Chameleon (13 page)

She froze for a moment, until the big man spoke and she realized he was a friend.

‘Are you okay, pal?’ he said to the big man.

‘Bastard took a piece out of my arm. Was there anybody else?’

‘No, he was operating alone,’ the Japanese said. And then he smiled and raised his eyebrows ‘Maybe I should have backed you up. It did not occur to me that he might be a match for you. He did not look that tough.’

‘A match for me! Bullshit. He was a cheap Street fighter. He got lucky. Oh, by the way, Eliza Gunn, this is Sammi. He followed you while I followed the cheap shot with no ears. It’s known as a double-up.’

She had stopped listening. Instead she was concentrating on the big man’s eyes.

‘One of your eyes changed colour,’ she said to the big man.

‘What?’

‘That eye. That green eye on the right. It used to be gray.’

He turned away from her and Sammi peered intently at the big man.

‘The gods have indeed played a trick,’ Sammi said with mock seriousness. ‘They have changed the colour of your right eye.’

‘Let’s get me to Dr Saiwai,’ the big man said. ‘I need a little repair work.’

But Eliza would not be distracted, She started to laugh. She laughed very hard. ‘Contact lenses,’ she said. ‘You were wearing contact lenses. The cowboy boots must add an inch or so to your height. The contact lenses change the colour of your eyes. The beard and everything ... Kazuo ... hell, you’re O’ Hara!’

V

The doctor’s house was on the outskirts of Kyoto, a dim, black one-story outline against the gray silhouette of Mount Hiei, which soared up behind it, less than two miles away. O’Hara and Sammi were gone less than fifteen minutes. When they came out, O’Hara had his hand stuffed in his pocket.

‘No big thing,’ he told her. ‘Twelve stitches, but the cut isn’t very deep. That bastard ruined my jacket.’

‘Tana will fix it. Nobody will even know,’ said Sammi.

‘Who’s Tana?’ Eliza asked.

‘Friend of the family,’ said O’Hara.

They drove back to Osaka, parked the car and walked to the nomiya, the sake bar, across from her hotel. It was a delicate place, dark and quiet, and after leaving their shoes near the door, they found a small booth near the back.

‘1 will call Tokenrui-san and tell him it went well. He’ll be worried,’ Sammi said and left the stall.

‘Is that Mr Kimura’?’ Eliza asked.

O’Hara nodded. He was looking at her hard with his green eyes, then he suddenly smiled for the first time and she began to feel warm. She took off her coat.

‘You got quite a bite there, pal,’ he said.

‘We can thank my dentist in Nebraska for that.’

‘Nebraska, hunh?’

‘Yep. Webster Groves high school, then the University of Missouri, then Boston, via Chicago. That’s the story of my life. Not much to it. Nothing like yours. Does this kind of thing happen often?’

‘Only when ,I get mixed up with television reporters that bite.’

She smiled at him across the table. ‘Cute,’ she said.

She had one hell of a smile. If ever a smile could be called ear-to-ear, it was that one.

‘What does that word mean?’ she asked.

‘What, “cute”?’

‘No, silly. Token ... whatever.’

‘Tokenrui-san?’

‘Right.’

‘Literally, token means “swords.” But in this case it’s interpreted to mean “the Master.”

‘Do you really think of him as your Master?’

‘Not the way you mean. In the aesthetic sense.’

‘You mean like a teacher?’

‘That’s part of it. He is the Master of higaru-dashi, which is kind of a. . . combination advanced karate, Shinto and Zen. It’s difficult to describe in English. The words are misleading. Anyway, Kimura makes the final choice on everyone who enters the seventh level of the higaru-dashi. What’s known as the Plane of the Beyond.’

‘It sounds way beyond me.’

‘Only because you take the words literally. In Japan, nothing is obvious.’

‘He tells me you can stand on one foot for six hours without blinking an eye. Is that what you call the Plane of the Beyond?’

‘No,’ he said and smiled again, ‘it’s what I call painful.’ The waitress appeared. ‘Osake o ippai onegai shimasu,’ O’Hara said, and she nodded and left. ‘I ordered us sake,’ he explained to Eliza, ‘I think we can all use it.’

‘You seem very much at ease here in Japan.’

‘It’s my home.’

‘That mean you’ve given up on the States?’

He made a vague gesture, which he did not bother to explain.

‘And these people helped you just because they’re your friends?’

‘Is there a better reason?’

‘But it was dangerous.’

‘I was in trouble. A year on the dodge is a long time. Besides, the Winter Man tried to dishonour me. That was unspeakable to Kimura. And to Sammi. Here, a person’s honour is sacred. To steal it is like stealing your soul. It’s a despicable act.’

The waitress and Sammi both returned at the same time. They raised their warm cups in a mutual toast and sipped the hot rice liquor.

‘Tell me more about Kimura. . . Tokenrui-san? Does Kimura still teach? I mean, he seems so old. How old is he?’

‘Sammi?’

Sammi said, ‘Nana-ju-ni.’

‘Seventy-two,’ O’Hara said.

‘And he’s still active?’

‘He would never have taken that cut, tonight, you can bet on that. I’ll hear about it, too, all right, letting that dipshit get his blade into me.’

‘You were not prepared. Your head was with the fleas,’ Sammi said. ‘Your first two moves were an inch too wide.’

‘Yeah. I knew that when I felt his knife in my shoulder.’

‘And Kimura is faster than you?’ Eliza asked.

‘It is not the speed, it is the mind,’ Sammi said.

‘Tokenrui-san can catch a hummingbird in flight,’ said O’Hara. ‘The move is so fast, you don’t see it, you just feel the wind, from his arm moving. That wind is called okinshiwa, and it has different meanings to different people. To you, the wind could mean confusion; to me, because I am his friend, it can mean security. To his enemies, it can mean danger.’

‘And then he opens his hand,’ Sammi said, holding his arm out and unfolding his fist, ‘and the bird sits there and waits for him to blow on its tail and make it fly away.’

‘That’s the mystic part of it,’ said O’Hara. ‘When I understand that, I will feel that I have achieved the Plane of the Beyond.’

‘It’s all very difficult...’

‘That’s because it requires a different kind of thinking than you’re accustomed to. Kimura changed my life.. . no, he saved my life. If it weren’t for him, I’d probably be a headhunting punk like Little Ears.’

‘Doesn’t it seem strange,’ she said, ‘just a few years ago we were all at war. Was he involved in that?’

‘Involved?’ Sammi laughed. ‘I suppose you could say that.’

O’Hara said, ‘He hand-picked the officers — and this is the top staff of the Imperial Army we’re talking about — who were to enter the seventh level of higaru-dashi. He only selected twelve. They were with him for three years before they returned to duty — in 1942. Every one of them was a key man in the Japanese war machine.’

She sat quietly for a minute, letting it sink in.

O’Hara said, ‘You might say he prepared them to kick the shit out of us.’

And he and Sammi laughed, and then she laughed too. ‘And you feel the same way about him, right?’ she said to Sammi.

‘It’s not quite the same,’ O’Hara said. ‘Tokenrui-san is Sammi’s grandfather.’

Neat, Eliza. Next time, take your shoe off before you put your foot in your mouth.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘that was dumb, bringing up the war.’

‘It’s no secret,’ Sammi said, and went on talking fast and running his sentences together. ‘Anyway, it’s a natural question but many people wouldn’t ask, he will like it that you were honest enough to find out. There is one other thing. Higaru is never used for aggression, it is used to defend. When my grandfather taught these men, it was because he was led to believe that Japan might be attacked.’

‘He had good feelings about you,’ 0 ‘Hara said, changing the subject. ‘Now, me -- I thought you and that pistolero were working a double. Some kind of elaborate sting.’

‘Well, thanks a lot. I come halfway around the world, get insulted, shoved around, almost killed, just to bring you these letters, and you think I could be — what did you call it, ”working a double”? — really ... with that dumb ass. If you’re in the seventh plane, or whatever you call it, you ought to be able to judge character a little better. Besides, what was all that melodrama back there about, anyway? If all you want is peace and quiet, why didn’t you just walk up to him and tell him it was all off?’

‘Much too logical.’

‘Yeah,’ Sammi said. ‘This way he knows we were serious.’

‘Like hitting a mule with a two-by-four to get its attention.’

‘Also he needs something to show for all those bucks he wasted.’

‘In any case,’ O’Hara said, ‘we had to make sure about you.,

‘You mean I was just bait!’

O’Hara thought about that for a moment or two and nodded. ‘That’s about it,’ he said.

‘We knew you weren’t teamed up after the drive down from Osaka,’ Sammi said. ‘I boxed him in on the highway. He lost you for a minute or two and he panicked.’

‘So...?’

‘So, if you two had been doubled up,’ O’Hara said, ‘you would have told him where we were meeting. And he would have gone in ahead. And he would have set me up.’

‘How do you know?’

‘It’s in the spy manual. Chapter two.’

‘Very clever. Devious but clever.’

I wonder if he really can stand in one spot without moving for six hours. And without blinking those eyes. Those green, green eyes.

He’s talking, Gunn, pay attention.

‘...Shinto way. The universe is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be changed by interfering.’

Now, what was that all about.

‘I’m sorry, I missed that,’ she said.

‘It means fate is tough to beat, pal.’

‘Please, don’t call me pal. I knew a dog once named Pal. A real ugly bulldog.’

‘Okay, Gunn. What’s it all about? Who got the Winter Man off my ass? And what does Howe want out of all this?’

‘I don’t know, Mr Howe will have to tell you that.’

He was looking at her across the table. His eyes were even more penetrating, more alive, than with the gray contacts. He stared at her left eye and suddenly a ridiculous memory popped into her head. She tried to ignore it, but it persisted, whispering in her ear, an old wives’ tale from high school.

When a man stares into your left eye, he can see your pussy.

Oh, for God’s sake, really!

When a man stares into your left eye, he— He’s talking to me and I can’t hear a word he’s saying. All I can hear is that stupid voice whispering in my ear. When a man stares...

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘My mind ‘wandered. I’m afraid I didn’t hear what you said.’

And O’Hara was thinking, She’s flashing that smile, that big smile. They ought to declare that smile a national resource.

Easy there, big boy, you’ve seen big smiles before.

Yeah, but not like that one ... and not any time in the past year.

‘I said, what do you mean, Mr Howe will explain it,’ he said finally.

Eliza put the letter from Howe in front of O’Hara. ‘I’ve read it already,’ O’Hara said. ‘I read it when I broke into your room this afternoon.’

‘Oh, that’s right. Well, then you know. Mr Howe wants to see you. I don’t know why. I don’t know why he was so determined to find you and get you cut of trouble with this Winter Man. All I know, he wants to talk to you about an assignment. He says nobody else can do it but you. And he’s pressed for time.’

‘Presumptuous son of a bitch.’

‘Hey, I found you. I delivered the message. If you want to tell him to get stuffed, that’s your business. If you decide to go, I have a thousand dollars in cash and a plane ticket to Boston for you. First class.’

‘You’re carrying a thousand dollars in cash?’

‘Not where you can get your hands on it.’

He’s staring again. He’s looking straight into my... no into my left eye.

O’Hara was listening to the wind chimes overhead, tickled by a breeze from the door. His eyes went blank, then his mind went blank, and in the no-mind state where he had retreated, her face was etched into the white wall. The large gleaming brown eyes, the shock of black hair, the broad you’re-dead-buddy smile. Now it was a face he would never forget.

‘...earth to O’Hara,’ she was saying.

‘Yeah...’

‘Are you interested?’

‘Uh ... interested?’

‘In Mr Howe’s offer.’

‘I wish you’d stop calling him Mr Howe. Sounds like you’re talking about God.’

‘He’s old. He’s like Tokenrui-san. He deserves it.’

‘Fine. Then call him Howe-san.’

‘Will you get serious? What’s your decision?’

‘I have no idea.’

‘Well, when do you think the muses are going to get in touch?’

‘I’ll tell you in the morning.’

‘Oh.’

‘I need to do some thinking.’

‘I can understand that. Who’d want to go back to the land of the living when you can stay here in the garden spot of Japan and raise puppy dogs.’

O’Hara leaned across the table, very close to her face, and said softly, ‘He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.’

‘How about “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back.” Don’t tell me you’re going to start doing that now.’

He liked her arrogance, the way she said whatever the hell was on her mind. But he also felt let down. A part of his life was coming to an end. He knew it. Fate had brought the girl there and fate would lure him back with her.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I’m going to take you across the street to your hotel and then I’m going home and get some rest.’

‘The arm hurts, doesn’t. it?’

‘It’s beginning to burn a little. The pain will be gone by morning.’

‘And you’ll call me?’

‘I’ll call you.’

‘I’ll get the car, Kazuo,’ Sammi said, and he bowed to Eliza. ‘You come back, okay. We’ll teach you the Tao. The Way. Next time.’

They put their shoes on and paid the bill and O’Hara walked her across the Street to her hotel and O’Hara’s shoulder was hurting and he felt rotten, and standing there, he suddenly felt very tired.

‘Oyasuminsai,’ he said and kissed her on the cheek, and started back across the street, and she said, ‘There’s a flight tomorrow afternoon at three,’ and without turning, he said, ‘Well, you better make your reservation. It’s liable to fill up. Sayonara.’

He got in the car and they drove off and left Eliza standing in the doorway of the hotel. A kiss on the cheek, she thought. Well, shit. But she’d get another crack at him. He would come to Boston, she was sure of it. And next time he would not have his shoulder as an excuse.