Emmy And Me

That evening I got a call from Akiko Tanaka, saying that her grandmother was rested enough and ready to meet some local Night Children. I asked about what they specifically wanted to see, and she replied that they wanted to see Night Children living among day walkers.

Amused at how readily the shinobi seem to be accepting of terminology they’d never heard before meeting me, I agreed and said I’d take the two of them on a tour that night. I kinda wanted Emmy to come along, but she resisted and I didn’t push it. If she felt that she needed to spend a quiet evening at home, I certainly wasn’t going to drag her out for a round of restaurant and bar hopping.

When I picked the two Japanese ladies up at their hotel, I was surprised and pleased to see that they had opted to go without their makeup. The two were very, very black- much blacker than Emmy, and in fact, darker than most of the Night Children I’d met. The Oshidas hadn’t been as inky-black, either, but I put off asking Akiko about it. Maybe later, I told myself. After they feel a bit more comfortable.

“This is your car?” Akiko asked when I led them to the X6.

“One of them, yeah. The only four-door, though,” I said.

“It’s very nice,” she commented, admiring the interior.

“I like it,” I agreed.

Our first stop was in Santa Monica, so we had a little time for idle chatter. I asked what they’d done for the last couple of days, and Akiko, from the back seat, said that they’d gone to Disneyland the day before.

“Were you wearing makeup?” I asked.

“Yes,” Akiko admitted. “We thought about not wearing it, but…”

“I’m glad you aren’t, tonight,” I said. “Besides the Night Children I’m going to introduce you to- none of whom have any idea we’re coming, by the way, or who you two are- I want you to pay attention to the reaction people have when seeing you without makeup. Yesterday you were in big crowds, blending in, right? I’m sure nobody gave you a second glance.”

“There were so many Japanese people there!” Akiko said.

“Right- so you didn’t stand out at all. But tonight, you do. People here in Los Angeles still aren’t all that used to seeing Night Children, so they might take a long look, but notice what happens after that.”

Akiko relayed what I’d said while I drove us to the farm-to-table restaurant. After finally finding a parking spot there on Fourth, I led the two ladies half a block down, explaining that we were going to a restaurant I owned.

“I have a lot of restaurants and similar businesses,” I told them. “This is to create jobs for Night Children where they’re very visible.”

“That does not make sense,” Akiko protested.

“I’ll explain the thinking while we eat,” I said.

“Good evening, Ms Farmer,” the hostess said when we entered. “Three for dinner?”

I nodded, and she led the way to one of the booths off to the side.

“That waiter,” Akiko said, keeping her voice low, and pointing to the guy she meant.

“His name is Conrad,” I said. Just then a Night Child waitress came out of the kitchen, carrying a tray full of plates for another table.

“And her!” Akiko said.

“Watch,” I told her as the two Night Children worked the busy room. After a couple of minutes, Conrad came over to our table.

“My Queen,” he said, nodding to me. “Can I get you three drinks?”

“I’d like an iced tea with lemon, Conrad,” I told him, and Akiko ordered hot jasmine tea for herself and her grandmother.

After Conrad left, Akiko leaned in. “He’s acting like… well, like everybody else!” she said.

“Keep watching him and Lucy,” I told her, and she relayed the message to her grandmother, who was already doing just that.

When Conrad came back he took our order without bothering to write anything down. After he went to turn the order in to the kitchen, Akiko said, “Nobody here is reacting at all!”

“Exactly,” I said, nodding. “Lucy and Conrad have good jobs, and do well. Both of them live their lives like anybody else, and look around- not a single customer in this restaurant has tried to stab them, or run in fear, or, well, anything. If anybody gets upset at them, it’ll be because they got the order wrong, not because of the color of their skin.”

Mrs Tanaka spoke to her granddaughter for a bit, only stopping when Conrad brought our dinners.

“He obviously recognizes that we are also like him, but he’s said nothing,” Akiko said once Conrad had gone off to attend other tables.

“Why should he?” I asked. “To him, you’re simply customers. No more, no less.”

“He called you his queen.”

“I am his queen,” I said.

We ate our dinner mostly in silence, the two Tanakas watching the two Night Children waiters without saying much. I tipped very generously when we were done, as I always do.

“We’re heading to another restaurant and bar I own next,” I said as we walked back to the car.

“How many do you own?” Akiko asked.

“I don’t know, off the top of my head,” I admitted. “Quite a few.”

“You said it was to give jobs to Night Children in visible, eh, occupations?” Akiko prompted as we got in the car.

“Right. Jobs like that serve a double purpose. On the one hand it gets the Night Child used to dealing with lots of day walkers, right? The flip side is that it gives a lot of day walkers a bit of exposure to Night Children in a safe, neutral environment for both parties. All those diners tonight? They might mention to a friend that they ate at a place that had the darkest waiter they’ve ever seen in their life, but that’s it, right? He was a waiter, and he had really dark skin. That’s all. Maybe, just maybe, they’ll think about it and wonder if Emmy, the famous rock star, is like that waiter, right? So when we publicly announce that Night Children exist and are a separate ethnic group, those diners will say ‘Aha! Emmy is like that waiter I saw!’ and that’ll be it.”

“When do you expect to announce this?” Akiko asked, after translating for her grandmother.

“We’re thinking it’ll happen after her band’s tour is over in a couple of months,” I said, parking the car in Westwood.

I led the two to the same library bar I’d taken Myles and Li to a month earlier, and to my relief, Rocky was behind the bar. The place was crowded with students enjoying their Saturday night, so we took stools by the bar.

“Queen Leah,” Rocky said in greeting, his charcoal-black face lighting up in a smile. “And two lovely ladies,” he said, aiming his high-wattage smile at the two Tanakas. “What can I get you tonight?”

On the drive back to the Tanakas’ hotel, the two talked for a while in Japanese.

“Thank you for showing us these people,” Akiko finally said.

“I want you guys to think about what it felt like to go without the makeup tonight,” I told her. “And how people reacted to you.”

“They didn’t react,” Akiko said, after a moment’s reflection. “But that might have been because the waiters and barman were there already…”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “But did you see how people reacted to them?”

“They… did not, really,” Akiko said, thinking about it.

"Tomorrow, let me take you to some places that have no Night Children, and let’s see how you feel,” I said. “Try it on your own. Go out for lunch showing your true faces. There are a hundred places to eat within a few blocks of the hotel. Just pick one, and see. Maybe do a little shopping… I know the Oshidas spent some time in Tokyo showing their faces, right? Try it for yourselves.”

“What time should we expect you?” Akiko asked.

“Give me a call when you’re ready to go out for the evening,” I replied. “See you then!”

Watching the two Japanese ladies disappear into the hotel, I thought about what all this hassle might lead to. Sure, it would be great to have the Japanese Night Children support our goals, but that was at best a moral victory. Yes, it would mean something within the Night Child world, but that wasn’t particularly substantive.

On the drive home, I wondered what they were planning on asking me for, and what I could ask for in return.

“How did it go tonight?” Emmy asked when I got back home.

“I think it went well, but the Japanese are being very cagey. They’re keeping their cards close.”

“That… is our culture,” Emmy said with a shrug.

“I know, and of course a big part of the whole ninja thing, too, so I can’t say I’m surprised, but they did reach out to me, right? Mrs Tanaka keeps saying that they’ll tell me what it’s all about once she gets satisfied by seeing how we do things here.”

The next night I took the two Tanakas to a little Japanese restaurant that had good reviews on Yelp. I’d never been there, and I told the two as much.

“This will be a big test,” I said. “This is supposedly the most authentic Japanese place in the Valley, and I’m hoping that means the largest percentage of actual Japanese people working there. I want you to interact with them, and see how things go.”

When Akiko translated what I’d said for her grandma and gotten a response, she said, “This will be interesting.”

“After dinner, we’ll go to a local bar where they’ve probably never seen any Night Children at all,” I told her. “By the way, how is it at the hotel?”

“The hotel is very nice, and they do not react to our coloring at all,” Akiko admitted.

“I’m not surprised,” I told her, pulling the BMW into the parking lot and finding a spot near the little Japanese place.

Most of the businesses in the little strip mall had signs in Japanese, giving me hope that my idea would pan out.

When we walked in the door the three waitresses all called out a greeting in Japanese in unison, confirming that this was probably the right place.

I noticed the startled looks on the waitresses’ faces when they saw the two Tanaka ladies, but it vanished quickly.

When we took our booth, Mrs Tanaka spoke with the waitress in Japanese, surprising the waitress. She recovered quickly, though, and after a quick conversation the waitress brought out menus printed in Japanese.

“Order for me, if you don’t mind,” I told Akiko. “But I don’t care for seafood.”

“So, noodles?”

“Or curry, or whatever,” I said.

When the waitress came back to take our orders I just sat back and watched. It was clear that the waitress wasn’t sure about these two women who looked so un-Japanese but spoke like natives, but as far as I could tell she didn’t ask any questions about it. I glanced over and saw the sushi chef peering across his work counter at the Tanakas, but again, it was more of a sort of confused curiosity than anything else.

In the car, Akiko said that the waitress had finally asked where the two of them were from.

“What did you tell her?” I asked.

“I said that we are shinobi from Iga Province,” Akiko said.

“Seriously? Did you really say that?” I asked.

“I did,” she confirmed. “But I’m sure she thought I was simply joking.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” I agreed.

Maybe a mile down the road, I spotted what looked to be a local dive bar with handful of cars parked in the lot, so I pulled in.

“I’ve never been here before, either, so I can’t promise anything,” I said as we entered the poorly lit space. It was just a standard neighborhood bar, with neon beer signs and Naugahyde booths. The waitress indicated we could sit wherever we wanted, so I parked us at a table right in the middle of the room.

“What can I get y’all?” the waitress asked, not batting an eye at the Tanakas.

“You got Sapporo?” I asked.

“Bottles, not on tap,” she confirmed.

“Three, and what do you have for light snacks?”

“We ain’t got a kitchen, but we got peanuts, and that kind of stuff,” she replied.

“Whatever you’ve got,” I said.

“This place is terrible!” Akiko said in a low voice, looking around at the sad bar flies drinking in the place on a Sunday night.

“It kinda is,” I agreed. “But perfect for the point I’m trying to make. Did you see how the waitress looked at you two?”

“She barely glanced at us,” Akiko said.

“Really, if she’d looked close enough, she would have seen how young you are and would have asked for ID to see if you’re old enough to drink.”

“What is the legal age for drinking?” Akiko asked.

“Twenty-one,” I replied.

“Then I am O.K. I am twenty-two years old,” she replied.

“Seriously? I thought you were maybe fifteen or so?”

“No, I am in my third year at university,” she confirmed.

“Wow- I guess I really had misjudged,” I admitted.

“I get it a lot,” she said.

Home again after dropping the two Japanese ladies off at the hotel with no plans to meet the next day, I took a long, hot bath by myself while Emmy looked wistful, using her hand to swirl the water around me.

“I want to skip ahead to the part where I already have my baby,” she said. “I am not enjoying pregnancy as much as Angie is.”

“I’m not surprised,” I said, taking her hand in mine. “It’s been tougher for you at every stage so far.”

“It will be worth it,” she said, looking down at her belly and stroking it gently with her dry hand.

“It will,” I agreed.

“Easy for you to say,” she replied, her laughter like bells.

“Very easy,” I confirmed.

Just then Angela joined us in the bathroom. “What’s easy?” she asked.

“It is easy for Leah to say that this will all be worth it,” Emmy said, patting her tummy.

“Oh, it will,” Angela said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to fast-forward.”