Loud

Chapter 8 - Promises to Meet

Makiko left when Margot did for Zack's daycare. She remained somewhat aloof, as if jumping to conclusions about Cynthia. Rob worried she would cancel tomorrow, so he decided to arrive at her house by taxi without calling beforehand. Turning off his phone until tomorrow would also help. Before doing that, he wanted to find out why Cynthia snuck out of the coffee shop without a word. She probably assumed the timing was wrong and didn't want to mess things up for him.

On the other end, Cynthia's phone rang. Just when he expected a messaging system, she spoke. "Hi."

"Why didn't you talk to me at that coffee shop?" he said.

"No reason."

"Guess what, one of those women with me was my daughter?"

"Great."

Cynthia sounded listless and bored, as if she was hanging out with someone special. "Is this a good time to talk?" he said.

"I don't know."

Maybe she was sick. Rob entered a crosswalk and glanced around to make sure the drivers noticed him. "I had a bit of luck and got back together with my daughter sooner than I expected."

"Congrats."

She did not sound enthusiastic. Maybe something had gone wrong in her life. "Are you okay? You sound tired."

"I'm fine."

"I'd still like your help. Makiko thinks I slept with those girls and won't open up until she knows I'm better than that. You're still willing to help, aren't you?"

"I guess."

"Great. I really appreciate it." Things were coming together. Cynthia was trustworthy and Makiko would recognize that. "I love Makiko," he said, "but she's a little judgmental. If you dress the way you did last time we talked, she probably won't believe you hang out in Roppongi at night, especially with that computer company shirt." He expected to get a laugh, but got nothing. "Hello?" he said.

"Did you find those girls," she said, "The ones I met that night?"

She did not need to know about the call from Mr. Young, or that Mr. Young had hired them. "What?"

"You said your friend, the Buddhist priest, would help you look for them."

"Oh, well, my daughter took precedence." An old woman with a walker was ahead of him, so he slowed down. "Listen, I'm going to do a magazine interview with Makiko. Afterward, it'll be easy to bump into each other, like today. Except you'll let Makiko know what really happened that night, okay?"

"Okay, if I'm free then."

She sounded bored, but teenagers often do. "Thanks Cynthia," Rob said. "I really appreciate it."

***

The next morning, Rob picked up Makiko and Sophia without a hitch. They slid out of the taxi while he paid the driver. This was why he came to Japan. To bond. Within minutes, Tokyo's heat would drench his shirt. "Let's get out of the sun," he said. High-end retailers filled the surrounding skyscrapers, and wide crosswalks spanned the intersection, periodically halting traffic in all directions. They entered the nearest building with Sophia in the middle. Beyond an information desk staffed by a woman with bright red lips and a snug uniform, select retailers offered singular wares, like the metal pans and juicers in the first store's displays. Even Rob wanted to browse the uncommonly stylish and striking designs. "Do you guys like to cook?"

Sophia shook her head. "I like to eat."

He hoped to draw Makiko in. "I like the idea of cooking and have a few signature dishes."

"I love restaurants," Sophia said.

"You'll end up fat," he said, which was a dumb thing to say to a preteen he realized, even before she frowned.

"I don't want to be a skinny old Japanese lady," she said. "I wanna be a fat, old Italian mama."

Rob laughed and ushered them onto an escalator. "Do you want to be a fat, old Italian mama too, Makiko?"

She smiled at Sophia. "I'm not sure."

Beautiful couches and tables in the mall's common spaces offered elegant rest spots. Mothers with baby strollers, the elderly, and others waited for elevators. Rob and Sophia strolled after Makiko into a clothing store, where she thumbed a rack of dresses.

"It's hard to believe you're Makiko's father," Sophia said. "You're so easy to talk to."

Makiko shook her sister, a movement that surprised Rob. "Sophia!" she said. The jostling contained no real enmity, but it might have if Sophia continued.

Perhaps, Yukiko was not easy to talk to.

***

After lunch, Rob and Makiko sat cross-legged on a couch inside the mall, waiting for Sophia to return from the restroom. Without looking at him, Makiko asked why he had never answered any of her letters. "I wrote the last one in fifth grade, because you never wrote back."

He was happy to respond. "I never got any." He did not want to spoil her relationship with Yukiko, but he had to be clear. "If I had, I would have written. I wrote to you too." She focused on her folded hands. "I missed you very, very much and love you very, very much," he said. "I sent letters to your grandparents a couple of times but they came back unopened." Her folded hands rested lightly in her lap, a repose too tranquil to disturb with a touch. "I had no rights and no legal recourse. My brother Gene tried. I thought of you all the time, but..." The year she left, his career took off. That success led to his first overseas assignments. "I should have come to Tokyo earlier. I'm sorry I didn't." Makiko stood. Sophia bounded over from the restroom. Rob got off the couch too. "Hey, you two are coming to the opening of my photography exhibition, right? It's less than two weeks away."

"Will we meet famous people?" Sophia said. "We love famous people."

"Famous and powerful. All types, but I don't recognize many of the names. Most are Japanese. Makiko, you could get a list from Margot."

She nodded, but her sideways expression contained an ingrained wariness.

Cynthia's explanation of what really happened with those girls would chip that wariness away. "Makiko, don't forget, after our interview with Yuri Kameyama, you're going to help me buy something to wear at the opening of my show, okay?"

She smiled or frowned. A little bit of both. "Okay."

It looks like Rob's plan to bring Cynthia and Makiko together is coming to fruition. (No spoilers please if you've read QUIET.)

But since Makiko is still spending time with Rob, she doesn't seem to care if anything happened between him and those girls. What do you think about that? Shouldn't she be angrier?

Please note that writers appreciate stars. You may as well be generous with them, right?