Page 7 of Love Hollow at Last
No need to make that mistake twice.
According to his watch, he was ten minutes late, so he forced himself to his feet.A few years ago, he’d developed a technique to get himself to go to interviews.First, he counted to ten, then he started walking or driving.And he didn’t stop until the damn thing was over.
Celebrity had taken him by surprise.He’d always expected it to be the one thing that could give him the recognition he’d craved in high school.Freed of his Love Hollow identity, he could be cool, even impressive.Instead, he shied away from the attention, which only seemed to make it worse.And starting a festival had come with way more hassles than he had ever expected.It was almost like when he was just starting out and learning how to deal with renting recording studios and borrowing thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.Now he had people to make those decisions for him, but since he was officially in charge of a festival in his hometown, most things seemed to fall to him.
Noah was still walking, but the path petered out as he got closer to the creek.He swore under his breath.Once upon a time, he would never have made that mistake, but he hadn’t been home often enough lately to remember.He would have to go into the creek to get home the short way.Otherwise, he’d have to backtrack and somehow scramble down the dirtiest and rockiest part of the foothills behind his parents’ backyard.
Well, no reason to stop walking.He made his way through the water.It was higher than the last summer he’d been there, but he couldn’t remember when that was.With work being so crazy, he preferred that his family visit him in LA.The result was that his parents visited, his siblings almost never came, and he rarely made it home.
He had almost convinced himself that his conversation with Aya could be just a conversation.After all, he met all kinds of people through work, and many of them were so self-absorbed they could hardly be bothered to look up, let alone learn his name.At least that wasn’t true of Aya.Though she didn’t seem to respect anything he had achieved, at least she wasn’t a fellow celeb.
Noah’s feet stopped.When he started to take another step, he realized he was sinking in the mud next to the creek.The hiking boots he had worn seemed perfect, and they were certainly very expensive, but even they were not a match for the mud that was nearly up to his knees.
“Mom?”he called.“Dad?Hello!”
But there was no answer.
7
Aya
Aya recognized every part of the path.When she didn’t find Noah, she knew he had gone down to the creek.The view was beautiful, after all.And that meant he must have taken the alternate route, the path that led from the road and formed the border of the Katos’ backyard.
A bridge there always made people think of something very Japanese and traditional.Aya had never really been sure about it, as her vision of “Japanese” was heavily influenced by her family and the Katos.As a child, back when phone books were still a useful item, she had gone to San Francisco with her parents.She remembered the pages full of Japanese names.You could find a common name, like Kaneda, and simply follow it down the page.
In Love Hollow, Japan was represented by her family, Noah’s family, Emi’s family, and to some extent, by Sheena’s dad before he left.That was it.
But when she arrived at the bridge, she found Noah next to it.He had gotten to the place on the other path where it spit everyone out in the creek and had apparently decided to go through the creek.He was standing there, looking a bit out of place.Clearly, Noah was no longer getting clothes that were loose on his slender frame.Both his jeans and his plaid shirt looked bespoke, ridiculously fancy for an afternoon in the Idaho wilderness.
“Hi,” she said.
He nodded.“Long time no see.”
They had seen each other that morning.But it must have been all he could come up with.
Aya and Noah both started talking at once, and she found herself deferring to him.“Sorry.You can go first.”
He put a hand on his neck.“So, the festival is about to start.It’s too late to move anything.”
She raised her eyebrows.“Movethe festival?Is that what you thought I wanted?”
He crossed his arms, looking a little bit wobbly.“I mean, that would have made sense a year ago.But now it’s too late.”
“Well, you should have asked me a year ago, then.”
He glared at her.“You should have rrraised any objections a year ago.”
The way he drew out thersound reminded her of the old Noah, and if she hadn’t been so angry about the point he was trying to make, she might have felt a little nostalgic.
In fact, it was a good thing that he was apparently now a jerk.
“Okay,” she said.“If you’re going to blame the victim, fine.First off, I thought it might not actually happen.You know, there are always stories in the news about festivals that don’t work out.”
“I’m sorry.Festivals s-s-spearheaded bymethat don’t work out?”
Noah had only stuttered because he was indignant but speaking softly.At some point as a teenager, he had learned that if he yelled in anger, he almost never stuttered.That worked pretty well until he got a reputation as an angry guy who always yelled, and he was forced to tone it down.
“Festivals period,” she said, hoping she sounded calm.“Second, I thought you would at least have the decency to keep the main stage away from the museum during the one week of the year that we actually bring in revenue.”
