The Purple Heart (9 page)

After breakfast, Minami and
her family walked back to their barrack. Minami didn’t look for Hiroshi on her
way out, as that would have made it too obvious to him. They shielded their
faces as best as they could against the annoying sand and were relieved to be
back in their barrack. They shook the sand from their bodies and looked
disdainfully at it lying on the ground. Miho and Yuka continued trying to find
the elusive gaps and holes in the walls and floor. Mrs. Ito and Yoshi went
ahead and continued cleaning the unit. Minami left to find the laundry
facilities.

The sandstorm had subsided.
There were a few families milling about. Minami still wasn’t sure where she was
in the prison camp and it didn’t help that all the barracks were so much alike that
it was easy to get lost.

Minami walked down the path
back to where the bathrooms were, thinking the U.S. Army would build any
facilities that were in need of water near one another. Her assumption was
right. The back of the laundry building itself was directly facing the bathrooms
and it was just recently finished. It was sandwiched in between the bathrooms and
the mess hall. Minami walked around to the front of it and walked up the three
wooden steps into the building to inspect it. It was dark. No one was inside
just yet. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she could make out troughs along
the wall that were lined with water spigots. There was a stack of washing racks
in one corner and several unopened brown boxes that Minami believed carried
detergent.

Minami’s quiet focus was
disturbed by a voice coming from behind her, “Find what you need?”

Minami spun around to see a
man’s silhouette in the doorway. With the sun’s light in back of him, he was
merely a shadow without any discernible features. Minami shielded her eyes
momentarily and walked a bit off to the side and noticed that it was a soldier
in his mid-twenties. He was of medium athletic build, with short dirty blonde
hair, blue eyes and wearing a tan colored soldier’s uniform.

“I was just looking for the
laundry,” said Minami as she looked down.

“Well you’ve found it,”
replied the soldier. He just stared at Minami. There was something cold about
his response but Minami couldn’t place it, as if there was something hidden
behind his tone. But it was his stare that started to make Minami feel
uncomfortable. He didn’t seem to be simply looking at Minami but rather through
her and it was just one of those stares that made any woman feel uncomfortable.

“I need to get going now,”
responded Minami feeling the need to leave. Being in a dark building with a man
whom she didn’t know, especially one of the white soldiers, felt wrong. She
walked toward the doorway and before she could exit, the soldier blocked her
way with his arm by placing his palm against the doorjamb.

Minami took a sudden step
back and she could feel the hairs on the back of her neck tingle. She looked up
at him and he offered a smile that wasn’t very genuine. He looked her up and
down, and then fixed his stare on Minami’s eyes.

“This whole ordeal must be
really tough for you,” he said before pausing. “It might be good to make a few
friends you know since things can get unexpectedly worse.”

Minami felt unnerved and
was not prepared for the fingertips of his other hand reaching up toward her
cheek. She immediately flinched away as his fingertips touched her left cheek
and her expression turned to one of shock and dismay. In that instant, she
ducked underneath his arm and scrambled down the three steps onto the parched
ground. She crossed her arms to warm herself up and did not look back as she
turned right toward her barrack.

She didn’t like him. That
was the only thought she had. She didn’t appreciate being approached in that
manner, and his suggestion simply made her feel disgusting. She hoped that she
would never see him again.

The soldier leaned up
against the doorjamb, with one foot crossed over the other as he watched her.
He lifted the flap of his left breast pocket and pulled out a pack of
cigarettes. A cigarette slid into his other hand, which he brought to his
mouth. He placed the pack of cigarettes back into his pocket and took out a
book of matches from his pant pocket. He lit the cigarette, with his hands
cupped to shield the match from the wind. The withering match was flung onto
the ground and he took a puff from the cigarette. He removed the cigarette from
his mouth and brought it down to the right side of his leg as he let out a
stream of smoke from his mouth.

For the remainder of the
day, Minami’s mind was rattled. Her morning started off great if not a bit
embarrassingly, with her meeting Hiroshi, but turned decidedly worse with the
apparent unwanted attention of the soldier.

Lunch and dinner had passed.
Minami found that she kept a hopeful eye out for Hiroshi but she didn’t see
him. She also kept a wary eye out for the soldier, but he didn’t make a second
appearance that day either. Soon enough, night was upon them and the Itos
readied for sleep. However, in the darkness, every single little noise,
especially the ones from outside, startled Minami until sleep finally took hold
amidst her unsettled thoughts.

The next morning, Minami
and her mother were the first to wake up. She was a bit more hopeful that
morning, as her slight smile had indicated. She might see Hiroshi and she’ll be
more prepared. She wiped down her face with whatever remaining water was left
in the pail. She brushed her hair and tied it back in a ponytail so it didn’t
look disheveled like the previous morning.

“Are we getting ready for
some special occasion this morning?” asked Minami’s mother.

Minami looked over and
realized her getting a bit more dressed for the morning chores did look odd.
“Oh no, I just haven’t brushed my hair in such a long time, it was finally time
to do it,” Minami replied casually.

Her mother gave her
daughter a suspicious look and then dismissed it as she went back to her
chores. “We need more string to hang up our towels,” she said.

Minami acknowledged with
an, “Uh-huh” and made a mental note to look for string.

Minami quickly picked up
the empty pail and quietly headed out to fetch more water with the hopes that
maybe she’ll see Hiroshi again. As she neared the barrack, she casually looked
down the rows of barracks and saw a few people milling about but no Hiroshi.
She let out another disappointed sigh and then finally arrived. Maybe Hiroshi
didn’t need to fetch water every single day. Maybe their encounter was simply
by chance. Maybe he got relocated to some other barrack, which may explain why
she didn’t see him at lunch or dinner the day before. Minami quickly dismissed
her random thoughts and placed the pail underneath the pump, grasped the handle
of the water pump when a voice spoke to her from behind.

“Can I help you with that?”

Minami spun around and saw
Hiroshi standing behind her. He stood there with the sun behind him giving his
frame an almost iridescent glow. He had the pail from the day before in his
right hand. There was a slight smile on his face.

“It’s not nice to sneak up
on a girl from behind, you know,” Minami said coyly as she looked up into his
warm brown eyes.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
anything by it. I hope you’ll forgive me?” asked Hiroshi.

With a smile Minami
responded, “Maybe. It’s nice to see you again.” She couldn’t stop the words
that came out of her mouth. She didn’t even know him and she already told him
it was nice to see him again? What was she thinking?

“It’s nice to see you too,”
replied Hiroshi. “Why don’t I help with that water pump and you can think about
forgiving me?”

Minami was glad he shifted
the topic of conversation to save her the embarrassment and she stepped aside
to let him work the water pump. Instead of standing behind him like the day
before, she stood next to him, a couple of feet away so that she could see his
profile. He had a more chiseled face and a well-defined jawbone that gave him a
rugged look. He combed back his thick black hair neatly and it had a slight
sheen to it in the morning sun. But it was his smile that brought out his warm
charm.

He positioned the pail and
began to work the pump effortlessly. The first few spurts were brown and he
rinsed out the pail and pumped out a few more spurts of water until it was
clear and repositioned it. He then began to pump out the water.

“I’m in barrack number 5,”
said Hiroshi.

“Oh, 15,” replied Minami.

“That’s the corner barrack.
You’re lucky. You have more privacy. But at least we have the unit on the end.”

“Me too!” replied Minami.
“We just finished covering up all the holes in the walls and the floor.”

“I’m still trying to finish
that up. The sand, it just gets into everything.”

“That’s true. My sisters
did most of the work. I’ve been looking around for things that we can use.”

“Were those your sisters
sitting with you yesterday? And the little guy, your brother?”

Minami shifted her weight
for a moment remembering that he caught her looking for him as she shied away.
She felt a slight warming sensation on her cheeks as she looked down at the
pail, which was two-thirds full. “Those are my sisters, Miho and Yuka, and my
little brother, Yoshi. My mother was sitting next to me. How about you?”

Hiroshi cranked out another
spurt of water that splashed into the pail filling it to the rim. What didn’t
make it into the pail spilled over the rim and created a wet ring around the
base of the pail.

“It’s just me and my
parents,” said Hiroshi. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I did have a dog,
but we couldn’t bring him so I gave him away to one of our neighbors.”

“Oh, what kind of dog is
he?” asked Minami with a smile. She could see Hiroshi being the dog type.

Hiroshi’s eyes lit up as he
straightened up. “He’s some mixed breed, found him as a stray actually. He’s a
shaggy black and white dog but he’s as friendly as can be. Wasn’t much of a
barker but loved to run. We always used to play catch together, the best
outfielder I ever had, to be honest.”

Minami watched Hiroshi talk
about his dog in the most excited manner and she actually liked it. For a
moment, she found herself at ease, something she hadn’t been able to feel in
the last few months. His storytelling brought out his boyish charm and there
was always something comforting in a man extolling the heroics of his canine
companion. Her family never had any pets. The closest thing to a pet the family
ever had were the fishes that were in their last breaths being brought home for
dinner by their father.

“Lefty was his name,” said
Hiroshi.

“Lefty?” asked Minami.
“That’s an odd name for a dog. Did he scratch with his left hand or something?”

“Paw, left paw actually,”
Hiroshi said jokingly. “But really, I have a tendency to usually hit into left field
and Lefty would always be there, so the name stuck,” said Hiroshi.

Minami looked a bit
stupefied and finally broached the question, “Left field, are you referring to
baseball?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t
know a thing about baseball? The greatest game in America!” asked Hiroshi with
excitement.

Minami laughed at him
poking fun at her ignorance and she smiled as she looked up at him. “No, I
don’t know much about it. I’m not really a sports fan.”

“Well we’ll have to change
that soon enough,” said Hiroshi with a grin on his face.

“Maybe,” offered Minami.

“So how about your father?”
asked Hiroshi.

For a moment Minami paused.
She didn’t even mention her father but at the same time, it was something she
hadn’t spoken about.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
to bring up a tough topic. I know a lot of families that had their fathers
taken away and I figured since you didn’t mention him…”

“It’s okay, really,” Minami
assured him as she looked up at him. She really wanted to tell someone. “He was
taken sometime in December, like many other men in the town. And we only
received one letter from him so far. He’s somewhere in North Dakota.”

There was another silence
between the two as Minami shifted her weight again.

“I don’t even know where
that is,” said Hiroshi as Minami looked at him with worry in her eyes. “And I’m
sure your father doesn’t know either, but he’d rather be anywhere but there.”

Minami let out a soft laugh
and concurred, “I’m sure you’re right. He would rather be here.”

“Eating SPAM,” said Hiroshi
in a dry tone.

For another moment, Minami
and Hiroshi shared a laugh. If her father had known that they were eating SPAM every
day, he might consider staying put. She hadn’t had time to think about her
father, how he was, what he was thinking. She wasn’t even sure if he knew that
they had been relocated and wasn’t sure if the U.S. Army would be doing
anything to reunite the men with the families they’ve broken up.

“Why don’t you let me fill
up my pail and then I’ll help you bring it back to your barrack?”

“I’d like that,” said
Minami.

Hiroshi grinned and moved
his pail into place and began to work the pump. Minami moved to the corner of
the building and leaned up against it. He was working the stubborn pump and
though his arm worked the pump effortlessly, there was some slight strain
visible on his face.

Hiroshi didn’t want to
admit it, but working the pump the day before had actually made his arm a
little sore. When he saw her working hopelessly against the pump, he wanted to
step in and help her. It was a great opportunity for an introduction, he
thought and maybe he could meet someone new on the remote prison camp that
deprived them of all the conveniences of civilization. But he found himself
totally smitten by Minami’s feminine charm, and the beauty of her eyes
mesmerized him. He wanted to give all appearances that he had everything under
control. He felt somewhat self-conscious that the strain on his face would
betray him.

Hiroshi was in good shape.
He was a farmer, like his father. They had worked a small farm in Southern
California before the U.S. Army rounded them up. It was hard work, but it was
the life he was destined to live out. Working out in the fields tanned his skin,
giving him a more athletic look.

Minami watched the final
spurt of water fill the pail as Hiroshi straightened up and let out a breath of
exaggerated exasperation. Hiroshi was just glad he was done because his arm was
starting to give out. But he believed that he was able to hide the pulsating
soreness of his arm from Minami. He wiped the slight sweat from his brow and
let out a smile. Minami chuckled at Hiroshi’s display of chivalrous bravado. He
stepped over the filled pail and leaned up against the corner of the barrack. Minami
shifted her body slightly, as there was less than a foot between her and
Hiroshi. She could hear the slight laboring of his breathing and feel the
hotness of it. For a moment, shielded slightly from the overhanging roof, stood
simply a man and a woman who found each other’s new acquaintance in the
unlikeliest of all places.

“So I guess you need help
getting this back to your barrack,” offered Hiroshi.

“Sure,” said Minami with a
smile.

Hiroshi leaned away from
the barrack’s corner and glancing backward, stepped over his pail and soon had
a pail of water in each hand. He stood at full height and then gestured to
Minami who had stepped away from the wall as well.

“Barrack number 15, you
lead the way,” said Hiroshi.

Minami led the way walking
alongside him. She had her arms loosely crossed about her chest with her head
slightly bowed hiding a smile. It was nice having a conversation with someone
other than her family. Hiroshi was courteous and he seemed like a well-mannered
young man. His parents had brought him up well, she thought.

“So are you planning on
doing this every morning?” asked Hiroshi.

“Probably. My mother
thought it was a good idea to always have some water around. It’s not like we
have running water, you know.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.
Mother told me the bathrooms were disgusting,” stated Hiroshi.

Minami let out a little
laugh in agreement. “I think all the women were shocked with the bathrooms.”

“Yeah, well being a man and
all, we’re somewhat more casual about things.”

“Men have it easy,” replied
Minami.

“Yeah, well some men are
too casual about things and don’t really clean up after themselves, if you know
what I mean.”

“That’s gross,” said
Minami. “I really don’t need to hear about men and bathrooms.”

Hiroshi let out a low laugh
and agreed with Minami and changed the subject. “So what are your sisters
like?”

“Why? Are you interested in
one of them?” joked Minami. She knew that Hiroshi was only asking an innocent
question but she wanted to make him squirm.

Hiroshi was a bit taken aback
by the accusation and immediately responded, “Oh no, I was just asking what
your family was like.”

“Oh are you sure?” pressed
Minami as she spun around to face him and walked backwards.

“Your sister couldn’t be
more than eighteen years old, I don’t have any interest of that sort,” replied
Hiroshi.

Minami spun around and
walked a few steps ahead of Hiroshi with her chin up in exaggerated smugness.
She felt a little more confident and wanted to tease Hiroshi. It wasn’t often
she could flirt with someone who just performed some task of manual labor for
her. It was also Minami’s first time flirting, and she realized that she was both
enjoying it and unexpectedly good at it.