Chapter 3- Separation
Kari sat emotionless in the uncomfortable, black, leather chairs of the airport terminal. Music blared through the headphones around her neck, yet she wasn't really listening. She was staring absentmindedly out the window as the sun rose over the runways. Besider her, Mrs. Kamiya's thoughts were also somewhere else, as she stared blankly ahead and occasionally took a sip from her cup of coffee.
There was an announcement on the loud speaker that passengers on the eight o'clock flight to San Francisco could begin boarding. When they announced it a second time, Kari sighed, putting aside all of her unhappiness, knowing that as of now, she would have to begin looking after her lost mother.
"Mom," Kari said softly, but there was no response. Her mother only sipped her hot drink, not showing any sign that she had heard Kari's voice.
"Mom!" Kari repeated, gripping her arm to get her attention.
It worked. "Hmm?" Mrs. Kamiya responded with, turning her head to give her daughter a questioning look.
Kari pointed to where a stream of people were lined up to board the plane. They stood up and took their place in line, when Kari suddenly realized that she couldn't remember if she had placed her boarding pass in her purse or the backpack she was taking as her carry-on luggage.
She was frantically digging through tubes of lip gloss and packs of chewing gum to find it, when her mother said, almost dreamily, "What is T.K. doing here? He should be in school."
Kari froze, she looked up and met his clear, sky blue eyes. He was running toward her, his eyes locked on hers as he dodged through the throng of people to get to her. She dropped her purse, forgetting momentarily about boarding passes and divorces, throwing herself into his open arms.
Their lips met and everyone around them "oohed" and "awed."
When her feet were firmly back on the ground, she pulled away. "You know, skipping the first day of school isn't exactly the best way to make a good impression."
"I know this sounds crazy," he murmured, pulling her back against him, "but I came here to beg you to not get on the plane."
"That is crazy. You know I have to go. Besides, I thought we decided last night that we'd still be best friends."
"But that's just it," he said. "I did some thinking last night and come to term with a few things. And…and…" he stumbled, "there are things I need to say to you in person, things that are too important to say with words through an e-mail."
"What?"
A voice came over the loud speaker announcing, "Last call for passengers on the eight o'clock flight to San Francisco. Last call."
"T.K. I have to go," she turned to see that her mother was handing the flight attendant their boarding passes. She turned and gave Kari a look that clearly said something alone the lines of, 'You better wrap this up.'
There was now no one left to board the plane. Kari glanced back at T.K., trying to tell him that they could finish their conversation later.
"Kari, I love you," he blurted out, surprising both of them.
The flight attendant was closing the door to the gates.
Kari was too stunned to say anything. "I really have to go." She pulled away from him, heading towards the gate where her mother was waiting for her. When she was almost out of his sight, she turned around and waved.
"I'll see you later," she mouthed, and he nodded, waving back. With that, Kari turned back to her mother, helping her keep her footing on the inclined walkway, while telling herself that that couldn't be the last time that she'd ever see him.
Kari spent many hours sleeping, staring out the window at the miles and miles white clouds, and contemplating T.K.'s last words to her. He loved her? She couldn't believe that when he'd finally said it to her, she'd been too shocked to say anything back.
Of course, if she had been thinking straight, she would have said 'I love you' back. But he didn't know that. She'd loved him for years, and he hadn't even figured out that she wanted to be more than his friend until this summer.
Her mother tried to get her interested in the movie she was watching, but Kari didn't understand how she could just watch a movie while the biggest changes in her life were taking place.
The only thing that pulled Kari out of her misery was the captain's voice announcing that they were about to begin their descent into San Francisco, and all that did was infuse a small bit of excitement in her gut.
She desperately searched the ground below her to try and get a glimpse of San Francisco, but it was pretty dark out, and the only thing Kari could see were clusters of lights, so she gave up her investigation.
They finally managed to get off of the plane and into the building, and Kari realized that though their flight had taken more than a few hours, they had actually gone back in time. In California, it was either very late Sunday night, or very early Monday morning, depending on which way you looked at it. Though back in Japan, T.K. was probably eating dinner, that is, if he didn't have too many detentions today.
Once they were past the security gates, Kari received her first glimpse of her grandmother. She was a short woman, plump, but not excessively so, with long gray hair and hard, blue eyes. Much of her appearance could have lead Kari to believe many things about her, but Kari instinctively knew that to do that would be wrong. One of the only things Kari learned from this glimpse was that her grandmother was a mystery.
As soon as Kari's mother spotted Grandma Kate, she ran to her, with a lot of kissing, and hugging, and emotion, which from Kari's point of view, seemed to be one-sided. Grandma Kate returned the display of affection, though the way she hugged her mother seemed almost cold.
After Kari's mother disentangled herself from Grandma Kate, the older woman gave Kari a long look. Kari returned the stare, refusing to be the first to look away, and her grandmother nodded, as if in approval. Then, she surprised Kari with a half smile and gestured for them to follow her down to the baggage claim.
Not too much time had passed before Kari was sitting in the backseat of her grandmother's red Ford Focus with their suitcases. They had packed as much clothes and necessities as they could into three heavy-duty pieces of luggage until Tai could send them the rest of their stuff later in the week.
It was almost two in the morning, and though Kari really hadn't been awake for a normal day, she felt extremely tired. She hadn't forgotten her excitement of seeing San Francisco, yet all she really wanted to do was curl up and take a nap. In fact, that's exactly what she did.
Some time later, she awoke in a very uncomfortable position on top of her suitcase. She had only come out of her sleepy state when her grandmother pulled into a driveway and turned off the car's engine. But, of course, after Kari's nap, she was only more exhausted.
Half asleep, Kari climbed out of the backseat, dragging her suitcase, backpack, and purse with her. She looked up to a three story, pale blue row house with white trim.
Kari remembered later, that at the time she had thought it was the most beautiful house she'd ever seen.
She followed her mother and grandmother up the enormous stair well to the front porch, and through the doorway, carrying two of the three suitcases, as well as her backpack and purse. Even though it was late, Grandma Kate gave her daughter and granddaughter and full tour of her home.
The first floor, was actually the second floor of the house, being that the first floor was the ground floor, and contained only a garage used for storage and a single bathroom. The second, and main floor, included a living room, dining room, fancy bathroom, and the kitchen. To the right of the front door there was a winding stair case which led to the third floor, where Kari found a bedroom, a bathroom, a study, and the master bedroom and bathroom.
Kari set her mother's luggage down in the bedroom, wondering where she was going to stay.
It was at that exact moment that her grandmother entered the room behind her and said, "If you like, you can stay on the futon in the study. The futon's in the attic, I didn't bring it down because I thought you might be more comfortable up there. It's pretty clean, and private, I know all about how teenagers like there privacy. And don't worry, there's not much junk up there, I keep all my junk in the garage."
Kari nodded, and climbed yet another set of stairs up to the attic. Cautiously, she opened the door, not really knowing what to expect. Instead, she found her grandmother's "futon" which turned out to be a pile of blankets on top of a fluffy mattress on the floor. But the floor was clean, and it was comfortable, so Kari laid down, and was instantly asleep.