Page 52 of Love Hollow at Last
“Mom, why are you even still here?I had no idea it had gotten this horrible.”
She raised her eyebrows.“And go where, Noah?Some antiracist la-la land where we wouldn’t encounter anything like this?”
He stayed quiet for a moment.“Maybe a place where, you know, there are more Asian people?”
She smiled.“We would be abandoning the people who are here.Even Aya’s family.How would you feel about that?”
He didn’t have an answer.Though his heart sang that Aya was going to move away, that she would come to his house in LA and bring the homey quality it had never held for him, he wasn’t ready to say that.In fact, Aya had seemed extremely unwilling to consider a move to California.But perhaps he hadn’t done enough to convince her.
His father put his hands on the table and rose more slowly than Noah remembered.“Anyway,” he said.“One of us had better go over and move that end table.”
Noah stood, but he wasn’t admitting defeat quite yet.“After everything you told me?How about she calls her friend Carl and has him move it for her?”
His mother smiled tightly.“Oh, she doesn’t actually think much of Carl.None of them do.”
His father seemed to see that his approach wasn’t working.“She’s our neighbor, Noah.”
“Don’t make this a Catholic thing.Love thy neighbor, blah blah blah.”
“Fine, then.I won’t.But if we refuse to help her, who benefits?She’ll think we’re bad neighbors, and let’s face it, we will be.She’ll also be even less likely to consider our perspective in the future.”
“But you don’t even challenge her,” he said.“She’s charged with teaching children!How is this good for them?”
“Having no teachers isn’t great for them, Noah,” his father said sternly.“Do you know how hard it is for us to find permanent teachers, even substitutes?We always have vacancies.We had to fill the high school history position with a recent grad, and after what she endured this past year, she quit.I’m surprised she lasted the whole school year, honestly.”
His mother’s mouth was firmly set.“Your father refuses to force any of the other teachers to transfer into that position.”
“They would leave too,” he said quietly, touching his wife’s arm.“So I’d be losing even more teachers.What would be the point of that?”
Noah was with his mother.“You should force the teachers who agree with this shit to take those vacancies.”
His dad started to smile again.“And have our high schoolers taught by someone who thinks that the internment was not a problem, perhaps even a brilliant idea?Oh, I don’t think so.I’d take the position myself before that happened.”
“Well, you may have to,” said his wife.“You’re not going to find anyone else to do it.And our students can’t graduate or go out into the world with no knowledge of history.Unlike their parents.”
At that point in the conversation, Nami chose to come in.“You could change it all, Noah.”
Their mother, seeing where her thoughts were going, made to hush her.“It’s not his responsibility.”
But Nami wasn’t listening.With Hana asleep in her arms, she said quietly but fiercely, “Then whose responsibility is it, Mom?If our family doesn’t do something, who will?”
“Why d-don’t…” Noah began, but his stutter prevented him from getting the rest of the sentence out.
“Don’t you dare ask me to pay for it,” snapped Nami.“Don’t you think I would if I possibly could, a hundred times over?Don’t you think I hate having to fight Byron for child support?”
It was the first time she had mentioned her ex—the first time Noah had heard his name since he’d been back, actually.Even when he was alone with his parents, they seemed to be perfectly willing to pretend he was dead.
“Nami,” said their father.“Sweetheart.You don’t have to fight him.If it’s better for you to drop the rope?—”
“It’snotbetter for me,” she hissed.Her scowl was at odds with the gentle movements she was making to keep her daughter asleep.Back and forth, back and forth, she rocked her.But her eyes were bright with hatred.“That bastard needs to pay.”
“I agree,” said their mother, muttering a word in Japanese that she usually reserved for the worst men she had ever encountered.Noah almost never heard her use the word, but she and Nami seemed united in their anger.
“I was going to ask if there were any fundraising avenues that were, you know, untapped,” he offered weakly.
His mother shook her head, ushering Nami out with Hana.
His father took over the discussion.“Your Aya…”
