11.(44-46) On the Town in Late War Tokyo

Slim Novel 11 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage


44. “I Kin Get Knocked Up”

The weeks at hospital by Sanya’s side give Kimi the idea that Sanya considers her special so she is disappointed to learn Friday of assignment to obstetrics.
   In the room, evening, Yo sits on edge of bunk eating a rice ball wrapped in black, paper-thin seaweed got from the kitchen past Cook’s eyes. Looking up as Kimi enters, Yo remembers good manners and dividing the partly eaten ball into 2 parts, offers Kimi the part without bite marks.
   “Thanks but no. Why do you think I am not assigned to rounds with Direktor any more? Did I do wrong?”

   “Is dat what de mattah?” says Yo, putting the just offered piece of rice into her mouth before Kimi can change mind about it. “You didin’ do nuttin’ wrong jus’ ain’t been here so long. All da new woikas carries da boss bag t’learn da ropes an’ hear da boss philo-so-pi or waddever dey call it.” Yo pauses and looks long at Kimi's obvious pregnant front bump. “Yer lucky! Baby deliverin’ is intrestin’ an’ I  t'ink da boss is puts ya dare cuz y're havin’one yerself, ain’t it? Dat's part a her crazy idears too, y'know? Put a woika where she’ll loin‘bout takin’care her own t'ing.”

   “Crazy? Why do you say that? Wise is what I think it is.”

   “Aw, I don’mean crazy like dat”Yo makes a circle with her right index finger pointed at right side of her head; “jus’different, y'know, like nuttin’ya ebba seen. But I nebba understanded why Boss put me up in da old people ward? What do I got to loin dare? All I do is empty pee pots and clean shit off asses. Ain't no fun like deliverin’babies is.”

   “Maybe Direktor thinks you should learn about growing old? It is important, you know.”

   “Mebbee. But I still wanna deliver da babies like yer gonna do. I wonda? Mebbee I orter get pregnant too? But? Howdja do it Kimichan?”
   Kimi goes on to tell Yo a fact or two of life, starting with the well known bird & bee, continuing to some lesser known word and ending with Yo's gang bang by the kamikaze.
   “How come I didin’git baby in me after dat?”

   “Luck was with you. Only one day a month, 2 weeks before menstruation starts can a woman get impregnated, and the day of the big bang was not it.”
   “Bad luck. If I got impre, impre – aw gosh, Kimi-chan, don’use dem woids.”

   “Pregnant” Kimi says and smiles. And Yo suddenly hugs her hard then.
   “Yeah!” Yo stops to think, then. “Big Sis! Ahm off dis weeken’an’you too. Le's have fun t'gedder, le's go all obah Tokyo, y’know, eberywhere! Yuh can show me da best joints. Den mebbee at night I kin get knocked up?”

   Kimi is not interested in going out; but she knows if she says no, Yo will go alone. So she says Yes.

45. On the Town

Next morning Yo washes face well, combs hair and starts to get into best clothing – blue sailor suit-skirt with white silk blouse. Pulling open a drawer she takes out a ragged brassiere. “My ma's,” she answers Kimi's surprised look, and, exclaiming “Watch this,” stuffs each cup with a roll of stocking, puts the brassiere cups over her flat chest and has Kimi fasten the brassiere behind her back. Then she puts on a white blouse. Whirling around gracefully, left hand on waist and right hand atop head, showing her newly created breasts shapes to greatest advantage, she coos “Wee, look a me! Ain’t I byoodiful? Dontchy t’ink dis'll ketch a man?”

   “But what happens when he discovers what's under cover? I mean somebody's old socks aren't very romantic.”

   Yo stops her preening and looks serious. “By da time I gets‘im down to dat I got my own trick an’he won’t give a damn‘bout this. Jes wait an’see pregnant me.” She pulls on a blue skirt and runs a comb through her hair again, saying “I’m ready.”

   Kimi has only her peasant jacket and monpe knickers which she smooths neat as possible.

   She and Yo take breakfast and attend chapel where they hear Sanya lecture on women's role in Science Civilization.


 By 9 AM they are on the street, starting a Tokyo weekend. It is a November day with the sun shining down brightly, the air still, and various cooking smells; and it fills Kimi with happiness as she passes the Eta district near the hospital. On one street an old woman is busy gathering up berry-size yellow ginkgo-tree fruits, many rotting with a sweet, acid smell. Kimi knows that cooking the pits on a charcoal stove in covered pan to prevent them popping out will make delicious edible bits like the chestnut's core. November is good ginkgo-seed eating month for wartime starving city folk.

   “Le's go to da Ginza foist,”Yo’s voice interrupts Kimi’s thought. “It ain't so far fer us to take a trolley. We can walk.”

   As they go, Kimi reflects how the look of the women on the streets has changed since she first came to Tokyo. Then one could see a mix of kimonos and western dresses, and everyone looked clean. Now women wore government-decree monpe and peasant jackets of cheapest staple which if you washed fell apart so no one washes and all look shabby. On a wide street, leading to Ginza, Yo in high spirits dances as she walks. The supposed purpose of today is Kimi showing Yo Tokyo but Yo has been around and has her own idea.

46. Home-Front Hero

Three blocks from the Hospital, women are standing on a line before a warehouse. Yo asks “Big Sis, dya have yer rice ration book?” and Kimi pulls it from out of her sleeve.

   Yo grabs it. “Wunnerful! Jez get on da line and leave me ta do da talkin’.”

   Kimi sees it is a monthly rice-ration distribution full of housewives with basket or cart to carry the 14-kilogram monthly rice. An army sergeant stands by. Two places ahead is a woman with pregnancy bulge. At her turn for rice the sergeant suddenly steps forward and thrusts his hand down her front feeling her belly. To Kimi’s surprise he comes up with rags that the poor woman had shoved under her pants to fake pregnancy in order to get extra rice due pregnant women.

   “Shame on you!” he shouts slapping her across her face and the woman just stands there, her head down. “You are a disgrace to brave mothers of Japan. You deserve prison but I would not want to waste time on you so be off and never let me see you here again.”

   When it is Kimi’s turn Yo presents their ration books and says “My friend here is pregnant as yuh can see. She gotta get anodder bag a rice for da baby inside.”

   Sergeant is suspicious. “I never see the two of you around here?”

   “We jes move in on da block,” says Yo smiling her most charming way.

   Sergeant inspects booklets. “Just a minute!” he barks as Kimi picks up her sack of rice and Yo helps with the extra one. He thrusts his rough hand inside her waist and Kimi looks coldly at him, saying “I beg your pardon.”

   Sergeant red-face that she really is pregnant tries to apologize but Yo loudly complains to the other women about how arrogant these ‘home-front heroes’ in uniform are, how Sister here is carrying the baby of a Kamikaze ace, a real hero who died off Saipan and took a Yankee Monkee aircraft carrier to the bottom with him while a coward like the Sergeant here abuses pregnant wives in Tokyo.  
   Much vocal agreement comes from the other women and the Sergeant, too embarrassed, presses 2 extra sacks of rice on Yo and Kimi and begs them leave.

   Outside, Yo has such a laughing fit she drops the sacks in the street and sits down on them to rest until it passes. Kimi puts the sack down too and squats by Yo, slapping her on the back. Yo is certainly turning out to be the least helpless of homeless girls. “What do we do with the rice?” Kimi asks as it is rather a load for a Tokyo weekend. Yo stops laughing and smiles mischievously. “Dontchya worry ‘bout dat, Big Sis? We jes paid fer our weeken’. Next stop da Tsukiji black market!” They pick up the sacks of rice and head for Tsukiji, a river dock section famous for early morning fresh fish sales and the biggest black market in Tokyo.
   To read on now, click 11.(47-48) Blackmarket in Wartime Tokyo