Chapter 9

Mom called in the late morning. In retrospect, I’m surprised it took this long.

“I waited until when you say you have no classes, Robert.”

“I skipped classes this morning, Mom. There’s someone...”

“When were you going to tell me? Aunt Doris called.”

“Aunt Doris found out because I have to go in her yard to get to the apartment. She doesn’t miss much.”

“A girl...”

“Her name is Sachiko. Her nickname is Chiki. And we’re getting married.”

“Aunt Doris says that, uh, Sachiko? Sachiko says you’re already married in her custom.”

“Yes, Mom. And we’re getting ready to make a flying trip for you and Dad to meet her.”

“I suppose we should, don’t you think?”

“I think she needs to meet you and Dad, and she needs to meet the pastor.”

“Pastor? You’re THAT serious?”

“Of course, Mom. Do you think I’d lie to Aunt Doris and Uncle Gene?”

“Not the son I raised. But you’ve gone off to college...”

“And I was brought up right, Mom. So give Dad a warning. We’re getting ready to get in the car.

“Mom, Chiki’s the first girl I ever brought home for this. Be nice. I only get to do this once.”

“Son, we trained you right. If she meets YOUR criteria, I’m certain she’ll meet mine.”

“Okay, Mom. I love you.”

Chiki was smiling. “You love your mother.”

“I love my parents. They’re good people.”

“You, your father would be a lord in Japan...”

“Maybe not today.”

“Then,” she said, “A man who produced that much rice? Rich. A man of importance.”

“He’s my dad. I could have done much worse. Just good people.”

“You are a good son.”

“I am bringing my mother and father a daughter-in-law.”

“The wife of their son,” Chiki said confidently. “The mother of their grandchildren.”

“Yes.”

“As is proper. We will have children in the proper time. We will have a house that will be a home, a place of family and honor and love.”

I’m hearing these words coming from Sachiko’s lips and I know some guys would be heading for the hills, all this talk of home and family and kids, yet I was a product of that. Sachiko, on the other hand ... where’s it come from? I knew of her family, the sale of a daughter not being totally uncommon, her training at the inn of Lady Sakura. She’d told me of the expectations for a girl in her position, that her age of fourteen years, her virginity, would have commanded a high price.

I got that prize. Gave her one in return. I couldn’t conceive of another female on the planet who would have done or understood as completely as she did of our mating.

“Japan is many mountains,” she observed. “Here are no mountains. No wonder – the fields are so very large. I can see where rice was grown. I see other fields, still full of water. What are those?”

“The government says how much rice we can grow. A farmer may choose to grow other things. Those fields are growing crawfish.”

“I haven’t learned of this crawfish.”

“You will learn. Dad has several fields of them. It is not time for harvest yet, but they are another crop. He also has soybeans.”

“We have soybeans. From them we get many things. Miso. Shoyu. Rice. Soybeans. Green things. Fish. A little meat.”

“We eat a lot of meat,” I said. “Which brings us to eating at Mom and Dad’s. You don’t have to eat what they serve if you do not wish to. It may be strange to you.”

“Is it strange to you, my Robert?”

“No, it’s what I ate, growing up.”

“It is not bad food then.” She smiled. “I have not touched the body of a poorly fed man.”

I shivered. “When you talk of touching my body...”

“I have married you. Touching your body is something that I have lived for. I have enjoyed, far more than I was told. Lady Sakura told me of many women who endured, found no joy in a man. She told us that if we found joy, we should note and relish as a gift from the Divine.”

“The Divine,” I repeated. “What you answered Aunt Doris...”

“I told Aunt Doris the truth.”

“I can’t see how we’ll meet Mom and Dad and the subject won’t come up again. We’re serious about religion...”

“When you say ‘religion’ you mean ‘Christian’ and you are trying to be gentle with me, Robert.”

“You know this...”

“I’m your wife. I will spend my life in your heart and in your head, as you will with me.”

“And you know how you will answer?”

“I do. As I did with Aunt Doris. The truth, simply spoken in respect and love. It is the way we will do it.”

“It’s a serious thing to my folks.”

“As it should be. Very important for parents to choose the proper wife for an heir,” Chiki said, a hint of a smile when I glanced sideways at her.

“I thought we chose each other.”

“It is a truth. You chose me. I chose you. Now, your parents will make a choice for you as well. Of course, we present them with only a single choice, but we trust that they will see as we see and choose correctly.”

We drove through small town and rural Louisiana, finally pulling off the road into Mom and Dad’s yard. I didn’t expect Sachiko to be surprised. After all, Chiki the kitten had done ‘barn cat’ duty here. Now she discussed.

“Bigger and more spread out. This house is suitable for the family of a daimyo. Much land is unused. In my Japan, every bit of flat land was growing something that could be eaten, because just a short walk and the land turned upward into mountain and was much work to make into cropland.”

“I’ve seen pictures of terraces for gardening. And rice. Perhaps we might travel back there to see?”

“Japan, yes. But my Japan is eight hundred years ago. I am Sachiko, wife of modern American Robert. Now, let us meet my new parents.”

Mom hit the front door just about the time that Chiki got her door open. This wasn’t going to be one of those ‘June Cleaver waiting on the steps’ moments. Mom’s healthy and agile and now, motivated. And arms spread. I’ve never seen Sachiko hug another human besides me, so here’s the first test.

“You’re Sachiko. Welcome home!”

Not ‘welcome to OUR home’, rather ‘welcome to your home, just like everybody else here.’

Sachiko dove right in. Hug. Release. Demure downturn of her head when Mom said, “You’re beautiful!”

“She is,” Dad said, having made his way out the front door. “Y’all come in!”

Mom and Chiki led the way.

I could smell the aroma from the kitchen before I hit the door. Another hurdle. Sachiko’s background makes me nervous about how she’ll react to Cajun home cooking. Since Chiki the kitten hadn’t gone indoors on her visit, Sachiko walked into the house being very observant. Mom keeps a neat house. It won’t warrant a spread in Southern Living but it is homey and tastefully decorated, pictures on the wall of family, neat furniture, the things you’d expect.

“Where’s my sister?”

“She’s in school, just like you expect. Should be home soon, though.” Dad grinned. “You’re gonna get ‘er with this move, though.”

Mom saw the query on Chiki’s face. “His sister thinks she has the final say on anybody who marries her big brother.”

Chiki smiled. “It is so in every family. Brother and sister are at odds to care for each other.”

And then the questions started, gently, of course, Mom taking the lead, Dad watching, listening.

After a few minutes, “Aunt Doris says you are not Christian, but you will be.”

“It is only correct. I am Japanese. I know of Buddha. Everybody Japanese is Shinto. It is who we are as a people. I have only begun to learn of Christian.”

“I thought Shinto believed in many gods,” Dad spoke.

“That is but one way of looking at things,” Chiki said softly. “We believe that a spiritual world exists in parallel to our natural world, and that we should be mindful of it. I am not sure that believing in many gods is necessary to believe that there is a spiritual dimension to the world we live in. I think it is being sensitive to things we cannot see.”

“But you pray to...” Mom started.

“We pray in the presence of places and things that are special to us. I know that you pray at the graves of your ancestors, correct?”

“Well, yes...”

“Then is it an incorrect step to pray at the places where your ancestors lived and found joy and peace, or to pray at the place where a bad thing happened, for nothing bad to happen again?”

“I don’t guess,” Dad said.

“That is what I know of Shinto. I am finding, in what I am learning of Christianity, that there is a god who is above all and He listens to prayer and cares about things in this world...”

“We learn as little children that He cares if a single sparrow falls,” Mom said.

“So I learn of this god who is above all, and that He sent His Son. Your idea of sin is different from the one I heard as a child. But the great teaching to do to others as you would have done to yourself, in that, there is sin defined. I have failed at times in following that teaching, therefore, I have sinned. So Robert tells me of a loving God who makes a way...”

“So you accept...” Dad said.

“Indeed I accept. In my heart, and in my head. I married Robert in the ways of the simple beliefs of where I started. I will marry Robert in the tradition of this, my new family. And his god shall be my god because I see in his heart and in his head and it is right.”