Mia, she just stands there with her hand on his shoulder, admiring him.
And then he devours the food like he’s some sort of rabid wolf. He’s got the bowl in his hands, boiling soup pouring and splashing all over his face, noodles on his crisp white shirt and tie, noodles on his perfectly pressed trousers, noodles frigging everywhere.
Mia, she just laughs as if this is the most adorable thing she’s ever seen.
Me, I’m horrified by the display.
From beyond the glare of the studio lights, the audience laughs.
And Mia, she smiles a glowing smile at him, then takes her apron off and sits down to my right.
And while the movie star carries on shovelling the noodles into his mouth with his hands, she turns to me, still smiling, puts her hand on my leg, and she says, You’re the one that’s confused.
And the camera pans out and moves high above me as I stare straight into the lens, while the audience’s applause crescendos.
Akemi sits down again and the lights fade back on.
I say, Where did you get that weed from? I think it is fucking with my head.
And she says, A friend of mine grows his own stuff. Good, right?
I fidget in my wheelchair, try to get comfortable. No dice.
My dad, she says, nodding to the screen. He’s a big fan of that actor – has been ever since his first movie. I remember him taking me and my mother to the cinema whenever there was a new film of his out. I never got the appeal, personally, but I’d look at him in the movie theatre and he would be engrossed the whole way through. One time, we finished one screening, and stayed in the theatre to watch the thing all over again.
I say nothing, just wait for her to fill the silence, because I’m pretty sure Charles does not want anyone knowing what the story behind him and the movie star is – or the stuff we got up to together.
How did you meet my dad, anyway?
I look around Charles’s cinema room, the deep red of the plush seats, the uplighters on the dark grey walls giving off a soft, yellow glow. In here, our words leave our mouths, hit the fabric-coated walls and die a quick death.
I tell her we bumped into each other at a doughnut shop, the day after I arrived in the city.
I tell her it was lucky, considering I had no idea what I was doing here.
She does this scoff and says, What a crazy coincidence. My dad, he would call it fate. Did he call it fate?
He did, I say.
And now that I know her and Charles are related, I take the opportunity to look at her in this new light, to see what other similarities I can find.
The eyes, they’re bright like Charles’s, for sure, with an intensity that could be mistaken for outright hostility if you didn’t know any better.
And they have the same nose.
So what, are you working with him now? she says.
And I say, I only did one job for him.
And she says, Doing what?
And I say, Photographing stuff.
Just as well, she says. My dad, he’s into some shady stuff.
She says, Want my advice? Don’t get too involved. And if you do, I don’t want anything to do with you.
She leans further back into her seat, looks around the room.
This place, she says. It’s ridiculous. He thinks money is the answer to everything.
I tell her, Well yeah, it pretty much is.
And she says, Even love?
I think about Mia, and I say, Love will kick you in the balls the second it sees an opening.
Try telling that to my mother, says Akemi. I think she would have preferred his love over his money. I think I would have preferred his love over his money.
Where’s she at then, your mum?
Back home, in Japan.
And her face tells me that’s the end of the conversation, so I don’t say anything more.
T
WENTY
