Page 58 of Daikon

THIRTY-FOUR

THEY HEADED SOUTH AND EAST toward Asakusa, instinctively drawn toward the place where their home had once stood, Keizo Kan staggering with his arm around Petty Officer Yagi.

They had reached the drained pond on the edge of Ueno Park when Keizo’s legs gave out completely and he sank to his knees.

Yagi went off in search of water, leaving him lying on the grass, Noriko cradling his head.

“What happened to you?” she said, anguished, looking into his face. “How did you hurt your hand? Why are you sick?”

He wanted to tell her everything, the whole story, but in his exhaustion it all seemed like a jumble.

“There was a bomb,” he began. “A plane crashed in Yamaguchi Prefecture. An American plane. I was called to the Ministry of War.” He fell silent.

He did not know how to continue. He needed a few minutes to rest.

He looked up into her face. It was so thin. And the lines of stress… He knew she had suffered. But in her eyes, gazing down into his—behind the sadness he saw tenderness and love. It was a look he had not seen in a long time.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better husband to you.”

“No, don’t say that.” Tears came into Noriko’s eyes. “It was me. I couldn’t—”

Her voice broke. She lowered her head until their foreheads were touching. They sat silent together as their souls reconnected.

“Do you remember when we came here with Aiko?” Keizo said after a time. “We rented a boat. There were lotus blossoms everywhere. And the elephant took your handkerchief at the zoo.”

Noriko smiled at the memory. “It’s all so different now,” she said, looking around.

There was no longer water in the pond. It had been transformed into a rice paddy.

And Ueno Zoo, visible off to the left, the screen of trees scorched and leafless—it had been closed two years before, in anticipation of the air raids. All the animals had been killed.

Yagi returned with some water, which revived Keizo a little. The navy man sprawled on the grass beside him and took out his crumpled cigarette pack.

“Last one.”

He cast the empty pack aside and lit the bent cigarette, drew in a lungful of smoke and gazed up at the sky. He passed it to Kan for a puff, then took another.

“Well,” he sighed, “I suppose that does it for me. Hitting a kempei soldier… We should split up.”

He watched a cloud drifting by low overhead. At least he had a little money in his pocket. If he could scrounge up more vegetables, he could do more buying and selling. And he still had his dice.

A distant flash, like lightning on the horizon, illuminated the sky in Yagi’s peripheral vision.

He turned to look.

He sat up.

He rose to his feet, gazing intently toward the east.

“Look at that.”

In the direction of the flash the sky was showing the subtle hues of a rainbow, reds and greens and yellows and purples. The ethereal display lingered for a moment, then faded away.

“Did you see that?” he said, turning to them.

“Was it lightning?” asked Noriko.

A smile spread across Yagi’s face. He slapped his knee and let out a laugh. “It worked! Do you see that, Sensei? I told you I did it right!”

“What was it?” said Noriko.

Yagi was looking down at Kan. “I told you I did it right! Didn’t I tell you? We did it!”

Kan was nodding, his eyes on the sky where the colors had been. He looked up at Yagi. “I think you’re right. We did it.”

Noriko was looking at them both now. “What did you do?”

“Top secret,” said Yagi. “You’ll have to ask your husband to tell you.”

He took a final drag on the cigarette, his chin thrust triumphantly into the air, then ground the butt into the dirt.

“Well, I’d better be off.”

Keizo struggled to sit up. “But where will you go?”

Yagi looked around at the desolate city—burned-out buildings, empty lots, rice growing in a manicured pond that had been an urban attraction.

The side of his mouth rose in a crooked smile. “ Humph . I have no idea.”

He adjusted his shirt, smoothed down his hair, put on his cap.

“Well, so long,” he said, laying his hand on Keizo’s shoulder. He gave it a final pat and was gone.

Keizo watched him head off down the street, then settled back, his head on Noriko’s lap. His eyes drifted closed. His body relaxed. He allowed himself to be carried away by fatigue.

“Keizo… Keizo, are you all right?” Noriko’s voice sounded distant, but at the same time very close.

He smiled and nodded. The pain from his injured hand was receding, along with the anxiety, along with the fear. He was with Noriko again. Nothing else mattered. They were together in this moment. Peace was descending upon him. The world was put right.

Was this what it felt like to be dying?

The gentle touch of Noriko’s hand, stroking his forehead. A hint of breeze on his face. The earth warm under his back. Then something else, a presence that seemed to embrace them, suffusing the dark behind his eyelids with an expanding, welcoming, loving marigold glow.

He opened his eyes and looked up at his wife.

“I can feel Aiko,” he whispered. “I know she’s all right.”

Tears of joy welled up in Noriko’s eyes. Then her face crumpled in a look of anguish.

She broke down, clutching him in her arms.

“Oh, please don’t leave me,” she wept. “Please don’t go. I couldn’t bear it. I need you. Garbo loves Taylor!”

He raised his hand and brushed the tears from her cheek.

“And Taylor loves Garbo. Taylor loves Garbo so much.”