February 2, 2011 – 10:29 pm
It’s dark now when I get there . . . Five-fifteen. But already dark, winter, soon December, soon snow. A moment of unrecognition, then the familiar gap-toothed smile . . . “Ha, wow! Today I’m lucky. First my niece and her husband, and now you. I’m happy.” I don’t catch it the […]
February 2, 2011 – 10:28 am
In May 2007, I went back to visit Sakai-san. House boarded up, front room barricaded, entrance padlocked shut. Cats meowing loudly from somewhere close, but no Sakai-san. In our last conversation, there was mention of subsidized housing in the city. He’d been denied the first time; wasn’t allowed to declare his old age pension […]