The Ohana by CW Schutter

I have a reputation for honesty and a trustworthy face. He knows how to make money. And he says I have a face people trust so we would make a good partnership.”
    Kazuko stopped and rubbed her reddened hands on her rough, burlap apron.
    “Han san has a car, a house with an inside bathroom, an icebox, and his own land. Tetsuo waved his hand at their mean surroundings. “Would you have us live this way forever?”
    Kazuko raised her eyebrows. “A house like Han san’s...perhaps you’re right. We must do what you think best.”
    “So, it's settled. I will talk to Han san today. We will make the deal.” He stood up and reached for his bento . There was a noise from behind him and he turned. Seven-year-old Mariko stood a few feet away with her arms outspread.
    “Papa. You forgot my Eskimo kiss.”
    Mariko ran into Tetsuo’s arms. Bending down, he rubbed her nose with his before kissing her cheek.
    “ Sayonara , Papa,” Mariko rubbed his coarse cheek with her soft hand.
    “ Sayonara , Mariko.”
    As Tetsuo released Mariko and turned to leave for the fields, Kazuko noticed the slight stoop to his shoulders, the gnarled hands, and the thick, wavy black hair laced with too much silver for his age. As his bent, gaunt figure disappeared in the gray morning mist, Kazuko shook her head. Ten years in the cane fields was no life for a man.
    Kazuko felt renewed respect for her husband. At least he hadn’t given up his dreams. This was the Tetsuo who had found the courage to dream the unspeakable. This was the man who stepped over the strict caste system for her. Despite their hard times, she still loved him passionately. But lately she wondered if his spirit had burned out of him like the harvested cane. Today she discovered it still smoldered inside. To fan the embers, she had acquiesced to Tetsuo, despite her apprehension about Han san.
    She gazed at her daughter and gently put her hand on Mariko’s head. Mariko looked up at her mother with her great, dark eyes that always seemed to see beyond their cane field existence. Tetsuo often said Mariko was like the dawn, full of promise and hope. Mariko admitted although she was sometimes reprimanded in school for daydreaming, she didn’t much mind because she knew she was destined for something more than plantation life.
    Kazuko stroked her hair. Mariko’s greatest liability in this cursed land could be she had nothing of the peasant in her.
    “Go feed the chickens,” Kazuko withdrew her hand and went back to her work in the kitchen. “You’ll be late for school if you don’t do it right now.”
    “Okay, Oka-san .”
    “Okay? What kind of word is okay?
    Mariko beamed. “It’s an American word mother. It means fine, everything is not good or bad, it’s just okay.”
    Kazuko shook her head as she watched her daughter fly out the door.
     
    The Hans and the Matsubaras prospered despite the fact Kazuko only managed a grudging acceptance of Han.
    After the birth of Kazuko’s sixth child, a daughter Michiko, Tetsuo took her hand in his as she lay on the floor on futons with their child at her breast. “It's a good day my love. Today I sign a lease for ten acres of land. In time, it will be ours.”
    “It's good to have land.” Kazuko thought of her father’s vast land holdings. Her family’s land was the basis of her father’s wealth.
    “I have enough to buy a horse, chickens, farm equipment, and seed. I can work as an independent contractor in the cane fields.” Tetsuo smiled and gripped her hand tightly. “We'll have our freedom.”
    “I can grow produce to sell at the market. The children can help me.” Kazuko began to look forward to their impending move. “But where will we live?”
    Tetsuo kissed her gently on the cheek. “I saved the best news for last. There is a house, much larger than this, with a bathhouse and outhouse on the property.”
    Although she had deserted her god a long time ago, Kazuko disengaged her free hand and stroked Tetsuo’s cheek.