“You are not here. Why are you not here? Why did you move to New York? I barely have enough left to get to New York. How will I find you? Kosuke!”
- Kikuko Sato
1961 - Irvine, California
“New York? You went to New York? For the love of god woman, stay still! I beg of you. I feel as if I’m going insane. And now all the people I hurt and things I did to find you are catching up to me. My father is ill now so he came back to my mother, dying from a broken heart because the country he loved did not love him in return…and also the liquor. New York is a big and dangerous place. Stay safe until I get to you.”
- Kosuke Yamauchi.
1962 - New York
, New York
“I left the city. It scared me. It felt like Prison Bella Vista—cold, damp, dirty, the rich were laughing like the guards and the poor were dying like we were dying. My photography has gotten attention here. So I sit with the guards…the rich…now, but I can’t laugh with then. And I find that I’ve finally mastered how to be like those girls back in Osaka now. I know how to smile more and talk less. If I do less of both…people here like it more. My silence means mystery. The world is a funny place. If you see the photo of the Pink Fireweed Flowers on the corner of Boone Street & Geneva Boulevard, you’ll know where I am and I’ll be waiting for you here.”
- Kikuko Sato
1963 - New York, New York
“Today on my thirty birthday I now understand why my mother was so worried about me. I could finally see how much I was like my father. How he held on to his beliefs even if it killed him. Just like I am holding on to you, eighteen years later. Working odd jobs not because I have to but because I need to be able to earn enough just to travel and keep looking, ignoring the advice from anyone who tries to save me from myself. I am a grown man and I should act like it, they tell me. The weight of adulthood is heavy, it’s like trying to walk through tall grass in the dark, and just as I felt like giving up, construction closed Mainway Park and I had to walk through Boone Street & Geneva Boulevard to get home, and I saw the photo. I do believe I looked very much like a man laughing and crying in front of it. I’d been here for a year, trying to find you, losing hope I’d ever find you and a detour was all I needed. I leave tonight. Not tomorrow. Not when I have enough money, but now.”
-Kosuke Yamauchi.
ESTHER
I cried. Boy did I cry.
“Sorry.” I held my hand up to them.
“Her faces leaks often.” Mr. Stone-hearted handed me his napkin and sat there not at all a wreck. “Obviously they found each other. Why are you crying so much?”
Snatching the napkin from him I glared as I wiped my nose. “After eighteen years of separation! That’s still sad, they kept missing one another. All those years they could have been together longer.”
“You would have still cried anyway,” he muttered. “Which ocean did you drink?”
Mr. Yamauchi laughed at him. “How long have you two been together?”
“Together?” Malachi and I asked simultaneously, and before I could say anything he spoke first…again. “We’re not together at all. She’s my agent’s granddaughter.”
Kikuko frowned as she looked between us. “You two aren’t married?”
I gasped as I tried to catch my breath. “Marriage now? How did we jump to there?”
“No. She’s far too young for me.”
I looked at him. “You’re only two years older than my ex-boyfriend. What do you mean far too young?”
He tapped the side of his head. “I meant mentally.”
Grabbing the water bottle, I prepared to hit him when Mr. Yamauchi started to laugh and cough which caused Kikuko to put her hands on his shoulders. He shook his head at her and glanced back up at us.
“You both…are good people…” he coughed again and Kikuko got up to help him into his chair but he waved her off. “I’m fine, Kiku. I just woke up. Let me talk.”
“It’s getting cold. We’ll be back tomorrow,” she said to us, and while I gathered the lunch boxes and silver chopsticks, Malachi dusted off the blanket and carefully folded it before handing it back to Kikuko.
“Malachi.” Mr. Yamauchi waved him over. “Do you want to know the secret to having a long life?”
“I’ve never thought about it, however, I know someone who might like to know.” I knew he was talking about me and I wanted to hear the answer for myself but Kikuko stepped in front of me, and even though she was shorter, her voice distracted me.