthquake in April, so we decided to volunteer with relief efforts once we aligned our schedules. Though it wasn’t the best time to drop everything and go (I still had plenty to do to get the tea shop up and running), it was better for us to volunteer before the tea shop was open for business. I would be the tea shop’s only employee for the first year, so vacation time would be minimal.

  “I felt it was my duty to go, to help in some way. I’ve been very fortunate.” When Yasahiro spoke this way, my heart grew three sizes. It was something I loved about him. He knew how good he had it, but he never took that for granted.

  “Me too.” I squeezed his knee, but he laughed. Probably because he wanted to argue with me again about how I needed to be more self-ish not self-less. But he knew that wasn’t me. I’d always put his or other people’s needs in front of my own.

  “We leave on Sunday, and we’ll be there through Friday.”

  “Back in time to finish a few things and open Oshabe-cha.” I opened my bento box and dug into the fried shrimp.

  Kumi laughed. “I still love that name. It’s perfect. I should have your signage ready by the time you return from Kumamoto.”

  The name Oshabe-cha came to me in a daydream one day. I was lingering in the space imagining everyone sitting around drinking tea and chatting, warm and happy that my idea was coming to fruition. Oshaberu is the Japanese verb for “chatting” and cha is “tea.” Made perfect sense. Kumi designed signs for the front window and menus for inside. My plan was to open every day from 11:00 to 18:00, which would give me time to help my elderly clients in the mornings and evenings, then entertain many of them during the day in the safe and warm environment of my tea shop. I was so looking forward to it.

  I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to the seven hour shinkansen ride to Kumamoto (bullet train rides that long bore the heck out of me), but our trip together would be rewarding.

  “I hope we can make a difference to people in Kumamoto while we’re there.” Gazing at city hall, I imagined the relief work we’d do, spending time with people in shelters or helping to cook food. I’d do my best to lend whatever help I could.

  “I’m sure you’ll make a difference to someone while you’re there,” Chiyo said, nodding her head in a swift, definitive gesture. Her demeanor always ranged on positive, her mood a sunny day even if clouds threatened her world. “Many people have left and tried to find work, even come as far as here on a few tanks of gas. Just the other day, we had a group at the bathhouse, two families, who were traveling together to Hokkaido for work. All the belongings they had left from their houses were in their two vans.” Chiyo shook her head, sadness washing over her eyes.

  “We treated them to dinner after their baths. It was the least we could do.” Kumi squeezed Chiyo’s hand.

  I didn’t realize people would come through our town on their journey from Kumamoto. Kumamoto was a fourteen hour car ride away, which was why we were taking the train and renting a car once we arrived.

  “I hope and pray they make it to their destination safely,” I said, taking a moment to form a silent prayer for them.

  Mom waved to a few people at the next blanket over as they gathered up their picnic.

  “It’s almost time to get on with the day,” she said, prompting us to eat.

  We dug into our meals, picking up light and easy conversation for the rest of the stay. My thoughts wandered from Kumamoto, to Yasahiro, to my elderly clients like Murata, Yamida, and my newest clients, Ryōta Hase and his wife, to Oshabe-cha, and to my paintings. So much was going on, and I liked being busy. I liked having a direction in life.

  Things were normalizing, and after being fired from my job and not having anything, it was comforting to have this security. I looked over at Yasahiro and he smiled at me, his lips forming that grin I adored. I didn’t know who to thank for this luck, but I would hold onto it and not take it for granted.

  Any good luck I had could all disappear tomorrow.

  Purchase The Daydreamer Detective Opens A Tea Shop now!

  Also in the Miso Cozy Mysteries Series

  The Daydreamer Detective

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  The Daydreamer Detective Braves The Winter

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  Ozoni and Onsens: A Daydreamer Detective Novella

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  The Daydreamer Detective Opens A Tea Shop

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  The Daydreamer Detective Returns A Favor

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  Learn more about the Nogiku Series

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  About the Author

  Stephanie (S. J.) is a writer, knitter, amateur astrologer, Capricorn, and Japanophile. She loves foxes, owls, sushi, yoga pants, Evernote, and black tea. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing or spending time outside, unless it’s winter. She hates winter. Someday she’ll own a house in both hemispheres so she can avoid the season entirely. She’s a mom to two great kids and lives with her husband and family outside NYC. They have no pets. Yet. When it comes to her work, expect the unexpected. She doesn’t write anything typical.