Epilogue #4
Mrs. Masahiro was really too Japanese - even after having lived in New York for 40 years now - to show her self-satisfaction through whistling a merry tune like her American boss always did, but she was sorely tempted that day. That day she had indeed something to be self-satisfied about today; her boss was going to be so happy!
So she didn't whistle as she brought the afternoon tea tray - delivered straight from the Russian Tearoom - and placed it on the edge of the boss' desk; the only empty place in the cluttered, old fashioned, office. Her boss, Mr. Leipowich, was still writing busily as the tray touched the table but as soon as it did, he stopped, replaced the fountain pen's top so it wouldn't dry out over tea, sat back in his chair an said, 'Ah, Mrs. Masahiro, you are a life saver; I could do with a break about now.'
For a good 10 minutes Mr. Leipowich and Mrs. Masahiro enjoyed their tea and cakes in companionable silence, as they had done every afternoon for the last 30 odd years. A good tea requires no conversational embellishment.
But after that silent appreciating, it was customary to update each other on the day's events they separately had enjoyed. Usually this part of their tea break was pretty boring, but not today. Today, Mrs Masahiro had great news and she decided to come right to it.
'You remember we talked about Fujiwara's new concert tour in Japan,' she asked.
'Oh, yes, he's fantastic, I would so love to book him here at Carnegie,' Mr. Leipowich gushed, a look of sincere longing on his face. 'It's a goddamn shame he just doesn't play outside Japan. I just gotta try going there next tour, cause if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, then I'll just have to haul my butt over there,' he sighed.
'Well,' Mrs. Masahiro said, 'I don't know about Mohammed, but I do know how to get Fujiwara here, I think,' she hedged. Well that got her sizable boss out of his equally sizable chair in a hurry, and she smiled discreetly behind her teacup as he said, 'Really?! Who do I have to have killed? And,' here he sat down again, 'how much is it going to cost us?'
Mrs. Masahiro put down her cup, used her cloth napkin to dry her mouth daintily before saying critically, 'Well, it's not the costs that are worthy of mentioning, it's going to be the organizing that is.'
'Okay, now I'm intrigued, lay it on me, Mrs. Masahiro,' Mr. Leipowich said. And so the Japanese American lady did, laying out the plan she and her husband had come up with to solve all their problems.
And so it came about that that April, Carnegie Hall had a three week run of Japan's most excellent flute player, playing traditional Japanese music with his 5 regular Japanese musicians and western classical music with the New York Youth Orchestra. And that is also how Carnegie Hall ended up hosting the first official amateur Go championships outside of Asia. After all, you can't catch fish without some premium bait and it had been Mr. Masahiro who had known what to pick, after all, even though he hadn't been back to Japan in decades, he still received and read WeeklyGo like any other dedicated Japanese amateur Go player.
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Do stick around for Epilogue #5!
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