It was almost identical to mine, but not quite. She'd have none of that. She said that it was "not appropriate" for her to have exactly the same hairstyle as her mother. A child's hair should be either shorter or much longer. So when I took her out to have it trimmed, she'd opted for a shorter pixie. I had to admit that it was very cute on her, and probably a better option given her combat training.
As usual, I was opening up a can of worms, only this time it was more like a cauldron. Sure I know that things just sometimes happen accidentally, or "by coincidence" but this time? Well, you tell me if you think that there was anything "coincidental" in what happened. I mean, really, could any reasonable being have predicted what would happen or where it would eventually send us?
I sent off the photo and the message on the 10th of December. I figured that 4 days warning should be more than enough. What I didn't figure on was getting a text from Master Oh on the 11th telling me to push things up and come on the 13th. He'd put all three of us up at his place. He'd explain when we got there that afternoon. He'd be expecting us after 8 p.m. seeing as we'd have to leave after the girls got out of school.
You can bet that I was feeling more than a little bit curious when I read the message, but I'd learned several years earlier that you do not EVER ignore what Master Oh tells you. Sometimes you might question him, very carefully, but, with direct orders, you do what he says, and that's that.
OK. OK. I admit it. I wasn't just curious. It was eating me alive, so it was probably a good thing that I didn't find out till two days ahead of time. Showing up looking like a raccoon due to lack of sleep definitely doesn't fit my definition of "cool".
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[[Karla may have had to wait, but you don't. There are benefits to reviewing a report rather than living through things, right?
Therefore we'll back up to when Master Oh received the email and photo that Karla had sent.]]
Yong-hwa nodded to himself. As usual Karla had responded with a terse "OK." What's this? There was a photo attached. The title was "Kumiko and Kimiko". Interesting. After he'd scanned the attachment with his anti-virus program, he opened the image.
Ah. Kumiko was wearing the new gi that he'd given her. Obviously Karla had concluded, correctly, that he'd want to put her photo up on the wall with the others. But the other?
He enlarged the photo, zooming in on Kumiko's sister. Lovely long hair that she had. The question was, why did she look familiar? Of course she looked almost the same as Kumiko, being as they were identical twins. However that didn't explain the odd feeling of wistful nostalgia that he got when he looked at her.
As he was staring at the photo, trying to figure out his odd feelings, his wife entered his study. He turned and saw that she had a fresh pot of tea. Such a lovely lady she was, always thinking of other's needs. Before he could verbalize his thanks, the tray and the tea crashed to the floor, Dok-mi took a step back, and began to cry.
"Yong-hwa, where did you find that picture? I thought we lost all the photos of Kyu-won as a girl in the flood."
He was more than a little confused. "What do you mean? This is a photo that Karla sent me, of her twins. See?"
He zoomed out on the image to show both of the girls. Dok-mi was still crying. "But...I was so sure. She, no, both of them look exactly like our deceased daughter.
"Surely my memory of her has not faded that much." She cocked her head this way and that, looking at the photo. No! It couldn't be, could it?
-----------------------------
Karla and the girls managed to arrive at 8:15 p.m. on Friday. She was still worried about what might be going on, but standing outside wouldn't answer anything. She told the girls to leave their things in the car for now. They could get them later once things were sorted out, whatever those "things" turned out to be.
As they crunched their way up the gravel walkway Kimiko asked Karla, "Why is the walkway not paved? Ya couldn't roll anything heavy into the house. Ya'd have ta carry it."
She looked around as best she could in the darkness. "There's a path going both ways along the side of the house too. Does it go all the way around? If it does, why does it? Didn't they have enough money ta put in a proper, paved walkway? Do ya think..."
Karla intervened at that point. Once Kimiko got on a roll, she'd ask questions until she ran out of breath.
"The answer to your question is right here." She pointed to a brick pillar with a light on top of it that was next to the parking area.
Kimiko went over and peered at the spot where Karla was pointing. Then she clapped her hands and started bouncing. "Oh! A pink hornet! Jane onee-chan has done her magic here."
Karla jumped in before Kimiko could get started again. "Yes, that's right. Knowing that, I expect that you'll be able to figure out why the walkway isn't paved. I'll give you a hint. Walking on this particular kind of gravel is rather noisy."
"Now, we were expected as close to 8 p.m. as we could manage, so we'd best be moving ahead."
She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Rather surprisingly, Master Oh answered the door himself. Usually one of the other family members was assigned that duty.
"Come on in. We'll have tea in the parlor before we eat. There's something we need to discuss."
Uh-oh. This did not bode well. Master Oh breaking his routine happened about as often as the moon reversed its orbit around the Earth.
Both of the girls were being very remarkably well behaved, so they got seated and settled very quickly.
Karla was seated where she could see the door, and was perfectly situated to see Master Oh's wife when she entered. Dok-mi walked up to the door and glanced around the room. She froze when she saw the girls. Then she walked, or, rather, she shuffled very stiffly into the room and put the tea things down on the table.
She looked at the girls again, and stared at each of them for about 5 seconds. Then she broke into tears and fled.
As Karla's attention was focused on the inexplicable, hasty exit by Dok-mi, she didn't see what was going on in the room itself, until her attention was recalled by Kumiko exclaiming, "Master Oh! Why are you crying?"
Karla whipped her head around at light speed. Master Oh hardly ever showed emotion, no matter what was happening. He couldn't be crying. He....
Master Oh put his hand up to his cheek and pulled it back somewhat. He looked at his fingers with an expression of wonder. "How surprising. I do believe that you're correct Kumiko. Remarkable."
Karla decided that it was her turn since nobody else was speaking. "Master. Don't you think that at least a little bit of explanation is warranted?" She plastered on her patient face, with extreme difficulty I might add, and waited.
Just as Mr. Forsythe had when she tried to look at him kindly, Master Oh flinched. Karla figured that she needed to work on looking patient a bit more intently. However she got the reaction she'd hoped for, so, whatever.
"Hmmm. How to proceed." Master Oh had blotted his eyes and went into pondering mode. "Ah, I know. Let me tell you a story." He held his hand up to Karla and said, "Patience little bear. Bear with me for a bit."
--------------
"There was a young Korean woman named Kyu-won, who had married a Japanese man. They lived in a suburb of Tokyo. Unfortunately, her husband died in a freak accident only 11 months after their twin daughters had been born. Kyu-won was not a Japanese citizen. It is very hard to become a citizen of Japan, and the process is lengthy. It is even more so if the one wanting to be a citizen is Korean. In that area, Japan is still one of the most bigoted countries in the world.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
"Anyway, if the Japanese parent of a child whose other parent is not a citizen dies, the child is legally an orphan. No it doesn't matter if the other parent is still alive. If they aren't a Japanese citizen they have no rights regarding their children. Yes, it's a barbaric law. Do you mind if I go on?
"So what had happened is this. With her husband gone, Kyu-won was no longer able to live in the country because, since she no longer had her Japanese husband, she had no legal residency. She was deported, WITHOUT her children. The children were Japanese citizens and she was not. Legally they were orphans, and there was no consideration at all that she was her mother.
"Over her bitter protests, and even with the support of a sympathetic and very competent lawyer, she was sent back to Korea. The children were put in an orphanage. To be precise, an orphanage in Asakusa since it was the closest to where the family lived."
He absently noted the rapt attention of his audience and continued with his narrative. "Kyu-won was prohibited from contacting the orphanage, not beause of the law but because she was Korean. Fortunately she was a creative young woman. She found a priest in Seoul who traveled back and forth to Japan. He arranged private adoptions for childless Japanese couples. He agreed to carry letters to the orphanage and the replies.
Yong-hwa removed a piece of paper from his shirt pocket and looked at it, as if to refresh his memory. Then he continued. "The name of the nun as written in hiragana was 'Tabita'. I've given to understand that over the ensuing three years she and my daughter became great pen pals."
Karla fell back in shock when Master Oh mentioned that the young mother involved was his daughter. The part of her mind dealing with odd conspiracy theories had revved up to high gear.
"It appears that this particular nun was a bit unusual. My daughter reported to us that she was very fond of an odd genre of literature knows as Victorian Romances. How odd. I didn't even know that there was such a thing until she mentioned it in her letters.
"Kyu-won was a professional book editor and had access to many books that were not available in Japan, especially ones in English. It seems that the priest who was the go-between regularly carried books from my daughter to the Sister.
"Unfortunately editing books is not an occupation that is a high paying one, and she needed to amass a great deal of money. If nothing else worked, she was planning to adopt her own children in order to get them back.
"Consequently she added in a part-time job and was regularly working 12 to 14 hour days. Naturally, she was chronically exhausted. We were all grief-stricken when we learned that she had suddenly died of pneumonia. That was seven years ago."
When Master Oh had mentioned VIctorian Romances, Kumiko had buried her face in her knees and had begun crying. Her entire body was shaking with the force of her sobs. Kimiko had rushed over to her and was patting her sister on the back. Apparently they had been having a private conversation, because after about 30 seconds, Kimiko fell forward on her sister's back and began crying too.
Master Oh cleared his throat so as to get Karla's attention again. "My wife saw me looking at Kimiko's picture the day that you sent it. She thought it was a photo of our daughter. As I re-read our daughter's letters, I myself began to wonder the same thing as she had. Thus my message to you to arrive a day early."
"You know Kumiko better than I do Karla. Can you perhaps enlighten me as to why my mentioning Victorian Romance books would cause her to cry?"
Once Karla had explained what Kumiko had told her about Sister Tabitha, and how the Japanese would pronounce it as Tabita, Master Oh stood up.
His voice was quite hoarse for some reason. "Please excuse me for a moment. I need to attend to something."
Then he strode quickly from the room and down the hall toward his private study.
Karla took advantage of the situation to go over to the girls and make it a threesome of hugging. As always her presence calmed the girls. Within a couple of minutes they had stopped sobbing, and Kara distributed tissues.
"Let's get the tea poured, shall we? We should have it ready when Master Oh returns."
<
Nobody said a word to Master Oh about his suspiciously red eyes when he returned a few minutes later.
"Thank you for pouring the tea ladies, I find myself in need of something hot. For some reason my throat is a bit sore."
He slurped at his tea with evident satisfaction. After a few minutes of companionable silence he put his empty cup down and said: "Let us repair to the dining room. We all will probably need some calories before we proceed with our discussion."
When he mentioned needing calories, Kumiko and Karla's stomachs made loud sounds of agreement.
Master Oh and Kimiko smiled and left them alone to control their blushes before they too followed the others to the dining room.
Karla followed the rest into the dining room. She still had a great many unanswered questions, though it was fairly apparent that most, if not all, would be dealt with shortly. As she entered the room she stopped cold. Never before had she seen less than seven or eight people in the dining room. Today, other than herself and the girls, there were only Master Oh and Dok-mi.
"Master, where is everyone? They're not planning to jump out and yell 'surprise' or anything, are they?"
Master Oh looked up from his place at the head of the table and gave her a wan smile. "No, not this time little bear. We have much to discuss that needs must be private, at least at this point in time. Do you not agree?"
"Well, actually, yes Master, I guess that I do."
Karla took her usual seat at the middle of the left side of the table. The girls took the seats on either side of her and arranged the chairs so that they touched hers. Considering how shocking the revelations of the last few minutes must have been, Karla was hardly surprised. Especially given that Kimiko had never met these people before. Now that she thought about it, Kumiko had never met Dok-mi.
"I guess that I ought to start with an introduction. Girls, the lovely lady to your right is Dok-mi Oh, Master Oh's wife and major domo. Anything that requires organizing, from his office to his business affairs, is something that she deals with."
Dok-mi bowed slightly in her chair and, like her husband, managed a slight smile at the veiled dig at her husband's legendary inability to plan anything ahead of time without help.
<
"The girls are both mute, for reasons unknown. Kumiko, will you run out and get your tablets so you can talk to Mrs. Oh?"
"That will not be necessary, will it Grandmother?"
Dok-mi suddenly sat rigidly upright in her chair. "What? Who is that? Why can I..."
Master Oh was staring at his wife in shock that appeared to be just as profound as Karla's.
Kimiko continued where she left off, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just happened. "I could tell as soon as I first saw her. Really Onee-chan, you're getting sloppy. You of all people should have noticed it too."
"It shouldn't take much thought ta realize that we now know where we got the ability ta speak with our minds. If nothing else, this proves that these are indeed our grandparents. It seems that her ability for mind-to-mind communication breeds true.
"Really Grandmother. You should have...no, maybe not. After all, you could not be certain of who we were when we have just now entered your life. Ya needed ta be careful of who knows about your talent, just as we do. My apologies."
Kimiko pushed back her chair and stood facing Dok-mi. Then she bowed deeply. Following that she ran around the table and threw herself into her grandmother's arms. It was time for a full-blown cry session for both of them, so Kumiko and I gave them some privacy and turned toward Master Oh.
Kumiko picked up the conversation. "I find myself with a serious problem. I have no experience to guide me in choosing a proper means of address. You are the Grandmaster of the art I study. You are also, undeniably, my grandfather. The fortuitous discovery of this rather amazing fact is by no means minimizes my predicament. I do not wish to offend by choosing an improper salutation."
"Kumiko, you're such a prissy thing sometimes. When you don't know what do to, all you have to say is: 'What should I do?'. In this case the answer is quite simple."
Karla stood, picked up Kumiko, and threw her over her shoulder. As Kumiko was sputtering with indignation, Karla strode over to Master Oh and dropped Kumiko in his lap.
"I'm going out to the car to bring in our things. It should take five minutes or so." She looked at both ends of the table and revised her schedule. "Make that about 10 minutes. Maybe we could eat then. I think that I might have to start on the plants outside if we don't. Or maybe..."
By then she'd realized that nobody was listening to her, so she went out to the car to start unloading it and to have a bit of a cry herself. She was extremely happy that the girls had just experienced what could only be called a miraculous event, but it was clear that they hadn't moved on to the next logical step. It was hardly surprising that they hadn't, but Karla's years of living on the edge had honed her ability to reason when stressed.
Her family was about to come apart. The girls had blood relatives who were quite capable of rearing them, and loving them. She knew her Master and his family extremely well. The girls would be living with an extended family that would care for them with great tenderness and affection.
No adoption agency in the world would let someone who was essentially a stranger have custody of two children whose grandparents wanted them, and there was absolute no doubt that they would want them. Who could reject the children of a beloved, deceased daughter? It was beyond unthinkable.
Her sobs made no more noise than the girl's, though, in her case, it was through years of practice rather than a genetic accident.
Once she had herself under control, she unloaded the car and carried their things into the entryway. They could move them later after they'd eaten. Regardless of how she felt, she needed food. Karla shook herself and brushed her clothes so that they were mostly free of wrinkles. Then she put a slight smile on her face and walked back into the dining room.
Karla had no sooner re-entered the dining room than she was almost knocked off her feet by the impact of a body slamming into hers. Before she could orient herself to what was happening, Kimiko 'shouted' in a panicked tone, "Kaa-chan! What's wrong? There's a thread of happiness for us in your emotions, but more than anything the sorrow that you're feeling is so deep that it seems that ya might die from it! You're not going ta die, are ya?"