Chapter 41 Present Day
PRESENT DAY
JULIA
Julia’s mother received a text that the pharmacy had Grandmama’s new antibiotic prescription ready for pickup, so they decided to let Grandmama rest. When Julia’s mother went to the pharmacy, Julia and Zoey brought Yuria’s diary out to the kitchen table, made some hot tea, and settled in to learn more about her trip to France.
They also carefully unfolded the beautiful blue silk fabric to discover a delicate Japanese kimono.
The rest of Yuria’s story was all there in black and white, or in Japanese, to be exact—her travels to France and her meeting of the art master, Claude Monet.
“Can you imagine this young girl who knew only Japanese culture ending up in the City of Light?” Julia said as Zoey read of the wonders that Paris held for Yuria.
“Talk about Alice in Wonderland,” Zoey chuckled and continued to read.
Our hotel, Hotel Du Louvre, is the largest building I have ever seen, but for France, one of the smallest. Everything is massive from the palaces to the places of worship. How has man accomplished so much?
Reading from top to bottom and right to left, Zoey used her finger to follow the Japanese characters. “Ha, listen to this:”
The French food is horrendous. I cannot stomach another meal. They serve lunch and dinner with this drink called wine. It tastes bitter, like spoiled grapes.
Julia laughed. “I’m sure the French wouldn’t be happy to hear that!”
The women dress like common yūjo, prostitutes, with their breasts practically hanging out in the open.
They smell of strong perfumes and wear gowns ballooned at the bottom, making them oddly shaped and cumbersome to walk in and sit in.
The men are too forward, and I have seen my father nearly draw his sword against their insolence.
“What a clash of cultures, this was,” Julia said and sipped her tea.
Zoey continued to read but looked up at Julia. “You mind if I skip to the juicy bits?”
Julia nodded and Zoey turned several pages, stopped and started reading again:
The delegation performed at the massive art display. The amount of art is unbelievable and so beautiful. I am shocked at the naked women in some paintings. My father gives me an unapproving gaze if I look upon them.
Zoey and Julia both giggled.
I met the most interesting artist, Monsieur Monet. He is the first Frenchman I’ve met carrying the spirit of samurai, but with a gentle smile and kind eyes. I like the way he does not look at me but looks at me at the same time.
“Aha! First blush,” Zoey looked up at Julia.
“For sure,” Julia said. “Go on.” She watched Zoey read through several more pages. “And…”
“So, it looks like Napoleon invited Yuria’s father to his palace in…” she held the page close to her eyes. “I think it is something like the blue fountain.”
Julia picked up her phone and googled “Blue fountain, France, Napoleon,” and saw at the top of the list, “Chateau de Fontainebleau.”
“Here it is: Napoleon’s summer palace. Wow, look at this,” she turned the phone to show Zoey the picture.
“Oh yes, just a little summer cottage.”
Julia scrolled through some pictures of the inside. “Wow! What did Yuria think of this place?”
Zoey laughed. “She uses the word hade na, which is like our word for gaudy.” She continued to read. “But this is when she finds out the Shōgun has died, and she does not know what will happen to her.”
Zoey continues to read but doesn’t speak for several pages.
“Zoey! What’s happening?” Julia couldn’t wait any longer. “You’re killing me!” she declared.
“Well, some of her language is complicated, and we probably need a better translator, but it is like there are two parts of her talking—one who is very distraught over the death of the Shōgun and the other elated at seeing Monet once again.”
“Monet is there…at Fontainebleau?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention that?” Zoey teased.
“Why is he there?” Julia said excitedly.
Zoey shrugged. “Painting, I guess…and singing?” she stated as a question. “They meet again at the edge of the lake…her father is there with her.”
“What does she say?” Julia could hardly stand it.
There amongst the colors and the light…the lullaby, the swans, the lake, the pavilion, I have found it.
Zoey read.
“Found what?” Julia demanded.
Zoey gave her the universal hold-on sign and continued to read in silence.
Then stopped, closed the diary, and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Augh,” she moaned. “I can’t stand this.
It looks like her father asked Monet to paint her portrait, which he does the next day.
She wears this kimono.” Zoey points to the blue kimono they have spread out on the table “They have a picnic, and then he teaches her to paint. Monet takes her out in a rowboat on the lake as the sun sets, and he kisses her.”
The women wipe their tears.
“I think she falls in love,” Julia said.
Just at that moment, Julia’s mother came through the back door. She carried the sack from the pharmacy and a stack of mail. She handed Julia a large white envelope. “This has come for you, dear.”
Julia looked at the large envelope. The return address read, “.” She tore open the flap. “Wow, that was fast. I didn’t expect it for another week.”
“What is it, dear?” her mother asked.
“It’s my genetic testing. You have anything to tell me before I open it?”
“Oh yes, you’re adopted,” her mother said smugly.
“Ha…funny, Mom,” Julia said and pulled out the paperwork. The front page showed a pie chart in blues and greens, the largest slice in dark blue with a legend that read, 95 percent East Asia, and a small green sliver marked with the legend, 5 percent Italian.
Julia cocked her head, which made her mother ask, “What does it say, Julia?”
Julia turned to the next page that showed a map of the world with a large blue dot around Asia centered over Japan and a small red dot over Italy.
“Definitely from Japan, but what’s this one weird hit from Italy?” Julia wondered.
Zoey looked over her shoulder and laughed. “Huh, one spicy meatball,” she said with an exaggerated Italian accent.
Julia looked at her mother, who shrugged. “I have no idea, maybe from your great-great-grandparents’ time…the World War II era?”
Julia had exclusively followed her matrilineality, the direct line from her female ancestor to her, but knew there were many more people intricately woven into the fabric of her heritage.
She had sixty-four great-great-great-great-grandparents, and somewhere down the line, someone had been involved with an Italian.
Maybe that’s why I occasionally have a hankering for Italian food!
That part of her story would have to wait for another time.
Zoey returned to the diary as Julia read through the rest of the information, especially interested in the medical data.
“I’m brCA negative,” she said to her mother.
“What does that mean, dear? That’s good, right?”
“Someone with the brCA gene mutation has a marked increase for developing breast or ovarian cancer.”
Julia smiled at her mother and continued to scan the rest of the paperwork. It revealed way less than all the work she had put in to trace her maternal roots. Then she noticed that Zoey continued to read and wiped another tear from her eye.
“Well…?” Julia asked.
Zoey blew out a long breath. “It sounds like Yuria’s father gave the portrait to Napoleon as a gift,” she snuffled. “Then her and her father leave for Paris…and the next day to Le Havre to catch their ship back to Japan.”
“That’s it? That’s the last they see of each other?”
“No. Actually, Oscar…that is what she calls him…meets the ship at Le Havre. That is where they say goodbye,” Zoey sighed again.
“They exchange gifts, apparently. She wrote him a letter and put it in a bottle she took from the hotel, intending to toss it in the ocean. But she gave it to him instead. She also gives him her hairpin, and he gives her his pocket watch.” Zoey points to the gold watch on the table next to the kimono.
“Why does she call him Oscar?” Julia asked.
“Claude Oscar Monet,” Julia’s mother chimed in.
Julia looked at her with suspicion.
“What?” Julia’s mother raised her eyebrows, enjoying the revelation. “You don’t think your Grandmama and I ever talked? She wanted me to investigate it, and well…you were already born.”
“Oh man!” Zoey said, looking up from the diary and then reading:
I must never let the lord know of this binding love.
She looked from Julia to her mother. “I bet she hides this from the Shōgun,” Zoey said definitively.
“I suppose it’s possible,” Julia said and looked at her mother. “Do you think he could have found out, and that was the reason she was exiled from the household?”
“I don’t know,” her mother said. “I suppose the Shōgun would not have tolerated such a thing.”
Zoey interrupted them to read:
Your kiss is still warm on my lips as the ship sails from the harbor.
Time stopped. My heart stopped in my last glimpse of the horizon.
How can I live with this pain, this emptiness?
Someday, my love, someday…time and my heart will restart.
How I wish we did not leave your painting of me in Fontainebleau!
That canvas you touched, the colors you used to paint my heart.
My dear, Oscar, Mon amour, please do not forget me.
If only I could spend one last day in Fontainebleau, my heart would be full again.
If only I could stand on the shore of the lake and sense your presence there with me to hear your sweet lullaby, to hear your laughter.
Julia and Zoey sat back in their chairs and sighed.
Julia’s mother knelt between them. “I know, girls, I know. It always hits me right here.” She pressed her fingers into her sternum. “Love lost.”
They all turned when they heard Grandmama cough and cry out. Julia and her mom raced to the bedroom, with Zoey trailing behind.
Julia went to the side of the bed and touched her hand.
“You okay, Grandmama?” Julia asked.
“Yes dear. I just thought you all had left me,” she whispered.
“No, Grandmama, we’re all still here. Mom just left for a moment to get your new medicine.”
Julia’s mother opened the sack, twisted off the top of the medicine bottle, and handed her mother a large white pill. “Let me get you some water, Mom.”
Julia helped her grandmother sit up, took the glass of water from her mother, and helped Grandmama with the medicine. She swallowed the pill easily.
“I think they think I’m a horse,” she said and chuckled, making her cough.
“That will help with your pneumonia, Grandmama.”
Grandmama smiled and looked at Zoey, who stood at the end of the bed. “So, you got through the diary?”
“Yes, Grandmama, lots of it. Zoey’s been a tremendous help.”
“Arigatou gozaimasu,” she said and nodded to Zoey. Then she turned to Julia. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go where, Grandmama?” she looked back and forth, from Obāchan to her mother.
“To France, of course,” Grandmama announced, “to Chateau de Fontainebleau.”
Julia laughed at the suggestion, but then realized her grandmother was sincere. “Oh Grandmama, I just got back from Japan. I can’t do that. Besides, school starts in a few weeks.”
Once the words came out of her mouth, she saw Grandmama’s tears well, and she knew the argument was over.
“Oh Obāchan, don’t cry. Grandmama, have you ever been to France?” she asked, looking for a lifeline.
Her grandmother shook her head solemnly. “I have only dreamt of going, to fulfill Shibata Yuria’s last wish. Now you can go as mine.”
Julia looked at Zoey for help.
“Dude, don’t look at me. I have to go to work tomorrow…I’m starting my new job. You’re on your own, princess.”
Grandmama seemed to gather her strength.
“Go my dear Julia. Gaze upon your heritage. Stand at the side of the lake—cast a flower into the waters—give Yuria peace once again, let her love one last time. I believe, Julia, there is where you will find the final chapter of this story.” Grandmama grasped Julia’s hand. “Go complete this circle of love.”