A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding by Jackie Copleton Read Free Book Online Page B

this and it’s been hours since we met.’
    He asked what was wrong and she said she could not sleep longer than a couple of hours a night. Her stomach was unsettled, she had lost her appetite. She said, ‘I think my parents are being too anxious for me. It’s summer, it’s probably just the heat.’ He told her to remove her kimono but she could keep her under-kimono on. She climbed onto his examination table.
‘I could feel my face burn when he slipped the stethoscope between the cotton. The cold metal against my chest made me flinch. The room was so quiet I could hear birdsong from outside.’
Next he wanted her to lie back.
‘His fingers prodded into my flesh, firm but gentle. I felt my veins and skin and muscle and bone; I was alive in the purest sense of that word.’
He wanted to know her age and she told him she was sixteen. He washed and dried his palms as she dressed. They sat opposite each other. ‘What do you intend to do by way of a profession?’ ‘
Mother had told me a girl of my class need only be a graceful and attentive wife but I did not tell him this. I said I did not know.’
He asked her what she liked to do and she told him that she drew. He said Japan had plenty of artists, and housewives; our new Japan needed scientists,teachers and nurses, not poets and printmakers. He said our personal aspirations had to match our country’s ambitions.
‘I told him he sounded like Father and he smiled. “So what would you say to him if he were here now?” I thought for a moment. “I’d say, don’t scientists need some beauty in their lives?”’
    He laughed and walked to the door. ‘Come on, there’s something you should see.’ They made their way down to the ground floor and walked along a corridor until they reached the children’s ward. The doors were open and the white gauze curtains billowed in front of the windows. The air smelled of disinfectant. To their left, a boy was asleep, next to him lay an older boy, who was reading a book. Farther down the room, a nurse fed a girl water from a glass. He turned to her and said, ‘I’m sure you draw well, Yuko, but your fingers may have other skills. You can play a role in this nation of ours, and not just by producing sons.’ Her cheeks reddened at this and they walked back to the reception area of the hospital and out through the front doors. Sato lit up a cigarette and checked his watch. He told her he could find nothing wrong except mild exhaustion. Maybe this was a hard time for a girl her age, perhaps she had worries of some nature? School had been the biggest part of her life, the future was less certain, she might have some concerns about the months or years ahead? ‘
I listened to him talk. I liked his low voice, his steady speech. I liked the way the mole on his chin moved when he talked. I liked the way he shielded his eyes from the sun.’
He prescribed exercise, daily swims or bicycle rides, but she said she could not do the former and
‘Mother did not allow the latter’.
He said, ‘You don’t swim? We are an island nation. The sea is everywhere.’ Yuko told him that she hadnever had the need and this amused him. ‘Why doesn’t your mother let you ride?’ She hesitated before she bent down and moved the layers of her kimono to reveal a white scar that ran the length of her shin. ‘I was eight, my first bicycle, my last bicycle.’ They smiled at each other. ‘Well, swimming it must be.’ He paused. ‘I may have a solution.’ He happened to know someone who was excellent in the water, a patient teacher. What did she think? Yuko asked who the person was. Another smile. ‘Me.’ That was how this all began: swimming lessons.
    They arranged to meet the following week and as she left the hospital a tall, thin woman in an olive-green kimono passed her with a parasol in one hand and a