Chapter 43 Present Day
PRESENT DAY
JULIA
“Where are you, Julia?” Doctor Sato asked, searching for clues for Julia’s whereabouts through her computer screen on their Zoom call.
“I’m sitting on my bed in the Hotel Du Louvre,” Julia said nonchalantly.
“Oh,” she said. “Now wait…did you say Louvre, like the Louvre?”
Julia smiled. “Yes, I’m in Paris.”
“Have you run away?” the doctor asked with concern.
“Yes, I’m leaving medicine for good and becoming a chef,” Julia declared.
Doctor Sato reached up and pinched her beaded necklace together, something she always did when worry flooded her face. She studied Julia’s image. “Are you really in France? How did you get there?” The doctor continued, trying to look beyond Julia for a view of Paris.
“I caught a red eye last night,” Julia toyed with her. “Remarkably easy, I must say. I left Seattle at ten last night, endured a ten-hour flight and a few hours by taxi to my hotel, and now, with the time change, here I sit, getting ready for bed.”
Doctor Sato pulled on her beaded necklace. “Hmm, I see. Last time we talked, you were on the ferry from Angel Island. You were tracing information on your great-great-grandmother.”
“Yes, and right after that I spent a week in Japan.”
The doctor raised an eyebrow.
Julia laughed, knowing the doctor thought she was having a breakdown or, worse, a psychotic episode. “Okay…I better fill in the gaps before you send the men in white coats to come get me.”
“You had me kind of worried.” The doctor let go of her necklace. “But, Julia, you look stronger than I’ve ever seen you.”
Julia smiled and nodded and blinked at the tears the doctor’s lovely judgment had caused.
Julia rallied and said with the self-assurance the doctor had implied, “I guess that’s because I come from a long line of strong women.
But what’s really crazy is that my Grandmama knew the whole story of my ancestry…
everything…clear to my great-great-great-great-grandmother Yuria.
That’s why Grandmama insisted I go to France to get the final chapter of this story. ”
Julia’s phone was flashing, and she looked down at it. “My mother is calling.” She silenced the phone. “I’ll call her after our talk,” she told Doctor Sato.
“Did you get those papers on genetics I sent you?” the doctor asked.
“Oh yeah. Sorry I didn’t get back to you. I’m afraid they are way over my head, but what I do understand is pretty fascinating.”
“Well, it sounds like you are learning firsthand the power of our genes.”
“Oh my gosh, Doctor Sato, my maternal ancestry is amazing. These women…from my grandmother and up the line, what they went through, what they had to fight for. You were right, when my med school friend called me a geisha, he had no idea. I am geisha, I am samurai, I am a princess.” Julia wiped a tear of grateful amazement.
“I am all those things and I’m so glad.”
Doctor Sato leaned back in her chair and blew out a deep breath. “Julia, I can hear the excitement in your voice. Their strength is in you as well.”
Julia nodded.
“So why are you in France?” Doctor Sato sat up straight. “Did your grandmother really insist?”
“Yes. Grandmama has asked me to come as a tribute to my great-great-great-great-grandmother, Shibata Yuria. Yuria was one of the first women to travel outside of Japan when she accompanied her father, leading a diplomatic envoy to France in 1865. She learned to speak French on the eight-month journey on a ship and translated for her father.”
“Amazing,” the doctor said.
“She was just a few years younger than I am right now when they came.” Julia raised her hands and looked around her room. “The delegation actually stayed in this hotel and miraculously, she met the love of her life here in France…one, Claude Oscar Monet.”
“The Monet?”
“Yes, the very one. Oh my gosh, Doctor Sato, you should read her love letters.” Julia fanned herself and laughed.
“At her father’s insistence, he painted her at the Chateau de Fontainebleau.
That’s why I’m here. To complete this circle—to honor Yuria and this love, somehow.
I don’t know…I’m still trying to figure it all out, but Grandmama insisted.
” Julia frowned as her phone buzzed again, and her mother’s name came up.
She silenced the phone. Her father was paying good money for this time with the doctor.
“How do you feel about this affair and your grandmother’s request?” the doctor asked.
“Oh man, I’ve thought about it a lot. Grandmama reminded me that these women had no choice in who they married.
Obāchan had no choice. She married my grandfather because her parents thought he was best for her.
” Julia searched the doctor’s eyes to see what she thought about arranged marriages.
“Grandmama told me about this very Japanese feeling, Koi No Yokan, this feeling upon first meeting someone that you know you will inevitably fall in love with. She said, ‘Julia, please go and reconnect our hearts to love…this Koi No Yokan. Stand by the water of Fontainebleau and feel this for me.’”
“Yes, I’m familiar with that saying. I’m positive that you too will meet that person someday.”
“I’ll sleep tonight and then go to Fontainebleau in the morning.” Julia looked down at the pattern on the bedspread.
“I can see this is bringing up some strong feelings, Julia. You want to talk about them?”
Julia glanced up at the screen and smiled.
“Not really. Except there is this weird thing that keeps happening—I keep seeing this boy…this guy…” Julia frowned.
“I don’t know. I don’t want you to think that I’m losing my mind.
When I was in Montana, I got a flat tire, and this really nice guy changed it for me.
It was dark, and I was afraid, so I didn’t get a good look at him.
I know this sounds weird, but I keep seeing him.
I thought I saw him again in California.
Then, last night when I got to the hotel, I saw this good-looking couple walk into the hotel restaurant.
” She shrugged. “I could have sworn it was him.”
The doctor’s smile flustered Julia. “It’s okay, Julia. You’ve been under a lot of stress. Our minds…all these parts, can tell us marvelous stories. But I doubt a boy from Missoula would be in Paris. Do you think? Perhaps it is your heart telling you that you’re ready to love?”
“I suppose you’re right.” Julia nodded.
Doctor Sato leaned her cheek into her hand.
“Julia, your grandmother has a wealth of wisdom. I know she is asking you to do this as the final chapter of the story…but I can’t help but believe that this is the beginning of another great story.
” She smiled gracefully at Julia. “One, I hope you’ll write someday. ”
Julia’s phone buzzed for the third time. “I’m so sorry, Doctor Sato. This is the third time my mother has called since we’ve been talking. You mind if I take it to make sure everything is okay?”
“Of course, Julia. Call the office when you get back and make an appointment so you can tell me how the story ends…or starts,” she corrected herself.
Julia hit end on the Zoom call and answered her mother’s call.
“Hey Mom. Sorry about that. I was on a Zoom with Doctor Sato. Everything okay?”
“Julia, my dear…your grandmama passed away last night.”
* * *
“Oh, Mom, I can’t stand it. I can’t stand that I wasn’t there. I can’t stand that she’s gone. I’m going to find the next flight home,” Julia wailed.
“No,” Julia’s mother said definitively. She quickly softened her voice. “She died in peace, truly, knowing you are there to honor her last wishes.”
“What happened, Mom?”
“I don’t know, Julia, except I think she knew.
When we got back from the airport, her cough was much worse.
I begged her to let me take her to the hospital.
She refused and kept smiling and muttering in Japanese.
” Julia’s mother sniffed and added, “Dear, I don’t understand these mysteries of life, but I think it was her time, and we honored that.
She was lucid off and on throughout the night, and then around four this morning, she took her last breath and said, ‘Seishi Ichinyo.’ It was quite peaceful with your dad and me at her side. ”
“What does that mean, Mom?”
“It means that life and death are oneness. She has always been at peace about dying.”
Julia let waves of grief wash over her.
Finally she said, “I have to come home, Mom.”
“Julia…your grandmama told me you would say that. She begged for you to stay and finish this story. She hoped to be cremated straightaway. You will have ample time to say goodbye.”
Julia puffed a loud breath. “I don’t know, Mom.”
“When Grandmama was still lucid last night, she told me to tell you she is so very proud of you becoming a doctor. But most of all, she is proud of the young woman you have become. She also said, ‘anshin shite shineru, now I can die in peace.’”
“Oh Mom, I am so sorry that we have lost her.”