Written May 21, 1995/Rewritten June 5, 1995
When we pulled out of the gas station, it seemed to me that we were racing the dark gray clouds gathering behind us. We must have been winning though. because we didn’t see any rain except for the two forlorn-looking drops that seemed to find their way onto our windshield. The drops shimmered there for a moment before racing off the glass with scarcely a trace. As we merged onto the highway, the engine whined almost interminably in fourth gear before Shiomi finally put it into fifth and the car settled into a comfortable hum.
“Why are we going so fast?” I asked. “We don’t have to be in LA for a while yet.”
“Don’t you see the rain clouds in back of us?” she asked. “We’re trying to stay in front of them to avoid the rain.”
“Can we do that?” I wondered aloud.
“If we go fast enough.” she replied.
Through the rear window I looked back and saw the rolling clouds pregnant with storm and a vague shimmering haze beneath them.
“Is that haze the rain?” I asked.
She glanced into the rearview mirror before answering. “Yup, pretty cool, eh?”
“Yeah, I’ve never really seen that before.” I said as I settled back into my seat with a nervous sigh.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Am I driving too fast for you?”
I craned my head over to look at the speedometer. I hadn’t gotten more than a glance at it when she leaned over and kissed me.
“Hey, watch the road!” I yelled.
“I am, I am.” she returned, grinning largely. “So, am I going too fast for you?”
“Only as fast as I like it.” I replied. I reached out my hand and she clasped hers into it.
We were going over a hundred miles an hour.
* * *
“Do you think your parents will like me?” I asked after a while.
“What do you mean ‘will like’?” she asked. “They’ve known you practically forever.”
“‘Forever’ is a little extreme, don’t you think? I mean, we’ve only known each other since high school.”
“Okay, so eight years, give or take a couple months. Still they’ve always thought you were the greatest guy.”
“That was when we were just friends though.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” her smile faded a bit.
“But now we’re more than just that aren’t we?” I stretched my palm and laced my fingers into hers.
Her smile returned, softer though.
“I don’t know, Dad’s mellowed out quite a bit in the past couple of years. In fact, we’ve been getting along rather well, really. It’s Mom that we would be worried about, she’s still so traditional.”
“Your mother’s okay.” I said.
“She frustrates me a lot.” Shiomi continued. “She won’t accept the fact that she is living in America now. I mean look, she won’t drive anything but a Honda.”
“Come on, a lot of people won’t.” I smiled. “They don’t have to be Japanese to think like that. Look at my parents, we’re Chinese, and all we ever buy are Hondas too. There’s got to be more to it than that. What else frustrates you about her?”
“She won’t speak English to anyone unless she absolutely has to, and even then, she pretends she doesn’t understand when they talk back to her.”
“At least she can speak English though, my aunt in Chinatown refuses even to try to learn.”
“But my Mom won’t even go and talk to the neighbors, she just sits with her crony Japanese friends, plays mahjong, and talks about the old days in Japan.” she continued.
“She’s probably more comfortable with her friends.” I replied. “It’s probably been hard for her to come over to America and start a new life and everything.”
“Hey, whose side are you on anyway?”
“Sorry, sorry.” I smiled. “I just don’t think your mother is all that bad.”
“Bad enough.” Shiomi said. “She does everything so Japanese.”
“Sooo, I guess she wants you to marry Japanese too, doesn’t she?”
A tear rolled down Shiomi’s cheek.
“Its not fair though! Its just not fair!” The car swerved sharply to the left. I let go of her hand and she struggled to bring us back under control. Luckily there were no other cars on the road. When we had straightened out, we both breathed a sigh of relief and were silent a bit. Shiomi nervously clenched the wheel a bit before speaking.
“Sorry about that.” she said.
“Its okay.” I said. “Although we are going to have to make it to LA in one piece if we are going to try and make this whole thing work out.”
Shiomi laughed and gave me a sidelong glance. “Are you mocking me?” she asked. “You’re mocking me aren’t you?”
“Who me? Mock you?”
“Yeah you. You’re still mocking me.” She scrunched her lips together and let go of the steering wheel with one hand and punched me in the shoulder.
“Ow!” I said, clutching my arm.
“Don’t mock me.” she smiled, shaking her finger in my direction.
“Yes your highness.” I bowed as best as I could in the confines of the car.
“Hey!” she exclaimed and tried to hit me again. The car weaved a bit on the empty stretch of road, but this time it was a good kind of swerving.
* * *
A sign up ahead read: “Los Angeles 15 miles” and we knew we were getting close to home.
“I don’t know if I want to actually get home.” Shiomi said, when we saw the sign.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Everything seems so perfect when its just us; Nothing else seems to matter.” she replied. “Its going to be so hard when we get home. Its not going to be just us when we get home.”
“Is it your parents that you’re worried about? Or mine? I’ve already told mine and they don’t have any problems with it. In fact, my mother said it was about time that we got together.”
“Its not that.”
“What is it that your afraid of?” I asked.
“Nothing, really.” she said. “And everything. I don’t know. I’m afraid of the whole trouble this is going to be with my parents. I’m afraid of all the people we are going to have to see and deal with. I’m afraid we aren’t going to have any more time together.”
“Is that it?” I asked. “Is that what’s really bothering you? You’re afraid that we won’t have anymore time together?”
She nodded.
“I’ll tell you what.” I said. “I promise you that we’ll be together no matter what. Whatever our parents might say, whatever our friends might think, no matter how busy we might seem to get, we’ll be together. And if there really doesn’t seem to be any time in all the fracas, we’ll make the time.”
“Promise?” she asked.
“Promise.” I said.
We neared the city limits and Shiomi let up on the gas to bring us down to speed. As we slowed, the rain that we had been escaping swept down over us clattering endlessly over the car. Blisters of water formed on the hood and enveloped the two of us. Shiomi held my hand and as we reached our exit, we became lost in the rain.