Page 54 of Collin: Episodes 7-9
Mr. Reevesworth said goodbye and hung up his phone. “Shouhei is Ami’s son.”
“Ami is my lover. She heads up her family shrine in Kyoto. We met in Paris when she was a student there.”
“We were all students.” Mr. Reevesworth chuckled ruefully.
Mr. Moreau smiled at his husband fondly. “At least you know a good haircut when you see it now.”
“Ami will never let me live that down.”
“No, she won’t. Has she said when she’s coming back to visit?”
“She wants to vacation somewhere warm. But I hadn’t solidified plans with her since I didn’t know what we would be doing and she didn’t know where Shouhei would be.”
Collin blushed and dropped his eyes. He really had disturbed things, but after last night, he was not going to apologize for it.
“Let’s figure that out before we all come back. We can always rent Shouhei a room in a hotel a street or two over.”
Mr. Moreau nodded and brought over the eggs, dishing them out. Everyone sat down.
“Do you not like Shouhei?” Collin asked.
Damian chuckled. “Shouhei is nineteen. We all still kinda see him as a kid. Nice kid but a kid. And he acts like it.”
“Not in a bad way,” Mr. Reevesworth smiled. “He handles his responsibilities. He’s just still very young. Where’s Sawako and her husband now, still in Tokyo?”
Mr. Moreau swallowed before answering. “Still in Tokyo. Though I think they’ll move back as soon as they’ve graduated. They’re expecting. He found someone to apprentice under locally, and of course, Sawako will finish under Ami.”
Collin tilted his head and frowned.
“Sawako is finishing school so she can take on the family shrine as a Shinto priestess.” Damian caught him up. “She met her husband in school, so they’re both studying right now, and then they have to spend time under a practicing officiant.”
“Not quite the terms Ami would use, but essentially, yes,” Mr. Moreau nodded. “Care for a Shinto shrine, a jinja, is often passed down a family line in Japan. Ami left her career and returned to Japan to take on her family shrine when her older brother couldn’t carry on the tradition and his children did not want to become kannushi or priests.”
“But you two are still lovers?”
“We were, and then we were friends only, and now we are again.”
“And the church or shrine is okay with that?”
“There’s no church. And yes, as long as we are circumspect, no one cares. Kannushi have lives like anyone else: marry, have children, have hobbies. It takes time to understand, but Japan doesn’t draw lines in the same places around the same things as this country does or France does, for that matter.”
Mr. Reevesworth ordered a car to the office that morning, and they took a service exit instead of leaving through the atrium. There were reporters at the entrance to the office building, but security cleared a path, and a few police officers ambled over and encouraged everyone to keep the sidewalk clear enough morning commuters could get by. Collin adjusted the brim of his hat in the elevator and let out a breath. “I see why you wear these.”
Mr. Reevesworth grinned. “They have their uses.”
Collin was under doctor’s orders to wear dark shades for the day. Even so, he was still scheduled to meet his Chinese instructor, a Ms. Zhou.
She arrived five minutes late, a slight red to her cheeks. Collin and Mr. Reevesworth were waiting for her in the lobby while saying good morning and chatting with Carrie. Was it only yesterday that Carrie had had an allergy attack?
Ms. Zhou held her bag in front of her in two hands and bowed a little, then held out her hand. “Apologies for coming late. I did not know they check ID.” Her speech was clear, but the foreign accent ran through her tones.
Mr. Reevesworth smiled and took her hand. “That would be my fault. We had a little incident yesterday. Thank you for coming. This is Collin, your primary student. And Ash…”
“Here!” Ash ran into the space, jacket half on. “Man, Reevesworth, dude, you’ve got to see this!”
“Now is…”
“Seriously, you pay me, right?”
