Chapter Twenty – Push and Pull
The reception area of the Hotel Alfonso. In the dining room next door we can see guests finishing their meals. Marco is waiting at tables. A clock above reception shows 10:20. Tony is behind the desk, he leans on it looking concerned. Shizuku stands before the desk. She is speaking into a telephone. She runs her fingers through her hair nervously.
Shizuku: "Hello? Hello, Anna-Marie? It's Shizuku. I'm very sorry. Yes it is late, I'm sorry. There has been bad news, its Mr. Nishi back in Japan, he has been taken ill. Very ill. Yes. No. Yes that's right. In a hospital, yes. Yes, we are going right away. Tomorrow. I'm afraid so. But… look, I don't know how to best say this, so I will just say it – can you come? Can you bring your mother? I know she is ill but I'm so afraid. I'm scared that this may be their last chance to meet." (tears run down her face as she talks) "Yes I know, I know, I'm so sorry. But it has to be tomorrow. Yes, have you a pen? OK. Its Japan Airlines flight JL418 from Milano Linate airport to Tokyo Narita. It takes off at 9:20 in the evening. Here is the number of the Japan Airlines check-in…" (she gives the number) "Please say you are flying with Mr Amasawa and Miss Tsukishima, you should be able to get seats with us. Well, that's it. No, I'm OK. Really. I hope we see you at the airport? Goodbye."
She places the phone down and stares at it. The tears continue to run.
Shizuku (quietly to herself): "Oh grandpa, please be alright."
The scene shifts and changes, the shadows fade. The clock hands still show 10:20. The same view but now it's morning. Sunlight throws bright light where before there were shadows. Shizuku stands before the desk. As usual Tony fills the space behind. Shizuku signs a form.
Shizuku: "Signore Tony, grazie, molte grazie."
Tony: "She-zoo-koo. It is not Mr. Tony, eh? Just 'Tony', eh?"
Shizuku: "Thank you, Tony. I loved it here. It was a lovely room. And you are so kind. I will come again."
Tony: "Ha! I wait for you. And for you She-zoo-koo, is no problem, eh?"
There is a loud noise and down the stairs clumping and grunting comes Marco. He's in his waiters clothes and he brings Shizuku's huge bag down. He drags it to the centre of the reception floor. Shizuku opens her purse, finds some money. This time it is paper money, several notes.
Shizuku (giving Marco the tip): "Marco, grazie. Va bene così?"
Marco looks at the notes in his hand. He looks up at Shizuku, gives her a curt nod and a grunt. He goes bright pink and disappears quickly through the PRIVATO door. Tony bursts into laughter.
Tony (laughing): "Ehi, Marco! Ti vuole bene!" (to Shizuku) "Hey, he nodded. He likes you!"
Shizuku: "Tony, I must go. Arrivederci!"
Tony (still smiling, he comes round from behind the desk and opens the door): "Arrivederci, cara Signorina."
He bows, Shizuku bows in return. Tony reaches for her hand, he lifts it and kisses the back of it.
Tony: "Be in good care now."
Cut to:
The courtyard. A taxi stands by the horse trough. It's a surprise it even fitted down the alleyway. Seiji is beside it. He is speaking with a distinguished silver haired gentleman. As Shizuku comes out of the hotel, Seiji and the man shake hands and the man walks to the school.
Shizuku: "Well, here I am. All ready."
Seiji: "Hi. OK, well, I suppose we'd better go."
The driver squeezes her big bag into the small car. Seiji takes one final look at the school.
Seiji (troubled, to himself): "Every time I come to Cremona, I leave a day early."
Cut to:
The taxi driving slowly up the alleyway. It just fits between the buildings.
Cut to:
The taxi interior looking back at Seiji and Shizuku in the back seat. Shizuku turns to look out the rear window, we just see the courtyard disappearing.
Shizuku: "Goodbye. I will come back."
Seiji (turns to her): "Yes, you'll come back. I'll make sure of it."
Cut to:
The taxi driving along a main road passing fields, farms and woodland. We see Seiji's face gazing out a window.
Cut to:
The taxi entering a city. We follow its route through several streets and it pulls up at the airport building. Shizuku and Seiji get out, Seiji pays the driver.
Cut to:
Seiji and Shizuku sitting in the departure lounge. They both just sit. And sit. Too worried to eat or read, they each turn over their thoughts in their head. Into shot comes a lady pushing a silver haired old woman in a wheelchair. Seiji sees them and stands up. He holds Luisa's hand. Shizuku jumps up. Anna-Marie comes to her and gives her a hug.
Cut to:
A Japan Airlines 747 taking off.
Cut to:
A view of the passenger cabin. The four of them are sat in the centre block of four seats, as Luisa is disabled they sit in a row where there is a transverse aisle so that the elderly lady has plenty of room. Seiji is on one end of the row, Shizuku beside him, Luisa beside her and Anna-Marie at the end. Shizuku holds Luisa's hand.
Cut to:
(Music: Trash80 "Faces of a Fashion" a gentle piano solo)
An exterior view of the 747. It is night. There is an almost full moon, huge and silver, in its cold light the plane seems to glow like precious metal. Far below, the clouds are like dreams. The milky way, far brighter and clearer than seen from near any city, lays across the sky like a million diamonds. As the piano music plays we watch the jet carrying its precious cargo. Hundreds of lives. Hundreds of lifetimes.
Cut to:
(Music continues)
The cabin interior. The lights have been dimmed. The camera tracks up several rows of seats. Most passengers are sleeping, one or two read or listen to music on headphones. A couple of workaholic men are tapping away at laptops; their faces, lit by the blue-white screen light, look like men already dead. The view tracks up the aisle to Anna-Marie. She is under a blanket. The camera now tracks left. Next to her Luisa has a magazine open on her lap but her head has lain to one side and she dozes, a pair of reading glasses on the end of her nose. Next we see Shizuku, curled to her right facing Seiji who is curled up to his left. Their heads are close together. Their faces just inches apart. Seiji is talking in a low monotone.
(Music fades low)
Seiji: "…and that was his problem. Baseball, baseball, always baseball. He never seemed to notice his friends dropping away one by one. It was crazy. I don't see him anymore. He still lives two streets away but he might as well be on Mars."
He sighs and is silent for a while.
Seiji: "I remember a Monday at school early last September. I think it was the fifth. Yes, that's right, Monday the fifth. Green Town Field Junior High. You remember?"
Shizuku looks into his eyes. She says nothing.
Seiji: "You passed me in the corridor with your friend. Which friend was it?"
Shizuku: "Yuko."
Seiji: "Yuko, yes it was Yuko." (he smiles, recalling the memory, tasting it, turning it over in his mind) "I knew you were looking at me. You looked like you could've killed me. I said nothing, I didn't even look you in the eye."
Shizuku: "I remember. I was so mad at you. You made fun of my song lyrics."
Seiji: "That was it, yes. Hm. Seems years ago doesn't it? Do you know why I said nothing, and didn't look at you?"
A very close view of Shizuku's face. She asks the question with her eyes.
Seiji: "I was with my father."
Shizuku (her eyes widen a little): "That man was your father?"
Seiji: "Yes, he came to the school to discuss my taking two months off to come to Italy. He didn't want me to go at all. He was in a foul mood that day. So, you see, how could I even look at you? You might have said something, then I would have had to introduce you and in the horrible mood he was in there was no way I wanted to risk another argument."
Shizuku: "That bad huh?"
Seiji: "Mm, that bad. Shizuku, how do you get on with your dad?"
Shizuku: "OK. He's pretty strict, and he always lets me know who is in charge but he's very fair too. I talk to him all the time about things. I have lunch with him in the library some days."
Seiji: "That must be great."
Shizuku: "Yeah, he's pretty cool."
Seiji: "I hate father."
Shizuku's eyes again. Wide with surprise.
Shizuku: "Seiji! You can't mean that!"
Seiji: "Can't I? You're not his son. He's a selfish, manipulating, driven, domineering…" (he tails off, his jaw set in anger) "We argue all the time. I hate him."
Shizuku looks afraid. She covers her open mouth with one hand.
Cut to:
A close up of Luisa's face. Her eyes are open. She is listening.
Cut to:
Seiji: "Amasawa Electronics. His company makes computer components, all sorts of stuff."
Seiji sits up a little, unfolds his legs, pulls his wallet out of a back pocket, flips it open and retrieves a photo. He curls up again.
Seiji: "Here. He's in the middle, huh… that's predictable. Mom on the left, my brother Kouji on the right. I'm the one at the back. You see, the one who looks like he'd rather be somewhere else."
Shizuku studies the picture. We see the family in the front garden of a house, a driveway and cars behind them.
Shizuku: "Is this your house?"
Seiji: "Uh-huh."
Shizuku: "Wow, it's huge. How many cars?"
Seiji: "I couldn't care less how many. It's a very successful company. He sells to big factories, hospitals and so on. Computer networks and such like. I'm not really interested. Ever since I can remember Kouji and I have just been tools in his toolbox. He groomed us to take over from him, when he retires he wants us to manage the company. I think he plans stuff all the time. My name… the Kanji character means 'Holy Governor', he even planned for me to be a leader the day he named me. I hate him for that." (Seiji chuckles) "Then one day Kouji really messed things up."
Seiji slips the photo back in his wallet and returns it to his jeans pocket.
Seiji: "He became a dropout. Boy, was that a shock. He's a great photographer, very good. He's had pictures published in magazines. He finished high school and took a year out before going on to university. He went to Thailand with some friends. Heh, well these friends turned out to be a bunch of hippies, they did drugs and all kinds of stuff. Kouji got mixed up in it bad. He got a girl pregnant. Dad of course went mental, he went off like a bomb. Life was impossible for weeks. I actually moved in with grandpa for about a month. Eventually things cooled off a bit but it seemed Kouji liked it out there. Last I heard he opened a photographic studio in Bangkok and does wildlife photography. Doing well now, he even takes tourists on photographic tours. He's over the hippy thing but he's not coming back. No university. No el-presidente of Amasawa Electronics. Bye, bye and goodnight."
Shizuku: "Oh, Seiji, that means…"
Seiji: "Yeah, now I'm dad's number one target for him to put pressure on. Shizuku, I hate it at home, I don't have a proper life, its nag, nag, nag, study, study, study all the time. I'm trapped in a prison. I'm going crazy. My face may look calm, I may look relaxed but inside…" (he growls in frustration, his hand becomes a fist).
Shizuku reaches out and covers the fist with her hand.
Seiji: "Did you ever wonder why I always seem to be at grandpa's shop? I spend as much time there as I can. I've been going there for years, as soon as I was old enough to go out alone on my bike. Since I was about six I think. I sleep there when I can. Some days I used to just sit and watch him work. I loved that, seeing his hands do amazing things, I could watch him for hours. Broken old furniture would be transformed. Heh, you think it's magic me making a violin pop out of a piece of wood? Well you should see grandpa do his stuff. Furniture comes to him as little more than firewood. Six months later it's beautiful, like the day the original craftsman made it."
FLASHBACK
We see a very young Seiji, seven or eight years old watching Mr. Nishi working. The boy is entranced.
Seiji: "Hence the violin making. Grandpa has held violin making classes for years. One day when I was about nine I decided to try it. Took me the best part of a year to finish my first one and, well, you know that story already."
Shizuku: "Oh, my poor Seiji… why did you keep all this in?"
Seiji: "And that's why the apprenticeship trip last year was so important to me. I was escaping. I was free of his tyranny for eight glorious weeks. I was like a zoo animal taken back to the wild and set free. I have never produced such good work as I did those two months in Cremona last year."
He pauses and looks through Shizuku to some distant place. His eyes narrow and self-loathing fills his face.
Seiji: "And of course that's the problem. I came back from Italy and thought about stuff for ages, turning it over and over in my head. Looking at it this way and that way. And no matter which way I looked at it, it always looked the same. And last night on the way back from Venice I worked it out. The violin making isn't me doing something I want to do. It's me doing something so I can avoid doing something else I don't want to do. Violin making isn't pulling me Shizuku, it's hatred of dad that's pushing me. I'm not a great violin maker. I'm not even good. I stink. What I am good at is running away from dad, running away from my responsibilities. Hell, just running away."
Shizuku: "Seiji, oh, Seiji, don't."
Seiji: "I can't do something if my love of it isn't pure and honest and genuine. Violin making is a sham, a cover, a lie. I realise now that it's not something I chose to do but something I was pushed into doing as a means to escape my father. I hate it for what it represents. I'm going to give it up."
Shizuku (sitting up and taking his hand in hers): "Stop it! Stop it! You don't know what you're saying!"
Seiji: "Yes I do Shizuku. I've thought about this for a long time."
Shizuku (puts her hands on his shoulders and actually shakes him): "Seiji Amasawa, don't you ever, ever dare talk like that! I don't want to hear it! You're talking complete rubbish. Aah! You make me so angry! Its plain as the nose on you face that you've got great skill and even more potential as a violin maker! Seiji - remember I was the one always following you, you were one step ahead. I looked up to you so much. You inspired me. Violin making is a fine craft and something you were made to do. Remember that day you met me outside the shop with Moon? You took me in to see the Baron. Afterwards I came downstairs…"
Her voice trails off. We see that her eyes are wet.
Shizuku (quieter now, gentle): "I saw you working. I watched your hands making the violin. I could see the skill." (she laughs, really its half laugh-half sigh) "Even though I didn't even know your name or anything about you I think I fell in love with you at that moment."
She laughs again, a little embarrassed. Shizuku leans forward, slides her hands from his shoulders down his back and draws him up to her. She holds him against her chest and he lowers his face into her. She strokes his hair.
Shizuku: "…and watching you working… it was your hands I fell in love with first. How you were drawn to that craft isn't important, what is important is your skill and your commitment to it. Be true to yourself, don't let go of something – don't let yourself hate it just because you see it as something driven by your war against your father. You think it's him that's driven you to violin making? Do you? You can't live under his shadow all your life. He can't be allowed to affect your every life-decision. So don't give up just because you detect his hand in it, don't you see? You're letting him manipulate your decisions even now. Seiji, you're strong and skilful, use those gifts for the purpose they were given you. It's nothing to do with your father. Oh, how can I make you see this? You said so yourself in Venice. Grandpa saw it in you years ago. What he saw wasn't hatred of your father, it was something else completely. Grandpa saw the real you, didn't he? Didn't he? Even then, when you were ten, you denied it. Stop running away, Seiji."
Cut to: Luisa, her eyes open. Her heart must be pounding. We cut to a view of Shizuku's back. She's kneeling up now in her seat, facing Seiji. Seiji's hands come around her, move slowly up her back and hold her in return. His fingers dig into her and he holds on tight, squeezing. We cut to a close up of his face buried in her shirt. His eyes are tight shut. Cut to Shizuku's face. Her eyes too are shut and we see a tear squeeze out from under her eyelids.
Cut to:
Shizuku's father. He's in her bedroom. He speaks of time and the importance of each day, each hour, each moment.
Cut to:
Shizuku (her eyes open, talking through her tears): "Oh. Something… Yes, my dad said something to me the day we left Tokyo. About the value of time and grasping the moment. I think… I understand now what he meant. This is one of those times Seiji, one of those passing moments that are really, really important. Please… hold onto this moment, remember what I said."
She's crying openly now.
Shizuku: "Oh, I'm no good at this, look at me. Crying like a baby. I can't guide you…"
Seiji: "A guiding light."
Shizuku: "What?"
Seiji: "It doesn't matter." (he holds on tight)
He pulls his face away from her. She looks down at him, her tears fall from her face onto his.
Cut to:
Luisa. She smiles and closes her eyes.