Chapter 4: Mother

The phone rang on the kitchen counter in the breezy, sunlit New Jersey ranch house.

Yumi ignored it. Still sweaty from her run on the beach, she was tired and she was comfortable. She was reading "People" magazine, a vice she cultivated when no one else was around. She was comfortable.

It rang again.

"Dammit" she muttered. The answering machine would answer. No one was going to spoil her afternoon reading. Well, that would be using the term "reading" broadly, she admitted to herself. Reading, after all, implied literature. Her afternoon magazine.

The phone rang, and the answering machine answered, "Hello, this is the Mitsunami residence, and we aren't near the phone at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep" went the familiar chant.

"Hi mom, this is Steve. Uh, I'd like to, you know, chat about something when you get a sec. Please give me a call. Bye."

Well, there was one person who could interrupt her magazine. She got up (not without some soreness... why wasn't this exercise program working anymore?) and went to the phone, punching the button programmed with his number.

In Corvallis, Chris's phone rang, as he expected it would. He picked it up. "Hi mom."

She laughed. "What's so urgent, kid."

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain, but I have some questions about this girl that I've been seeing around, that I was hoping you could answer for me."

Something wrong here. Steve was not one to call home about a girl. "Well, I'll try Steve. Is she someone I know?"

"No mom, she isn't. Her name's Jenny, and she works at the same factory I work at. We had a date last night, and it went... funny. I thought maybe you could help me figure out why."

"OK. How is it that you think I can help?" said Yumi.

"Well, you remember what girls were like before the sixties? You know, old fashioned girls? Don't you?"

"Now Steve, the sixties weren't that long ago. Of course I do. Why? Is your new girl friend my age?"

Now it was his turn to chuckle. "No mom, nothing like that. She's actually a year younger than I am. But she's kind of straight laced, and I want some help on a couple things. I'm, uh, not sure whether some of the things she's doing are meant to put me off or just normal for her. I thought you would have a better idea, maybe could give me some insight."

"Why me? Call your Aunt Myoko. She was the one who insisted on living a constrained life."

"Come on mom, I can't talk to your sister about this, it's something I have to get from you. Think of it as your duty."

"OK, but why are you going out with such a straight arrow anyway? She already sounds dull. And she's got to be narrow minded; if you learned anything growing up around here, didn't you learn to date strong, independent women? Your dad and I may have started our relationship under the haze of that old straight jacket nonsense, but we grew beyond it. What happened to what's-her-name, Sachico?"

"Mom, Sachico got bored with me. And Jenny is wonderful! She's beautiful, fun, and very interesting. She's also strong willed and insists on things being done her way. I just don't know if I'm interesting to her, and that is why I called. Now I know you and dad and Bill Clinton brought about the great sexual revolution. You did things differently than Jenny wants to do them, but that was then, and this is now. As she put it once, you got free love, we get AIDS. I think I've been open to a lot of things, and Sachico was certainly an example of that, but right now I'm interested in how to read a 'nice' girl. Are you going to help me, or not?"

"Steve, wasn't Sachico a nice girl? As I recall, she seemed very nice when we were out visiting. And how could she possibly find you boring?"

"Mom, many girls find engineers to be boring, though I can't imagine why either. It did seem to take Sachico a while to figure it out, though, maybe because she's an engineer herself. EE's are always a little slow. Anyway, that part of my life is over. Are you going to help me with this, or not?"

"Well of course I'll help. I just resent the way you used the word nice, as if it only applies to prudes."

"Whatever. Now, a couple things. She insisted on a real date, which meant I came by and picked her up, and I paid for everything. It was kind of weird, like living in an old movie. Is that really how dating was done?"

"Well, when your father and I were first dating, back in '65, that is indeed how we did it. But that was 30 years ago; certainly she wouldn't expect you to play by those old rules? What kind of fossil are you going out with?"

"OK, so you used to do it that way. And you don't think she's just getting dinner from me, that I'm just wasting my money?"

Something very old stirred in Yumi, something which made her slightly nostalgic and nauseous at the same time. "Steve, I can't say you're not wasting your money, but how was she dressed for this date?"

"Actually, very nicely. What has that got to do with it?"

"Do you have any idea how much cosmetics and clothes cost? Do you think the clothes were new?"

"Well, now that you mention it, yes, I think she said it was a new outfit when I complemented her. And how did you know she had makeup on? It wasn't much, but there was definitely something there."

She hadn't heard this complaint in a long time. "Old fashioned girls tend to use makeup. Steve, she probably spent more on that date than you did. Whatever her faults may be, I don't think she's trying to get a free meal."

"Oh."

"Unless of course she's an airhead and can't add?"

"Mom, she's got a master's degree from Pepperdine in mathematics. She can add."

"Stranger and stranger. An educated young woman acting like that. Steve, you aren't telling me everything, are you."

"Well, I haven't had time mom. She didn't give me a chance to come inside after our date either. Is that normal, or did I really blow it?"

"It used to be very bad form to allow young men in your house late at night. No, if your little nun is as straight as you've made her out to be, she probably wouldn't be interested in having you over for a nightcap. Did you even get a kiss?"

"No, mom. But I'm just as glad... a kiss on the front porch would have been to Jr. High-ish anyway."

"Hah! Not even a kiss. Are you sure she's not a transvestite? Maybe this will be a deepening experience after all" Yumi said, smiling maliciously.

"Mom! Be serious. I've known her for over a year. She's a girl, trust me. She's just an unusual girl. And I like her a lot."

"But why?"

"I don't know Mom. Part of it might be that she really seems to enjoy my company, and not because of what I can do for her, but just because I'm me. I feel differently about her, and I'm trying to find out if she feels the same way. And from what you're telling me there isn't any evidence that she doesn't like me."

"Now you do sound like you're in Jr. High" she chided. "But come on, what else have you got to tell me about her?"

"Um, she's a woman of faith. And she's something of a mechanic."

"Oh really? Well, being a mechanic might be handy, and probably accounts for your interest in her. But what is this about faith. Can't be Unitarian, can she? Not with expectations like she has. What is she? Catholic? Confucian? Surely you're not hooking up with a Baptist?" There was an edge to her voice.

"No mom. She attends the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

"I've never heard of it, but it sounds promising, anyway. Is it a modern version of Protestant Christianity? Or, is it a cult? Is that why she's such a throwback?"

"You've heard of them, I think. The more common name is Mormon."

"A Mormon? Are you nuts!?" Yumi said sharply. "You be careful. I don't want you to come home with both her and her sister!" She was genuinely panicked. Yumi really did love Steve, and cared that he not fall in with the wrong sort.

"Mom. Please. Don't be ridiculous. She's a nice, normal person who happens to be sort of old fashioned. She likes me, from what you've told me. I get to see her again."

"But, Steve, the Mormon's are the most closed minded, intolerant group in the country! They're right up there with the worst of the Baptists and the Catholics! Why don't you just go out and find a Moonie or something? A Mormon! Look, Steve, your father and I have never tried to push a faith on you, and of course we'll support you in whatever you do, but please be careful about this. These people are bigots. They don't allow women full participation in their church, do you know that? They have dangerous ideas, ideas I'd hate to see you caught up in."

"Don't worry mom. Jenny isn't a fanatic about her religion; it only came up over dinner, and she was pretty vague about it. To her I think it is just another Protestant faith. If this goes anywhere, I'll be sure and get to the bottom of it, OK? In the meantime, I'm enjoying being with her."

That calmed Yumi, some anyway. "Well, OK. But just don't sign anything or partake of any religious rites until you've thought it through carefully, and remember I'm always here to talk to you. And as to whether she likes you or not, that will probably be hard to tell. 'Nice' girls, as you put it, love to play games. If you are still going out in a month, and if she isn't seeing anyone else, and if she really is as attractive as you say, then she's probably interested in you. But see if you can't broaden her outlook a bit, OK? You can be a good influence on her, you know, she doesn't have to be a bad influence on you."

Steve laughed out loud, though he wasn't sure why. "Thanks mom. You've been a wealth of 30 year old dating advice. Maybe you should start a column in the paper. I'd better get to the plant, I'm calling from home before work."

"OK kid, love you."

"I love you too mom."

As Yumi hung up the phone, she shook her head. Kids. Where did she and Fuchida go wrong? How could it be that their son was caught up in a romance with a Mormon?!? She'd never really liked the idea of her son taking a job with a company so far away, where she knew no one who could keep tabs on him. Maybe it was time for a visit.

She called Fuchida's pager.