Heaven’s Door

Before long, I stum­bled upon some very unusual look­ing build­ings, which imme­di­ately grabbed my atten­tion, but no more than the tug I’d felt at the back of my jumper. “Excuse, please,“ I heard this tiny voice say. Spin­ning around, I was greeted by a young Japan­ese woman with a smile on her face that almost extended from one ear to the other.

“Hello,“ she said.

Caught off guard, at first, by her bold­ness, I finally man­aged to say, “Hi,“ in response.

“I study Eng­lish at uni­ver­sity. You under­stand?“ she asked.

“Yes, I under­stand you per­fectly. Can you under­stand me? Or am I speak­ing too fast for you?“ I asked, as I recalled my own inabil­ity to grasp every word of Span­ish spo­ken to me dur­ing the course of a con­ver­sa­tion I’d had with my Span­ish teacher back in high school.

“Yes, I under­stand,“ she replied. “I study Eng­lish, many years now. In Japan, Eng­lish is stu­dent require­ment in early grades.“

“My name is Jun,“ she added with a smile that seemed to invite me in, with­out any hes­i­ta­tion, and make me feel right at home.

“Mine’s Butch,“ I replied.

“Butch,“ she repeated. “You mind, I prac­tice Eng­lish with you?“

“Not at all,“ I answered. “I’d enjoy your com­pany, for I’ve been roamin’ about the city since early morn­ing, clue­less as to where I’ve been or where I’m goin’. In return, maybe you can show me Tokyo.“

She laughed. “I show you Tokyo, prac­tice Eng­lish,“ she added.

“I stu­dent,“ she con­tin­ued. “I study home eco­nom­ics at uni­ver­sity. I in sec­ond year. And you—how long you visit Tokyo?“

“Alas,“ I responded, “I’m here only today, for in the morn­ing my ship departs for Vietnam.“

“Viet­nam,“ she repeated as her brow fur­rowed and her gaze grew dis­tant. How quickly did her won­der­ful smile return to her face as she came back from wher­ever it was she had won­dered off to.

While not a very pretty woman, she was attrac­tive in her own way, espe­cially when she smiled, since her whole face’d just beam with a warmth and gen­uine­ness that was really quite touching.

“I wish I’d met you ear­lier in the day,“ I finally said. “You could’ve taken me on a per­son­ally guided tour of the city.“

She laughed. “You come back to Tokyo?“ she asked.

“Prob­a­bly not,“ I replied.

With a look of dis­ap­point­ment on her face, did she smile.

Chang­ing the sub­ject, I asked her about the unusual park I’d stum­bled upon ear­lier in the day.

As I gave her a descrip­tion of the park, to help her deter­mine where I’d been, she sud­denly blurted out, “You visit Emperor’s Palace.“

I laughed. “And here I thought it was a park,“ I inter­jected. “I won­dered why you-​​all would’ve gone to the trou­ble of build­ing such a mas­sive wall around a park.“

“Emperor’s Palace,“ she explained, “open to pub­lic, two weeks, this time of year, no other time. Understand?“

“Yes,“ I replied.

“You lucky to see,“ she added.

“And what’re these unusual build­ings?“ I asked.

“They build­ings from World’s Fair,“ she answered.

Notic­ing the sun’d set, she told me she had to return to her dorm. “Have cur­few,“ she said with a look that begged for understanding.

Dis­ap­pointed, I asked her if I could take her picture.

In return, she asked me for my address.

“I write you, on ship,“ she told me. “You write back?“

“Yes,“ I responded.

“Good-​​bye,“ she said. “I enjoy visit very much. Look for­ward, hear from you. Good luck!“

“Bye now,“ I said.

As I watched her dis­ap­pear into a throng of pedes­tri­ans, I was tempted to go after her but hes­i­tated, only because I didn’t know what I wanted from her, sex or friend­ship. In my con­fu­sion, I won­dered if some­where behind my desires for sex was not hid­den the much deeper need for rela­tion­ship, a long­ing for a saner, more humane and civ­i­lized way of life. By the time I real­ized my mis­take, I’d already let this angel slip away, as heaven’s door slammed shut in my face.