"Be brave, and good luck, Tanaka!" Ken hugs his younger brother.
"Bye, Ken. I'll write to you. And don't worry about me, Tokyo isn't that far from here. You can always visit me on holidays." Ken waves as his brother enters the Nagoya Japan Railway Bullet-train Station. He returns home right away, for tomorrow is a new week and he has to get up early for work at the factory.
On the train back home, he yawns and realizes his train station is next, for he's already crossed the bridge over the long canal that leads to the sea. He smiles as he remembers once having fished there with Tanaka.
As he gets off the train, he climbs the stairs to the overpass crossing the tracks to the exit. Just in front of him he notices a strong man walking hurriedly. He rushes in large steps and ends up dropping his wallet.
"Sumimassen, kaban!" Ken shouts in a broken Japanese, something like, "I'm sorry, wallet!" He takes the old black fat wallet and runs after the man, who stops and turns around, as if annoyed. Ken recognizes him right away.
"Takao-san!" That is, Mr. Takao. The unfriendly man takes the wallet, bows, and leaves right away.
Ken walks to the bike parking lot and watches Takao way ahead of him, who turns around, as if conscious of being followed. He keeps on walking fast. Then he rushes out with his bike nearly running over a few girls who shout at him to be more careful. Ken unlocks his rusty bike and cycles back home up the hill. He knows that Takao will have to go up the hill, and ride a long way towards the factory where he lives in the old back deposit. He must be in great shape to be ridding his bike uphill so fast.
As Ken passes in front of the Sun Plaza Supermarket, he notices its dark façade. Earlier today, Tanaka and he were in the same supermarket, and his younger brother even offered to pay for the groceries, even though he was leaving the town.
He stops his bike by the traffic lights, and admires the pay phone booth that his brother and he used to make calls to their parents back in Brazil. The light then turns green and he continues riding back home. As he takes right at a dark narrow street, he notices somebody behind him cycling away in a hurry. He turns and cannot distinguish the man.
Was it Takao? Why was he coming this way? Has he been following me?
Ken peddles faster and dismisses his thoughts. He arrives at his house and notices six bikes parked in a row. Five belong to his cousins, and one, to Tanaka, for he couldn't take his bike along. He enters the house and talks to his cousins, who are watching TV.
"You have to watch, Ken. Takao is a dangerous man. He belongs to the yakuza." Shigeru, his cousin, says.
"I don't know. He doesn't seem to be a bad man to me Shigeru. Besides, doesn't he work at our factory? If he's a yakuza, shouldn't he be rich?"
"Anyway, I wonder who's going to move out of this house next, Mineko says." She's another cousin.
"I am!" Shigeru says. "And my sisters too. It's all settled with our brother in Kariya City." They all remain silent.
"My mother is coming to Japan soon. Once dad died, she sees no point in staying in Brazil anymore." Mineko says.
"The car accident was terrible and traumatic." Tetsuo, her younger brother says.
"Well, in this case, I'd better start looking for a place for me." Ken adds.
"You should stay with us, Ken. It's better this way." Tetsuo suggests.
On Monday morning everybody is cycling to work. The company that they work makes water boiler parts. Ken, Tetsuo, and Shigeru enter the changing room and put on their light brown uniforms. Ken admires the locker besides his that is now empty.
Work is hard as usual and they all complain about the heat. During lunch, Ken steals glances at Takao, who always eats lunch by himself in the corner of the canteen. He rarely talks to anyone.
"Ken, why are you staring at Takao? Has he done anything to you?" Tetsuo asks, while finishing his lunch. He always saves his tiny piece of beef for last. "Geez, I can't wait to go back to Brazil and eat a huge juicy steak! Not this thin slice of meat!"
"No, I'm not staring at him."
"They say he was a yakuza." Shigeru whispers.
"I don't believe in that. Besides, he hasn't got any tattoos on his body and he's still got ten fingers on his hand."
"Well, this is what everybody here says. And that's why nobody wants anything to do with him. And we shouldn't either."
"I see. And just because of that, he has to live in the deposit building at the back of the factory. Poor Takao-san." They finish their lunch in silence.
A month later, Shigeru, Yoko, and Tieko move out of the house. Mineko, Tetsuo, and Ken remain.
Ken receives wonderful letters from his brother. He is making plenty of money working for Honda. He asks him to join with the two other brothers who also live in Fujisawa, which is not far from Tokyo. His brother is also taking private Japanese classes with a cute Japanese girl. Her name is Issa.
Mrs. Murata arrives in Japan and stays with them in the old house. She is always smiling and making jokes, an odd behavior for someone who's just became a widow, Ken thinks. She stays home all day and cooks dinner for them, cleans the house, and does the laundry.
On the following weekend, Mrs. Murata takes her children to Nagoya, to visit some relatives who are natives in Japan. They leave the house quite early on Sunday morning. Ken also gets up early and takes his brother's bike for a ride to his favorite spot. He calls it Kama Park, because it's near a huge department store with the same name.
He puts his bike in the parking lot of a public library that is next to the park. He visits the small zoo and has fun watching the animals. About lunch time, he eats his obento, which is a delicious assorted cold meal on a tray. He buys a coke from a vending machine and takes his chopsticks and eats happily. When he's finished, he decides to walk to his favorite spot, the rose beds by the big lake. He sees at the distance the public pool that is closed, for they've having a water shortage in the city.
As he returns to take his bike, he decides to enter the public library. He manages to speak with the librarian in his broken Japanese where he can find some books in English. She smiles and helps him find some materials. He thanks her and picks a few and looks for a table to study. Just then, their eyes meet.
Takao closes the book he was reading and abruptly rushes out of the building. Ken is surprised by his reaction and sits by the same table. Just then, he notices the writing material he's left behind.
He collects them and rushes to deliver them to him, but he's nowhere to be seen. He decides to return to the library and reads the books he's taken. He is quite happy as his English has improved. He even borrows a pen from the librarian and begins to copy some of the difficult vocabulary to look them up in his Oxford Learner's Dictionary at home. As he is running out of paper, he doesn't feel like disturbing the librarian again and tears a blank sheet from Takao's notebook.
On the following day, at the lunch break, he approaches Takao.
"You left these on the library yesterday, Takao." Ken hands him the bag of writing material. Takao takes them back, bows his head, and mumbles something incoherent. "Do you study English too?" Takao then looks at him defiantly.
"Did you read my stuff?"
"No, of course not! But I admired your beautiful handwriting." Ken smiles. "Look, this is my handwriting," he doesn't wait for Takao's reply and shows his English lessons he's been doing by himself.
"Your handwriting is good. The grammar can be improved, though." He frowns and shakes his head.
"I met you on that Sunday night, when I saw my brother off at the bullet train station. But you didn't want to speak with me." Takao looks down and smiles for the first time.
"No one ever, speaks with me, Ken. So, what's the point of, trying to be nice?"
From that day on, Ken abandons Tetsuo and Mineko and sits across from Takao. They practice their English, and Ken even says he's got a Daily Yomiuri newspaper subscription.
"That's a newspaper in English, Takao." He says proudly and hands him an issue.
"Very interesting. May I keep it?"
"Of course!"
