Chapter 7 - Two Trips
It wasn't the light streaming through her bedroom window or the ever faithful C-ko that awakened A-ko on this bright sunny morning.
It was the smell of her father's cooking that washed the sand from her eyes. If there was one thing A-ko loved more than sleeping, it was eating - and eating her father's cooking, most of all.
After a fast shower and an even faster session of getting dressed, A-ko vaulted the second-floor railing and landed in the living room with a thump that shook the china cabinet. Rushing to the kitchen, A-ko remembered to pull up short - and calmly strolled in to join her parents, seated around the kitchen table waiting for her.
Acting innocently, A-ko said to both her parents, "Morning, everybody!"
She was rewarded for her cheerfulness by her father replying,"Morning, Punkin! How many eggs do you want?"
"Four please, and make them bumps," said A-ko as she used the childhood name she had first used to describe "sunny side up".
Her mother was not nearly so impressed with her daughter's attempt at being cute as her father almost always was. Diana went ahead and proved it; greeting her daughter by saying, "Someday, you're going to go right through the floor and find yourself sitting on your rear end in the basement!"
A-ko thought of something smart to say but - not wishing to face her mother's wrath - thought better of it. A-ko had almost finished her juice when her father asked, "How much of our conversation did you hear last night?"
"Pretty much everything, after you and Mama started screaming at one another."
"That will be enough of that," scolded her mother.
Looking up at her father for support, A-ko was relieved to see the smile on his face as he said, "You have to admit that we were pretty loud."
Her mother had different ideas. A-ko heard her mother tell him, "You're worse than your daughter! This is a serious matter, and I don't need the two of you making sport of it!" Continuing on, she told her daughter, "Since you were so attentive and heard so much, you already know that you are the one who will have to make the decision whether to meet your grandmother."
Turning to her father, A-ko asked him, "What do you think I should do, Papa?"
As he slid the eggs from the frying pan into his daughter's plate, the Man of Steel told her, "This is one decision that you must make for yourself. As you must have heard last night, I have reservations on the subject of your meeting your grandmother. But I am also the first one to admit that you do have the right to meet her. And it is equally true that your grandmother also has a right to meet her granddaughter." He took his child by the hand and, holding it gently, added, "You're old enough to make up your own mind on this subject. So - with that in mind - your mother and I have agreed that the choice is yours to make."
Looking first at her mother and then her father, A-ko said, "I already know how Mama feels about me meeting her mother. And I think I know how you feel about it too, Papa." A-ko paused for a moment before she took a deep breath and continued. "I am sorry, Papa, but this time I think I agree with Mama. I would like to meet my grandmother, to see where Mama was raised, and to meet all her Amazon Sisters she's told me so much about. Until now, they've only been faceless names linked to stories. So - unless you tell me differently, I would like to meet and spend some time with the people she grew up with, and - most important of all - with a grandmother I've never seen!"
A-ko's parents looked at one another, each in turn using that silent language that a few lucky married couples seem to possess. Partly because of this silent conversation, her father told A-ko, "If you feel so strongly about this and it means this much to you, then I think you should go and see it through."
She jumped up and hugged him. In turn, he told her, "It's your mother who's the one you should be thanking." A-ko promptly did so by hugging her mother in turn. "So - what happens next, Mama?"
"For the next two weeks, you will work harder than you ever have in your life," answered her mother.
"Then what?" asked A-ko.
"Then you and I will travel to Paradise Island together."
"Isn't that during the same two weeks C-ko's supposed to stay with us, while her folks go off on that romantic cruise?" Mr. Magami asked.
"No problem. We'll simply take C-ko with us for the visit," Diana explained.
"Will she be allowed to come?" asked A-ko.
"My mother has disinherited me, but by formally inviting you to join her on Themyscira, she's acknowledged you as her granddaughter.
That makes you an Amazon princess. And as one, you are allowed to have a traveling companion with you when you come to visit. One more thing," added her mother. "Like it or not, you are now next in line for the Amazon Throne!"
"A princess," A-ko mumbled under her breath in total shock as she slowly made her way back to her seat.
"You've always been my princess," her father told her.
A-ko giggled, and then suddenly turned serious. "How will we explain to the Kotobukis that C-ko will be gone for a month?"
"That will be my job," said her father. "I will simply tell C-ko's parents the truth."
"The truth?" asked his wife.
"Yes the truth. A-ko and C-ko have been invited to spend a month with A-ko's grandmother on her private island."
Both A-ko and her mother had a brief laugh as A-ko told her father, "Pretty sneaky, Pop!"
"Perhaps, but it's not a lie, and that is what counts."
It was her mother who brought up another issue by asking, "What if C-ko doesn't want to go?"
"If I know anything, I know C-ko. There is nothing she enjoys more than traveling with me." A-ko then added, "Remember that little trip to Brooklyn we both took when we were ten?"
"Don't remind me," said her mother.
Her father and mother both noticed the sad look that suddenly appeared on their daughter's face as she absentmindedly dabbed her toast into the runny egg yolk on her plate. It was her father who asked, "What's wrong, baby?"
"I miss Krypto."
He smiled sweetly as he told her, "So do I, Punkin, but your mother and father were very proud the day you let him go. You knew no matter how much you loved one another, he could only be happy roaming through space."
Her mother then added, "You loved him enough to let him go. It was that day that we knew our baby girl was turning into a young woman."
A-ko suddenly got a worried look on her face."If C-ko agrees to come with us, how will she be able to understand what's going on? My Greek might be good enough, but C-ko doesn't speak a word."
"But her English is excellent," her mother pointed out, "and English is almost a second language among my people."
"It's still not the same," said A-ko.
"We could arrange for C-ko to have a JLA translator plug."
"Do you really think so, Papa?"
"We'll have to ask the current acting chairman for one."
"Chairperson," interrupted his wife.
"I stand corrected," he apologized.
A-ko then asked, "Do you think this new chair – chairperson will give us one, Papa?"
"Perhaps when we're alone in bed tonight I might ask - "
"Only if you ask nicely," interrupted his wife with a sly grin.
With a wide-eyed expression A-ko turned to her mother and asked, "You're the new leader of the Justice League, Mama?"
"Your foolish father talked me into it, and the rest of the members made the mistake of voting me in."
"No one could ever talk you into doing anything you didn't want to do," A-ko's father pointed out. He then added, "I might have persuaded you to take over the leadership, but I never talked you into it."
A-ko enjoyed the banter between her parents even more when her mother answered back by saying, "I noticed that you waited until we were alone in bed to do your persuading!"
"Timing is everything," said A-ko's father with a twinkle in his eye and a grin on his face.
A-ko was busily hiding behind her hand, giggling at her parents' banter.
Turning to her daughter, Diana asked her, "So, you think you're so grown up now that it's safe to find your parents amusing?"
"Only since I got old enough to understand what you and Daddy were really talking about," admitted A-ko.
Now it was her mother's turn to be embarrassed and her father's to laugh at her plight before saying, "Our little girl seems to be growing up fast."
"Maybe a little too fast," said her mother. Taking her child's hand she added, "I just wish she didn't have to."
"Do you think your mother thought the same thing about you, Mama?"
"More likely than not," admitted her mother.
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For the rest of the week, A-ko went to school. Her classroom was the basement training room, and her teacher was her own mother. C-ko also went to school. After her parents had discussed the trip with A ko's father, they had agreed to allow their adopted daughter to spend a month with A-ko visiting her grandmother while they went on a second honeymoon. However, C-ko's class room was the Magami family den, and her lessons were quiet talks with A-ko's father.
The first lesson was how to use the translator plug A-ko's mother brought back from the JLA watchtower. There really wasn't much to learn; after a simple insertion behind her ear, C-ko found herself having a conversation with A-ko's father in ancient Kryptonese after only a few minutes.
It was A-ko's father who drilled into the little blonde what she could and couldn't say about A-ko's or her own family. She was told to always call A-ko by her American name - Martha Kent - and, with the exception of her own name, hide everything, including where they lived, where they went to school and the country in which they lived.
C-ko had always been - for the want of a better word - an airhead. But she had somehow always managed to keep A-ko's secrets about her parents and background, even if she was self-centered at times and prone to whining. When it came to A-ko, no one could be a better friend to the redhead.
It was after one of these training sessions with A-ko's father that he gave her a small gift. It was a small crystal figure on a gold chain.
Holding it in her hand, C-ko asked Mr. Magami, "What's this for?"
"Insurance," he answered.
"I don't understand," she said.
"I want you to wear this every moment while you're visiting A-ko's grandma. Never take it off and never tell anyone - not even A-ko or her mother - what it does."
"What does it do?" asked C-ko.
"If something occurs while you're gone that's so bad or so dangerous that you fear for your own or for A-ko's safety - or if something really terrible happens - I want you to smash that crystal. Burn it, crush it or do anything else you have to do to destroy it, and I will be there for the both of you in mere moments."
"How does it work?" asked C-ko.
"When you destroy it, it will send out a signal I alone can hear. And that will bring me on the run to wherever you are."
"But why do I have to lie about it to A-ko and her mother?"
"Because I'm afraid that if something bad does happen, I won't know about it until it's too late. The reason we're not telling A-ko or her mom is because they're both too proud and too brave for their own good, sometimes. Or - perhaps I'm just too big of a coward; most of all when it comes to them and to you, too."
C-ko smiled and told her best friend's father, "I know I sometimes talk too much and blabber on, but I do know how to keep my mouth shut about some things, Mr. Magami."
"I know, C-ko. That is why I trust you enough to ask you this favor."
"I promise I'll do it," said C-ko.
"I knew I could count on you!"
While C-ko was having a conversation with her best friend's father, her best friend was having her own conversation with her mother.
The type of conversation this mother and daughter were having consisted of each taking turns throwing the other around the basement. Between being tossed to the floor and bounced off the walls by her mother, A-ko was drilled on Amazon customs, religion, and philosophy.
A-ko even managed to ask a few questions of her own whenever she was able to get her mother into some sort of painful wrist lock or arm bar. Diana couldn't be sure what made her more proud - her daughter's curiosity and her intelligent questions about her people, or the fact she was more able than ever to trap her into some wrestling hold from which she actually had to struggle.
This was the way things went in the Magami home for a week and a half, as the day of A-ko's visit to Paradise Island neared.
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The driver opened the passenger door, and the two young girls emerged from HIKI-1. Biko looked around. No grandmother.
What were you expecting to see? Her standing on the steps with a plate of cookies?
"Come on, Alana - er, Martha," she said, pulling the girl along by the hand. They went up the steps and a servant admitted them. Alana gasped immediately; this place made her daddy's house look like Shantytown.
"Quit gawking at the ceiling, stupid," Biko said, motioning her toward the room toward which the servant was directing them.
"HEY," the Cygnan hissed.
"Sorry," B-ko returned.
They entered a cavernous library room with tapestry-covered walls, ornate oriental rugs on the floor, and an elaborate Eighteenth-Century pastoral painting inside its domed ceiling. Sitting directly in the middle of it all was a wizened old crone wearing a deep purple suit and a scowl.
"Good day, Grandmother Daitokuji," said Biko, bowing low. "May I present my classmate, Martha Kent from America. I hope you don't mind that I brought her along."
Alana bowed, grateful that she hadn't followed through on her impulse to give the old bat the Leptonian tiger-claw salute.
The grand dame squinted through her monocle. "Nice of you to invite yourself along. But come on in. You're better looking than my granddaughter anyway."
Biko's jaw dropped. She desperately fought the urge to fire a smart comeback at the dowager. None of this was lost on her grandmother, who fixed her with her gaze.
"Cat got your tongue, girl? The reason I said that is because you look like your daddy. Hell's bells, what a blockhead that man turned out to be." Her steely gaze shifted back to Alana. "Come closer, child."
Alana took a deep breath and walked up to Mitsuko Daitokuji, who surveyed her inch-by-inch.
Please Great Mother may my slip not be showing and may I not sweat and cause this dye to run and oh oh oh this old lady creeps me out - !
"You're a likely looking specimen," her grandmother finally announced. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Uh - "
"Speak up, girl."
"Well - you have such a lovely home. And Biko is a very nice girl - "
"WA HA HA HA HA!" the old woman laughed, slapping her knees. "She's a nasty little witch. Everyone says so."
If I am, Grannie Dearest, it's because I'm a chip off the old block-
Biko's jaw jutted. "Grandmother, would it be a better idea if we left now?"
The two stared at each other with their cold blue eyes. Neither flinched.
"Suit yourself, girl," the old woman replied. "If you choose to stay, we can drink some tea. If you choose to go, don't let the door slam you in the tail. And if you do go, don't forget to tell your father that you were too much of a yellow-bellied coward to spend ten minutes with your poor old lonely grandma."
Without another word, both girls sat down in the lovely cherry wood and damask chairs to which Mitsuko Daitokuji had directed them. Alana glanced over at Biko, who looked like she might cry.
"Um. Ma'am," Alana said in her soothing low voice. "It's very kind of you to allow us to spend some time with you. Especially me."
"You're damned right it is, child. Lemon?"
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After teatime, the three of them walked out the back of the Mansion and into a breathtakingly beautiful garden. Parts of it were English in style; others had the traditional Japanese koi ponds and bonsai plants.
"I planted every one of these with my own two hands. I was eighty years old this last March fifteenth. You ignored my birthday, Biko. So did your father. I don't appreciate it, not by a long chalk."
"I'm sorry, Grandmother," Biko said, quivering with anxiety and anger. "I thought Father had - "
"And how is my lunkheaded son, anyway? Still cohabiting with that drunk?"
Alana's eyes narrowed into slits, but she made sure Mitsuko hadn't been looking her way.
"Yes, Grandmother."
"And what do you think of your half-sister, Biko?"
"She's okay."
"Bah. You resent the hell out of her. I can see the lie in your eyes, girl."
Biko thought she might throw up her tea and crullers. "Shiiko's a good kid, Grandmother. She even looks a little like me."
"Reeeeeally? I guess that means your father did sire that child after all. I had my doubts."
Alana bit her lip.
"I read the National Enquirer and the Star and the Sun. Every week, every word. Haven't missed an issue for years. I've got the scoop on that broody sow he married." The old woman shook her head vigorously. "The woman is a scandal. What a blow to our family name. Your father should be institutionalized. I would be more than happy to sign the commitment papers. Be sure and tell him for me, won't you dear?"
What a nasty creature she is, Alana thought. She looked again at Biko. Her face was carefully composed, but Alana could only imagine how badly she felt inside. It's bad enough your daddy ignores you. It's even worse that your grandma calls you names and makes you feel ashamed.
The alien girl reached out and took her hand. Biko looked up, surprised. But she returned the gaze and didn't drop her hand.
"Ah, little friends. Well, that's fine. Friendship is wonderful. Don't have much use for it these days. I'm too old and too rich to care what people think about me - especially members of my own family." Mitsuko Daitokuji looked up just in time to see her only daughter making her way down the brick walkway in her stiletto heels. "And speak of the devil," she murmured.
"Auntie Shini!" Biko shouted, and waved. Alana could tell she wanted to run to her, but didn't dare.
"Biko, darling. How have you been." The tall, elegantly-dressed woman gave her niece an air kiss. "How are you, Mother? And who is this?"
Biko gestured in the Cygnan's direction. "This is my classmate Martha Kent from America." Alana bowed.
"Ah, America. I have my fashion design business headquartered in Manhattan. I've traveled it from coast to coast."
Oh no, Biko thought. Grandma doesn't know doodlysquat about the United States, but I forgot about Aunt Shinobu! Biko turned to Alana. "Martha, this is my father's only sister - er, what last name are you using these days?"
The slender woman laughed loudly. "Actually, it doesn't matter. I've gotten rid of my latest husband. It's Daitokuji, little Miss Kent from America."
Did she kill him or something? Alana thought. I wouldn't put it past her - or her mother either, for that matter. And these women think CYGNANS are creepy? Sweet Cybele!
"Mother, the sun's getting hot. Since the ozone hole now reaches over the Empire of the Sun - how ironic - I think we should seek shade. Martha, you must tell me all about your home."
Biko gave Alana a furtive look which she couldn't read.
Grandmother Daitokuji scowled. "Always whining, Shinobu. You always were a whiner. Good God. And a little sunshine won't hurt you. Worried about wrinkles, are you? Well, you might not have so many if you weren't so prunefaced!"
The two girls stared at one another for a brief moment, eyes wide.
"Er, Mother. This is neither the time or the place."
"Why not? It's my house and you came here. I'll say what I like, Shinobu. Why don't you go away and take your niece shopping? Martha here and I can have ourselves a nice little talk."
Great Mother, thought Alana. She's on to me!