“Who’d want to embarrass us? And who the hell would take the trouble of reconditioning a B-29 to do it?”
“I wish I knew, Bob. Nothing makes sense, does it?”
“No, it doesn’t.”
They looked to Les down the hall on a wall telephone. They could hear him talking to his wife.
“So, your son’s going to put us up for awhile, is he? That’s pretty decent of him. But does he have the room?”
“No problem,” Robert confirmed. “Look, let’s go have a stiff one somewhere and sort this thing out.”
“I’m with you.” Cameron smirked. “It might take a few of them.”
“Yeah, for me, too.”
Chapter seven
KYOTO
The mid-afternoon waters of Lake Biwa were a sparkling calm. One foot on his forty-foot cabin cruiser, the other on the dock, David Shilling helped his smiling Japanese girlfriend aboard.
“Toshika, I’m glad you made it.”
“Thanks for asking me.”
He kissed her lightly on the lips. “Yuh hungry?”
“I’m starved. Nice day, isn’t it?”
“You bet.”
David escorted her to the ship’s stern. On a built-in shelf were small trays of food that held rice, pickles, fish, eggs, cheese, and sliced meat. The two sat at a table and ate, enjoying the warm sunshine. This past week had been a little warmer than usual, and the forecast for today was temps in the low eighties. That in mind, both were dressed lightly in shorts, T-shirts and running shoes.
Toshika was a slim, pretty woman in her middle twenties who spoke English fluently. A local history teacher, she was good-natured most of the time, sometimes bold and high-spirited, with a quick sense of humor. Her hair was midnight black, smooth, straight, and long, her unblemished skin a golden hue from the sun. David had met her two months ago when he was in the fashion shop she owned in downtown Kyoto, where he had been looking for a traditional Japanese dress for his mother. He had asked Toshika, who had broken off a previous engagement only that week, out for dinner that evening. They’d been seeing each other steadily ever since.
“My compliments to your chef, David. This is excellent.”
They continued eating until a Japanese man dressed in a dark suit appeared from below deck. “Sir, is everything to your satisfaction?”
“Yes, it is. I’d like more tea.”
“Certainly, sir.” The waiter poured into David’s cup.
Ten minutes later the table was cleared and the man, with the aid of another similarly-dressed man, cleaned up the food and trays and left the boat, leaving Toshika and David alone.
“Now, let’s go.”
“Yeah,” replied Toshika, taking off her outer garments to show off her new bright-red, one-piece swimsuit. “What do you think?” She turned around for him.
She was stunning. David was impressed. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”
In minutes, he started the boat’s motor from inside the cabin and pulled away from the dock into the open water. Soon, he too stripped down to his swimwear, a pair of dark-green trunks. He kept the boat within a mile of the shoreline, moving slowly along, with Otsu City on his left. A few other boats were on the water.
“Check the fridge out,” he said, nodding at the fridge in the corner, his hand on the wheel.
Toshika found a bottle of champagne inside. David urged her to open it, and she did. The loud “poof” startled her and the two laughed when some of the liquid sprayed the windshield and David.
“I didn’t think opening champagne could be so much fun,” she said.
“The glasses are in the cupboard, up above.”
They clinked glasses and drank, standing side by side. Toshika finished her drink first and left to go topside to tan. After thirty minutes, David cut the motor a half-mile offshore and went up to see Toshika on deck, sleeping on her stomach. The closest boat was more than a mile away. He quietly dropped to his knees, picked up the suntan lotion beside her, and started to pour it on her bare spine between her swimsuit straps. She didn’t wake until he rubbed the lotion into her skin.
“Hey,” she murmured, coming to. She turned on her side, facing David. “We stopped.”
“Yeah. Nothing to hit out here. I’ll just let it drift. Thought I’d come topside and enjoy the scenery. You and the lake.”
She chuckled. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
“I was hoping it would.”
She glanced around at the water. “Nice, eh?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you know Lake Biwa has special significance for many American airmen?”
“Really? What kind of significance?”
“For a short time during the war, B-29 bomber pilots used it as a rendezvous point for attacking nearby cities. They would stream in over the coast near Osaka, fly on and circle over the lake, then head for their particular target.”
“I didn’t know that.” David was genuinely surprised and interested at the same time. “You learn something new every day.”
“A person should never stop learning.”
“Spoken like a true teacher. You’re not like a lot of Japanese people. You find it easier to talk about the war.”
“Maybe because my relatives were from Kyoto, one of the few cities unscathed by the B-29s. We were lucky that way. If I had come from Hiroshima or Nagasaki, I might not be so willing because the memories would be so close. Actually, when it comes right down to it, if my relatives had come from Hiroshima or Nagasaki, I probably wouldn’t be alive today.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Your father was in the war, wasn’t he? Didn’t you say he was a mechanic in the Mariana Islands?”
David hesitated. “Yeah, he was.”
“Fighters? Bombers?”
He hesitated again. “Bombers.”
“B-29s?”
“Good guess. Not only that, but he was part of the 509th Composite, the bomber group on Tinian that dropped the atomic bombs.”
Toshika sat up. “Talk about learning something new every day. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”
“You were hiding it from me. Did you think I’d be angry with you?”
“I don’t know.”
“The war’s been over for forty-five years. Neither of us were even involved. Besides, a man who used to fly B-29s — or he had some connection with them — is a very good friend of the family.” She thought for a moment. “We always address him as colonel. He doesn’t talk too much about the war.”
“Neither does my father. But he still carries it around with him.” He grunted and frowned. “What a guy. Geez, he doesn’t like Japanese. Nor their cars. I hope that when he and my mother come to visit he’ll change his mind once he meets you and my other friends.”
“I see. So we’re… well… goodwill ambassadors are we for Papa Shilling?”
“Not really. But it’ll help. Another thing, if my mother sees me with you, she might think we’re very serious about each other and she won’t bug me about getting hitched… ah, married. Like she always does.”
Toshika stood up, David with her.
“Are we serious, David?” She placed her arms around his neck. Before he could answer, she kissed him. “You’re not trying to get me drunk, are you?” she asked, her eyes glassy.
“No.”
“Are you going to take advantage of me?”
“Of course not. But you do look fantastic today.”
“Thank you.”
Hand in hand, they strolled to the topside rail, stopped, and looked over the water.
“David?” she said, her eyes to the water.
“Yes?”
“Do you want to know why I broke off the last relationship?”
He shrugged, gently. “If you want to tell me, I’ll listen.”