Chapter 25

In the morning after a sleepless night, he woke almost frantic with worry. He even thought of trying to reach his former therapist Grace but realized she might no longer be at the clinic where he used to see her. He called anyway and, sure enough, Grace wasn’t there and the person who answered, a recent hire, had no news. Mitchell was really on his own.

In the middle of the night he’d even thought of Akemi’s sister, in a wild digression considered going to her if all did not work out well. She was ten years Akemi’s senior and had once shown interest in him. Her marriage, though not a bad one, had lost its passion, become all about raising the children, two boys. Her husband, by all appearances, was a good provider—by all appearances because Mitchell had barely met him; he was always out working, earning money for support of the family. An uncomplaining sort, good-natured, it seemed (again, only seemed because Mitchell did not know him). It seemed Akemi’s sister and he had an arrangement. It was never spoken of but apparent (that word again). She was available for an affair with Mitchell, but at the time he was seeing another woman (Pam; he would eventually break up with her for Akemi; there was the difference between his feelings toward the two women). He’d met Akemi’s sister through Akemi, of course, and it was she he had his eye on.

She’d taken the rejection well. It was never made explicit. And now in the middle of the night, Mitchell found himself thinking maybe Akemi’s sister would be all right, if Akemi were really gone from his life she’d do fine, his second choice not be so bad after all if he really had no choice. Akemi’s sister was also attractive, though ten years older and a little worn by her life as a housewife and mother raising two boys. If she was by chance still available—things changed—and he gave her a call.