The Yokota Officers Club by Sarah Bird

Author:Sarah Bird [Bird, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77575-7
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2010-11-10T05:00:00+00:00

Sweat

We are stuck in the line to go through Customs at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Bobby bounces impatiently from foot to foot as we wait for the inspector to poke through a mountain of cardboard boxes being imported by a squat Okinawan man in a porkpie hat who buzzes around the inspector, chattering and pointing animatedly to his goods. The inspector has the white peaked hat and imperious demeanor of a Banana Republic dictator. Bobby slaps his passport against his fleshy palm and groans as the inspector opens yet another box of shell figurines. Standing next to him, I notice that his Brut cologne is losing the olfactory war with body odor.

“Aw, Jesus, what’s he think this schmoe’s smuggling into the country, sand? It’s the same thing every time. They strip-search you when you come in, but when you leave you sail right out. That’s the Japs for you. Believe evil only travels one way: into their country. Far as they’re concerned nothing bad has ever come out of this country, and that includes World War Two.”

Bobby catches me glancing at his passport, reading the name Moishe Rosenblatt printed on it. “What? You think Jackie Mason is Swedish?”

At last the customs inspector gestures for us to move forward. The boxes of shells clatter as the Okinawan pushes them away with his foot while bowing to the inspector.

“Great!” Bobby asks the inspector, who doesn’t understand a word, “You sure you’re done with the Shell King here and his criminal empire?”

While Bobby tries to kibbitz with the inspector, I glance around the airport. The first time I catch sight of Fumiko, my heart lurches. By the fourth time I’m certain I’ve spotted her, I relax, reassured that the only place I will meet her again is in memories. Memories that always start with that little house on the alley in Fussa.

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