Surviving the Dreams

Chapter 14 - Minor Improvements

It was at the very end of May, some ten weeks after Greg began working at the shop when he sat at their kitchen table one evening, with a letter spread out before him as he calculated their expenses for the month.

"Eight hundred fifty per week minus three hundred for rent minus ten for food and ten more for expenses, leaves four hundred thirty yen per week, which is ... less than a hundred dollars," Greg muttered half to himself.

"What are you trying to figure out?" Susan asked as she brought him some tea after dinner. Coffee would have been better, but they didn't have a coffee maker, and coffee was very expensive.

"Two things: what we need to continue living here, and what we will need to leave," Greg explained.

"You heard from Alex," Susan guessed.

"Yes. The post box is less than a ten yen a week, so I got one with my first paycheck."

"You told me. I used it to write my mother," Susan reminded him.

"Has she answered?"

"Not yet. When did you get yours from Alex?"

"I got this one today. It is the second one I've gotten from him."

"So, it worked. He was able to respond."

"Yes."

"What does he say?" Susan asked curiously.

"He has offered me condolences on the death of my wife. I have not yet told him that I am living with you, though I did mention that you and I are traveling together."

Susan nodded. "What did he say about getting home?" she asked impatiently.

"He estimates it will cost us a minimum of three thousand dollars each, and that is after we have made all the appropriate arrangements with the passport office," Greg explained.

"Oh Greg, we'll never be able to make that!" Susan lamented.

"The money may not be so impossible to come by as you think. It may be possible for Alex to forward some to us, or even to pay for the tickets on our behalf."

"Would he really do that?" Susan asked hopefully.

"He intended to, and I believe he would if he could," Greg began.

"So, what is stopping him?" Susan asked.

"The Western Union telegraph office. He went there to try to wire us the money, but they told him it was illegal to wire money to people who were dead. He tried to convince them I'm not, even going so far as to show them my letters, but they insisted the matter would have to be decided by the courts," Greg explained.

Susan looked at him anxiously as Greg went on.

"He has since submitted an appeal to the class action that declared us dead based on the airline's findings, but in order to win, we would have to appear in person or else submit legally valid affidavits that we are alive through the US court system."

"How do we do that?" Susan asked doubtfully.

"According to Alex, we begin by writing letters. We contact the nearest U.S. Embassy, the RDW Airlines office, the U.S. Passport office and anyone else we can think of that might help. We need to re-establish our identities, so that we have something that says we are who we say we are to the people who matter. He promised to send us the addresses as soon as he can get them," Greg explained.

Susan frowned. "That's going to take a long time, even though we've done some of that through the Wilson's while we were on St. Augustine's."

"Yes, but they didn't know us before we arrived at their front door. Unfortunately, their letters don't count. We will have to begin again by collecting letters from people who do. So yes, this probably will take a long time." He looked at her sympathetically. "We will need those documents eventually, and I do expect that will be the hard part, but with Alex helping us, the money shouldn't be that much of a problem."