Chapter 9 Present Day #2
“Pusch!” her grandmother blew through her lips and waved her off. “Hai, nothing hurts, except my pride. I couldn’t get myself off the floor. What a foolish old woman I am,” she grumbled in a strong Japanese accent.
“Are you sure, Grandmama? Nothing hurts?” She felt her grandmother’s wrist and elbows.
“Hai, I tumbled in slow-motion. Now, be so kind, dear, and help me back in my chair.”
“I think I should call an ambulance.”
Her grandmother waved that off and tried to sit up using her elbows.
Julia straddled her, and lifted her into the wheelchair, surprised how feathery light she was.
“Oh Obāchan, I am so sorry you fell.” Julia smoothed her thin white hair down and kissed her on her forehead.
She knelt, holding on to Grandmama’s knees, and looked at her.
Her grandmother never seemed to look directly at people, always keeping her eyes downcast as if she were either asleep or too tired to lift her eyelids.
When Julia squatted within her grandmother’s vision, an enormous smile creased the old woman’s weathered face. “Why, my Julia, you came just in time to rescue your old Obāchan.”
“Grandmama, where is Mom? How did you fall? What are you doing in Mom’s and Dad’s room?”
Grandmama laughed and nodded her head.
Julia smiled at her. She turned and picked up a small hair comb with plastic violets from the floor. “You lost your hair comb, Grandmama.”
Julia stood and carefully arranged the comb in her hair, the wispy strands barely holding it.
She kissed the wrinkles of Grandmama’s forehead again, trying to dodge the large brown spots that dotted her skin.
She gently touched the large crusty lesion on her temple.
“Grandmama, you must let me freeze this off one of these days.”
It surprised Julia when Obāchan looked up at her. “Are you an actual doctor now?”
“Oh Grandmama, I just started this year. I have many years to go before then.” Julia smiled and sat in a chair beside her. “Are you sure you didn’t hurt anything?”
Her grandmother lifted both wrists and waved them.
With all the arthritic nodules and deformities of her wrists and finger joints, it would be hard to tell, but she seemed to move them without discomfort.
“I just wanted to reach the kamidana to place a flower for Tanabata.” Her voice came dry and raspy.
Julia looked up at the small Shinto altar that her father had made for her and then looked around and suddenly realized that her parents had finally moved her grandmother into their room.
Julia’s father had grumbled about needing to do that one of these days, since their room had a bathroom with a walk-in shower.
“Is Mom home?”
“She is taking pottery classes, and the cleaners just left. I promised I’d behave,” Grandmama said with a smile.
Julia noticed that she wore a yellow linen kimono with an embroidered red sash. “You’re all dressed up, Obāchan.”
Her grandmother looked her up and down as well. “Did you fall too, dear? Your pants are all torn.”
Julia’s face flushed with embarrassment, feeling the great age divide. “I bought these jeans like this Grandmama…it’s the style.”
Grandmama shrugged. “No one wants to celebrate Tanabata with me, so I must do it myself.” She spoke just above a whisper. “I have outlived my years, I’m afraid. Would you put those flowers on the kamidana for me?” She pointed to a small bouquet of fuchsia flowers that she’d dropped.
Julia bent to pick the posy off the floor and hesitated before placing it on the wooden altar that hung on the wall. As a little girl, her grandmother had scolded her severely for touching it. “Here Obāchan?” She held the flowers over the shelf.
Her grandmother pointed, instructing her to move her hand to the left.
“Here?” Julia asked.
She smiled and Julia carefully set the bouquet down. “What are you celebrating, Grandmama?”
“Do you not know the story of Tanabata, child?”
“No, Grandmama, please tell me.”
Grandmother shifted in her chair and perked up, looking at Julia straight in the eyes.
“Aw.” She cleared her throat. “Poor Orihime, the Weaving Princess, who wore beautiful clothes every day but had no one to love. She lived with her father, Tentei, the Sky King on the bank of the Milky Way, the heavenly river. Seeing Orihime’s tears, her father allowed her to meet Hikoboshi, the Boy Star, who lived on the other side of the Milky Way.
When they met, they fell instantly in love. ” She clapped her hands.
Julia knelt beside her grandmother.
“But the two lovers were so infatuated with each other, they would forsake all their other duties and her father, Tentei, grew angry, and he separated the two. Orihime became so despondent that her tears convinced her father to let them meet once again. He allowed the two to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month. But when that day came, they found they could not cross the river. The rain on this day is called, ‘the tears of Orihime and Hikoboshi.’”
“How sad, Grandmama!”
Her grandmother shrugged and raised both hands in defeat and then closed her eyes, wearied by telling the story.
Julia waited patiently and hoped she was praying and not sleeping.
Julia bowed her head thinking about how hard it had rained that day.
Maybe this old Japanese tale held a grain of truth.
She had much to learn from Grandmama and sadness filled her chest, realizing that there may be little time left.
When her grandmother opened her eyes, she said, “I prayed to our ancestors to protect us from disease…at least you and your parents. For me, I am happy to go meet our ancestors now.” She smiled.
Julia returned the smile. “That is part of the reason I am here, Grandmama. Will you tell me about our heritage?”
Her grandmother searched Julia’s eyes for a long time and Julia had to wonder if she had heard the question or couldn’t remember. For an instant, dread filled Julia’s mind, thinking she’d waited too long to ask these questions.
But when Grandmama nodded and beamed a smile, Julia understood Obāchan had hoped for this moment for many years.
“Kazoku to wa, shizen ga tsukuridashita kessaku no hitotsu de aru,” Grandmama whispered in Japanese.
“I’m so sorry, Grandmama, you know I don’t speak Japanese.”
“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces,” she translated. “What would you like to know, dear?”