The Purple Heart (18 page)

Minami was alarmed at what
was happening as she raced back toward Hiroshi. Didn’t the general believe her?
It was Kiddache who assaulted her, not Hiroshi. Then Hiroshi turned his head up
suddenly in Minami’s direction and though she was some thirty feet away, he met
her eyes. He shook his head slightly and glared back at her. “No!”

Minami froze. She couldn’t
believe Hiroshi was telling her to go back. She didn’t understand, but there
was such intensity in his eyes. She didn’t know what to do. There must have
been a good reason for him to say “no.” Would she inadvertently make the
situation worse by going back? Was there something that she didn’t know? The
soldier holding Hiroshi’s arms pulled him back into an upright position.
Hiroshi looked at Minami with that gaze before he turned his head. The other
soldier delivered another punch to Hiroshi’s mid-section as he doubled over
onto the ground.

Minami didn’t understand
why she did it. She felt entirely helpless all over again. She ran back to her
barrack, leaving Hiroshi in whatever cruel hell he was in as tears streamed
down her face.

Minami hopped out of bed
the next morning. She didn’t get much sleep as her thoughts raced. She wondered
what happened to Hiroshi after she had left him. She felt a deep regret that
choked her heart. Why did I listen to Hiroshi? She tormented herself by asking
why she didn’t run back to Hiroshi, her rescuer, place herself in front of him,
and plead for mercy from the general. She would have, she should have. But his
eyes evoked such vehement intensity that they stopped her in her tracks. She
remembered the sweat dripping from his eyebrows, the anguish in his contorted
face but there was something in his pupils, an urgency that held fast.

She zipped up a pair of
jeans, threw on a sweater and the jacket from the night before, and slipped
into her shoes. She grabbed the water pail just when her mother was stirring,
and left the barrack.

She bit her lip, the same
thoughts still churning in her mind. Why did she feel so helpless at that
moment? What was it that made her turn her back on Hiroshi? The guilt started
to taunt her, weighing on every single thought. She felt the weight of it on
her lungs and found herself gasping for air as tears of guilt started to fill
her eyes.

She didn’t even know why
she headed toward the water pump. Did she honestly think that Hiroshi would be
there? She wiped away her tears and walked faster. He had to be there. From the
first day they met at the water pump, he had always been there. She needed him
to be there. Her will then turned to one of determination as she turned right
and walked up the length of the barrack to where the water pump was. He had to
be around the corner, she thought. She was hopefully determined to find him
standing there, tall and lean, in his white T-shirt and blue jeans, leaning
against the wall of the barrack. He would have his arms casually crossed and he
would greet her with that big smile of his.

Minami turned the corner in
hopeful anticipation, saw nothing but the idle water pump and rows of barracks.
For a moment, she lost her breath as reality set in. Hiroshi wasn’t there that
morning. Her shoulders dropped, as did the pail.

She gave out a loud sigh of
disappointment. Then a hopeful thought came to her: Perhaps he was just running
late. She turned around hoping to see him, but there was no one there. Again,
rows of barracks simply stared back at her, the last one being hers. She then
turned her head and looked down the path that she just came up from and nothing
but barracks. She felt all alone, desolate and abandoned. She leaned up against
the corner of the barrack and quietly began to sob, choking back on her own
tears.

“I guess you need help with
that water pump?” came a voice from behind.

Minami spun around as her
eyes lit up upon hearing that familiar voice. Hiroshi was leaning up against
the corner, just as she had imagined him, except that his T-shirt was untucked.

Minami raced over to him as
a flood of happiness consumed her very being. “Hiroshi!” she blurted out as her
tears changed from ones of sadness to ones of utmost joy. She lunged at him as
his eyes widened. As she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, Hiroshi
placed his hands on her waist to try to hold her back, but he wasn’t prepared
for her impulsive momentum. He tripped over backwards, and she fell on top of
him. She smothered him with affectionate kisses, repeating his name over and
over, when Hiroshi let out a gurgling noise. Minami brushed her hair back,
hovered over Hiroshi, and saw his goldfish-like eyes. His contorted expression soon
turned red like a lobster. He looked like he was choking.

“Hiroshi… what’s wrong?”
asked Minami in a confused tone.

Hiroshi let out a gasp and
inhaled, “I… can’t… breathe.”

Minami, feeling alarmed,
lifted herself off Hiroshi’s chest and straddled him. Hiroshi then coughed, let
out a gasp, and inhaled deeply until finally, he let his arms flop to each side
away from him. He lurched his head upward and spoke, “I guess you really missed
me.”

Minami smiled and wiped
away the remaining tears from her face and playfully slapped him on the side of
his torso. Hiroshi winced and brought his hands to where Minami had slapped
him.

“You’re hurt!” exclaimed
Minami.

“It’s okay, really I…”

“No, you’re hurt. Let me
see!” demanded Minami as her maternal instinct took over.

She tried to pull up his
shirt, remembering the blows he had taken to his mid-section. Hiroshi tried to
stop her by pushing back her hands but she firmly brushed them back and in a
strident tone, "Let me see now!”

Hiroshi pulled his hands
back and put them up defensively. “Whoa, okay, whatever you say,” he said
jokingly.

Minami carefully pushed up
Hiroshi’s shirt, revealing slight bruising on the left side of his torso. There
was some swelling along his stomach and redness, probably from the impact of
the punches. Minami’s sense of guilt came back as she saw the damage they had
inflicted on Hiroshi. She touched one of the bruises, which made Hiroshi wince.

“It’s not as bad as it
looks,” Hiroshi said, trying to comfort Minami.

“It’s all my fault, I
should have ignored you and stopped them from punching you.”

“All by your little self?”
said Hiroshi as he eased himself up into an upright position so that he could
see Minami’s face.

“If I had to, I would
have,” said Minami as she looked down in shame, diverting her eyes away from
his. She felt as though she abandoned him just when he needed her. He was there
for her when she was being attacked and saved her from a horrible nightmare
that every woman dreaded.

“Hey, hey…” Hiroshi said
trying to get her attention. He gently lifted her chin with his finger so that
he could see her eyes. There were tears in them and in that moment, Hiroshi realized
how much she cared for him. He placed a kiss on her lips and could taste the
saltiness from the tears that must have streamed down her face. She didn’t
immediately kiss back, Hiroshi kissed her once more and she kissed back gently.
She wanted to kiss him, and she leaned toward him and kissed him until they
were trading soft kisses back and forth.

Hiroshi pulled back and
exhaled. He rubbed the left side of his torso with his right hand. Minami
immediately lifted herself off Hiroshi and sat next to him. “I’m sorry,” she
said, still feeling guilty.

“Minami, you have nothing
to be sorry about,” said Hiroshi. “There’s more…”

“No, I let you down. You
were there for me, you saved me, and when you needed me I couldn’t do anything
to help you.”

“Minami…” said Hiroshi
before he was interrupted again.

“I’m so sorry, do you
forgive me?”

Finally, out of frustration
Hiroshi said in a stern tone, “Minami! If you let me finish, there’s more to
the story from last night.”

Minami fell silent and
looked up at Hiroshi. There was such warmth coming from his eyes as he sat
upright with his legs stretched out in front of him. Hiroshi took another deep
breath that filled his broad chest and then exhaled. He leaned over and placed
another kiss on Minami’s lips to console her as he started his story.

“When you started walking
away, I realized what the general meant by taking one for the team. He was
caught in an awkward position. He couldn’t compromise his authority with his
men around him, especially when we’re fighting the Japanese overseas. He knew
what Kiddache had done and would deal with him later. That is, if he didn’t
bleed to death on the way to the infirmary. But he couldn’t let me, a Japanese,
get away with assaulting one of his men, even though I didn’t do anything
wrong. So that’s when he ordered the other two soldiers to rough me up a little
bit, to serve as a reminder that the U.S. Army was in charge and that he would
not tolerate his men being beaten up the way I did with Kiddache.”

Hiroshi inhaled another
long breath and then exhaled slowly. He continued on with his story. “But what
the general didn’t realize was that the two soldiers who walked toward me were
Eddie and Gordy. They both came over to me with their serious faces and all.
Eddie grabbed me from behind and held my arms firmly but not roughly. Then big
Gordy stepped in front of me as the general stepped off to the side to watch.
Before the first punch, Gordy looked me in the face and he winked. Then I knew
everything was going to be okay. He landed a punch to my torso, which he faked
by pulling back so it wasn’t much of a punch. But I had to do my part and make
it look real. But when I saw you coming back, I had to shoot you that look and
tell you to go back because it would have just prolonged the situation.”

“I took about five punches
while that son of a bitch Kiddache laughed, but the general gave him a look that
shut him up real quick. After the fifth punch, I was lying on the ground,
pretending to have the wind knocked out of me. The general walked over and
crouched down and he said to me, ‘You took one for the team today. Do you
understand me?’ I looked up into the general’s eyes, and I said I understood. He
then straightened up, ordered Eddie and Gordy back into the jeep. He then asked
if I would be fine getting back to my barrack, and I faked a cough and said
yes. The general then got back into the jeep and drove away.”

“So it wasn’t real?” asked
Minami as Hiroshi nodded his head. In an incredulous tone, Minami restated her
question, “So you weren’t hurt at all?”

“Well, not really. Even
though Gordy pulled back his punches, the guy doesn’t know his own strength.”
Hiroshi struggled with a laugh. “So Gordy did bang me up a bit. I’d hate to
meet that guy on the battlefield.”

For a moment, Minami was in
disbelief. All the feelings that she had earlier were all misdirected. She felt
almost betrayed but she realized she had genuine feelings of concern and would
never want to see Hiroshi hurt in any way. It would just devastate her. But she
was still a bit upset. Although it wasn’t Hiroshi’s fault, she punched him on
the arm to vent her frustration.

“Ow,” said Hiroshi. “What
was that for?”

“Just because,” said Minami
resignedly.

Hiroshi then pulled himself
closer to Minami. She turned to face him and there was concern on his face and
he asked, “How about you? Are you okay?”

Minami almost didn’t want
to talk about it. For the most part she was okay, but she wanted to forget the
entire situation because it disgusted her to think about it. Hiroshi caressed
Minami’s left cheek, which she responded to by moving into his caress. She
wanted to feel his fingers along her face.

“Did he hurt you?” asked
Hiroshi.

“Nothing I can’t handle,”
said Minami. A smile crept across her face, “You saved me.”

“I wish I was there sooner
to stop him,” said Hiroshi.

Minami looked at Hiroshi,
who had an expression of utmost concern on his face. She could tell he was
worried about her and maybe there was even a hint of guilt there. But Minami
would never forget him rescuing her. She knew that he would never let anything
hurt her. She leaned over and placed a kiss on his lips and touched his cheek
with her hand and said, “You’re my hero.”

Hiroshi’s cheeks reddened.
He smiled to try to stem it, but it was too late. He shook back his head and
gave out a chuckle. He turned back to Minami and spoke once again, “So why were
you so late? I got to the mess hall, propped up the ladder and even climbed on
top and spread out the blanket. I waited like five minutes for you so I decided
to walk to your barrack hoping to meet you halfway. By the time I had arrived
at your barrack, your mother told me she hadn’t seen you since dinner. So
that’s when I headed back to the mess hall and saw you being attacked.”

Hiroshi clenched his fists at
the memory of seeing Minami being attacked. He had never felt such ferocity
well up in him so suddenly; he felt lucky that he had gotten back to the mess
hall just in time to stop Kiddache. He couldn’t even bear to think what Minami
would have endured had he shown up just a few seconds later.

Minami listened to his
story and in her mind put together the pieces of the puzzle leading up to the
previous night’s attack on her. “It was my fault,” offered Minami. “When I got
back to the barrack, I had to dig out my jacket, and then I saw your ball and
thought it would be…” Minami’s expression abruptly turned to one of shock.

“What is it?” asked Hiroshi
as she watched Minami search the pockets of her jacket. They turned up nothing
and she looked up anxiously at Hiroshi and all she could say was, “Your ball!”

“My ball?” asked a confused
Hiroshi.

“Oh my God. It’s why I was
late,” said Minami as she got up. “We have to find your ball!”

Before Hiroshi could
protest or get Minami to explain, she pulled him up. Before Hiroshi was even
balanced on his own two feet, Minami had grabbed his left hand and began
dragging him off. Along the way, she explained that when she had gotten back to
her barrack, she saw the ball lying on her table. She thought it would be nice
to have him autograph it for her.