The Gatekeeper's Son (27 page)

She was silent for a long time. “A Gatekeeper’s son, I suppose.” She lifted her chin. “It isn’t your place to be anything else.”

“So why—”

“Are you going to make Shoko stand out there all night?”

Okaasan laid out dishes of food and we sat cross-legged at the low table to eat. Shoko sat beside me, across from Okaasan. Her only greeting to Okaasan had been a slight nod, and the tension in the room was unbelievable.

I studied Okaasan as if seeing her for the first time. The lines around her eyes and mouth seemed deeper, but she still looked younger than she should. It had nagged at me over the years, a slight tug on my cerebral coat sleeve, but never enough to question it. Now I couldn’t ignore it: she was aging more slowly than the rest of us. Would Dad and I keep getting older while she and Shoko stayed young?

We began taking food with our chopsticks, but I noticed Shoko glance at the bandage on Okaasan’s arm several times.

“What happened?” I said.

Okaasan repositioned her arm.

Shoko answered for her. “She called to me and said she wanted to fight me.” She smiled as if she thought that was the cutest thing. “She was very angry, so I took her across.”

“I thought she wasn’t allowed.”

“I did not want to kill her, but if need be, it was better to kill her there.” She said it as casually as she might say melons were on sale at the grocers. “We fought, then someone called her name and she faltered. My blade cut her before I could stop.”

Okaasan motioned for me to eat and poured herself a glass of sake.

“That’s too modest. I couldn’t beat you and I knew it.”

Shoko nodded. “Tomi told me you were the best she had ever seen—until me.”

Okaasan ignored the remark. “I believe we’ve resolved our differences. Would you agree, Shoko-chan?” I was surprised by her use of the familial suffix.

“Yes.”

I looked at Shoko and then back at Okaasan. “What did the Elders tell you?”

“They said that because you are my blood and I trained you to fight, in their minds you are practically a Gatekeeper—except you’re a boy and you live on this side.”

“What if I was on that side?”

Shoko elbowed me. “Then you’d be an apprentice cook,” she said through a mouthful of food. “But I am sure you wouldn’t be half as good as her!”

Okaasan kept her eyes on me. “They’re concerned. You may have the physical training of a Gatekeeper, but you lack the mental discipline.”

I shrugged. “What does it matter?”

“It matters,” Shoko said, “because without discipline, you may pose a threat to them.”

I glanced at Okaasan. “How?”

Shoko put her chopsticks down. “Your energy is stronger than ours. What if you could travel, too?”

“The Elders don’t believe that could ever happen,” Okaasan said a bit too quickly.

I stared from one to the other.

“In any case, it was made clear to me that Shoko will continue to help you and ensure you continue on the right path.” She couldn’t hide the sadness in her voice. “That is her assignment now. I have no role to play in this. I need to let go.”

“Speaking of assignments, … where’d you meet Dad?”

I don’t think she expected that. She took a rather large sip of sake and dabbed her lips with a napkin. “It was a coincidence—not that I believe those—that your father came to Japan.” She smiled, a happy-sad combination that confused me. “I didn’t know who he was, but I’d seen him around Matsue. He was apprenticing with the Takahashi family, a family of woodworkers since feudal times. Your father lived with them, not far from our house.”

I put my chopsticks down and leaned back to give my legs a stretch.

“My family asked me to keep an eye on him. I didn’t mind. Your father was such a handsome boy and had a good heart. He still is, and still does.” She gave me a quick smile.

Shoko looked puzzled. “Why did they want you to watch him?”

“My family …” Okaasan glanced at me. “The ninja of Matsue have an allegiance with the Gatekeepers. They carry out the wishes of the Elders, for bags of silver.”

I slapped the tabletop. “Your family
are
ninja! I knew it!”

Okaasan rolled her eyes. “Anyway, my … adopted family was assigned to watch over Edward years ago. He’d been across, and one is never the same after that.” She looked at me. “So, of course, they knew of your father. When he showed up here, it was reason enough to have him watched.” She took another gulp of sake, reminding me of Lin. “It was a small assignment, fitting for my age and training, a way for me to contribute. You see, I wasn’t a ninja and I was no longer a Gatekeeper’s apprentice. I was just a girl with a very odd life.”

“So you did your duty.”

She nodded, unaware of my growing anger. “For a while, but there was a problem—well, a couple of problems.”

“Like what?” Shoko asked, her chopsticks frozen in front of her mouth, the first time they’d stopped in a while.

Okaasan smiled. “First of all, he noticed me on the street one day and came right up to me—so bold, not like the local boys. I couldn’t follow him around after that, could I?”

“What was the other problem?”

“Well, … I fell in love with him the moment he spoke to me,” she said, her cheeks turning pink. “Of course, when he asked me on a date, my family was pleased. To them, it made my job much easier … but they didn’t know. I hid my feelings from them as well as a teenage girl can.” She gave me a quick smile. “If they’d known, they would have stopped it right away.”

I glanced at Shoko. “Because love makes you weak?” I grabbed the bowl of fried chicken as she reached for another piece.

“Yes, it does.” Okaasan took another gulp. When she noticed me eyeing the sake bottle, she poured a cup for both Shoko and me. “You should be careful, Shoko-chan. I was curious about this world, too. Once I saw it, I couldn’t go back.”

Shoko nodded and grabbed a chicken leg from the bowl before I could react.

Okaasan looked down at her full plate and sighed. “You know, many people over there, including Tomi, called me weak and selfish … but it was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. I gave up everything I knew.” She started to pick at her food.

Shoko had already finished hers and was going for seconds. I was too full of questions.

“Did you hear about Grandpa from Tomi?” I said.

“I was there when Edward came across.”

“You were there?!” Shoko and I said at the same time.

She nodded. “I was only a child, but I remember everything. We were on a training exercise when the call came, an intrusion through one of the old gateways, and we were the closest.”

I glanced at Shoko. She held her rice bowl close to her face, scooping out the last few grains, but her eyes were glued to Okaasan.

“I was sure Tomi would kill Edward. Her sword drew blood from his neck when she nudged him with it as he lay at her feet, half-dead from the desert heat.” Okaasan got a far-off look in her eyes and laughed. “I remember how he looked at her, as if being killed by her would be wonderful. Tomi sent us students back to Izumo, and for the next three days she spent every waking minute with him. She fell so deeply in love—so obviously—it wasn’t something any of us girls had seen before. It shocked us all.” She paused. “I was there again when Tomi took Edward back across. And I must admit, I was surprised when she returned.” She paused to take another sip of her sake. “She hated herself for letting him go. I didn’t intend to repeat her mistake.”

All of us were silent. Even Shoko had stopped eating. The emptiness in the small house became so crisp that to speak might break it like a frozen twig.

I cleared my throat. “Dad doesn’t know any of this?”

“Good God no! When we met, I was just Misako Sota, the adopted daughter of highly respectable merchants.” When I didn’t respond, she continued. “We dated and got married a week after my twenty-first birthday. We had a simple Shinto wedding at the Izumo shrine. A few years later, you were born. We moved to America when you were five.” She paused and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I broke ties with both those worlds—completely severed—until today.”

“How do I know that marrying Dad wasn’t part of your assignment?”

Her eyes flared with anger. “I love your father.”

“And?”

“And it’s over and done! Let it go, Junya.”

I pushed back from the table. “I deserve to know everything, and so does Dad.”

Her face went white. “If he knew … I stand to lose everything.”

“Tell me the truth!”

Shoko touched my arm. I shrugged it off.

“Fine.” Her voice went flat. “My mother and the Kannushi came across one night when I was eighteen. You can imagine my surprise.”

I couldn’t, but apparently Shoko could. Her eyes went wide and she stopped chewing.

I made a face. “The Kannu-what?”

“The Kannushi,” Shoko said. “One of the Elders. He who communicates the will of the gods.”

Okaasan nodded. “The Kannushi told me I had to go back. Of course, I refused. I was in love.”

Shoko looked astonished. “You disobeyed the Kannushi?” She lowered her eyes. “That is the greatest dishonor.”

“Perhaps. But I still refused to return.”

“You were willing to die?” Shoko asked, still not raising her eyes.

“Wait—what?” I asked.

“The punishment for disobedience is death,” Shoko told me. “Ritual suicide preferred, of course.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“She’s not,” Okaasan said. “When it became clear that I wouldn’t be returning alive
or
dead, the Kannushi allowed me to remain, on one condition.”

My disappointment grew into a lump in my throat so big I couldn’t speak.

“What was the condition?” Shoko asked.

Okaasan kept her eyes on the table. I couldn’t sense anything from her. “I was to persuade your father to marry me.”

I squeezed my eyes shut.

“Why?” Shoko asked.

Okaasan hesitated and I felt her eyes on me. “Edward had been
across
, and he had returned with the gold. There was something dark about the whole thing—and something dark within Edward himself at times. The Elders were concerned.”

I put my face in my hands and tried to make sense of what I’d heard.

“Junya, … I loved your father. I was crazy about him.” I heard the plea in her voice. “Can you imagine how happy I was?”

“It sounds a little too convenient.”

“
Convenient
? I was banished forever from the world you saw today, from my family, from everything I knew!” She took a deep breath. “I believe the Kannushi took a moderate approach with me—my family is quite powerful. But I took the assignment because I
wanted
to marry your father.” Then she held up her hand and showed me the ring. “My mother came back and gave me this.”

There was a moment of silence as we stared at each other.

I turned to Shoko. “I suppose you think this isn’t a lie either?”

Okaasan slammed her cup down. “I don’t give a damn what you think! I wouldn’t change anything about my life, but I guess that’s no longer up to me! So go ahead, Junya. You know the truth—now decide what you’re going to do with it!”

CHAPTER

26

The morning dawned so quietly I could hear the waves hitting the beach. I lay on my futon—Shoko and Okaasan were still asleep—and stared at the ceiling, this one made of wide planks stained dark by wood smoke and time. I had more information than I knew what to do with, but one thing seemed clear: all this had started the day my grandpa went into the desert. Shoko’s crossing over, my awakening, the company’s going under, Grandpa’s naming me as his heir, those guys who’d tried to kill me—it couldn’t be a coincidence that all this was happening now.

Over breakfast, I asked what I hoped were the last questions I needed to have answered.

“This Bartholomew guy that Grandpa’s mixed up with,” I said. “What’s his deal?”

Okaasan and Shoko exchanged glances.

“Were it not for those like Bartholomew,” Shoko said, “there would be little need for Gatekeepers.”

Okaasan nodded. “There are those with great power in this world. Some are well-known, others dwell in the background, directing and influencing many things for their own ends. And they have people everywhere, people who have no idea what it is they truly serve.”