The Tutor

Chapter 27: A Soft Condition

The only kink in the signing of Sumire's contract came over something that wasn't even technically in her contract at all. The following day, Sumire, Martin Stabler, a couple of the producers, three lawyers and Nick were sitting in a building in Matsuyama, the prefectural capital of Ehime Prefecture, in an office borrowed for the morning for the signing.

Even after just a couple of weeks at the picturesque ryokan and on the set in the countryside of Shikoku Island, being in an urban setting, in a high-rise building with central air-conditioning and carpeting was a little jarring. Nick looked around, not really paying attention to the signing, since most of it was in Japanese, and he was really only there for moral support, anyway. If you came right down to it, Marty was almost a superfluity, too, since his Japanese language skills were non-existent, and Sumire was translating pertinent parts of the contract to him. The production company's own legal team had produced the contract and gone over it, which was technically a no-no; these were exigent circumstances if ever there had been any, however, and they were falling farther and farther behind The shooting schedule, so everything had to be done quickly.

Nick was pulled back into the proceedings when Sumire asked, "Why?" in Japanese. It was the tone of her voice, more than the word itself, which caught Nick's attention.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly, leaning closer.

She just shook her head, waiting for one of the producers to answer. A lawyer leaned forward and said something in Japanese, smiling, nodding her head as if what she was saying was perfectly reasonable.

Sumire shook her head and sat back, her body language saying it all. Now she turned to Nick. "They want me to see a gynecologist and get on birth control so what happened with Minami doesn't happen to me," she explained.

"What?" Nick couldn't keep the shock out of his voice. "That's not even legal." He turned to his, now his and Sumire's, agent. "Tell them, Marty, tell them they can't put that kind of stipulation in the contract, it's against the law!"

Sumire shook her head. "It's not in the contract. They're calling it a 'soft condition' or something, I don't know exactly how to translate the words. It's something Murakami-sensei wants. It's not written down anywhere, but they're telling me the money they agreed on with Martin will be cut by three quarters if I don't agree to do this." She swallowed as though she felt sick. She pulled her cardigan closed at the throat in a gesture Nick knew well.

"I guess they were hoping that I was already on the pill, so we could avoid all this. When I told them I wasn't, they told me the rest," Sumire told Nick, her voice quiet. "They said they can take me to an American doctor on a military base nearby, since they're more used to prescribing the Oral Contraceptive Pill, but this is a non-negotiable."

"Well," Martin Stabler interjected, his voice carefully neutral, "would it be such an awful thing? I mean, the dosage for the pill is so low these days that the side effects are nearly negligible, right? What's your objection, Sumire?"

Sumire looked at Martin, pulled her cardie tighter, then turned to Nick. "I just really don't want to," she said with a little shrug.

She faced the Japanese people on the other side of the table and asked them something in Japanese.

One of the women smiled reassuringly, nodded again, and responded.

Sumire just looked at them, sighed, then finally, nodded. She motioned for the contracts, and began the long process of signing.

"What did you say to them?" Nick wanted to know.

"I said that, as long as the doctor was a woman, and you could be there, I'd do it," Sumire answered without looking up from the papers. "You will come with me, right? You don't mind?"