The Japanese Politician’s Woman

10:50am
        “Rei?”

        “Ojii-san, I disappointed you.”

        “On the contrary, I am very proud of you.  You have changed a man’s life for the better, how can I be disappointed?”

        “I am making the same mistake as ota-san, I am thinking that I can change a man’s life by love, but in the end, I’ll end up like ota-san, burnt…”

        “But you flourish under fire, child, you are a flame yourself, and Inouye-san has the affinity for fire, he feeds the fire, and the fire protects him.”

        “Then we will both get burnt.”

        “No, you can handle the fire, I’ve taught you tend to it ever since you were a child.”

        “Are we still talking about the fire ojii-san?”

        “Does it matter?  Rei, the life of a Shinto isn’t always a life of solitude, we are here to give people hope, some peace in the busy city, and most important, to lead lost sheep back home, and bring them in tune with the tranquility that life was meant to be.  It might seem like a small deed, but both your mother and you set out to bring back one sheep, and where your mother might have failed, I believe that you will succeed.”

        “Why so much faith in me?”

        “Because at least you chose someone who can speak of his feelings, and because he has a passion that he has forgotten, your father had love but no passion - at least you have something more to work with.”

        “Was oka-san ever truly in love with ota-san?”

        “Of course he was, my daughter would have never married for anything less.  But she wasn’t like you, she was never as alive, as vibrant as you are, and he never spoke of love, he was never head over heels… he was too rational, and she let him have his way.  They knew they were in love, rather than acting like they were in love, maybe that’s why you doubt it.”  Grandpa took both of her hands in his in a paternal way, and stroked the back of her hands with his thumbs, “but you, you will want to act like you are in love, and he has to do a lot more to earn your heart than to have him know that he is in love.”

        “He’s going to lose everything ojii-san, everything that he worked for.”

        “Not if you have anything to do with it.”  He smiled at his granddaughter’s worried gaze, knowing full well that her strong temper might save the young man’s career.

        “I don’t want to beg oka-san.”

        “He’s not a bad man, I never liked him, but not because he was a bad man, I disliked him because his priorities were wrong and he never knew it, and he still doesn’t know it.  I dislike him because no matter how I try to warn him, he’ll laugh it off as an uneducated old man trying to tell an educated man what to do with his life, but I don’t hate him enough to want him to regret.  No matter how askew his view on life is, no matter how strange his priorities are, deep inside him are morals, morals that no one can change, and those morals are good morals, and that makes him a good man.”

        “But he has to wake up and start smelling the roses.”

        “And like I said, you might succeed where you mother did not.  Rei, you want a man to love you with all his body, soul and mind, you want him to want you so much that if you did not exist, he would not… Rei, don’t expect any less and they will give it to you, both Inouye, and your father.  Demand to be heard, and demand to be listened to - you will bring these lost sheep home, somehow, I know you will find a way.”

        Rei’s eyes suddenly became ablaze with animation, she turned her hands around and held her grandpa’s hands in her own, squeezing them gently, bowing, she touched her forehead to the ground, “arigato ojii-san, I know what I have to do now.”


11:42am
        He stood in the courtyard with the letter in his hands, he knew that once he handed the letter to the chauffeur, everything would end, everything that he had been working to build up for the past seven years would wither and die.  Again he wondered if his parents would approve, he remembered back to his childhood, when his father would spend his evenings and weekends at home, and the three of them would play board games or other outdoor activities… together.  Kenta’s father was a successful journalist, that he remembered, but the strange thing was the way that his father always spend so much of his time at home, he never went on overseas trips, he never went out of town on weekends.  When he was small, he thought it was natural, but now, as he looked around him and saw the journalists, he realized that his father’s work habits were somewhat abnormal.  As his mind worked through that, something clicked at the back of his mind, his father had made sacrifices at his work, he had given up dreams of reaching the top of the industry, for the unity and happiness of his family, and to give him a childhood.  He nearly kicked himself, he should have been able to figure that out a long time ago, when he had seen the relationship, or lack thereof, that Imaruru-san and his daughter had, he should have been able to identify the root of her bitterness towards her father - her childhood had been an exact opposite of his own.

        His ears twitched slightly when he heard some noise; he shook his head and continued to brood over the subject at mind.  He was now sure that his father had made sacrifices for his family and for love, and he was sure that if his father was there to advise him, he would have received the same advice.  Somehow, a weight was lifted from his heart when he had reached this conclusion, it was as though the weight of the past seven years had lifted just by revoking his past obsession with his political career and remembering what life was really about.  Kenta nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt something brush against both sides of his ears as a loud flapping noise passed by, two whirls of black flashed past and snatched the long white envelope from his hands.  “Hey, I need that!”

        The whirls of black stopped at the top of a dark mahogany perch, as he finally managed to identify them as the two crows that Rei kept personally by the red ribbons tied on their feet.  “One of you is Phobos and the other is Deimos right?  I can’t tell you apart, but I think… you? No you…”

        They cawed loudly, flapping their strong wings in the air as if to indicate that he was correct, one of them clutched his envelope at their feet.  Taking the envelope into its beak, they held their beaks close to each other and they shared the envelope between them, in one mighty tear, the envelope separated into two.  They then shared the two parts of the envelope and once again pulled… this occurred again and again, must to the exasperation of Kenta, as he yelled and waved his hands in the air to stop them.  They finally did, and the contents of the envelope drifted onto the ground like snowflakes as they opened their beaks and cawed loudly.

        “Are you two laughing at me?  I’m angry, look at me, yes, I’m angry!”  Kenta yelled at them, half in amusement, half in anger, as though they might understand him.  They flew into the air again, and circled his head, he could almost feel the feathers passing his cheeks when they came close.  He stood there with his eyes closed, his body unflinching as they passed dangerously close to him, he trusted them in a strange way, he trusted them to know what they were doing, and to not come too close.  He subconsciously held out his own arms as though he was flying, enjoying the gusts of wind that the two were making as they swept around him in circles, and he laughed, taking pleasure in the feeling of being completely free of his duties.

        Suddenly, the two came to a stop; he recoiled and nearly shrieked when one of the crows rested on his arms and another perched on his head.  He heard a snicker behind, and he struggled to turn, he knew that he looked ridiculous with two crows on top of him, but he still put on a serious face.  “Your crows are on me.”

        “I know.”  Rei giggled as she came towards him, “and you seem like it.”

        “I didn’t want to insult them.”

        “It’s good to know that remember your manners.  Have you dispatched your letter to my father?”

        “Part of it.”

        “Part of it?”

        With his free arm, he gestured to the torn pieces of paper behind him, “Phobos and Deimos decided to speed up the journey, but unfortunately, they forgot that I wanted the whole letter to get to Tokyo, not just bits of it.”   He broke out into laughter, the crows cawed as they flapped their wings to get their balance as their perch wobbled and moved erratically.  “I’ll have to write another one, and keep it away from these ‘express mail workers’.”  He grinned, the two crows poked him with their beaks lightly and stared at him indignantly, as though upset that he had not appreciated their ‘kindness’.

        “Well, have fun…” Rei paused and looked at the scene before her hesitantly, the crows seemed to wink at her, and Phobos’ beak jerked inexplicably towards the pocket of his suit whilst standing on his arm.  She read it as a sign of encouragement to do what she had intended, “may I borrow your phone?”

        “Urr… well, of…” before he had a chance to agree, Phobos had swooped her beak into his pocket and grabbed it, flying off, she dropped the phone in Rei’s hands.  “Well, I guess one of your crows wanted you to have it.”

        “That was Phobos.”

        Deimos, who had left her perch on his head at the same time as Phobos suddenly returned to pour their bowl of water on his head, the wooden bowl fell to the ground the moment she had passed him, she circled around him, and flew onto Rei’s shoulder.  “Hey, I thought you liked me!”  He yelled as he shook his fists at Deimos.  He didn’t see Phobos approaching him from behind, his rationale for Rei’s uncontrollable laughing was due to his wet appearance, when he found himself drenched with a thick gooey beige paste that was obviously part of their food.  Phobos dropped another wooden bowl at his feet and landed on Rei’s shoulder as Deimos flew off once again, Kenta sighed in exasperation, the rich wheat mixture dripped from his eyebrows, hair, his suit, he could almost hear the thick sounds of it dropping to the ground… *plop plop plop*

        He took in a deep breath and sighed again when he felt another shower of matter on him, he saw birdseeds on himself, and another bowl in front of him.  In his mind, he was wondering what was happening, a few seconds ago, Phobos and Deimos had been completely friendly, now, he was part of their food.   He didn’t bother to move when both of them swooped onto him and began eating from his head, somehow, underneath the mess of crow food, he could hear Rei laughing at him and walking away… at least his cell phone had been saved.
 

Chapter 10