The Purple Heart (32 page)

“Hey hon, I gotta go. Tom
wants to take me out tonight and do wild things to me,” said Cat.

“He didn’t say that,” Aiko
said disbelievingly.

“Okay, he didn’t say that
to my face, but I want him to.”

Aiko laughed, “You’re so
bad sometimes.”

“I really think I like this
one,” said Cat affectionately.

“That’s what you said about
the last guy,” Aiko said teasingly.

“Yeah, well, Tom is
different.” Then with a devilish tone, “Tom’s Asian AMERICAN.”

Aiko laughed and then said,
“Yeah, he is and undoubtedly he’s not going to let you forget it.”

It was already in the late
afternoon when Aiko entered her apartment after Cat dropped her off. She threw
her pocketbook and keys onto the hallway chair, slipped out of her shoes, and
strolled into the living room. Her coffee table was covered from all the items
used over the last few days. She walked into the kitchen and lamented over the
bowl and chopsticks she had left unwashed on the kitchen table. The last bit of
soup had dried up, leaving a dark ring stuck to the bottom of the bowl. She
placed the bowl and chopsticks in the sink and ran some hot water over them.
When she turned, she spotted her notebook and picked it up from the table. She
pulled out another bottle of water and headed to the living room.

Aiko placed the notebook
onto the coffee table and leaned up against the sofa. She pulled at the family
album once more and started to peruse it again. Now there seemed to be more
energy coming from the photo album. When she got to the pictures of the internment
camp, there was so much more meaning to them. Before, the empty barracks evoked
no feelings.

These were the homes of
people who looked like her, Japanese Americans who were forced to relocate to
the prison camp to live out almost four years of their lives. It was so unfair
that the government could accuse a group of people of disloyalty without
justification, then rob them of years of their lives just because they looked
different, in this case, not white. What gave the government the right to deny
freedom to a group of Americans? Aiko wondered if something like this could
still happen today.

When she came across the
few pictures of her grandmother, she smiled. She could see the woman she once
was. Cat was right about one thing: She was a living time capsule. In a sense,
what her grandmother endured was a part of American history. Aiko suddenly
realized that even growing up, she was taught very little about the
contributions and sacrifices of Asian Americans to the American society. Surely
Asian Americans were not bystanders when a great country was built around them.
The only time she learned about Asian American history was when she took a
class on Asian American history and then she had a thought: Why is Asian American
history an elective when it should really be part of American history?

She found the picture of
her grandmother holding her father when he was a mere infant. But Cat’s
question came back to her: If her grandmother was so insistent on having her
grandfather stay, why didn’t she tell him that she was pregnant? Surely, that
would have changed his mind and made him stay. Or would it? Did her grandfather
eventually learn that she was pregnant? Did he learn before he died in the war
that he had a son? Then the hardest question came to Aiko: Was her grandfather
a deserter?

Aiko’s eyes shot down to
her bag. She pulled it aside and carefully removed Joey’s drawing, unfolded it,
and laid it across the album. She looked down at it and was drawn to the scene
of Joey’s grandfather placing a bandage on the wounded soldier. Her eyes then
focused on Joey’s grandfather. “He’s the key to my grandfather,” she said to
herself.

* * *

The next morning, Aiko
arrived early to class and found herself feeling awkward and nervous with
anticipation of talking to Joey. She needed to talk to his grandfather. The
children started to filter into the classroom one by one. Joey then walked in,
smiled and happily called out, “Good morning Ms. Satoh.”

“Good morning Joey,”
replied Aiko calmly. She found it odd that a little second grader was making
her nervous but it wasn’t really him. It was his unknown answers.

As the last of the children
strolled in and took their seats, Aiko closed the door and walked back to the
front of the room. She loosened up by assuming her role as the teacher and
greeted the class, who greeted her back cheerfully. Aiko was wearing her dark
navy skirt and royal blue collared shirt. Aiko always liked to look proper, not
a thing out of place, down to her shiny black pumps.

She assigned the class a fun
project as a continuation from the previous week’s drawing assignment. The
children were told to draw their favorite animals and if they could have it for
a pet, what room in their house would it be in? The kids looked excited and
then took out their paper and crayons and magic markers. Once the children were
fully engrossed, she walked up to Joey.

Joey had his head bent
downward and was busily working on his drawing. It looked like he had just
about finished an outline of an elephant when Aiko knelt down by him and caught
his attention.

“Joey, would you mind if I
have a moment with you?” asked Ms. Satoh with a smile.

Joey looked at his teacher
with a quizzical but friendly face. “Sure Ms. Satoh,” he replied.

“Why don’t we go to the
back of the room and talk?”

Joey looked back and then
back at Aiko, “Okay,” he said. He started to get out of his seat when Aiko
softly asked him, “Oh, can you also bring the drawing you did last week with
you?”

Joey obliged and reached
into his desk for the drawing and followed Aiko back to a small round table.
They both sat down as Aiko tried to balance herself on a chair made for
children. Joey sat to her right, spread out the drawing and looked up at Aiko.

“That’s a great drawing, Joey.
You’re very talented,” Aiko commented.

Joey’s cheeks flushed with
a little redness and he answered, “Thank you.”

“I was wondering, Joey, could
you tell me a little more about this scene right here with your grandfather?”
Aiko gently circled the scene with her fingertips as Joey looked down.

“Oh, sure, Ms. Satoh. This
is my grandfather, and he was kneeling over his best friend, who got shot.”

“Do you know his name?”
asked Aiko with some anticipation and she would have been utterly shocked if
Joey said Hiroshi.

“I don’t know his name, but
all his friends called him ‘Home Run.’ See, I wrote his nickname underneath
him,” responded Joey as he pointed out the name.

“Did your grandfather know
him well?” asked Aiko.

“My grandfather said they
were good friends during the war, and that he also saved his life,” said Joey.

Aiko’s sense of pride
swelled up again as she heard this. It was something that didn’t surprise her
about her grandfather. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to solve the mystery
of whether or not her grandfather was a deserter with Joey alone. She needed to
talk to Joey’s grandfather.

“Joey, when did your
grandfather tell you this story?”

“Oh, sometime last week,”
replied Joey.

Aiko was instantly on
alert. This happened quite recently. “Did you talk to him by phone?”

“No, in person. He’s here
visiting my parents,” replied Joey.

Aiko’s heart skipped a
beat. The key to her grandfather’s mysterious fate was here in Washington D.C.!
She looked at Joey with a sense of excitement and urgency, “Your grandfather is
here right now?”

“Well, no, he’s at the
airport. He lives in Los Angeles. My parents are taking him there,” replied
Joey.

“Right now? Joey, do you
know what time his flight leaves?” Aiko asked.

Joey leaned back. The
urgency of Aiko’s tone startled him, “Uh, I think 11 o’clock?”

“Do you know what airline?”
asked Aiko.

“United, I think,” Joey
said in an unsure voice.

Aiko immediately glanced
down at her watch. It was 9:20 A.M. Then a crazy thought barreled into her
mind. She could catch Joey’s grandfather at the airport! She immediately placed
her arms around Joey, placed a soft kiss on top of his head and stood up.

“Thank you Joey, you can go
back to your desk now,” Aiko said eagerly.

Joey looked both
embarrassed and confused as he walked back to his desk.

She could do it, she
thought. A cab ride down to the airport would take about thirty to forty
minutes. But how would she recognize him? There was bound to be many older
Asian American men at the airport, especially if they were going to Los
Angeles. Then another thought ran through her mind: The key to her
grandfather’s mystery was living in her own backyard all those years. But
before she could even leave, she had to take care of one problem.

“You want me to do WHAT?”
Cat asked.

“I need you to take over my
class. It’s easy, just give them the same assignment you’re giving your class,
and then it’ll be all over. I’ll be back by the end of the day, I promise,”
said Aiko as she put on her jacket.

“But hon,
why
are
you doing this?” asked Cat.

“I can’t tell you
everything now. But someone at the airport knows about my grandfather’s past
and I need to get to him before he leaves,” said Aiko urgently.

“Are you serious?” Cat
exclaimed.

“I am.
Please
do
this for me Cat. I really gotta go. And tell the principal for me!” Aiko
pleaded.

“Sure, sure… damn, this is
like
Mission Impossible
. I’ll take care of your little monsters. You go
and find out what happened to your grandfather,” Cat answered with a wink.

“You’re the best,” said
Aiko. She leaned in and gave Cat a quick hug and then turned away.

“Hey wait, how are you
getting to the airport?” asked Cat.

Aiko turned around and
said, “I’m going to get a cab.”

“A cab?” Cat pulled out her
car keys from the front pocket of her black slacks and tossed them over to
Aiko.

Aiko caught the keys with
both of her hands and smiled appreciatively. “I owe you one!” She turned around
once more and dashed down the hall.

Aiko made her way into the
parking lot and immediately found Cat’s car. She unlocked it, jumped into the
car and turned on the ignition. The engine and CD player roared to life. Aiko
put on her sunglasses, shifted the car into gear and peeled out of the parking
lot.

Aiko hit traffic and her
patience was wearing thin. She methodically tapped the steering wheel with her
fingers and gazed ahead as the cars’ red taillights shone back at her. She
looked at the clock on the dashboard. The time changed over to 9:55. Aiko’s
usual calm demeanor cracked. “Shit! I can’t believe this!” she groaned.

She had to catch Joey’s
grandfather before he left. Traffic suddenly eased up, and Aiko focused her
attention on the road. She made a couple of aggressive lane changes, then
headed steadily down the last stretch of road on George Washington Memorial
Parkway before the exit to Reagan National Airport.

Aiko finally arrived at the
United terminal and found parking in the adjacent garage. She shifted Cat’s car
into park and then looked at the clock: 10:05 A.M. She had exactly fifty-five
minutes to find Joey’s grandfather and what seemed like a great plan now seemed
impossible. She bolted out of Cat’s car and ran toward the skywalk connecting
to the terminal as it echoed with each racing step she took. The automatic
doors opened and she raced down to the terminal. A crowd of people filled the
area. Her heart sank. “This is impossible,” she thought.

Aiko meandered through the
throngs of people and made her way to the monitors displaying departure times.
She scanned down the list until her eyes abruptly stopped at the 11:00 A.M.
flight bound for Los Angeles. Hey eyes shifted to the right in alarm as she saw
the word, “BOARDING” blink ominously. She let out a disappointed sigh and
pulled back her left sleeve to see the time on her wristwatch. It was 10:20
A.M. Hundreds of people were standing about in the terminal building when another
idea spontaneously popped into her mind.

Dozens of people were lined
up at the ticket counter. Aiko would have to be resourceful. She motioned to an
airline employee. An older woman with short, curly, dirty-blonde hair, thick
plastic-rimmed sunglasses on her nose, and big golden-balled earrings, waddled
over. Aiko prepared herself mentally for the next few moments.

“Yes, may I help you?”
asked the airline employee. Her name badge identified her as Ruth.

“I know that this is
awkward, but I need to get onto that flight to Los Angeles. Can you let me skip
to the front?” asked Aiko nicely.

“I’m sorry miss, but you’ll
have to wait like everyone…”

Aiko placed her hands over
her face and started to weep, although she was having some trouble creating
actual tears.
Think sad thoughts
, she said to herself repeatedly.
Through a fake choking voice, she blurted out, “I just found out a close
relative of mine passed away and I need to get back to LA.”