The Samurai's Garden

For two weeks, Stephen has avoided thinking of his parents. A letter arrives from his mother.

She says that Stephen’s father has told her the same thing Stephen wrote about helping a friend in business and that she must accept this explanation, having married Stephen’s father when she was only fifteen and having no way to make a living on her own now, at forty. She also accepts that she and Stephen’s father may need to share family and finances but live separate lives. She notes that she had hoped to join Stephen in Tarumi for the holidays but will stay in Hong Kong because of her health. She suggests that he go to Kobe and expresses concern about his recovery.

Stephen remembers his younger years, before Pie was born and business took his father to Japan more and more often, when his parents were close and the family spent happy evenings together in Hong Kong. He feels the family’s changes and his own changes acutely. He wires his father to tell him that he will stay in Tarumi for the holidays.