"Ooh, I love this song!" Natsuki said, jumping up and down in the car and tapping the driver on the shoulder. Harvey smirked despite himself.
"What are you, eight years old?" she smiled.
"I wish. Eight was a great age." She looked out the window and then turned back to him after a moment. "What were you doing at eight years old?" she asked.
"I wasn't looking into becoming a premier geisha, if that's what you're asking," he said. "I had a little time to look into your occupation, Miss Natsuki, and was surprised to find it's little more than glamorized prostitution."
"I'm surprised at you, Mr. Specter, for having such a narrow view of the world," she said. "I charge for my company, not for my body. Men from all over the world have paid hundreds of dollars an hour just to sit with me and drink tea. I'm a listener. I'm an artist. And pray tell, Mr. Specter, what you do for a living?" he made a face and then answered,
"I'm a lawyer. A closer." She laughed out loud.
"And you're criticizing my way of life?" she said. "I probably look like a Puritan next to you." She laughed again, and then quieted. "But in seriousness, Mr. Specter, I want you to know that when you drop me off at the Women's Shelter I'll be doing everything I was trained to do. Just perhaps in a much… less glamorous… setting." She bit her lower lip, for the first time real worry creasing her brow.
"It's really a shame," she continued. "I don't mean to complain, you understand that. But it's like taking a fish and telling it to fly. I'm not in Japan. No one here understands what I do – you just said yourself I'm nothing more than a glamorized prostitute. I don't doubt that's what you believe. And I can't go back." Harvey's ears perked up at the sound of what was beginning to look like legal trouble.
"Why can't you go back?" he asked.
"Yuki," she said in explanation. "If he knew I was back in Japan I'd be done for."
"Why?"
"He's a crime lord," she said in explanation. "He was my danna – I guess you would say, in English, my…"
"Sugar daddy?" asked Harvey dryly.
"I was going to say provider, but that works too," she said. "I didn't have a choice in the matter. One word of dissent and…" she pointed to her black eye. "Pow," she said.
"Well, the police are tracking him down now, so you'll be safe to go to Japan," Harvey said. She laughed again, but this time it was a dry, hollow sound.
"The police will never get him," she said. "He's probably back in Japan right now." She shrugged. "No matter," she said. "I guess I can be a cleaning lady or a waitress. I speak English pretty well and I'm not afraid to work." She looked up at Harvey. Harvey felt the gears clicking and then said,
"You'll work for me."
Her jaw dropped. She could not believe her plan had actually worked. She let out an un-geisha-like shriek.
"Mr. Specter! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"It's not going to be easy work," he warned her. "I have a huge apartment-"
"I'm sure you do,"
"-and I'm not around a lot of the time-"
"I'm sure you're very busy,"
"-and I often bring home female companions-"
"Busy in that department, too,"
"-but I think this could work out," he said.
"Oh, thank you!" she said, and tried to hug him.
"No, no, we don't hug," he said.
"Oh. Well, in anyway, thank you, Mr. Specter," she said, smiling enormously, her eyes brimming with tears of happiness. He smiled.
"I'll get you set up in the women's home and you can start on Monday."