Morning Sun by Laird Koenig

Author:Laird Koenig [Koenig, Laird]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781935212898
Publisher: Prospecta Press

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Ono-San had Sam waiting in Kodo’s office in his mansion when the master thundered in brandishing papers and glowing with triumph. “Start planning the wedding.” Kodo’s cigar glowed red as he waved aside all doubts of the future. He thrust a paper at the old man. “”Fortune-teller’s report. And here’s the astrologer’s. September first is most auspicious. As for the adoption they want me to get my lawyers started on it as soon as tomorrow.”

Adoption? This was his life and the two were brushing him aside, deciding on the details of his wedding and now, this adoption. “Wait!” he cried aloud. “All this is going too fast!” The cry went to Ono-San, not Kodo. “Not just the wedding, but—”

The white fan signaled for silence. “You will understand later,” Ono-San hissed with Kodo happily rattling his sheath of important papers. “Tell him now,” barked Kodo.

“The Honorable Kodo has no son,” Ono-San continued. “When you marry Kodo-San’s daughter you will, of course, become a Kodo. An Honorable Kodo.”

Instead of crying his dismay Sam could dredge up no voice at all. The fan jabbed his breast. “Did I not tell you?” Ono-San, performing at the very top of his profession, reminded the young man, “Did I not tell you the gods are smiling on you?”

“You mean change my name?”

The tiny man swelled with pride. “I advise thanking Mr. Kodo for even considering your entry into such an enormously prestigious and powerful family.”

Without consulting him they’d decided on a life for an ainoko without a koseki—a rickshaw boy here in Japan until now illegally. “Wait!” The two men weren’t listening to him. “Wait!” Sam cried. “It’s my life. What I do is up to me!”

Kodo’s glare through cigar smoke dismissing any further talk from the young man. He had moved on to other plans. “For the Western-style part of the wedding,” Kodo was making final plans with the go-between, “the boy will need someone to stand up for him?”

The factotum was thrilled to agree. Even in the matter of the newly fashionable Western-style weddings he was an expert. “What they call a Best Man,” he explained. “The groom’s best friend.”

Kodo chewed on a new cigar he couldn’t take time to light. “Since he has no friends, leave that to me—”

“Wait!” Sam cried, “I haven’t agreed to any of this—”

Kodo’s dead cigar waved away all objections. “Respect!” Ono-San’s thin, insistent voice was a knife blade. “Show respect to your new father!”

At his desk Kodo found one of his cards and with a smile of inspiration wrote with a gold Mont Blanc pen. When Ono-San read the card he caught his breath. “Robert Talbot. Perfect!” breathed Ono-San. “Absolutely perfect. I shall contact him immediately.”

“I’ll do it,” Kodo announced proudly. “Young Talbot happens to be a member of my club.” From Ono-San’s awed reaction Sam sensed Kodo had invoked a magic name. “So who’s this Robert Talbot?”

“If you must know,” Ono-San was delighted to take a moment to explain Kodo’s coup. “Although Talbot-San is an ainoko

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