After more bagels and coffee, Kyle got ready to leave for work. Kiri and Jenna followed him to the door.
“I’ll see you girls tonight!” Kyle leaned down to hug them with a tickle in their ribs.
“We want to see the turkey on the roof!” Kiri giggled.
“First thing when I get home.”
When Kyle was gone, Patrick got the girls reading. He’d done one thing right with them at least, encourage reading. They took it so seriously it made him laugh, their cute little faces pointed at the page. Without his mother-in-law there, the girls didn’t notice the absence of TV.
Once they were lost in their stories, Patrick called Nine Dragons and asked for Leung. A voice he didn’t recognize asked him who he was. He tried to identify the voice. It was not a smooth welcoming tone in polite Japanese keigo. He asked for Arisa, the office manager. Without her, nothing happened at Nine Dragons.
When he was told she was no longer working there, he couldn’t believe it and hung up.
He called Arisa’s work phone and was told it was no longer in service. He called her personal cellphone, which went to message. He had her LINE address and sent a message, waiting until he saw the “Read” popup. She was there, someplace. He wrote her again and said they had to meet.
Jenna came in from the tatami room. “I can’t find our phones.”
“Did you forget them at home?” Patrick looked away. The lies were adding up.
“I had mine last night. Kiri had hers.”
“It’s probably in the room somewhere. We’ll find it when we straighten up.”
Jenna made a face, just like Miyuki’s. “And what about school?”
“You’re on vacation today.”
“We were going on an ‘enjoy nature’ field trip today. I wanted to find a rhinoceros beetle.”
“Plenty of beetles in Wyoming. And horses. You can ride horses there. Listen, I need to call about the flight.”
“When’s Mom coming?”
“If we’re flying overseas, you should rest up.”
“I want to send messages to my friends. Can’t we go back and get our phones?”
“Maybe Mom can bring them with her. But we’ll get new ones in Wyoming. I told you it was a surprise.”
“Surprise is fine, but Mom and Taiga can’t call me, and I had my friends’ LINE contacts on there.”
Patrick pulled her around by her arms and looked into her face.
“And what about…”
Patrick picked her up and dropped her on his knee. “It’s just for a day until we get there. Disconnect. It’s healthy. Talk to me. Talk to Kiri. Let’s have a spirit of adventure. It’s going to be fun.” Patrick had to look her in the eye on this one. That was hard. She might never see her friends again.
Jenna wiggled away, put her finger in the air, and danced off singing, “OK, reading time, Kiri!”
“And straighten your things,” he called after her.
When he went to Wyoming, he missed the girls so badly he couldn’t sleep at first. He missed them even more than Miyuki. They left Zoom or FaceTime running in the morning and at night so he could let the pitter-pat noise of them soothe him from so far away.
The time difference got tiring and they left early for school and work, or went to bed before he could catch them. And he became busy setting up the LLCs in Wyoming. Leung didn’t help, so he had to put everything in place by himself.
Wyoming had been a nice change at first. It gave him time to himself, something he missed after the girls were born, even though he loved them more than anything. He loved Miyuki, too, until the photos, and later, the divorce papers.
He never thought of anything other than working hard, providing for the girls, and moving toward financial independence. He wanted his own clients and his own firm. “Someday,” he and Kyle sang to each other as a code word for patience. Being alone and looking out on the Grand Tetons from Jackson, he felt marriage and kids and job and apartment had taken something from him. He felt guilty for feeling that way, but he did.
Miyuki was busier than he was at times. Japanese banks didn’t let their employees rest. An account manager had to be in touch 24/7. She never missed a call. She took care of the girls too, more than he did. No little help with dishwashing or dry-cleaning pick-up could give her back her life. He didn’t know how to make her excited about life again.
Miyuki complained about work, but he knew she loved her job. Her college friends became full-time housewives, flight attendants, or haken temp workers. She was proud of her high-flying bank job and delighted in their girls’ nights out, but it took something from her, too, the work, the girls, her mother, the fast tempo life had taken.
Together, they acquired a combined income that boggled his mind. And they spent like never before. The apartment, meals out and ordered in, the girls’ school fees, clothes, every facet of their lifestyle became astronomical. And still, they saved for the future. It was never enough. And it was way too much.
Once he got to Wyoming, his feeling about their financial situation started to shift. Sums passed through his work day that were staggering, digits larger than he had ever handled.
Now, it was all under siege and he wasn’t sure why. He knew it was certain, though. He had to get the girls hidden away and sort things out with Miyuki. He socked away all the money he could and grabbed a plane to Honolulu, dropped his things off there in a reserved suite, and caught the next flight to Tokyo to get the girls.
Patrick checked his LINE app to see if Arisa had written back, but there was no message.
He searched for Tim’s number. He should know how to get out of Japan by now. He certainly paid the divorce survivors reunion group enough for their assistance and advice.
Tim picked up on the first ring. “I was going to call you, but I figured you and the girls needed sleep. Where did you end up crashing?” Tim spoke in the short, certain phrases of American confidence.
“A friend’s place. Someone I can trust. He won’t tell anyone.”
“Police will start figuring out your old friends, your workplace. Call your wife and say the girls are safe with you. Hang up quickly.”
“How long will it take to get things set up for us to get out of here?”
“I’m working on the options. They might cost extra.”
“I’ve already paid—”
“I know you have. That’s why I’m still on this. We’ll make sure it gets done.”
Patrick took a breath.
“I’m waiting on return calls. But first I’d leave your friend’s place. Go to a fancy hotel. Let the money hide you. Rich people are eccentric. Look, I’ll come get you.”
It made an odd sort of sense. He shouldn’t drag Kyle into this. He wondered if Kiri and Jenna could keep from talking too much. They seemed to draw people in wherever they went. He was glad they weren’t any older. They’d question things more.
But Kyle couldn’t get involved. They’d have to move.
Patrick gave Tim the address and hung up.
The sun had shifted straight in the window, warming the room. He opened the sliding glass doors and stepped out on the balcony. It was a spectacular view, the exact opposite to how he felt. They would figure out Kyle easily enough. And it wouldn’t be long before someone figured out he wasn’t in Wyoming.
He thought it best to call Miyuki. They’d barely spoken or messaged after she sent the divorce papers.
Kiri came into the kitchen. “Dad?”
“We’re going to a big hotel. We need to pack.”
“Big hotel?” she squinted at him.
He picked her up, tickling her, and carried her to the tatami room. “A friend’s coming to pick us up. Come on, let’s get things packed.”
Jenna was putting things in order and he kneeled down to help them, explaining. “We can’t stay with Kyle. This room is too small, and we can have a little fun before we catch our flight. I had to change the plane reservation.”
“Again?” Jenna frowned but started putting things into the bags. Kiri followed her older sister.
“Yes, again.”
“We need a bag for dirty clothes,” Jenna said in a bossy tone, the same one Miyuki used.
He hoped that meant they were complying. “Right away.” Patrick went to find a big trash bag.
Jenna had folded the dirty clothes as neatly as the clean ones. The two of them pestered him with a hundred questions. As they packed, he answered some, deflected others, and promised they’d be back to see Kyle and Miki soon.
When they were ready, he wrote a note to Kyle and tucked it under a glass on the kitchen table.
His cellphone buzzed. It was a LINE message from Arisa, a short row of question marks.
He set the bags down by the front door and wrote to her. “I have to talk with you.”
“I quit.”
“That’s what I want to ask you about.”
“I don’t go out.”
“I’ll go where you are.”
Then she didn’t write back.
Patrick kept an eye on his phone as he checked the tatami room. He pulled his cap low over his face, but there was no way to hide Kiri and Jenna. Tim was probably right. They needed to be in a conspicuous place to be less conspicuous.
He waited for an answer from Arisa while herding the girls out of Kyle’s and down the hall to the lobby with soothing fatherly directions.
Tim was already waiting in front of the building in the same model car they loaned him for the failed airport run, a Toyota…something…Harrier maybe. Patrick didn’t know cars. Tim got out to help. He was as big as a linebacker. His hooded sweatshirt, shirt jacket, jeans, and baseball cap made him seem like he was heading to work on a construction site.
Tim stood on the sidewalk and folded his arms, looking at the girls with one eye closed. He pointed at them in turn. “Hmmm, you must be Kiri, and you must be Jenna. Am I right?”
“You’re right.” Kiri laughed. “How did you know?”
“Lucky guess. Let’s get this show on the road.” Tim waved them into the car with reassuring movements. Patrick put the bags in, and got in the front seat.
Tim pulled out, watching the rearview mirrors carefully.
Patrick scrolled through hotel options on his cellphone. “It’ll be odd if I don’t call ahead.”
“The bigger and more expensive the better.”
“Shinjuku then.” Patrick called and asked about a room. They had vacancies. Patrick told them they’d missed their flight and wanted to stay just one night. And of course, at a hotel in that price range, that was fine.
As soon as he hung up, he got a message from Arisa.
Patrick turned to Tim. “How far is it to Kokubunji?”
“It’s definitely out of the way.”
“This might solve part of the problem.”
Tim looked at Patrick, sighed, and said, “OK.”