"Leaves" Chapter 9

Paul was standing at a pay phone. He dialed Shizuka's number. "She'll be happy to have a record of this in her phone log," he said under his breath, into the receiver, into the sound of the ringing.

Shizuka was in her car when the phone started ringing and she jumped a little and swerved on the road until she found a place to pull over safely. She'd been working the night shift at the clinic and then freshened up her face and set out in her car as she had been doing in all her free time since Paul went off by himself. She wanted to be close to him and Paul had little idea of just how close she was as she answered the call from the number she didn't recognize.

"Hello?"

"Shizuka, this is Paul," he said.

"Oh, hi!!!" she screamed into the phone. Then she began laughing and Paul wondered why. She was always laughing. Well, when she wasn't crying, that is.

"I'm happy you called," she said.

"Oh. Listen, where are you now?"

"Where? I'm driving."

"Oh."

"Why?"

"Well..." he trailed off, looking down at his hand and forearm.

"What's wrong?"
Continued...
"Well, I seem to have picked up some kind of rash."

"Sorry?"

How could he phrase it? "I have an allergy."

"Oh!"

"On my arm. And hand. Red bumps."

Now she understood and she became serious. "How did you get it?"

"I'm not sure." But he was pretty sure. It was that goddamned red stuff. Or was it the lighter fluid? Or maybe the river water? But probably it was the red stuff.

"I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe some stuff I touched by the river."

Shizuka couldn't quite imagine what it would be, but it didn't matter. He'd called her and he needed her help and she was suddenly happy.

She laughed into the phone again.

"It's not funny. Looks pretty bad," Paul said.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm just very glad because Paul called me!"

"I know it's too much to ask, but..."

"Yes?"

"I wonder if you could come and look at it."

"Where are you?" But she basically knew. Because it was her that had driven along the river the previous night. It had been her car. She had waited for him where the trail joined the river going upstream and she had watched him walking in the early evening, watched him sit down by the river, but she hadn't wanted to disturb him. Then she'd driven back home and gone directly to her clinic to start her shift.

She felt a little bad because she'd been following him. She only wanted to be near him, but knew he wanted to be alone. Men are funny, she thought. But she loved him. She wasn't going to let him go. He needed her. His call now proved that, beyond a doubt. She was so happy now.

"I'm in the old village by the river. You know, where I lived before," Paul said.

"Oh yes. OK, I'll come now," she said.

"How long do you think it'll take?"

"I don't know. But I'll hurry! I'll drive fast!"

Paul was shaking his head. "You don't have to rush."

"Maybe one hour," Shizuka said.

"OK."

It would only take her fifteen minutes, actually. She'd already been on her way to "check up" on him. But she smiled and thought she could spend a little extra time to do her makeup. She had to look nice when she met him.

"Where should I wait for you?"

"Ummm..."

"How about this park near the station," Paul said. "It's big and it's called Suigen or something like that."

"OK!"

"It's down by the river."

"OK!"

"OK, I'll just go there and wait for you."

"Good."

"Shizuka, sorry to bother you."

"No, no!"

"Especially after I insisted on coming out here alone."

"No, no. I'm happy!"

And she was happy. He needed her. It's a good thing I've been coming to check on him every day, she thought. He's like a little boy, she thought. So cute.

Yes, Shizuka was happy. She'd forgotten all about how it had been when they'd argued about his birthday. She'd forgotten about how she broke down at his apartment. And she'd nearly forgotten about the mean things they'd written on the stone statue up on that mountain. The little monument to the family that had lived down in the valley below. When she watched Paul starting up the mountain trail, and she climbed up after him, she recognized the name on the stone and it made her sad. It made her turn back. She knew it was the name of one of the families, one of the "untouchable" families that had lived down there and all around the surrounding hills, but always apart from the other villagers. And those mean things -- "dirty people get out!" Shizuka was mad then. But now she'd nearly forgotten about it.

Shizuka put the phone away in her handbag and dutifully used the turn signal and when the little van passed, she pulled back onto the road heading for the village. Outside the village, she stopped in a convenience store parking lot and took a mirror and her makeup bag out. Twenty minutes later she was satisfied with everything. Her eyes had been lined, lips glossed, cheeks powdered and lashes curled. Then she drove into the village, got lost for ten minutes, then got her bearings again, and finally, almost on the hour she'd promised, found the park Paul had mentioned. He was sitting on a bench down by the river and his pack was leaned up against the side of the bench.

Shizuka walked across the grass in her heels. She came up from behind him and covered his eyes with her hands.

"Who am I?" she shouted and then began laughing.

"Uh... Norika Fujiwara?" Paul said, and this made her laugh even more, becoming so noisy that the other people in the park looked over at them.

Shizuka took her hands from his face and leaned over farther from behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed Paul's cheek several times.

"OK! OK!" Paul said. He turned his head to kiss her on the lips.

"You're choking me!" he said afterwards.

"Oh! I'm sorry! Are you OK?"

"Yes." He laughed.

"Are you OK!?"

"Yes! Damnit." He patted the space on the bench beside him. "Now sit down and have a look at my gangrenous arm."

"What?"

"Nothing..."

She came around the bench and sat down beside him. She took his wrist in her hands. As she looked at his hand and arm, Paul was watching her. He was watching her with that freshness and resignation that illness or injury bring. That same purple floral skirt she always wore. Her nice legs. Her hair, curly and hard from all the gel she used.

"Oh, by the way, thanks for coming," Paul said and smiled. Then he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. Shizuka giggled and looked up at his eyes, smiling. Paul lifted his eyebrows and motioned with his eyes and head down to his forearm.

"Oh! Yes. I'm sorry!" Shizuka said.

She held his wrist gently but firmly and ran a finger over the bumps on his skin.

"Well, it doesn't look so bad, I think."

"Really?"

"I can buy medicine at a drugstore. You will be OK."

"Phew! That's a relief. I was afraid they'd have to amputate."

"What?"

"Cut it off."

"No!" But she saw he was joking and then she began laughing again. Again a little noisily.

"But how did you get this?" she asked.

"That's a long story."

Shizuka looked at him, waiting to hear it.

In the car, as they drove to the drugstore, Paul told her about everything. The grove. The "paint, or whatever it was," as he said. And she nodded, with a worried look on her face as she drove. Paul wondered if she really understood. And he wondered if he should mention the person he'd seen.

At the drugstore, Shizuka went in alone. When she came back out, she was holding a bag and in the car she showed Paul the tube of cream. He asked her what kind of medicine it was and she told him the name which meant very little to him, so he just let her put it on his hand, his wrist and forearm. With her rubbing the cream into his skin, holding his wrist from underneath, he suddenly wondered why he'd insisted on coming on the trip alone.

But then she was asking him to take her to the place where he touched the liquid that he thought caused the reaction. And he reluctantly agreed to show her.

---

They were standing on the bridge together.

"It was over there," Paul said.

"Really?"

"Come on, I'll show you."

They crossed over to the walkway. With the day bright and clear, the grove of trees wasn't quite so intimidating as it had been the night before. The bright reflections on the ripples in the stream cheered Paul up a little -- just enough to disregard any misgivings, to put away temporarily the dark sensation this stretch of the river would bring, and would have brought the night before if he hadn't been encouraged by the whiskey and the loneliness.

There were people in the distance. An old couple, a child walking a dog. But there by the trees, Shizuka and Paul were alone and so he led her into the grove. The leaves were still wet under foot.

"Now where was it?" Paul said, thinking out loud.

"Hmmm?"

"Just trying to remember."

Shizuka's eyes were bright, eager. "An adventure with Paul!", she thought. Adventure, indeed.

Paul scanned the leaves strewn and layered over the ground. He looked around for some time, then he thought he'd found it. He walked with careful footsteps over between two cedars, holding his left hand behind him for Shizuka to take it.

She stepped forward delicately in her heels and took his hand. All up through her arm, into her breast, into her heart, the touch tingled. She wasn't thinking of how she'd gotten what she wanted. She was simply happy.

"Yes," Paul said. "Look." He pointed ahead, to the ground. The substance was now very dark, seemingly spilled haphazardly. It sure looks like spilled blood, he thought. Although he wasn't sure where he might have seen such a thing before.

"Where?" Shizuka asked.

"Right here." He kneeled down, taking his hand away from Shizuka. He pointed to a line of the paint, the dark substance.

"Yes, I see it." Shizuka was now squatting beside him.

"And this is probably the leaf I picked up last night." He pointed to a jagged-edged leaf off to the side, mostly covered with the dark red -- now it looked burgundy.

Shizuka came around him to the other side and squatted down again, her floral skirt tight up under her thighs. She reached out to the leaf and Paul took her quickly by the arm, causing her to jump.

"Maybe you shouldn't touch it."

She looked over at him. "Oh, yes..."

Paul found a fallen branch and broke off two long, thin pieces, and using them as chopsticks, he lifted the leaf. Other leaves adhered to where the liquid had dribbled over the side and dried.

"What is it?" Shizuka asked.

"Good question." Paul set the mass down and then pulled off a splinter from one of the sticks and poked at the shiny, deep red substance on the leaf. It was dry. Puckered here and there on the surface, but essentially dry.

Paul turned to look behind him. Shizuka followed his gaze. There were people walking by, out on the walkway, but they didn't seem to notice Paul and Shizuka in the grove. Paul put his hand on her back, somehow trying to convey that they shouldn't speak. Shizuka watched his face. Then the people were gone.

Paul brought his eyes back into the grove. Now he saw that Shizuka was looking out at the leaves, all around the spilled area he'd shown her.

"I think I know what this can be." Then, "What this might be," she said.

"What?"

"Well, I'm not sure."

"OK. But what?"

"It looks liked urushi."

"What?"

"Urushi. I don't know how to say it in English. It sometimes makes an allergy. Like you have."

Paul said nothing. He was still kneeling, looking into her eyes. Then looking past them, thinking.

"So I think your arm is not so serious."

"Really?"

She nodded. Then she said "But why is it here?"

"But what is it? You don't know the word, but try to explain it in other words."

"Well, they put it on bowls and trays. To decorate wood. It's shiny and beautiful."

"Like varnish?"

She didn't know "varnish".

"Maybe," she said.

Then she was tilting her head like a bird. She stood and moved a few paces away and around, in a tight curve.

"What are you looking at?" Paul asked her.

Shizuka looked up at him, but didn't answer. Paul stood and followed her path around and stood beside her.

"It says something."

With her peculiar movements and the way she tilted her head, Paul thought for a moment that she meant "is saying", in a literal sense, which was a little frightening. He watched her closely.

"Writing," she said.

"Oh!" Then, "What?"

"I can't see clearly."

She began writing in her palm with her finger, eyes lingering on the forest floor.

"no-ri-I..."

Paul looked at the ground, at the splashes of red. Now he could see "no" and "ri", but below that, nearer them, it was just random splashes, it seemed to him.

Then Shizuka knit her brows and seemed almost angry.

"What's the matter?"

"I think I can read it now."

"What is it?"

"I'll tell you, but please, let's just go now."

"Why?"

"Please."

"OK, OK. Let's go."

They walked back across the soft, damp leaves, through the trees and came out onto the walkway. There was the same girl walking her dog. But only Paul cared that they'd been seen.

They were walking back to the park, to her car.

"So can you tell me what it said, Shizuka?"

"Yes." Her eyes had the same look of anger, or perhaps it was more a look of fear. "It said 'Nori I'm sorry'"

"Nori was the girl's name," Paul said. He'd told her about finding the girl. But they 'd never talked about it after that.

"Yes, her nickname," Shizuka said.

"Who's sorry? Why?"

"Then it was signed 'girl from the...'. How do you say it? Village?"

"Village?" Paul wrinkled up his forehead.

"Well, not village. A very small village."

"Hamlet?"

When he said it, she winced. "Yes," she said. And whereas she was always happy when he taught her English before, now she didn't seem to be.

"What does it all mean?" Paul asked.

"Well, I don't know completely. But I know a little."

"Oh."

"And we shouldn't tell anybody about this."

"Why not?"

"It's not good to talk about this here."

Paul said nothing. He looked out across the park, at the people walking on the grass.

"But maybe I know someone to ask about it," Shizuka said after a while.