Chapter 20

It was natural Akemi’s thoughts would wander detained though unlike her; she was an artist but no daydreamer. There was nothing to do there but think, natural her thoughts would go far away from there, as an escape. Of course she thought of her husband, the person closer to her and the one who might effect a rescue (she shouldn’t have ever been taken to that detention center in the first place).

A day with him in Japan came to mind. They were visiting her family and watching television. A baseball game was on and it featured a star now playing on a team in the American major league. One of the most popular people in Japan. Mitchell called out his name, had trouble for a moment remembering it, which was his first name and which the last. Her parents and cousins looked confused for a moment- they weren’t used to hearing a foreigner speak- tried to understand; they liked Mitchell- and finally could. Mitchell pointed out that it was the beginning of the fourth inning and the score was already eight to four. The Japanese player, a pitcher, was having a bad game. There was activity around his team’s dugout. The manager stepped outside. And then, sure enough the announcement came that the star had been lifted. Less than halfway through the contest, he was gone. The disastrous performance left the manager little choice. That rarely happened to him but everyone occasionally had a bad day. Mitchell said all this out loud, as if Akemi’s family needed explanation of the broadcast in their language. And it was true no one was paying close attention. The TV was on mostly as a social aid. It gave Mitchell something to look at he could comprehend in that environment otherwise so foreign to him.