The Purple Heart (31 page)

Mr. Satoh saw what was
happening and immediately chased after Mr. Ito while the two mothers caught
Minami, who ran at full throttle into their arms. She was panting, desperately
trying to regain her breath when she blurted out, “Hiroshi?”

The mothers looked at one
another and Mrs. Ito said, “We said our goodbyes already. He was the last one
to get on the bus. He was waiting for you.”

Another torrent of guilt
washed over her as she thought to herself, “What kind of wife am I for not
saying goodbye to her husband going off to war?” Her body found renewed vigor
as she pulled herself away from her mother and mother-in-law. She raced toward
the fence yelling desperately Hiroshi’s name, hoping he would hear her. The
buses were still sitting there.

Minami flung herself into
the fence. Her delicate fingers gripped the wire fencing and she yelled out
Hiroshi’s name over and over again. But she was also tired and her voice didn’t
carry as far as it normally would.

Mr. Ito returned angrily to
his wife and Mrs. Satoh, as the rest of the family stood behind them. Mr. Satoh
was close behind. “The bastards, they won’t open the gate!” A disappointed look
came over everyone’s faces and their dismay was noticed by other people in the
crowd who realized what was going on as a chatter wormed its way through the
crowd. “Hiroshi’s wife didn’t have a chance to say goodbye,” along with, “She’s
too late.” People elicited gasps when they heard and their eyes trained on the
slender woman at the fence, calling out to her husband.

“No! No, no… come back,
Hiroshi!” said Minami as she swayed her head from side to side to express her
anguish. “Hiroshi! Hiroshi! Hiroshi!”

The Itos and the Satohs
looked helplessly at their daughter. She was too late. But Mr. Ito brushed
aside that thought. He needed to try, for his daughter’s sake. He looked at
everyone and then said, “We need to get his attention, and we need to think
fast before the bus drives away.” Suddenly Yoshi shot both of his hands into
the air and shouted, “Home run!”

Mr. Ito put his son’s hands
down and said, “Not now, Yoshi.” But Mrs. Ito suddenly looked at Yoshi, grabbed
both of his arms and pulled Yoshi onto his tiptoes as he winced in pain. She
looked excitedly at everyone and said, “Home run!” A moment of realization shot
through everyone except for Mr. Ito, who looked entirely confused. Everyone
then went to work and scattered among the crowd.

Minami dug her forehead
into the wire fencing and thought that maybe if she tried hard enough, she
could squeeze right through it and run to the bus. But she couldn’t. She
continued to yell out Hiroshi’s name desperately. Then her heart skipped a beat
when the engines of the buses roared to life and rumbled steadily. “No!
Hiroshi!” she yelled. There were three buses. The first bus began to roll off
and the second bus followed. She looked desperately at the last bus and yelled
out again, “Wait! Wait! Wait!” but then the last bus started to turn its
wheels. “No! No! No! Hiroshi, don’t leave yet!” Minami’s insides crumbled as
her eyes closed tightly shut as her voice trailed off, “No! No! no…”

But then the last bus
sputtered to a stop and the sound of shifting gears could be heard. Minami
looked up. She saw a pair of shoes drop to the ground on the other side from
underneath the bus. It ran to the end of the bus and Minami’s heart fluttered
anew. The shoes stopped and they slowly walked around the corner. The man
looked out to the crowd of people and then turned his head toward Minami. It
was Hiroshi.

Minami’s face suddenly
flooded with excitement as she saw him. He first took a couple of guarded steps
toward Minami. “Hiroshi!” shouted Minami with a yearning in her voice.
Suddenly, Hiroshi was running at full speed toward her. He slammed into the
fence as they desperately wove their fingers together through the heartless wire
fencing. They pressed their bodies up against one another as their lips found
each other’s. Minami’s lips were salty, but Hiroshi didn’t care as Minami
muttered, “I’m sorry.”

Hiroshi responded softly,
“Don’t be, you’re here now.”

“You heard me,” asked
Minami.

Hiroshi looked over to his
left and saw the crowd of people, many of whom were weeping and said, “Actually
no, but a wave caught my attention.”

“I love you Hiroshi, I love
you so much,” blurted out Minami.

“I love you too. I promise
I will take care of myself. I will write and before you’ll know it, I’ll be
back.”

“Do you promise to come
back?” Minami knew that it was a futile question but she just needed to hear
him say it.

“I promise, I will always
be in your heart,” said Hiroshi.

“I’ll miss you,” said a
tearful Minami.

Hiroshi just admired the
face of his beautiful young wife and looked deeply into her wondrous eyes. “I’m
already missing you.”

“Just come back safe,” said
Minami.

They leaned into one
another as their foreheads touched and they just held that position for all the
remaining moments they still had left. The bus honked. The first two buses had
already rolled out of sight, leaving only Hiroshi’s bus.

“I have to go now,” said
Hiroshi sadly. Saying goodbye was so tough–but he was determined to come back.

“I know,” said Minami
softly.

She leaned up and kissed
him longingly once more. And the young couple kissed until Hiroshi, reluctantly
and gently, pulled away, unlacing his fingers from Minami’s. She held onto
them, extending those last moments for as long as possible, until finally, they
all slipped away from her. She couldn’t bear to open her eyes but eventually
she did. Hiroshi just looked into her eyes. There was such confidence in his
face but the profound sadness in his eyes moved her. He then uttered the words,
“I love you.”

“I love you too,” Minami
replied as she started to sob.

The bus honked again and
Hiroshi spun around to hide his own emotions and walked away, quickening his
pace as he got closer to the bus.

“Come back… come back,”
said Minami as her voice started to trail off under her sobs. She pressed her
face up into the fencing as her tears rolled down the cruel wire fencing. She
then heard the shifting of the gears and the bus began to roll off. In a tone
that spoke of immense heartache, she muttered softly under her breath, “Please
come back… come back… I’m pregnant.”

“That was the last time I
saw your grandfather,” said Aiko’s grandmother.

There was a long pause as
Aiko absorbed the powerful story her grandmother had just told her. The
details, the imagery, and the depth of emotions that had unfurled in the last
few hours had held Aiko spellbound. She had to compose herself as she wiped the
tears from her face. In the last few hours, she felt she had actually gotten to
know her grandfather.

“Grandpa sounded like a
wonderful man,” said Aiko as she sniffed a couple of times.

“He was. He was my one true
love,” said Aiko’s grandmother. “Aiko, it must be late over there. Isn’t it
past your bedtime?”

Aiko laughed, “Grandma, I’m
twenty-six. I don’t have a bedtime.”

Long dark shadows of the
night had already cast themselves over Minami’s living room. She had turned on
a single light on its lowest setting as the California sun faded away. The streetlights
were at their full intensity creating umbrellas of illumination.

Aiko looked at the clock as
she regained her senses and saw that it was close to midnight. She was shocked
to realize that she had been speaking on the phone with her grandmother for
nearly six hours.

Aiko leaned forward from
the sofa and spoke, “Oh my god, I didn’t know it was so late.”

“I told you it was late,
but later for you than it is for me,” teased Aiko’s grandmother.

“Did I take you away from
dinner?” asked Aiko.

“No need to worry about
that, dear, I’ll manage. Besides, I don’t eat much nowadays,” said Aiko’s
grandmother reassuringly.

Aiko gave out a small laugh
as a smile crept across her face. She felt her connection with her grandmother
growing stronger from their conversation.

“Thank you, Grandma, for
everything,” said Aiko, humbled.

“Anything, dear. You go on
to bed now or make yourself a little dinner. But don’t go out; it’s late.”

Aiko smiled at her
grandmother’s doting response. “I won’t. You should do the same.”

“Goodnight, Aiko,” said her
grandmother.

“Goodnight Grandma… oh!”
exclaimed Aiko before her grandmother hung up the phone.

“Yes?”

“I love you,” said Aiko.

“Mmm… I love you too,
Aiko,” replied her grandmother.

Aiko ended the call and
placed her cell phone on the coffee table in front of her. She brushed her hair
back and leaned into the plush pillow of her sofa and stared upward at the
ceiling. Her mind raced with scenes, but she kept on going back to a mental
image of her grandfather. He was her age, young, with a dashing smile, strong,
charming, brave, and loyal.

Aiko’s stomach began to
growl. She only had a Danish to eat the entire day. Though she was tired, she
strolled into the kitchen to cook some ramen noodles. As she leaned against the
kitchen counter with her arms crossed, waiting for the water to bowl, her mind
raced again with mental images of her grandmother’s vivid story. There were so
many images, which prompted Aiko to grab her notebook to jot down a few notes.
Though she had gotten up twice, once to empty the dry noodles into the boiling
water and the second time to pour the noodles into a bowl, she had jotted down
almost eight pages of notes by the time she slurped up the last of the noodles.
As she reread her notes, a heavy yawn came over her and she finally headed off
to bed, leaving the bowl, the chopsticks, and the notebook on the table.

Aiko woke up to the ringing
of her phone. She reached for the phone and with her blurred morning vision saw
that it was Cat calling.

“Hey,” said Aiko drowsily.

“Good morning to you sleepy
head,” said Cat.

“What time is it?”

“It’s about 11 A.M. I can’t
believe you’re still asleep,” said Cat in her usual feisty fashion.

“I had a long night.”

“Oh, did you? Oh do tell, hon.”

“Nothing like that, Cat. I
had a long chat with my grandmother.”

“Oh, is that it? Well hey,
why don’t you get dressed and we’ll head out to brunch and I’ll tell you about
my long date with Tom,” as Cat snickered.

Aiko’s senses lit up.
“Oooo… you and Tom already went out on a date? This I got to hear. Say in about
thirty minutes or so?”

“Sounds good, see you then,
hon,” Cat said as she ended the call.

Cat picked up Aiko and they
had chosen one of their favorite bistros to have brunch. They chose an outdoor
table to enjoy the warm weather. Aiko ordered eggs benedict served on croissant
halves. Cat ordered an omelet filled with everything imaginable: tomato, onion,
green pepper, ham, and sausage.

“You look pretty hungry,
Cat,” Aiko said as she watched her friend ferociously cut into her omelet and
devour large chunks of it.

Cat swallowed and blurted
out as she waved her fork in the air, “I always get hungry after sex.”

Aiko almost spit out her
juice. She caught herself in time to bring up her fingers to catch the few
drops that were dripping down her chin. She looked at Cat incredulously. There
was a big grin on her face.

Cat continued eating away,
savoring every bite as if she was satisfying some dragon-like appetite that
demanded her to feed it.

“You and Tom?” Aiko asked.

“Who else?”

“But you only just started
talking to him on Friday,” said Aiko in a non-accusatory tone. She would be
lying if she weren’t curious.

“I know, so chalk it up to
instant chemistry,” said Cat. She stabbed another piece of her vanishing
omelet, lifted up her fork, and gently shook it as she spoke, “And let me tell
you Aiko, the guy is built like a tank.”

Aiko laughed but she was
curious as she leaned forward to hear more.

“Damn, Aiko, he went so
long last night, I thought I had tread marks on me by the time he was done. It
was really good sex.”

Aiko brought her napkin up
to her mouth in disbelief to hide her laugh. She also noticed that Cat’s story
had caught the attention of some of the other female patrons. Cat ignored them.
Aiko put down the napkin and smiled as she stared at her friend, who had
brought the last bit of the omelet into her mouth and was clearly savoring it.

“Shhh… not so loud, some
people are eating, you know,” Aiko said playfully.

“Oh, screw them. At least I
got screwed last night, and it was good. It’s a free country,” Cat said as she
took a sip from her coffee.

Cat’s last sentence caught
Aiko off guard. Though she said them casually, those words had a whole new meaning
for Aiko now.

“Hey, hon,” said Cat.
“Looks like I brought up a sore point or something.”

Aiko looked up and wasn’t
aware that her attention had drifted. “Oh, sorry, my mind just went the other
way for a moment.”

“Gotcha. Well, Tom is
taking me out to dinner tonight. He better call too, or I’ll lose all faith in
men!” said Cat jokingly.

Aiko laughed along but her
thoughts went back to Cat’s earlier words: “It’s a free country.” She always
assumed her friends saw her as an American, but she really didn’t know. She had
always taken it for granted. But obviously, her grandmother couldn’t.

“Cat?” asked Aiko.

Cat pushed the coffee cup
away from her lips “What’s up?”

“Am I an American?”

Cat looked at Aiko with a
strange expression and then said, “Of course you are. Why would you ask such a
silly question?

“But am I really an
American? If the United States went to war, say, with North Korea? Would people
automatically doubt me and think that I’m a North Korean spy living here in
America?”

“But you’re Japanese right,
Aiko?”

“Yes, true but to everyone
else, they can’t tell that I’m not North Korean right?”

Cat nodded and agreed that
Aiko had a point.

“So if I’m Asian, Japanese
American, will my patriotism always be in doubt simply because I have an Asian
face?”

“Jeez Aiko, I don’t know,”
said Cat.

“I mean take Tom, you’d
never considered dating an Asian guy until I encouraged you right?”

“Well true, but Tom is
different, Aiko, you have to admit, he’s not like those other funny-looking
Asian men I meet. Nothing against them, mind you, but they’re just not my
type.”

“But still, if I hadn’t
pushed you, do you think you would have given Tom a chance? In your mind, does
he seem American to you?”

“I don’t know what you’re
getting at, Aiko. If you’re asking me if I ever brushed Asian men aside to
date, then I’m probably guilty of it. But I’ll have to confess, Tom is pretty
hot for an Asian guy…” Cat’s voice trailed off for a moment. “But you know, I
don’t know if I see him as an American but I’m only getting to know him. I’ve
never had many male friends who were Asian.”

“Hmmm… yes, I see your
point. So why is it that I’m more American?”

“Because we hang out, we
get along, and you speak perfect English,” said Cat.

Aiko saw an interesting
point and asked her friend, “Ahh… now what if I didn’t speak perfect English
but I was still born here. Would you still hang out with me and think of me as
an American?”

Cat pondered for a few
moments, “I think so, I’m still not sure what you’re getting at, Aiko. What’s
on your mind?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to put you on the spot. Remember how I told you about my conversation with my
grandmother yesterday?”

“Yes, how is she doing?”

“She’s doing well. It was
really good to catch up with her. I guess you can say I’ve been feeling a
little guilty for not getting to know her better. But more importantly, did you
know that during World War II, that Japanese American men fought for the United
States in Europe while more than 100,000 Japanese Americans were locked up in
internment camps?”

“I can’t say I know too
much about that. It was never taught in class.”

“Well, I got something
better than any history lesson. My grandmother told me of her experience in the
internment camp and how my grandfather volunteered for the war effort. We
talked for six hours!”

“Wow, so in the time that
you talked to your grandmother, I was having sex,” said Cat.

“Cat!” exclaimed Aiko as
she laughed. “You are so bad sometimes!”

“I’m sorry! It’s still
fresh in my mind,” as Cat let out a low growl.

The two women laughed together
as they finished their brunch. The waiter came over and removed their plates.
They had their coffee refilled and they both took a sip.

Aiko placed her cup down
and continued. She started to weave her grandmother’s intricate story for Cat.
At first Cat just listened. But her attention was drawn into the story of how
Aiko’s grandmother was interned, how she met Hiroshi, the baseball game, the
assault on her grandmother and how Hiroshi saved her, their romantic overtures,
the starry proposal, their marriage, and how the war eventually split them up
just when her grandmother realized she was pregnant.

“Oh fuck! She was
pregnant?” as Cat finished the last sip of her coffee and placed the cup down
on the saucer.

“I know–can you believe
it?” replied Aiko.

“Why didn’t she tell your
grandfather that right there and then at the fence? I’m sure that would have
made him stay,” asked Cat.

Aiko put down her cup and
thought about it, “Hmm… I’m not sure.”

“Damn, Aiko, you should
bring your grandmother in for like ‘show and tell’ or something. She’s like a
walking time capsule,” exclaimed Cat.

“Tell me about it, but she
lives on the west coast.”

“So what happened to your
grandfather?” asked Cat. “He sounded like a great guy.”

“Yes, he was,” Aiko said
with a newfound sense of pride about her grandfather. But her mind drew a blank
with Cat’s question and she could offer only one answer, “I don’t know what
happened to him. He went into the war but I had already talked to my
grandmother for like six hours. I was getting really tired.”

“Well Aiko, you should call
her and find out mo…” just then, Cat’s cell phone rang. “Hold on.” Aiko nodded
and dabbed her mouth with her napkin as Cat answered her phone.

Cat pulled her phone out
and smiled. “It’s Tom. I knew he’d call!” Cat looked at Aiko devilishly. Aiko
smiled as Cat answered the phone, “Hey, big boy.”

Aiko zoned out Cat’s
conversation and her mind drifted to the question Cat had asked: “So what
happened to your grandfather?” Aiko realized that she still didn’t know. But then
she had thought her grandmother would know. But her grandmother had said, “That
was the last time I saw your grandfather.” She also hadn’t mentioned the
desertion. Maybe her grandmother didn’t know that she knew. Then Cat, who was
putting the phone away, interrupted her.