lying there in the dark I wonder if Jake’s list of what we didn’t do is the same as my list which is end the texting talk with you laugh with you listen to you include you which seems so basic and short I keep thinking there must be something else
in the morning Baachan still has those eyebrows way up gives me extra work shadows me won’t let me go to the groves keeps me with her on the roof hanging laundry in the gardens watering on an errand to the tofu shop like my very first days in Kohama she doesn’t ask about the friend who wrote doesn’t talk about Jake’s letter doesn’t mention it all morning but finally as I rinse the rice for lunch I tell her who it’s from and what it says
Baachan nods and grunts and mutters and we eat lunch and I go up to the groves but when I come back down end of the day she says shouldn’t you maybe consider telling this Jake boy to write to that girl , Lisa?
that night I check email and with still no reply from Lisa about my photos I decide to do what Baachan suggests— write another letter to Jake and tell him how quiet Lisa has been online how I know she feels bad how I think words from him might help I start to write it out on paper then turn on the computer and this time I send it by email
then wait
okay he emails back in the morning, his night nothing else
M id-August is the regular Obon holiday with most of Japan off work and even Yurie home two days midweek Uncle and Aunt keep working saying they’ve had their summer break Kohama Obon but Koichi and Yurie and I are free to play
so we put mats, snorkels, masks, towels and three of Baachan’s bento lunches in Koichi’s car blast music as we drive down the west coast of the peninsula curve after curve of cliff high above the sea Yurie puts her hands in the air and sways to the music and the curves I’ve never seen her this way relaxed fun acting young
we arrive at a crescent beach edged by a village of yellow and blue and red roofs and backed by mountains and flanked by craggy bluffs on both sides I think I might just stay here forever
we change then drop our bags onto mats we set on the sand and Koichi points to a float takes his mark like the start of a race says yoi … don! and we three fly to the water charge splash forward dive under swim crawl hard as we can out to the float we climb up rub our eyes catch our breath but not for long … Koichi shoves us off dives over us and when we come up for air says race! and we swim the crawl hard back to shore
later he hands us masks and snorkels leads us down the beach to where there are rocks offshore we fit our masks adjust our snorkels start to swim but Koichi stops yells then Yurie stops yells then I stop yell as we are stung by jellyfish and we race! for real back to shore
at the first-aid tent they say the jellyfish are early this year we rub ointment on our stings return to our mats and after eating Baachan’s bento lunches of all five proper colors we make sand castles with moats and turrets and tunnels and shell windows then I treat us all to heaping bowls of shaved ice with sweet azuki
I would have stayed here forever if not for the jellyfish I say and Yurie says as she lies back on a mat and closes her eyes she might stay forever anyway
while they doze I go up to the shops behind the seawall and buy postcards old discolored cards with shots from different villages showing Mount Fuji in a different season with snow on its peak I address one to Emi anyhow but instead of words I draw a picture: crescent beach mountains bluffs village roofs me with ballooning