Malachi and I

“The younger kids thought it was hilarious to watch and soon their older siblings would watch, and the sound of children’s laughter would make the grandparents come, and the sound of the elders’ laughter brought the adults. With the adults came the guards. And before Kosuke and Kikuko could run out of material, they were given ideas by others and taught by the elders the craft of story-telling. And on the day of their first real rakugo performance—which could have been mistaken for a wedding because of how many people were laughing— “The skies opened up and the rain came pouring down and Kikuko looked to Kosuke and teasingly he asked, “Will you stand over me and be my umbrella?”

***

I hadn’t really noticed her since this story began. But when Esther sat up and leaned in eagerly to hear her reply, I couldn’t help but shake my head.

***

“Go in the rain.” Kikuko went on speaking as if she were Kosuke. Her voice was deeper now than when she’d narrated his voice when they were kids.

“Kikuko told him he was too serious and that she was just joking but when she stepped out into the slush of mud and melting snow the rain didn’t touch her. When she looked up over her head a jacket appeared and Kosuke said to her ‘run.’ And so they ran towards the Chief Officer’s office because the guards had created a roofed platform for them to do their shows. Kikuko thought it was because they enjoyed the show but Kosuke knew they did it because it made us easier for them to watch. With everyone in one place they didn’t have much work to do. He didn’t tell Kikuko this nor did he allow this fact to deter their mission—to make everyone’s life a little bit happy just for a while. And so, while they were performing, while everyone’s eyes were on them, one snuck away, one who’d come as a boy and was now at the cusp of adulthood. We couldn’t take away his frustration, anger, or pain with laughter. Thinking none of the guards were watching he sought to escape prison Bella Vista. He made it twenty paces before….”

She balanced the fan on her finger and turned her hands into a riffle as she scoped from her right until she was pointing the gun at me. “BANG!” She hollered and immediately her hands dropped sending the fan onto the ground in front of her. Flinching, she turned her head to the field, her eyes glazed over as we sat in silence.

“Danny. They killed Danny.”

She wasn’t the one who spoke. In fact, she broke out of her role and turned to her husband who now sat up with his eyes wide open. He blinked a few times as he looked around and finally back at her. His eyes were no longer as lifeless as they were a moment ago.

“You awake now?” She put her hand on his knee and he smiled and nodded at her as he placed his wrinkled hand over hers and looked back towards us.

“How are you, Oshaberi?”

“Not you too, Mr. Yamauchi. Why does everyone pick on me?” Esther groaned as she picked up her ignored lunch and popped a rice ball into her mouth.

He snickered at her before his old eyes shifted to me. “And you are?”

“Malachi Lord desu.”

He laughed and looked to Kikuko who nodded as if she knew what he was thinking. Maybe she did. Turning to me he leaned forward and said in English, “Do you know that the man who killed my brother, Danny, looked just like you.”

Kikuko smacked his leg but he grinned and ignored him. “Same blue eyes, dark hair, all the girls thought he was handsome too even though he hated us Japs. And now you sit here speaking in Japanese. Can you believe Kiku? A black girl and white man can both speak better Japanese better than I do. Ain’t the world something?”

Kikuko sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned to Esther. “The reason why he calls you Oshaberi is to deflect the name from himself, excuse him.”

“Aye.” He frowned and it was hard to believe that this man, this lively, animated old man, was the same man who’d been sitting almost lifeless in his wheelchair before.

“What?” Kikuko challenged him as she lifted her head not even fazed by his drastic personality shift.

“Umm…” Esther swallowed her food before continuing. “I don’t mean to be rude but you left us on a cliffhanger here!”

“Do you have strong arms?” Mr. Yamauchi joked, and both Esther and Kikuko groaned. He ignored the both of them and said, “Then you can hang in there.”

Trying to fight the laughter I reached for the water but he extended his arms above himself as if he were hanging on to the ledge of a cliff and said, “Get it? Hang in there? The cliffhanger?”

Coughing against the top of the water bottle I laughed as I placed the back of my hand over my lips.

“Ahh…there we go.” He nodded to me. “You’re far too young to be so serious.”

“He’s had a hard life.” Esther slipped in there before eating another rice ball...because apparently if she wasn’t eating she’d tell everyone under the sun my secret…as if it were no big deal.

“Hmmm…” Mr. Yamauchi frowned at me and as he leaned back against the chair and stretched his legs, his knees cracked, but that didn’t stop him from holding on to the sides to lift himself up. Esther moved to help him but Kikuko shook her head and we watched as he lowered himself to sit on his knees next to her. Reaching up, he took off his hat revealing his thick silver-white hair. Next, he pushed up his sleeves revealing the old scars all over his arms and looked directly at me. He inhaled deeply and his body relaxed. Then he began.

January 5th, 1945 - Prison Bella Vista, Montana.

“That fool, Kiku! Did you hear? The war is over now and they’re really shutting this place down. If he had waited…if he’d just held on for one more week. We’d be free again!” A taller, still young but no longer a boy, Kosuke said standing in front of the barracks.

“We’ll never be free here.” Kikuko hung her head and her black hair, now well past her shoulders, fell forward.

“They—”