Chapter 30: CHAPTER THIRTY

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CHAPTER THIRTY

"Fumie, for your sake, I'm happy to say that Brad taught his morning class today. As for me, he's still blasting away my classes with exactly those same damned choral responses he's used since his first class many weeks ago. And getting louder and louder. And once again including those misleading phrases we agreed he shouldn't. And speaking to his students in his lousy Japanese only."

Fumie frowned, rapping her fingers on her desk. "I guess I'm going to have to warn him again about that. But I feel like firing him right now. And I'll tell him that, too. Let me know if he keeps it up."

"Don't worry, Fumie, I'll tell you every Tuesday how his class went for that day."

"I'd appreciate that, I really would. But Dave, will you please promise me you'll keep teaching here, no matter what? Remember, Brad will be gone starting next semester in April. It's only a few of months from now until spring break. Then he's gone from both our lives for good."

I crossed my arms. "OK, I'll promise. But only under one, very strict and irreversible condition."

"Oh? And just what is your 'one, very strict and irreversible condition?'"

Still faking a very stern face, "That you tell me the story of you and Mike like right now!"

And we both burst out laughing.

Again she leaned back, remembering. "Well, as I told you last week, Mike was the only student in my class who was truly interested in learning Japanese. And don't forget, I was only his teacher in that one, noncredit class. In all our other classes together -- and we had many because it was such a small community college -- we were both just students. And we usually sat next to each other."

"And then did he just up and ask you out for a date?"

She chuckled. "No. Actually I sort of up and asked him out for a date. But not the kind you're thinking of. The hardest class for me by far was English Literature."

"English Lit? That was my major in college! It was difficult, sure, but I wouldn't call it my most difficult. Science was, as a matter of fact. Didn't you find Science even more difficult?"

"All of my classes were extremely difficult. Because they were all taught in English. But unlike you, I certainly had no English Literature classes during the war in my middle school. It was considered very unpatriotic and against the Emperor's wishes and could even be punishable by death -- things were really getting that fanatic towards the end of of the war. Even in high school after the war, there were very few classes in it because there were almost no teachers to teach it. So I had no knowledge of what my English Literature teachers in college assumed I already knew."

"Hmm. Now that you mention it, in high school my 'English' class as it was called -- not 'English Literature' because we did spend a little time learning proper grammar and punctuation -- we spent most of our time studying some of the great works of English literature."

"Like what?"

"Oh, you know, things like 'Huckleberry Finn,' 'The Scarlet Letter,' 'A Tale of Two cities.' And of course as much Shakespeare as they could cram into our brains."

"And that's exactly my problem. No, I don't know. Now do you understand why English Literature was so difficult for me? Our teachers assumed we had read all of those works in high school and went on from there. But I had never read any of those. In my high school we spent all our time trying to make sense out of Genji Monogatari or 'The Tale Genji.' In modern translation, of course."

"Why in translation?"

"Because Lady Murasaki Shikibu wrote it a thousand years ago. With real effort, I can just barely make out an article of a Japanese newspaper from the Meiji Restoration Period of the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. Most Japanese can't even do that because the Japanese language changes so quickly. And her tale of courtly life back then seemed like it was about a totally different planet from the modern Japan that I knew."

"Hmm. Sounds something like what Chaucer was to me. He wrote about six hundred years ago. But with modern spelling and punctuation, I can still read parts of his 'Canterbury Tales' in his original English. But that was in college. And we only had to read parts of it, thank God. So getting back to you and Mike. How did your, um, 'nondates' with him go?"

Fumie smiled in remembrance again. "They did start out a nondates, as you call them. Me asking him questions about many of the books you just mentioned and Mike explaining to me what 'Huckleberry Finn' was about and who Dickens and Hawthorne were. And many other books and authors our English Literature teachers kept mentioning and assumed we knew whom they were talking about without explanation. It helped me quite a lot."

"Why am I getting the feeling that your nondates started turning into real dates? Hmm?"

"Well, I liked him because he didn't look down on me for being a Japanese. As a matter of fact, I think he liked me precisely because I was a Japanese female. He told me how he was enjoying my Japanese Language class and that he was telling others about it. And I'm sure he did, because the second semester the president told me he had thirty students wanting to take my class. Including Blacks and Latinos. So could I please teach one more section of it as well? At twice the pay, of course. And when I did start teaching them, I found I enjoyed teaching them almost as much as Mike, because they, too, were quite interested in learning Japanese."

"Sounds like Mike would be a real help to you in your situation. But I don't think that's all he was to you. Right?"

She smiled kind of sheepishly. "Well, to make a long story short, we graduated and got our Associate of the Arts degree in the morning. And got married that afternoon."

"Wow! Now that really is making short of what I'm sure must be a very long story."

She chuckled. "If I told you the whole story, it would take all of our Tuesdays we've got left in this semester and probably into the new academic year in April."

"OK. I'll let you off the hook on this one. But again, only on one very strict and irreversible condition."

"Ha, and just what is your 'one very strict and irreversible condition' this time?"

"That you promise to tell me about what happened to you and Mike after you graduated and got married!"

"I do so promise." Then she looked at her watch. "But I'm afraid it will have to wait until next Tuesday. It, too, is a very long story."

"Damn! Another whole week of waiting!"

Downing a beer at our usual watering hole, "John, you won't believe the things Fumie is telling me about her life!"

"And what's she told you now? You know what, I'm really getting interested in her life, too. Particularly because she was our enemy in the World War."

"She told me about meeting Mike at the community college they were both going to. And how she taught Japanese to him in a special class. And how he sort of tutored her about English Literature on dates."

"Yeah, Dave, sounds very interesting. But what I really don't get is why she's telling you all these things. They seem pretty personal. I mean, she's the president of the college and you're just a lecturer."

I nodded. "I didn't get it either at first. But now I think I'm beginning to understand. Want to hear my theory this time?"

"All ears, man."

I took another long belt of my draft beer. "Well, I think our relationship started to change after I gave her that sample lesson in German using the direct method. I think she understood that I not only knew how to teach English as a foreign language, but that I really enjoyed doing it, too. Unlike Brad. And I'm also getting the feeling that she's always wanted to tell somebody her story but just hasn't had the chance."

"But that still doesn't explain why you've sort of become equal friends enough for her to tell you about her life. I mean, she's still your superior."

I nodded. "I think it's because I'm an American. Just like Mike. So, I'm a lot easier for her to talk to. I think she wants to tell her story to someone she can confide in. Someone like me who she's built up a relationship with in our Tuesday get-togethers. Particularly because there's no one else around to overhear us. We've really become rather good friends because of them, even though there's quite an age difference between us. But I'm beginning to think the biggest reason is I remind her of Mike in some way I'm still not sure of. I think I'll find out more at our next meeting. She's promised she'll tell me about what happened after they got married next Tuesday."

"Damn! Another whole week of waiting!"

I burst out laughing so hard I almost spewed beer all over him.

"Hey! What the hell's so funny?"

I grinned. "I'll tell that next week, too!"

Submitted: September 20, 2023

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

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B Douglas Slack

Great chapter, Ken. You're using dialogue to show and not tell. Somewhat of a revelation as well. When I lived in Germany from 1955 to 1958, I hadn't considered the war had only been over for ten years. I found normal German citizens very friendly and willing to talk about most everything except the war. In your story, Fumie is doing the same thing.

Bill

Thu, October 19th, 2023 12:54am

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Bill,

I've always preferred dialogue over description so long as it's telling a story, somewhat a la Steve King though even more so. As for not wanting to talk about her war experiences, wait for the next chapter, hehehe!

Wed, October 18th, 2023 6:47pm