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10. Seminar
Supper is over, and Kimi sits curled on sofa, heels tucked under her. She is in a loosely fitting, sheer-white blouse with buttons down front and large pink floppy pockets over each breast; and, below, red-cotton socks. Tommy sits beside her in white-cotton gown with black-sash wrap-around, and holds cup of tea in his right hand and in his other a tablespoon with a wedge of cherry pie.
She starts evening English lesson, “What does Seminar mean?”
Tommy puts down cup and spoon, picks up Encyclopedia Britannica, which he keeps on sofa table for lesson, goes to page 1188, pointing between seminal and seminary.
“Read it, Doll.”
“Read it, Doll.”
She adjusts large green-rimmed glasses. Actually her vision is perfect but Tommy thinks the shades sexy.
She reads: “SEM’·I·NAR noun 1. A group of advanced students at a college or university, meeting regularly and informally with a professor for discussion of research problems. 2. The course thus conducted.” She nervously pushes back glasses, which had slipped off bridge of nose, then looks to Tommy for comment on her pronunciation.
“Good! Sehr gut!” Tommy likes to disconcertingly switch to German or French for brief phrase with the result that Kimi's English has many foreign expletives.“Yore gittin’ ta soun’ jes’ like me, which ain't suprizin’ and don’ need analyzin,’” he says, switching to American cowboy vernacular, and then switches back to normal, “Do you understand what you just read, Doll?”
She frowns – for her a severe purse of lips. “Yes, I understand but how can we have Seminar if I not advanced student and here no university?”
“The dictionary is too restrictive, Gal! First thing ya gotta learn is not to take dictionary definitions too rigidly. You Japs take everything too rigidly. That's why your country is having problems.”
She continues to frown. She does not like it when he criticizes her country.
She continues to frown. She does not like it when he criticizes her country.
He leans over and kisses her left cheek to show he is joking. “We are gonna be creative. Write it, Doll”. ‘C R E A T I V E’. It means changing things from the way they are specified in books and making something new, improved.”
“Oh, like little Japanese improvement?” She asks, recalling The Woman’s Friend contraceptive diaphragm taught by Madame Ishimoto.
“No, Doll! That's not creating, that's copying! We are gonna have Seminar here, at home, around that table,” he points to the mahogany oval table by the window. “We meet informally on Sundays as group. I’ll ask my sister Ali.”
She raises right hand. “Can I invite my friend?”
“You can, but you should say, may I? Permissibility trumps possibility here.”
“Well, may I?”
“Of course you may, honey! Who? As if I don' know.”
“Olga, because she my best friend so I feel comfortable seeing her; and Harumi because she graduate university and smart for woman; and Kimura because he like a professor.”
Tommy says, “Doll, I like your choices.”
Thus, it is decided. Kimi feels quiet joy.
11. Olga Calls
Morning: Tommy drives off to work in his red Mercedes, licking Kimi's moisture from his lips.
Kimi is in kitchen sweeping floor.
Chimes ring, followed by high-pitched “Yoo-hoo, darling!”
Olga, as usual, Kimi thinks and goes to let her in.
They sit at kitchen table, and Kimi pours American coffee, recalling Olga likes it sugar-free and black to preserve her svelte, belt-cinching figure.
“Darling, you look so housewifey. So tell me, how does he do it?”
“Olga, I love Tommy. I don't like talk about it. Let me say about Seminar.”
“Semi-what?” Olga makes her funny face. She pulls a cigarette out of the case she always lays on the table with the coffee, and lights up, taking a deep inhale, letting white tendrils slowly out and re-breathing into nostrils.
Kimi sniffs and makes face. “Olga, you and your marijuana! I said Sem-i-nar. We sit around table like students and we discuss. Next Sunday, first.”
Olga looks nonplussed. But the marijuana smoke is getting into her and she sits back and smiles contentedly. “Seminar? I think I prefer semen. Which reminds me …”
Kimi interrupts. “You come, please! Bring Harumi too. I already call Kimura.”
Kimi cannot wait for Sunday and Seminar.
To read it now, click 3.(12-14) Seminar 1 - 1 and 1 Makes What?
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