by D M Arnold
“Oh, it's you.” She removed the towel and began using it to dry her hair.
“Hello korlyta. I'm sorry to call at a bad moment. The time conversion is very confusing. The most remarkable thing happened. I met a woman named Sukiko Kyhana. I think she might be a relative.”
“It sounds like a coincidence to me.”
“She's Japanese. I've shown you the photoimage of Koichi. She looks like him.”
“She must be a very homely woman.”
“That's not what I meant. She has Koichi's features -- the black hair, the yellow-brown complexion and the eyes. She also has a pin with our family crest. She said her grandfather designed it.”
“You mean this?” Senta pointed to the crest tattooed onto her arm.
“Yes, that. She said the three symbols spell the name Kyhana. Ky-Ha-Na. I'm curious to know how closely we're related.”
Senta flipped her hair from the towel. “If you'd like to know for sure, try to get a DNA sample. You can send it in a stasis capsule along with your cultures. I'd be glad to sequence it for you and we can look for common genetic markers.”
“Senta, there must be over two hundred generations separating her from me. How good of a match can you expect, especially given the interbreeding in the early years?”
“We can go into the sequencing archives. They must go back at least fifty generations. Let me check.” Nyk's vidphone screen went blank as Senta suspended the session. He saw her image reappear. “Yes, we can easily lop off one hundred generations using these records, maybe more. The Kyhana records are remarkably well preserved. We have a sequence file on Gordo Kyhana, who lived about thirty-three hundred years ago. That'll get us closer.”
“How do you suggest I obtain a sample?”
“Maybe you can collect a hair or two. You shouldn't have too much trouble engineering such an encounter. One with the root intact would be all we need -- so, if you do get hold of a sample, send it along. Now I must go to work.” Senta slipped into her tunic.
“I'll see you later, korlyta. ” Nyk said as the screen went blank.
* * *
Nyk placed his tray on a table in the union dining room. Suki slipped off her coat and sat across from him. “I look forward to lunch here with you,” he said.
“So do I. The past three weeks have flown by. When we sit and talk together, I feel almost like a normal human being.”
Nyk regarded her. “You don't appear to have any abnormalities.”
“No, my abnormalities are inside.”
“Do you suffer from some internal disorder?”
She giggled. “They're inside my head.”
“Oh... If you have troubles you'd like to talk about, I'd be happy to listen. Sometimes talking about a problem is the easiest way to make it go away.”
“That's sweet. Maybe, sometime. I'll warn you, Nick. You should be careful what you offer -- someone might take you up on it.” She placed her hand on his forearm. He gazed into her eyes and she slowly retracted her hand and looked down at her tray.
Nyk ate his chili in silence. He glanced up. “Suki?”
“Nick?” she said simultaneously. She smiled. “You go first.”
“Suki, would you agree prepare an Indian meal for me? You said it was no fun making it for yourself, and it sounds like something I'd like to try.”
She looked past him for a moment. “Okay, how about Saturday night at six, my place. Do you know where the faculty apartments are?”
Nyk nodded. “Yes.”
“Building 3, apartment 2A. You don't have to bring anything.”
* * *
Nyk picked up a sample vial and some forceps from the lab, slipped them into his pocket and headed toward the faculty-housing complex. His route took him past the grocery and he walked in.
The place was old and had an air of not being quite clean. A faint, sour smell of something rotten permeated the place and Nyk was repelled by it. He noticed a bucket with fresh flowers and bought a bouquet.
Sensing a mix of eagerness and apprehension, he approached her building. Outside the door was an array of buttons. He pressed the one beneath a label reading “S Kyhana.” A buzz and a click came from the door latch. He entered, walked up the stairs and saw Suki waiting at her apartment door. “Howdy stranger -- come on in.”
Her apartment was small and warm. Nyk looked around and saw a pair of watercolors of nude female torsos on the wall. The place was sparsely furnished with institutional furniture. The living room sofa and chairs were pushed to the walls and a cloth and some cushions lay in the middle of the living room floor. Eerie music came from somewhere.
A mixture of strong scents filled the air. Suki was barefoot and wearing a tank top and a pair of running shorts. Nyk regarded her from head to toe.
“Should I remove my shoes?” he asked.
“No need,” she replied. “I'm sorry about the heat. They can't seem to do anything about it.”
“This feels fine to me. It reminds me of home.”
“Home?”
“I come from a warm climate.”
He presented the flowers to her and she regarded them. “I hope you don't have any ideas about starting a relationship.”
“The flowers are a gift. I cannot accept hospitality without bringing a gift.”
Suki blushed. “I'm so sorry, Nick. It's my defenses again, please forgive me. Thank you, they're lovely.” She found a jar to serve as a vase and set them on the counter. She nodded toward the living room. “I've prepared a northern Indian dinner. We're going to enjoy this meal Indian-style. Indians take their meals on the floor and they eat with their hands. If you'd like to wash first, the bathroom's over there.”
While using the sink he noticed a hairbrush on the vanity. With his forceps he extracted four jet-black hairs clinging to the bristles and put them into the vial. He replaced the brush and slipped the sample into his pocket. Nyk returned to her living room.
Suki brought out two battered looking dinner plates, on which were some glass custard cups containing the various entrees. “This is thali-style service,” she said, “... typical for north India. I don't have a real thali, so I had to improvise, but you get the idea.”
She placed the plates on the cloth, brought out a bowl mounded with yellow rice and another plate with some flat bread. Then, she assumed the lotus position. Nyk sat and attempted to cross his legs.
“You don't have to sit like this if it's uncomfortable,” she said. “Use the cushions. This position is natural for me, because I meditate -- or I used to. Lately my head's been so full of crap... I can't empty myself of thoughts, so I find myself meditating on how miserable I am and end up feeling worse than when I began.” She pointed to the custard cups and identified the various entrees, the bread and saffron rice. “I forgot to provide drinks. Would you like some beer? It goes well with Indian food.”
“No alcohol, please.”
She brought a pair of glasses filled with a ruby-red fizzy liquid. “This is an Indian soft drink.” She resumed her lotus posture. “Now I'll show you how Indians eat with their hands. The right hand is reserved for eating, the left is for hygiene.” She demonstrated the technique. “I believe part of the dining experience is eating the way the natives do. When I cook Chinese, we use chopsticks.”
Nyk started with a bit of dahl makhni mixed with rice. The flavors were such a far cry from the bland fare of his homeworld, even though the ingredients were familiar ones. The blend of spices exploded in his mouth. “This is so different from what I am accustomed.” he said.
“Are the spices too much for you? It's easy to be overwhelmed if you're not accustomed.”
“I'm doing just fine. Where do you find the ingredients for this?”
“We're fortunate to have an Indian spice shop within walking distance, just down the street from the university. There are a lot of Indians on the school faculty. Maybe you'd like to walk over there with me sometime.”
“I certainly would.”
* * *
Nyk helped Suki return the sofa and chairs to their original places. “Thank you for dinner,” he said. “It was delicious and I truly enjoyed it.”
“Thank you for suggesting it. It was my pleasure, and it helped take my mind off my troubles. I've had a lot on my mind lately.”
“Would you like to tell me about your troubles? I'd be more than happy to listen.”
“You're not heeding my warning, Nick. Maybe... But not right now.”
“How did you become an expert in comparative religion and mythology?”
“I'm not. I'm an archeologist -- a historian. My specialty is ancient Sumeria. For my PhD thesis I prepared a translation of newly discovered clay tablets containing a version of the Gilgamesh myth. I translated it from the cuneiform.” She stood and took a small, flat box from a shelf and handed it to him. He opened it and saw a shard of pottery with odd impressions. “Cuneiform. This is a piece I found on a dig in Syria during graduate school. They let me keep it. It's nothing too important, just a piece of household inventory from a merchant-class family. It dates to approximately 3500 BC, making it about 5,500 years old.”
“This is amazing, Suki.” The artifact was as old as Koichi's journal. He returned the box to her. She replaced it on the shelf and resumed sitting beside him.
He looked into her face. “How did you end up here, teaching those courses?” He held eye contact until she broke it.
“I ... I came here to get away from it all.”
“Get away from what?”
“I have a past, Nick, and not a happy one.”
“Are you running away from something?” he asked.
“...Yes.”
“Did you commit a crime -- steal something? Kill someone, perhaps?”
“No, nothing like that.”
He looked into her face. “I didn't think you capable of such. Maybe you had an affair with a politician that went wrong.”
“Of course not,” she giggled.
“Did you intentionally and unrepentantly injure another?”
“No, Nick -- I'm the injured party.”
“Then tell me about it. It won't change my opinion of you.”
“I don't want to bother you with my problems.”
“It's not a bother. Let me share your troubles, to lighten your load.”
She buried her face in her hands, and then looked up. “All right. I'll make another deal with you. You tell me your sad, sad story, and I'll tell you mine.”
Nyk looked into her eyes again. “I don't have too much to tell.”
“Where's your home town?” she asked.
“... My birth certificate says Augusta, Georgia, but I don't have a home town. I grew up in the country, in a house on a bluff overlooking the sea. I was an only child.”
“Down south?”
“Yes, the southeast -- near a small city on the coast.”
“Your warm climate. I thought I detected a trace of a southern accent in your speech. It's quite charming.”
“I had few friends growing up, being isolated the way we were. I flunked out of my first college, then I went back to study botany. I work for FloranCo on a ten-month assignment manning their field lab. They provide me with a house and living expenses, as well as a salary.”
“Tell me about your family, Nick.”
“It's just my wife and I. We don't have any children.”
“Do you miss her? What's her name?”
“Her name's... Cindy. Yes, I miss her. I'm not sure she misses me, though. She's a geneticist, a microbiologist. She's a brilliant woman, the head of genetic sequencing in our organization. It's a very important position. She has plenty to keep her busy, and lots of friends.” Nyk looked down. “I'll bet she hardly notices I'm gone. She's had a long string of lovers -- both men and women.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“It shouldn't bother me, but it does.”
“It must bother you, or you wouldn't have brought it up.”
“We both believe what two consenting adults do while they're by themselves is no one else's business. I truly do believe that. She was like this before we married. She didn't think our marriage was any reason to alter her social life.”
“Do you love her?”
“... I don't know... I thought I did, but lately I've had my doubts. It's funny, Suki. You and I have known each other for three weeks and I feel more comfortable talking with you than with her. There are times I'll look up at her and ask myself -- who is this person? I'll wonder if our marriage wasn't a big mistake.” He brushed a tear from his face. “Her behavior does hurt me. I'm pained to know I can't satisfy her -- that I've never lived up to her expectations.”
“How did you two meet?”
“I've known her a long time, since we were children. She's the stepdaughter of an old friend of my dad's. My earliest recollection of her was when I was three and she was five ... I think she married me out of pity. I was so lonely and miserable after my parents were killed.”
“I'm sorry to hear that,” she said. “How did your parents die?”
“They died in a ... plane crash. That was ... eight years ago. Aside from Cindy, I'm alone in the universe.” Nyk looked down and saw Suki was holding his hand. He patted the back of hers. “That's all right with me. I do well by myself. Maybe it's the reason I applied for this assignment. I'm sorry, Suki. I've made it sound like I'm unhappy. I'm not.”
“Not unhappy isn't the same as happy,” she said. “Are you happy?”
“I'm happy enough. I don't think my sad, sad story's all that sad.”
“Well, my story will make up for it.” She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. “I want to set the record straight between us. I'm not interested in relationships -- not right now. I'm not looking for a boyfriend. I'm a lesbian.” She looked into his eyes. “I'm not saying that to blow you off, Nick. You're a nice guy, and I like you. I'm saying it because it's the truth, and I want to make sure we understand each other. I hope it doesn't bother you.”
Nyk shook his head once. “Should it?” he asked. “We can be friends, can't we?”
“It bothers some people. It bothers my father. After I finished graduate school, my father insisted I get married, in an arranged marriage like the old days in Japan. He wanted an heir, someone to pass the crest to. We fought about it and I finally relented. I married the son of one of his business associates.”
“He wished to bind your line to his associate's.”
“I don't know why he insisted. I think he was trying to make a point, that I'm not really a lesbian. It didn't work. The marriage was a disaster. I was never attracted to the guy. I had to grit my teeth in bed. My husband started abusing me, hitting me. One day, we had a big fight and he beat me -- he beat the tar out of me. I ran home to my parents and my mother took photos of my injuries. I had two black eyes and bruises all over. She called the police and they arrested the guy. We got a restraining order and I filed for divorce, which, of course was granted.”
Tears were starting to well up in her eyes. “My father blamed me! He blamed me for not trying hard enough, for not being attractive enough! He insisted I marry again. We had a huge argument. This time I refused and I told him I am absolutely resolute. I told him I am a lesbian, I will never marry another man, I will never even sleep with another man, and that the Kyhana family line will die with me!” She stroked tears from her face.
“Then, my father said, 'To me, you're dead already,' and he threw me out of my childhood home. I haven't been back nor spoken with my parents since.”
“So, you came here.”
“No! There's more! I had nowhere to go. I knew of a friend with whom I had a brief affair during grad school. Alice was her name. I called Alice and asked her if she could put me up for a while. She agreed. I moved in and it turned out she was just as abusive as my ex-husband. Only in her case, it wasn't physical -- it was emotional abuse. She called me names -- she did everything to break my spirit and to mak
e me submit.
“After a year of this, I wanted out. I couldn't go home, I wasn't on speaking terms with my father. I started circulating my resume on the sly, looking for a position, anything away from the City. I hadn't used my degree in three years, and that didn't help. Finally, this college saw my Gilgamesh translation and offered me a two-year contract as a lecturer. I sneaked out of her apartment in the middle of the night. I spent the rest of the night at the airport and came here with what I could carry. Luckily, it's a furnished apartment.
“So, I'm here by myself. It's hard for me. I've never been alone before. I mean, really alone with no one to turn to. This community seems so closed. Everyone here has their own family and circle of friends. I do feel like a stranger in a strange land.” She stood, turned from him and pressed her fist to her lips.
Nyk stood and placed his hand on her shoulder. “If you ever need a shoulder to cry upon, use mine. Consider it another gift.”
She turned to face him. “Oh, Nick...” He opened his arms to her and she fell against him. “I'm so afraid,” she sobbed. “I'm not strong ... I'm all alone ... I miss my mother ... I'm such a mess...”
He held her and felt the warmth of her body against his. “You've been mistreated, Suki -- you didn't deserve it,” he said, putting his lips to the top of her head and inhaling the scent of her hair. “No one deserves mistreatment.” He smoothed his hand along the back of her head and down her hair. “It's okay to let it out.” Nyk cried with her. “Let it all out.” Suki wept against him as he held her and caressed the back of her head. “Let me be your friend. You said we strangers must stick together. If you're ever alone and afraid, call me.”
She looked into his eyes and stroked one of his tears off his face with her finger. “You're sweet,” she said and kissed his cheek. “I'm so sorry. This evening didn't end the way I expected. Nick, I will have you as my friend if you'll have me as yours. I hope you know what you're getting into.”
He thought, so do I.