My legs were antsy in anticipation of catching heck from her father for tickling Chidori on the porch swing. I stepped into the foyer of the Setoguchi house and Chidori took my coat to hang it in the closet, then she tossed the duffel with the Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes onto the shelf. Her father and brothers entered through the back door, laughing about something, so that eased my worries somewhat. Unfortunately, I was terribly underdressed in coveralls. I removed my boots and ran my hand through my hair to tidy it up, then took a few quick inhalations to calm my nerves. Mrs Setoguchi wore a tailored royal blue dress which had red birds printed on the fabric, and her hair was curled perfectly in place. Chidori inherited her smooth, glowing skin and rose petal lips from her mother.
‘Welcome Hayden. Please come in.’ Mrs Setoguchi swept her arm to invite me from the foyer to the reception room. She treated me in the manner of a formal guest, even though they all knew me – literally since birth because their grandmother was the midwife who had helped deliver me.
The Setoguchi house was one of the biggest on the island. They each had their own bedrooms and they had two flush toilets, which I had always thought was quite something since we only had an outhouse. Her mother changed the custom-made drapes four times a year with the seasons. And the living-room walls were covered in floral wallpaper from Paris that shone at certain angles. My favourite part of the house was the solarium at the back. They used it as their music room and, on warm summer evenings, I sometimes sat at the edge of the forest to listen to Chidori play the violin.
Massey’s truck rolled up the driveway and he parked out back. He entered through the back door and washed his hands at the kitchen sink before joining us in the living room. He had come straight from the dock, also wearing his coveralls, which made me feel not quite so out of place. We all knelt on the floor around a low, black lacquered table from Japan. Chidori’s petite grandmother shuffled into the room quietly from the kitchen and poured nine cups of tea. The teapot was a flattened angular shape, made of iron, with a bamboo handle. The cups were a slate colour on the outside and bright red on the inside. There were no handles on the cups, so their grandmother carefully held them nestled in the palm of her hands and passed one to each of us with a slight bow. Tea etiquette was very particular, so I copied exactly the way everyone else held the cups and sipped. Chidori watched me intently. It was difficult to know if she was impressed I was doing it correctly, or if she was amused because I was doing it wrong.
‘Hayden-san,’ her grandmother said and passed a plate of biscuits to me. ‘Try.’
I took one biscuit and bowed, but I was reluctant to eat it in case I made crumbs on their expensive rug. ‘Arigato,’ I said.
Chidori placed her hand on my knee briefly to acknowledge that I had pleased her grandmother with my manners.
Mr Setoguchi glanced at how she had touched me but didn’t say anything. He was Massey’s younger brother and had been born on Mayne Island after the family immigrated to Canada when Massey was two years old. Mr Setoguchi’s first name was Hiro, but since he employed upwards of twenty men in the busy season, everyone, including my father, called him Mr Setoguchi or Boss. Chidori’s grandfather had been an agricultural expert and taught Chidori’s father everything he knew about growing tomatoes, cucumbers and plums. The grandfather died suddenly from a heart attack when Chidori and I were nine years old, and after his death, Mr Setoguchi expanded the greenhouse business exports beyond Mayne Island to both Victoria and Vancouver and then eventually to the rest of the province. He was more formal and serious than Massey by nature, so I had always felt both admiration and intimidation when I was in Mr Setoguchi’s presence; the pressure was made more intense by the fact that my relationship with Chidori had become serious.
After tea service was finished, Chidori’s grandmother retired to the kitchen. Massey and the boys relaxed and moved to stretch out on the elegant European furniture. Chidori and her mother cleared the dishes and disappeared into the kitchen as well. Her father sat on a wingback chair and lit his pipe. I debated whether I should stay kneeling on the floor or move to the chesterfield. My knees answered the question for me when they started to lock up painfully. I nearly fell over as I tried to stand and move.
‘So, what exactly are your intentions with our sister, Hayden?’ Tosh asked to tease me.
Massey glanced at me and then over at his brother. Mr Setoguchi’s expression didn’t change.
Even though Tosh was only saying it to be funny, I cleared my throat and rubbed my palms on my trousers. My forehead started to sweat and the perspiration dripped down the side of my face. My mouth became so dry I worried I wouldn’t be able to speak. ‘Well, we have been going steady. And I, eventually I, would be honoured to become engaged. To be married one day. If she is agreeable.’ My heart revved out of control as I spoke.
Kenji threw a pillow at me, and both he and Tosh laughed. ‘Look at him. He’s going to faint.’
Mr Setoguchi stood. He wasn’t very tall, but he was imposing with his broad shoulders and heavy brow. He cleared his throat and spoke in a gruff way, ‘I like you, Hayden, but I’m going to save you the trouble of asking my permission. The answer is no. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s best for either of you.’
Tosh and Kenji’s joshing came to an abrupt halt. Massey looked at me with a sentiment that could best be expressed as, you just overloaded the skiff, dummy.
Tension clamped down on my throat, but I was able to choke out, ‘With all due respect, Mr Setoguchi, why?’
‘We need to accept the culture we currently live in, not fight against it.’
My ears burned hot and my heart pounded in preparation for the worst of my temper to unleash, which I didn’t want to happen in front of her entire family. I took a deep breath and unclenched my fist, then spoke slowly to contain my frustration. ‘Again, with all due respect, I would be good to her – you know that, and it has nothing to do with my blue eyes and blond hair.’
He shook his head, steadfast. ‘Sorry, Hayden. You will more than likely go off to war after your birthday. And there is a very good chance we will be forced to evacuate to an internment camp, or worse, if the rumoured government sanctions on Japanese Canadians are imposed. It is my wish that you and Chidori not court now. I forbid it.’ He bowed his head slightly before crossing the living room to the foyer. We all watched, frozen, as he stepped out the front door.
Chidori stood motionless in the doorway that led to the kitchen. Tears filled her eyes, then once the the shock wore off, she ran in her stocking feet out the front door and across the grass towards the forest.
I started to go after her, but when I stepped out onto the porch to put my boots on, her father, who was sitting on a rocking chair smoking his pipe, said, ‘Let her be, Hayden. You go on home now.’
I paced, debating whether I should express what was on my mind. He raised the pipe to his lips as he rocked slowly and stared out at the cornfield, infuriatingly silent. An urge to shove him against the wall and shake him until he said something built in my muscles, so I left before I did something rash.
Chidori had taken the path towards the road. She had no shoes on and only a pullover knit top over her blouse, so she wouldn’t have gone too far. But I didn’t know which direction she’d gone in. It was probably better to give her time to calm down anyway, so I headed home.
In the middle of the night, my father and Patch woke me. ‘Get up, son,’ Pa whispered. His tone was unusual.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Get dressed and come downstairs quickly.’
Patch growled and ran ahead of my father. Anxiety pounded through my heart as I pulled on trousers and a shirt. I bounded down the steps two at a time to the landing as I stretched my suspenders over my shoulders. The front door to the house was open. Mr Setoguchi, Tosh and Kenji all stood on the porch with lanterns and grim expressions.
‘What’s wrong?’ I asked frantically as I searched for my left boot, then hopped on one leg to pull it on.
‘Chidori didn’t return home,’ Tosh said. His voice was composed but his eyebrows creased together with acute concern for her well-being, and the implication made my body flinch, as if a bomb had dropped in front of me.
‘They want to know if she came here,’ my father said with a stern glare directed at me.
‘No. I haven’t seen her.’ Terror flooded through my veins. No matter how angry she had been with her father, she wouldn’t have stayed out past nightfall. The possibilities of what could have befallen her sent a chill across my skin. I didn’t even want to consider what might have kept her from making it home safely. ‘Did you check if her rowboat is gone?’ I asked Tosh.
He shook his head. ‘Not yet. Massey drove into town to search and we came here first after we realized she wasn’t in her bed.’
‘Send someone to check if she’s at Donna Mae’s.’ Without waiting for any deliberation, I took off running towards Bennett Bay. It was the most likely place she had gone. It was also the most likely setting for a catastrophic accident. Kenji and Patch were the only ones fast enough to keep up with me. Kenji ran with me to the beach with his lantern still in hand. I stumbled a few times in the dark as we scrambled across the rocks and climbed down to the spot where she kept her rowboat. It was gone. Huffing for air, we both stared at the empty spot on the beach, then gazed out along the inky water. My breath passed through the light of the lantern and the sliver of moonlight that peeked out from behind a cloud. Kenji had a coat on, but I didn’t. My teeth started to chatter from the cold and the dread.
‘What’s that?’ Kenji pointed out over the ocean to our right.
Something white floated offshore. I tugged someone else’s rowboat into the water to get a closer look. Patch hopped up on the bow to stand watch and Kenji held the lantern up over the ocean as I rowed. We approached the bobbing object – an empty rowboat. When the lantern illuminated the Chi Chi painted on the bow, the sight made my insides drop to my boots.
The water around us was black like oil. Even if I could see well enough to dive in and search, if she had gone overboard sometime in the afternoon, we were much too late to save her. Kenji called her name, then tracked the light of the lantern across the water, looking for something. Anything.
We floated, staring at the darkness, listening for a sign that by some miracle Chidori was alive and maybe treading water. The waves lapped against the bow and a mast bell rattled in the distance from a sailboat anchored in the next bay over. A gasp of breath broke the silence and Patch barked in the direction the sound had come from. Kenji spun around to angle the light towards what turned out to be only an otter popping his head up, curious as to what we were doing. Several golden orbs from lanterns gathered on the beach. The hairs stood up on my arms when someone from shore called her name. The eerie desperation in the voice floated through the chilled night air, then faded into nothingness.
My chest heaved to fight back the pain of the grief as I stared at her boat drifting next to us. The fishing net was missing. I snatched the oars and rowed feverishly. Shocked by my abruptness, Patch stumbled and leaned against Kenji’s leg for support as the boat lurched through the water. The wind worked against us and I struggled to make ground. Finally, I caught a current that pulled us up alongside Georgeson Island. I jumped out with the lantern and left a confused Kenji in the boat as Patch and I scrambled over the rocks towards where the seal pup had been weeks earlier. The stench hit my face and caused acid to rise in the back of my throat. An eagle or some other predator had pecked at the mother seal’s carcass and large chunks of rotted flesh hung off the exposed bones. The baby was gone, but Chidori’s fishing net lay on a rock nearby.
‘Chidori!’ I called, and the sound echoed across the water. ‘Chi!’
My voice bounced off the surrounding islands, rebounding back to me. Patch barked and the sound reverberated in the same way. I swung the lantern from left to right in case she had slipped on the rocks and hurt herself. Something made a sound in the forest behind me. The muscles in my spine tightened as I spun around and held the light up.
Shoeless and hugging herself, Chidori stepped out onto a boulder.
Relief swamped me like a tsunami and I nearly collapsed as Patch barked and wiggled excitedly. ‘Thank the Lord,’ I said as I scrambled over the rocks and up the embankment. I flung my arms around her and squeezed so tightly she could likely feel my heart throb. Choked up, I leaned back to hold her face and stared into her eyes with immense gratitude until I found my words. ‘When I saw the empty rowboat I thought the worst.’
She realized how shaken I truly was and her expression became more serious. ‘I’m sorry I gave you a fright. I’m fine. Only cold.’
I exhaled all the stress that had built up in my chest, then kissed her forehead. I couldn’t even bear the thought of what would have happened to me if she hadn’t been found alive. ‘How many times have I told you to secure the boat properly so you won’t get stranded?’
‘One million times, at least.’ She grinned and tapped my lips with her finger. ‘Does my father know you’re off searching for me?’
‘Yes. He came by my house with your brothers and woke me. Kenji is just on the other side of those rocks. I’m sure he’s eager to see you. He almost cried when we found your rowboat adrift in the bay.’
‘Truthfully?’ She kissed the tip of my nose. ‘Kenji never cries. Did you almost cry when you found my boat adrift in the bay?’
I pulled her tighter against my body and whispered into her ear, ‘The thought of you drowned at the bottom of the ocean tore a hole in my chest, ripped out my still-beating heart, and threw it into the salty water. I have never felt such pain. If I hadn’t noticed your fishing net was missing, I probably would have jumped in and let myself sink to a watery grave next to you forever.’
‘Gosh, I’m relieved that you didn’t do something so rash. That would have been a tragedy of Shakespearean proportion given that I’m safe and sound.’
‘Don’t joke, Chi. It was a terrifying thought. I don’t ever want to know what it would feel like to lose you.’
She nodded to agree and then dropped her gaze to the ground. ‘As much as I hate to admit this, we might lose each other because of the war. What if my father is right?’
‘We might be separated temporarily, but for as long as I live, you won’t lose me. And we don’t need your father’s permission to enjoy the time God grants us together.’
She sighed and leaned in to rest her head on my chest. ‘I want his approval.’
‘Then I’ll figure out a way to convince him. It might take some time, but he’ll eventually warm to the idea. I’m sure of it.’
She was quiet as my words sunk in. I could tell by the way she let her weight sink against mine that my speech had an impact and that she was considering the possibility that, with time, her father would agree. But she and I both knew there were outside forces much more concerning than her father’s approval.
‘We just can’t quit. Okay?’
Chidori stepped back from our embrace and nodded. I reached over to lace my fingers with hers and led the way back to where Kenji was searching on the other side of the island. He didn’t normally outwardly express emotions, so when he rushed over and embraced her with a quiet intensity, it choked me up again. He gave her his coat before we loaded into the boat. Patch took his post on the bow. Chidori slid closely beside me and her hand skimmed across my thigh as I wrapped my arms around her to keep her warm.
Kenji rowed us over to her boat and towed it in behind us. When we got close to the beach, men shouted, desperate to know if we’d found her. Kenji shouted back and jumped out of the rowboat once the water was knee deep. While he was pulling us up onto the shore, I bent my head down and whispered in Chidori’s ear, ‘I love you.’
Light from the lantern illuminated only the contours of her face, not her expression. My breathing stopped as I waited for her to respond. She was completely silent, then sat forward to break our embrace. She paused and inhaled deeply as she threw her legs over the edge of the boat, then finally she said, ‘I love you too, Hayden – with all my heart. Thank you for coming to find me. And for your promise to never quit.’ She glanced over her shoulder, blew me a kiss, and then turned to jump into the ankle-deep water with Patch leading the way.
She waded to her mother who stood on the shore with a blanket ready to wrap around her shoulders. Other women who had joined the search escorted her away towards the house. I leapt onto the beach. My father and Tosh helped Kenji pull the boats up onto the sand and Mr Setoguchi walked over to me. His solid, wide-stance frame was silhouetted by the glow from the lanterns of the men behind him. His breath rose in a silvery cloud around his head as he met my gaze with his chin held high.
‘Thank you for rescuing her, Hayden.’ He shook my hand and bowed his head subtly before turning to follow the crowd of people huddled around Chidori.