Edited 8/30/07

Disclaimer: I don't own MoaG! As said before, the page numbers to where you can find the quotes from the book are listed at the bottom.


"Memoirs of a Geisha 2: Sayuri's Next Journey"
Chapter 2:"Opening Up"

"Pumpkin..." Sayuri whispered again. She put her hands back on to her sides and closed her eyes. Pumpkin...

"Ms. Nitta?" Riah's gentle eyes startled Sayuri and the newspaper fell to the ground silently. She opened her eyes to see her friend bend over to pick it up.

"Is this what you were looking at?" He held the paper up to read it and looked back at Sayuri's solemn face. "Hatsumiyo? Do you know her?"

When she didn't answer and just lowered her gaze, he pulled her left hand with his right gently. "Let's sit down, Ms. Nitta." He pulled her to the same bench she was sitting at earlier. After a moment, she sat down and Riah followed suit.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Burberry." Sayuri said quietly and looked up at the sky. It had become cloudier, blocking out more of the sun.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, Ms. Nitta." Riah responded quickly. "You must have bad memories of your life in Japan. It's OK to feel sad. You don't tralk about it, so you and Ken were the only ones who knew about it. Besides Mameha, of course, of the few times I've met her. Is this Hatsumiyo... one of your friends from there also?"

"She... was." Sayuri said solemnly.

Riah just watched her eyes waver from the memories. I would like to know more, but I'm not going to force her. If must be hard. After all, it's been 33 years.

Sayuri lowered her eyes to the green grass below her kimono. The wind whistled as the grass rustled against the hem of her kimono.

"Although I left Kyoto 33 years ago, I haven't seen Pumpkin since I was 29. Last I heard, she was living a life far worse than anyone should but that was 40 years ago..."

Sayuri sighed and looked up at Riah. She let out a small gasp as she saw that the younger man was smiling gently at her. Could I... really tell him everything?

As if he read her mind, he simply said. "You can tell me, Ms. Nitta."

Sayuri cracked a little smile and nodded. She remembered the last time she spoke with Pumpkin.

"I thought you were my friend." Sayuri had said as Pumkin, her once smiling friend at the Nitta okiya many years ago, glared at her with flashing angry eyes.

"I thought you were my friend too, once. But that was a long time ago."

Those words had hurt Sayuri deeply, but she tried hard not to show it. She also remembered the last words they had ever spoken to each other, only a few minutes after.

"But, Pumpkin, couldn't you have refused to help me? Why did you have to bring the Chairman?"

"I know perfectly well how you feel about him. Whenever there's nobody looking, your eyes hang all over him like fur on a dog. You took something from me a long time ago, Sayuri. How does it feel now?"(1)

They stayed standing like that for a few moments, and then departed. Pumpkin never got her answer.

Sayuri sighed as she watched Riah lay his right hand on her left shoulder. "Honestly, I never meant to take anything from her. It was all Mameha. She convinced me that the only way for me to become a popular and successful geisha was to become the Nitta okiya's daughter. You see, that was what Pumpkin wanted. She wanted Mother to adopt her, so she'd have a place to stay at to build her future."

"But you were adopted instead?"

Sayuri nodded and blinked back tears. "I wonder... how she's doing now."

"It's OK to cry, Ms. Nitta... Listen, we can go watch her performance tomorrow."

"You mean, you want to go, too?" Sayuri whispered.

Riah nodded. "If you'll let me. And I can bring Emily, too."

"I'd like that..." She said softly and smiled slightly.

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Riah held up the glass frame that held the Chairman's hankerchief. "He gave you this 58 years ago?"

"I was only 11 years old." Sayuri responded.

Riah placed the frame on the table gently. "How much older was Ken than you?" He paused for a brief second. "I'm sorry. You probably don't want to talk about him."

Sayuri shook her head slowly. "No. It's fine. He was only 10 years older than me. He was the one..." Her lips formed a straight line as her voice began to waver. "...the one who made me want to become a geisha. He was also the one who set everything up for me to become one. After he gave me the hankerchief, he made a deal with Mameha to take me in and train me."

"You don't have to say anymore, Ms. Nitta." Riah stopped her from saying more. "You can tell me when you're ready."

Sayuri nodded as Riah handed her a tissue from the bedside table to his left. She took it but just held it in her right hand. "I'm sorry, Mr. Burberry. An old woman like me shouldn't be crying over her past."

"Anything but that, Ms. Nitta." Riah interjected.

Sayuri closed her right fist and sat down on the bed behind her. "Thank you for listening."

He smiled. "I'd like to hear more about your life in Japan sometime, but only when you want to talk about it." He stopped and sat down beside her as he layed his left hand around her shoulder. "How about tomorrow I come over here and us three can go to the theater together? That way, you won't be alone. You'll be with friends."

Sayuri looked up at Riah and smiled. "Tha'd be nice."

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"So, Sayuri knew this Hatsumiyo when she was in Kyoto?" Emily Burberry asked her husband as they waited for Sayuri to come out.

Riah nodded. "She used to be Ms. Nitta's friend, but after an argument they had, they never spoke to each other again."

"How unfortunate." Emily frowned and continued to look at the closed door of Sayuri's apartment.

Emily and Riah had been married for 35 years. Emily was three years younger than Riah, but sometimes she acted like the older one. At 55, Emily was retired like her husband, and just as active, if not more. They never had any children though, because Emily wasn't able to bear any after a serious accident she had as a child.

After a few moments, Sayuri's door swung open.

"You look amazing, Ms. Nitta." Riah commented.

Emily nodded in agreement as she just stood in silence. Sayuri was dressed in an aqua-colored kimono with gold waves, like water, near the bottom hem. Her sleeves were short, about midway between her elbows and wrists. All the lining on the kimono were gold as well.

Riah extended his left hand to Sayuri and right to Emily. He smiled gently at both of them in turn. "Then, in that case, allow me the pleasure of escoring two lovely ladies to an exilerating performance."

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It only took 15 minutes to reach 53rd Street on Broadway Avenue in a taxi Riah had called. He had also bought the tickets the day before. After he had saw Sayuri's reaction at the newspaper the day before in the park, he knew she wanted to go see the geisha perform, or at least, part of it.

"Ms. Nitta?" Riah asked softly.

"I'm fine." Sayuri's voice wavered as she stepped in the doorway. They were an hour early, so the theater was only half full. A few of the people in the audience gasped and looked toward the right side of the stage.

"Is that Hatsumiyo?" One whispered to his friend.

Sayuri looked up at the stage to see a woman behind the curtain in the shadow of the overhead lights, looking over the audience curiously.

Sayuri couldn't help but smile a little. That's definitely her. Pumpkin... finally, after all these years, we meet up once again.


As I said in the previous chapter, if there are any misaccuracies on New York, feel free to correct me and I will change it accordingly. I only did general research on the nearest theater to 5th Avenue.

1 - quotes from pages 406-407