I felt certain that if you looked really closely you would see a few normal signs of age – crow’s feet, less-than-perfect teeth – some part of her that looked like a real human being. Still, she was stunning. She made me want to be with her again. There was a warm light, like her afterimage, softly glowing in my heart. That must be what they mean by “charm.” Like Helen Keller when she understood “water” for the first time, the word burst into reality for me, its living example before my eyes. It’s no exaggeration; the encounter was that overwhelming.
Yuichi returned, jingling the car keys. “If she could only get away for ten minutes, she should have just called,” he said, taking off his shoes in the entryway.
I stayed where I was on the sofa and answered “Mmm,” noncommittally.
“Mikage,” he said, “were you a little bit intimidated by my mother?”
“Yes,” I told him frankly. “I’ve never seen a woman that beautiful.”
“Yes. But…” Smiling, he sat down on the floor right in front of me. “She’s had plastic surgery.”
“Oh?” I said, feigning nonchalance. “I wondered why she didn’t look anything like you.”
“And that’s not all. Guess what else – she’s a man.” He could barely contain his amusement.
This was too much. I just stared at him in wide-eyed silence. I expected any second he would say, “Just kidding.” Those tapered fingers, those mannerisms, the way she carried herself…I held my breath remembering that beautiful face; he, on the other hand, was enjoying this.
“Yes, but…” My mouth hung open. “You’ve been saying all along, ‘my mother’ this, and ‘my mother’ that…”
“Yes, but. Could you call someone who looked like that ‘Dad’?” he asked calmly. He has a point, I thought. An extremely good answer.
“What about the name Eriko?”
“It’s actually Yuji.”
It was as though there were a haze in front of my eyes. When I was finally ready to hear the story, I said, “So, who gave birth to you?”
