The Purple Heart (4 page)

“Hello?” asked Aiko’s
grandmother. Her voice was more deliberate in her olden days but it was still
clear.

“Hi Grandma, it’s Aiko!”
Aiko said excitedly with a hint of nervousness.

“Aiko! How are you? Are you
keeping warm?”

“Yes Grandma, I am.” The
small talk had already exhausted itself and Aiko started to grasp for words not
knowing how to broach the topic of her grandfather.

“It’s been so long since
I’ve seen you Aiko, not since your college days.”

“I know,” Aiko’s tone
hinted with some guilt. “I’ll see you when I come home. I just wanted to call
and see how you were doing,” added Aiko as she bit her lip.

“I hope so. Seeing you over
the holidays just isn’t enough for this old woman.”

“You’re not old, Grandma,
you still have a lot of energy in you!”

“Thank you, Aiko, I just
hope this old body of mine can stand a few more years and hopefully you can
make me a happy great-grandmother. Remember now, Japanese name.”

Aiko blushed and smiled.
Her grandmother was getting old, and Aiko and her siblings were her only
grandchildren. As the matriarch of the Satoh family, it was her incessant
reminder that everyone down the Satoh line be given a Japanese first name to
honor their Japanese heritage. Her grandmother also had a beautiful Japanese
name, Minami.

Minami Satoh was a woman
with a strong will that wove itself into her quiet demeanor. Though her hair
had turned platinum, it was still shiny and strong. For what she lacked in height,
she made up for it in presence. Though she took a little more time to ponder
things, she could still orate a story and be the center of attention. After the
war and finding herself in the predicament of being a single mother, she
devoted herself to being a dutiful mother to her son, Ichiro, Aiko’s father.

“Grandma?” asked Aiko.

“Is everything okay? Oh I
hope it isn’t anything with your father!”

Aiko suddenly asked herself
why everyone in her family would always think something was wrong with someone
in the family. She quickly interjected reassuringly, “Oh no, nothing like that,
Grandma.”

Her grandmother was quickly
reassured and finally added, “Good, for a moment there, you had me worried. It
is not often that you would call me unless it was my birthday or something. Why
did you call, Aiko?"

There was a pause on the
phone. “I wanted to ask you about… Grandpa,” replied Aiko as her voice trailed
away.

It had been a while since
anyone had ever directly asked about her late husband. Not a day goes by that
Minami didn’t think about her husband, Hiroshi, who would have been the
patriarch of the Satoh line. She was the only person left alive who knew him
personally and intimately, aside from her own younger siblings.

“Grandpa… What exactly do
you want to know?” asked Minami.

Another pause came and went
and with her curiosity leading the charge, Aiko blurted out, “Everything,
before I lose the chance.”

Her granddaughter was
insightful, Minami thought. “Before I lose the chance,” said her granddaughter
and Minami knew what this meant. For decades, Minami moved on with her life,
accepting the fate that had been dealt to her after World War II. She struggled
and persevered for most of her life. Now in her senior years, she spent much of
her time alone. Though she may have wanted some things to be different, at
least her life was simple. She still had a small circle of friends, most of
whom also spent their early lives in the internment camps. Like herself, they
were all widows. It was an unspoken morbid truth that their circle would
eventually grow smaller.

So for each other, they
solemnly and quietly shared as much as possible in their last few years. They
often live in their own quiet solitude, feeling lonely and neglected and not
wanting to be a bother to their own families. They knew that their children had
their own lives. But more often than not, a phone call, an invitation to a
family event gave them immeasurable enjoyment. These were going to be their
last years and they were trying to enjoy them as best they could.

Minami accepted her
solitude. She had always been more or less alone. She didn’t remarry as she had
only one true love, Hiroshi. Her granddaughter’s unexpected mention of him
brought back the image of him. His smile flashed across her mind, which brought
a moment of happiness to her. She only remembered him being young, since he
never had the chance to grow old with her. She wondered how he would look as an
older man and found that she couldn’t. His handsome young self is how she
remembered him.

Her granddaughter caught
her on a good day. Minami had just prepared a cup of tea to enjoy while catching
up on a few magazines. With the phone still held to her ear and the cup of tea
in the other hand, she walked into her living room and eased herself down onto
the sofa. She never had the chance to tell her grandchildren about their
grandfather. Yet her granddaughter had just hinted, “before I lose the chance,”
but the reality was, before Minami lost the chance as well.

“Well Aiko,” started Minami
as she brought the teacup up. “Where should I begin? I’ll start with my younger
days right before I met your grandfather,” she said as the steam from the tea
rose up.

* * *

The curious sea breeze
seeped in through the slightly opened window. Its ethereal presence wandered
about the room aimlessly as it wasn’t used to the confines of the structure it
had just entered. It was used to being free, but it was curious that day. But
now it was confused, carrying an essence of the salty ocean water from where it
was born. It glided about and around the room until it saw the young woman. She
was asleep, nestled into her bed and lying on her side. It circled about her,
stalking almost, until finally it swooped in under her nostrils at the exact
time she inhaled. The delicate skin of its presence tore instantly releasing
its salty essence as it disappeared into her nose, dissipating into
nothingness.

Minami stirred from her
sleep as the smell of the fresh salty ocean tickled her nostrils. She turned
over and her closed eyes met the starting rays of the rising sun of that Sunday
morning. Instinctively, she placed the back of her hand over her eyes to ward
off the offending rays. She stayed that way as her mind started to float to
consciousness from an abyss of mental nothingness. She turned onto her back and
raised both of her arms with clenched fists into the air as she arched her body
to wake up every part of herself in one valiant effort. Her body fell back into
the warmth of her bed, her arms plopped along her sides and she relaxed. The
smell of breakfast had already started to seep in through the room and she knew
her mother would be calling for her soon. Rather than wait for that to happen,
she grasped the side of the blanket and lifted it off of herself so that she
could finally and reluctantly leave the warmth of her bed.

Minami quickly slipped her
feet into her slippers, which were always turned outward from the bed. The
slippers snugly enveloped her feet. She rose up and passed her dresser where
the mirror’s sides were dotted with awards in all shapes and sizes. She exited
into the hallway and into the bathroom on the right.

Her five-year-old brother
Yoshi came stumbling down the hallway rubbing his sleepy eyes and tried the
doorknob of the bathroom. It was locked. He knocked on the door with the flat
of his palm and then turned around and leaned his back against the door when it
suddenly opened. He was caught off guard as he struggled to reach for something
to hold onto where there was none and he fell backwards. Minami quickly knelt
down and caught him.

“Yoshi!” she said
playfully.

Yoshi regained his balance
as his sister propped him up. He turned to meet his sister’s smile and giggled
as both his little feet pattered excitedly on the floor. His hair was thick and
cut as if a rice bowl was placed over his head. Minami then raised herself up
and playfully ruffled Yoshi’s hair as he gave off a few more giggles.

“Hurry up now, I’m sure Mom
has breakfast waiting for us.”

“Okay!” exclaimed Yoshi, as
he shut the bathroom door behind him.

Minami walked away from the
door and stepped back into her room. She stood in front of the mirror to look
at herself. She was a slender young woman who had classic but pretty features.
She had milk-chocolate-colored eyes with beautiful eyelashes and higher-than-normal
cheekbones. Her straight hair had a distinct sheen to it and hung past her
shoulders. She picked up her brush and began brushing her hair, one side first,
then the other. She played with her bangs a bit and placed the brush back onto
her dresser. Looking into the mirror one more time, she gently bit her lip and
then walked out of her room. At the top of the stairs, she yelled in the
direction of another closed door. “Miho, Yuka! Time to wake up for breakfast.”

Minami heard a couple of
sleepy grunts from the room and knew her two sisters would be up soon as she
descended down the stairs.

“Hi Mom,” Minami said as
she walked into the kitchen. Her mother was busily working at the stove
finalizing breakfast. On the table were several traditional Japanese dishes
that her mother was still fond of making. Minami’s mother was an energetic
woman. Her hair was tied back into a bun and bore some streaks of gray, which
she disliked. Her mother turned around, looked up and muttered curtly, “Hurry
and eat before it gets cold.”

Minami knew all too well
what her mother’s curt attitude meant. She was mad at her father, again. Minami
hesitated and instead of sitting down, stepped over to the sink and picked out
bowls and chopsticks to set on the table. Her mother ignored her and went back
to work on placing a fish on a plate. Her mother looked over and abruptly said,
“We only need five bowls. Your father isn’t eating with us.”

Her mother’s sharp tone
slashed through the morning air and made Minami pause for a moment. She placed
back one pair of chopsticks and recounted the bowls to make sure she only had
five. With quiet deliberation, Minami set the table and every now and then,
looked up at her mother whose back was turned to her. She could hear the sounds
of her two younger sisters getting up as the creaking floorboards from above
gave away their presence. Yoshi would be done soon and make his way down into
the kitchen at any moment.

“What’s wrong, Mom?” asked
Minami.

Her mother ignored her and
continued on, laboriously decorating the dishes at the counter. Minami raised
her tone once more but was mindful that she still needed to give her mother the
respect she deserved. “Mom! What’s wrong?”

“Your father decided to go
out fishing instead of spending his time at home. He promised that he would
spend time at home and where is he? He’s off fishing, saying he knows that it
will be a good fishing day and that if he could get to it first, he’ll beat
everyone at the market. What makes him think he knows fish better than anyone
else all of a sudden? I’m sure he’s not the only one who thought that today was
going to be good, so I’m sure all the other fishermen are probably out as well.
He’ll feel like such the fool when he realizes he’s not the only one with a
grand and original idea.”

Minami paused and reflected
on her mother’s quick retort but she knew there was more. Her father was a good
fisherman, one of the best in the community. He was always sure of himself,
boasting about his seer like instinct of where the fish were, always
proclaiming that he thought like a fish. Minami also knew her mother knew this
as well.

“Was Daddy supposed to take
you out today?”

Her mother paused and she
quietly nodded and under her breath she responded, “Yes. He promised to take me
out.” She then gave out a sigh and turned with the last dish in her hands and
placed it on the table. Mother and daughter stood facing one another and looked
down at the seven dishes on the kitchen table.

Minami looked up at her and
quietly said, “Seven dishes?”

Her mother froze for a
moment but then looked up to meet her daughter’s gaze and they both laughed. “I
cook a lot when I’m mad.”

The morning tension was
finally broken just as Yoshi walked into the kitchen and shouted, “Wow, look at
all the food!”

Minami’s mother smiled and
knelt down to offer a hug to Yoshi, who stumbled forward into her. She gave
Yoshi a quick hug and then pulled aside a chair for him to climb onto. Yoshi
eagerly picked up his chopsticks and began to select his favorite breakfast
items.

Minami stepped into the
pantry, which was where they kept the two-way radio. She picked up the
microphone and depressed the switch and spoke into it. “Ito house to Mayumi,
Ito house to Mayumi, please come in.” There was some static from the speaker
and then she repeated her call. A low but garbled voice came over the speaker
at which Yoshi yelled, “Daddy!” with his mouth full of rice.

“Minami? What is it?” asked
her father as his voice came in clearly.

“I’m just checking in to
make sure you’re okay. How’s the fishing?” asked Minami.