Read Online Summer of the Big Bachi by Naomi Hirahara - Free Book Online Page A

Carolina. She might have a job back here in L.A.”
     
     
“Yeah, sugoi, ne . She smart one, eh. So quiet.” Mas remembered the plain girl with a moon face and thin eyes like her father’s. The brother took after Lil— bright, round eyes and big white teeth.
     
     
“Well, it’s taken her long enough to get to this point.” Lil smoothed out her flowered dress. Joy had been on her way to a Ph.D. in physics before she’d switched over to medical school. “But she’s no Mari. She can’t put words together like Mari can.”
     
     
“That girl talks too much.” Too much back talk, no good, Mas had told Mari time after time. Those fiery black eyes had burnt holes through Mas’s forehead all through her junior high and high school years.
     
     
“But that’s not bad.” Lil paused, and they both listened as something metal fell on the outside concrete steps.
     
     
Lil’s rose-colored glasses glimmered. “I know it wasn’t easy, Mas, that Mari went through her stages. But I knew that she would make something out of herself. I mean, Joy’s doing well, and we’re proud of her, but Mari— she has something special. I tried to deny it, mind you. I guess I never wanted to sell Joy short. But I can admit it now, especially since Chizuko . . . Well, Joy has always played by the rules, but Mari, her spirit, that’s going to take her places.”
     
     
Mas’s spine began to tingle, as if Lil’s warm, soothing words were lapping at his back. He never understood what “freelancing” was. How could a girl make money making movies? That was for guys who had connections. But he had to give her some credit. She was surviving in New York, although it seemed like she was living hand to mouth. “Heh, I don’t know. She cause a lot of trouble, no?”
     
     
“Well, that’s what daughters are for,” laughed Lil as Tug barreled into the living room once again, a screwdriver in his hand. A few pieces of old paint were stuck in his white beard and hair.
     
     
“Almost, old man, almost. Just got to make some adjustments.” The pungent scent of cherry tobacco filled the room. “By the way,” said Tug, adjusting his pipe. “I hear congratulations are in order. It’s certainly about time.”
     
     
There was an awkward silence, and Mas glanced over to Lil— whose lips were uncharacteristically drawn in a line.
     
     
“I thought he knew.” One of Tug’s large palms was outstretched toward his wife. His left forefinger was extended out like a Tootsie Roll. “Well, he does know, right?”
     
     
Lil adjusted the hem on her dress so it covered the top of her knees.
     
     
Tug pulled out his pipe from his lips. “Well, he should know. After all, it’s his only daughter.”
     
     
It took two long minutes before Mas put it together. Mari must be getting married. Who? The tall, pale hakujin boy called Lloyd from New York? Mas remembered the time she brought him over one Thanksgiving when Chizuko was still alive. Mari said he was a poet; what Mas wanted to know was what this boy did for money.
     
     
“Can’t eat words,” he had told Mari.
     
     
Mari had broken the news a few weeks later. Turned out this boy was in Mas’s line of work. A gardener hired by the city of New York.
     
     
Mas couldn’t speak, and Chizuko broke down and cried right then and there. Mas secretly thought that had led to Chizuko’s demise, and he resented Mari for having burst his wife’s one last hope— that the future generations would never have any signs of the Arai lawn-mowing legacy.
     
     
He looked Lil square in the face. “Itsu?” he asked simply. “When?”
     
     
Lil blinked hard, and Tug retreated to the porch with his screwdriver. “Last week,” she said. “They’re on their honeymoon in Mexico now.”
     
     
Mexico? Mas’s throat felt dry.
     
     
“I’m sure she was going to tell you, Mas. I just heard it through Joy, and she said she would kill me if I mentioned it to anyone. You know kids these days. It’s someone she knew from college. I think his name was