by Carrie Asai
“Get her up to the front of the store!”
“Does anyone have a camera?”
“Is it really her or is it an imposter?”
I looked desperately for the door. There it was.
“Suki, get over here, it’s Heaven Kogo! Yes, from the song and the newspapers!”
Kaori was still nowhere to be seen. I made a mad dash, kneeing and elbowing some people on the way. Hands dragged me back.
“No!” I screamed. I thrashed around, then planted quick blows to shoulders. People recoiled. I saw an opening ahead. “Let…me…out!”
The opening closed up with people. I ducked down, shinobi-iri style, staying close to the ground. I wove through the legs quickly, managing to get outside.
On the street I looked right and left. I had to move fast. I slunk next to the wall and found a shadow. As the crowd followed me, I slipped into an alleyway. It worked. Everyone rushed right by, thinking I was still ahead on the street.
I breathed heavily. For a minute my eyes couldn’t adjust to the light. And then all five senses kicked in. I could feel that someone was there.
Something told me to run.
Then two people stepped into the light.
A huge, pockmarked guy. Looked yakuza. Holding a gun. And…standing next to him…Kaori.
“Ohhh…,” I said, stepping back.
“Heav-en!” Kaori called in a sickeningly sweet voice. I started to run.
“Come back here!” Kaori screamed, the sweet voice gone.
I tore through the streets. It had been a setup. What an idiot I was! I ran around a woman pushing a baby carriage and dashed across the street, nearly getting hit by a car. Someone on the next block almost plowed me down with his bicycle.
“Oioi!” he screamed. Hey!
I turned back. Kaori and the thug were hot on my tail. I heard shots ring out. Did he want to kill me? I looked ahead—oh God. The throng from the record store! Somehow I’d doubled back…and…there they were again!
“It’s her!” said a girl in the lead.
I was cornered. I didn’t know where to go. The Hard Rock Café loomed right in front of me. I had no choice but to go in.
I whirled inside to the sight of what seemed like thousands of American tourists sitting at glittery tables eating hamburgers and fries. A bunch of Japanese teenagers playing hooky stood at the bar, drinking Cokes. I looked right and left. The throng stood only feet away, outside, confused as to where I’d disappeared.
I gritted my teeth.
“May I help you?” the smiley, pixie-faced hostess asked me.
I shook my head and looked around.
I couldn’t believe Kaori’s expression back there. She was full-fledged yakuza. She might have been a dancer or a prostitute in a past life, but she’d had no intention of leaving Japan. It had all been a story just to get me off the train.
I wondered if there was a back way out of here. I could sneak out, grab the train, and then go up to Adventist on my own….
Wait. Was my father even in that hospital?
“Oh God,” I said, spreading my arms, trying to figure out which way to go. But before I could decide, the yakuza thug burst through the revolving doors, waving a gun around.
Everyone in the restaurant except for me began to scream and climb under the tables. The hostess rushed off to the back room, maybe to summon the manager.
“Don’t move,” the thug said, staring at me. He ran up and grabbed me around my waist and swung me around so that my back was to his chest. The gun barrel nestled cozily to my temple.
The revolving door slid around again. Here came Kaori with her hands on her hips. She held a knife in her left hand.
“You can’t escape,” Kaori said.
“He’s not even in Adventist, is he?” I spat.
She shook her head and laughed. “Oh, Heaven,” she said. “You’re so naive. You believe anything anyone tells you.”
“Bitch,” I muttered.
She continued to laugh. “And we all know, Heaven, that your father is completely incapacitated. He can’t move! He can’t breathe on his own! She’s told me time and again there’s no hope for him! How is he going to help you or give me money? How is he going to…oh…sic his thugs on me?” She threw her head back in laughter. “You’re so ridiculous.”
I lunged at her, kicking out my legs. My foot missed her by about an inch. “Who told you there’s no hope?” I shrieked. Kaori had said she.
“Hey, settle down,” snarled the thug with the gun, pulling me closer.
“No!” I screamed. “I won’t shut up!”
The crowd had reached us by now and had all piled into the restaurant. Once they saw the gun, they stood back. They formed a loose circle around Masato’s thug and Kaori and me. One brave girl shouted, “What are you doing to her?”
“None of your damn business!” Kaori screamed, showing the knife to the crowd. “Leave, now!”
“Help me!” I screamed. “Someone! Call the police! Keisatsu! Where’s the manager?”
“Keisatsu,” Kaori said, laughing again. “The police. That’s a good one.”
The thug cocked the trigger and drove the gun further into my temple. I bit my lip. Then I saw Kaori look over at us and shake her head vigorously. What did that mean? She mouthed something. It looked like, It’s too crowded. Let’s take her back.
“What’s happening?” I said, my voice wavering.
I looked around frantically. I saw no Hard Rock staff members. Elvis buzzed loudly through the speakers, singing, I ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, as if this all wasn’t taking place. The patrons still crowded under their tables.
“Someone do something!” I screamed. “Please! Help!”
“All right, that’s enough,” the thug barked. His arms became tighter around me, and all at once a dull thud hit my head. The distinct scent of curly fries, slathered in ketchup, became very strong. Then the pain set in. And then I fell into a black, dreadful unconsciousness.
4
I was walking through the garden at my father’s house. There was a stone path surrounded by artfully crafted bonsai trees. Ahead I saw my old house. I wonder if Mieko is inside, I thought.
I began to walk toward the house. The leaves were falling rapidly off the trees. I looked at the window and saw Mieko’s silhouette—and someone else’s, too. I couldn’t make out who the other person was.
A figure stepped into my path. Teddy. “Hello,” he said. He wore his typical Teddy getup: oversized Ecko Unlimited shirt, low-rider dark denim pants, Adidas shell tops. “How’s my girl likin’ bein’ back in the crib?”
“What are you doing here?” I said in a hushed voice. “You’re supposed to be in hiding or something!”
“Am I?” he answered. “Who says so?”
“Remember? The police setup?”
“So you found out about your boy Hiro, huh?” He stroked his chin. I noticed he had the beginnings of a goatee. “Pretty rough, I’d say. Although I could’ve told you about it all along.”
“So why didn’t you?” I demanded, hands on hips. “How deeply is he involved in all this? Has it been a setup—me and Hiro—all along?”
“Nahhh,” Teddy said. “It’s just a coincidence.” He shrugged. “Actually, I have no idea.” He looked me up and down. “Damn, you lookin’fine, girl! Did I tell you last time I really like that thing you did with your hair?”
Something looked different about Teddy. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. And then I realized. He had a third eye, growing out of the center of his forehead. I heard Kaori’s yoga-chanting voice from somewhere, saying, Harness your third eye. Reach out to your third eye and you can channel peace. I reached out to touch Teddy’s third eye, but he instantly turned to molten lava, burning me on contact.
I screamed and then sat up in bed. I was covered in sweat.
Where was I?
I looked around. It was my room at Masato’s. I quickly flashed back to what I could remember: being surround
ed by Masato’s thugs, Kaori, pain, then nothing.
I felt woozy and my mouth was numb. They must’ve drugged me so I’d sleep for a while. I looked at my watch: 7:45. Even though it was dark, I wasn’t sure if it was A.M. or P.M.
Groggily, I lumbered to the bathroom. God, that dream had been weird. It had been like Teddy was, I don’t know, more realistic than people were in most dreams. I mean, aside from the third eye bit. But I’d felt like he was right there next to me, actually talking to me. I’d thought I felt his hand take mine; I’d thought I felt the leaves under my feet.
I stared at myself in the mirror. Lovely. Another black eye. I groaned. How stupid had I been to include Kaori in my plans? I’d thought that she seriously wanted out—who in their right mind would want to be an errand girl for creepy Masato? But God, I’d known better, and I’d gone along with it anyway. All this time something had been telling me that Kaori was trouble, but I’d let the emotion of possibly seeing my father get in the way….
All the progress I’d made with assessing and controlling situations—I’d managed to overpower Shigeto and maybe help him with his drug problem back in L.A., all because of harnessing my haragei. Now I felt like I was back to square one. I could imagine Hiro pursing his lips and shaking his head.
Hiro’s gorgeous lips. I wanted to start crying again.
A knock sounded at my door. I raised my head. Great. Was this the firing squad? What were they going to do to me? Haragei, I told myself. Get control. Activate every nerve. I had to get out of here, and I had to formulate a solid plan that would get me out fast.
Before I could open the door, Kaori whisked through. “Hello!” she cried. “How are we this morning?”
I didn’t answer. “Bitch,” I muttered under my breath.
She carried a tray of tea and udon and dumplings. “I brought you some stuff—you were really knocked out! Must’ve been tired. Get a good rest?”
I looked suspiciously at the tray. “Is this stuff poisoned?”
Kaori looked genuinely shocked. “Of course not! How could you say such a thing?”
My God, she was weird. “Come off it, Kaori,” I said. “Why should I even speak to you? And stop patronizing me with that pathetic act of yours.”
Kaori sat down on the bed. “Look, I’m just doing my job. You understand now that if you don’t cooperate, you’ll force us to make your life miserable. And we don’t want that. We want you to be comfortable while you’re here. Now, how about a massage today? I’ve scheduled us for a sea salt facial as well. It’s at three. Perhaps you want some time alone? I’ll see you then.”
“Why did you even string me along and get me on the train?” I asked, although I had a pretty good idea why.
Kaori turned, not answering. To torture me, that was why. I thought of that thug with the gun. Perhaps to get me in public and then…to kill me.
Oh my God.
I sat on my bed and gnashed my teeth for a while, realizing I hadn’t grilled Kaori about her little slip yesterday—what had she meant when she said, She’s told me there’s no hope for him? I was so forgetful. What, were they putting something in the water around here? I gulped.
I stood in the middle of the room and did some tai chi warm-ups to activate my nerves and heighten all my senses.
I had to get out of here.
I followed through with kicks and punches, pretending they were Mieko’s face. Was Mieko the she Kaori had meant? Mieko definitely was up to something. Why was I not allowed to see my father? What was the big cover-up? Why had Masato told me back in the States, “Your father is a strong man—he will recover,” and now he was totally anti the whole thing? My head spun.
I moved on to some roundhouse kicks, nearly knocking over a lamp. We just want you to be comfortable while you’re here. What if…I don’t know…what if they were slowly killing my father, or at least keeping him permanently in his coma, right under my nose, in a different Tokyo district? I stood completely still. I felt every nerve come alive. Something is wrong, my body said. Something is terribly wrong. I felt my haragei working.
“Oh, no,” I wailed, and shoved the door open, fluttering past Kaori, who was lying on the couch in the room right outside mine, reading a book.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
I didn’t answer her but fled down the stairs. I could hear Kaori following me. I reached the bottom and came upon the room where I’d met up with Mieko. I looked right and left. There were two different corridors—which way to go? I scrambled down one, sensing that Kaori was right behind me. I ran so quickly, I nearly tripped over my shoes. I wrenched open a door and behind it was Masato, working on a big computer.
“Heaven!” he said. “What a nice surprise. But I was not made aware that you would be visiting me.”
“I need to talk to you right now,” I said.
He smiled in a way that someone might smile if they were being given a thorough back massage. Calm, relaxed, Zen. “Ah, yes. Well, I’m a little busy.”
“What is going on around here?” I asked. “What are you doing to my father? Why was some guy with a gun following me yesterday?”
“All right,” Masato said. “Come in, we’ll have a little breakfast. I was just in the middle of mine.”
I followed him into his room. A large fruit salad on a tray was perched on the end of his desk. He had the weird big computer and a whole bunch of silver, high-tech-looking gadgets. About twenty television screens were on the left wall. They were all blank. Could those be the screens to the video cameras? I looked at them anxiously, waiting for a picture to pop up. None did.
“So, you are wondering about your father,” he said, weaving his hands together. “I realize this, Heaven. But you have to trust me. Your father is not dead, your father is not in danger. But you will be in danger if you try to see him. Did Mieko not explain this to you the other day?”
“No,” I said, dumbfounded. “She barely said anything to me at all!” As I said this, a thought glimmered through my head: He had known that Mieko was here. Whether he knew it or not, he’d just slipped, slightly. Before, he hadn’t let on that he knew she’d visited. They’re up to something together—I know it now.
“And that man was not intending to shoot at you,” he said, stabbing a piece of kiwi with a chopstick. “He was protecting you from the crowd. They were quite hostile, I hear?” He smiled slightly.
“Oh, that’s a good one,” I said. “Don’t insult me.”
He stayed silent for a moment, contemplatively chewing on a piece of mango. “Have you been able to relax at all? Members of our spa staff are among the top practitioners in Japan.”
I didn’t answer him. On his desk was this humungous diamond necklace. Seriously, the thing was as big as the Hope diamond. Why did he have it just lying there, unprotected? Didn’t he worry about it getting stolen? Was it fake? It sure didn’t look fake.
Masato continued. “You know, I am thinking of taking a business trip to Thailand quite soon,” he said. “Perhaps you would like to come. It would be a wonderful change of scenery for you.”
I wrenched my eyes away from the necklace. “I just want to see my father,” I said.
He shook his head. “Soon, Heaven. I assure you, doing so now would put you in danger.”
“Danger how?” I demanded to know. “In L.A. you said you would have answers soon. So what’s going on? Why can’t I know anything?”
“Kaori could come along too,” he said. “You two could girl talk together. How fun would that be?” He smiled and took a large bite of a pomegranate.
My mouth hung half open. This was like talking to a wall. I felt light-headed all of a sudden. Light-headed and trapped. This wasn’t helping me at all. I had to get out of here, fast.
My stomach growled; my worries about Kaori poisoning me had caused me to skip breakfast. As if I’d want to girl talk with her. I grabbed for a piece of pineapple. I took a gigantic chunk and shoved it into my mouth. Masato smiled icily.
&
nbsp; “Lovely,” he said. “Well, enjoy. And let me know what your thoughts are on Thailand. That is, if you’d like Kaori to come or not. Perhaps you’d like another person. Did you get along well with Greta, the masseuse?”
I stood in his doorway. And then, all of a sudden, I felt that weird nerve thing again. My whole body felt like it was connected to a megawatt tower. My eyes were on fire. Masato sat there, calmly eating his breakfast, looking at his computer. He’s doing something terribly wrong, the sense told me.
I saw my father lying on a bed. I saw Masato and Mieko standing around him, adding something to his IV drip. I didn’t see a doctor. My father’s eyes were shut; his limbs had grown weak. Masato and Mieko smiled at each other darkly.
And before I could control myself, I lunged back into his office with a flying kick to his head.
“Hey!” he shouted. I grabbed him around his neck and held him, but then, in a move I was unfamiliar with, he spun me around. Suddenly I was up in the air and he held me by the shoulders. Masato used one hand to press a button under his desk.
“Now you’ve gone too far,” he said.
I turned my shoulder and got out of his clutches, landing awkwardly on my ankle. I started battering him again, but suddenly his door flew open.
Two big guys with guns pointed at me stood, waiting.
I froze, breathing heavily.
Masato crossed his arms over his chest. “Will you ever learn?” he asked. He nodded to the guards. “Take her to her room,” he said. He shot me a sinister look. “No relaxing for you today!” Then he sat back down and ate another bite of fruit.
The guards seized me. I kicked and flailed, but they easily held on. “You’re killing him, aren’t you?” I screamed. “You and Mieko? You’re killing him! And I’m next!”
They put a blindfold over my face. And tape over my mouth. I screamed out muffled cries as they dragged me from the room.
They hauled me up the stairs and turned in a bunch of directions. Finally I felt them releasing my arms. I fell in a heap onto what felt like a pile of sweaters. I heard a door slam behind me. Quickly I tore off the blindfold and tape.