Act 7: The Search Begins

A full month had passed. Helen had graduated and was over the moon with the fact that she got a car. Even the family’s twenty-sixteen Nissan Versa Note was more than she’d thought she’d get. Claire was still in shock over the RX.

It was a Friday, late afternoon when Vince’s phone rang. It was his office’s ringtone. But it was Saturday morning in Tokyo. His firm didn’t usually work weekends. He knew this was a departure from Japanese business etiquette, but he still used American work ethics.

“Hello, yes...” Vince began before walking up the stairs toward his room. About thirty minutes later he came back down, scowling. He walked over to Helen and kissed her on the head. “Do me a favor and Door-Dash us a big lunch from Jersey Mike’s, Okay?”

He tossed her a company credit card and motioned to Claire to join him in the kitchen. Helen scowled back at him but smiled down at the card and skipped off to her computer. Vince brought two beers to the table and sat down across from Claire.

“Bad news?” Claire asked as she popped the top off her beer.

“Good and Bad,” Vince replied. “U.S. Consulate picked her up and took her in, no charges against her,” He sucked down some of his beer. “But she wouldn’t talk to them, she just kept screaming to bring me to her, but she wouldn’t give them my name.”

“Stupid girl!” Claire growled. “How far from you was the Consulate? A few blocks?”

Vince grimaced. “No, more like a few wards away,” Vince spread his arms wide. “Tokyo is huge!” he exclaimed. “There are twenty-three special wards. Think of it like the valley. We are part of Los Angeles, but there are a bunch of cities within a city.”

While Claire tried to imagine that, Vince went on. “The Embassy is in Asakusa and my building is in Odaiba.” He did some mental calculations and then said. “It’s roughly the distance between Van Nuys and Burbank.”

Claire made an “Ah Ha!” noise and nodded. “Still, if she’d have spoken up they could have brought her right to you, right?”

Vince nodded. “We would have even paid for a private car,” Vince hung his head. “Unfortunately, with no information and her attitude and behavior they had no choice but to deport her.”

Helen came back in then. “Lunch’ll be here in forty minutes,” she chimed in. “What’d I miss?” she asked with a smile. Vince went on.

“They used her ID as a reference since she wouldn’t say anything to them. They put her on a non-stop, Tokyo to LAX. Gave her a pre-loaded debit card with about three hundred dollars and closed her case.”

“No!” Claire cried out. “That means she could have been anywhere in L.A.”

Then Helen piped up. “Yeah, but she isn’t stupid!” Both Vince and Claire stared at her. “What?” she asked. “She isn’t! She’s older than me and with three hundred dollars, even I could buy a TAP card and take the Metro home, It’s easy!”