The Hasegawa Garden

By Rajendra Kumar

When two 13-year old girls are raped and murdered in Okinawa, a Washington based magazine ‘The Herald’ decides to cover the story because American airmen from Kadena air base are suspected of involvement. The magazine assigns the task to Chieko Hasegawa because of her Japanese ancestry. this is ironical because Chieko had rejected Japanese traditions in favor of a western lifestyle early in her life and had earned the irk of her parents, although a rapprochement had been achieved with them at her father’s deathbed. The heinous nature of the crime forces Chieko to cross the boundary of her professional expertise and start acting like a detective. As she tries to get the DNA of the suspected American airmen, she is assassinated, leaving behind her American husband, Steven, and daughter, Mitsu. Steven is distraught, dejected, and disheartened at the loss of his wife and distressed at the wrangling of the American bureaucracy which refuses to assist him in apprehending the culprits. He buries Chieko’s ashes next to her father’s because he sees her as a Hasegawa in the western garb. Then he resigns from his law firm to devote all his time to Mitsu, Chieko’s only legacy left to him. Later when Chieko’s mother dies, Steven sees that as the end of his connection with the Japan, and, being the only legal heir, he decides to donate the Hasegawa property to the local Community Center and goes to Mizue, the village where the property is located, to complete the transaction. He travel with Mitsu, only four at the time, who has become his own self. As he visits the dilapidated house to collect a few mementoes of his love, his mind is flooded with the memories of his first visit to Japan with Chieko. To keep his love for his wife alive, he plants her favorite fruit tree, persimmon, in the Hasegawa garden. That’s when he has change of heart. Not wanting to discard a place where Chieko was born and grew up, where Mitsu was conceived, and where he himself feels happy and connected with life, Steven decides to keep the Hasegawa property and stay in Japan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rajendra Kumar
• Release date: Apr 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310975677

Rajendra Kumar

Rajendra Kumar, a retired psychologist, divides in time between writing, hiking, and traveling. Writing has been a passion with him since age 12. His work reflects unconventional ideas which rattle the cage of tradition. It also makes you feel all kinds of emotions and prods you to think about a variety of issues.

Book preview

THE HASEGAWA GARDEN

The Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2015 Rajendra Kumar

Smashwords License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. It may not be resold or given away. If you would like to share this ebook, please purchase an additional copy for each person with whom you want to share it. If you're reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please return to smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

* * * * *

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction, a product of the author's imagination. Any resemblance or similarity to any actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

* * * * *

Cover photo by Rajendra Kumar

Formatting and cover design by Debora Lewis arenapublishing.org

Also by Rajendra Kumar

The Devils and the Damned (A Thriller)

Memories of a Distant Star (Love Stories from Heaven and Hell)

Vishwaroop (The Face of the universe)

All these publications available from Amazon

THE HASEGAWA GARDEN

The July afternoon sun is turning the countryside into a furnace. Leaves on the trees look droopy, grass on the ground wilted, farm land scorched. The village, Mizue, has a gloomy look without anyone on the dirt paths or any vehicle on the one narrow paved road connecting other nearby villages. The brown wooden homes, lumped close together, stand like dejected ghosts.

A blast of hot air slaps Steven on the face and ruffles his short brown hair as he gets out of the taxi in front of an old dilapidated house. While squinting his eyes in the bright sunlight, he pulls out a pair of sunglasses from his shoulder bag, puts them on, and feels better. Then, noticing sweat drops forming on his forehead and under his armpits, he withdraws a handkerchief out of his right pant pocket and wipes his face. He is sorry that he chose to wear a gabardine suit instead of cotton jeans and t-shirt. The habit of dressing up in business attire when going out of the house is hard to give up even when there are no clients to meet, no court proceedings to attend, no judges and prosecutors to confront, and no corporate staff meetings to attend. He must change that habit along with many others. Along with many other things about his life, too.

He scans the house. It shows signs of abandonment. Weeds, knee high, are all around it. The wooden structure appears intact but the paint has fallen off of it in many places leaving ugly gray-brown patches. Part of the cornice has disappeared and drain pipes are rusted. Many tiles on the roof are missing, leaving gaping holes. Several glass panes in the front door panel are cracked, some are missing.

Ignoring the fact that the house may be unsafe to enter, he slips his right hand in his left inside coat pocket and fishes out a key. He inserts it in the recessed lock in the front door, turns it, and hears a ‘click’. Then he fits tips of four fingers of his right hand into a notch just below the lock and slides the door to the left. A dusty and musty hall, like a gaping cavern, appears before him. He enters it. The afternoon sunlight filtering through the open front door allows him to see some stairs to the left leading to a small platform merging into the living room. He hears the flapping of wings in the ceiling and is startled. Just for a second. He thinks there are bats and even smells the guano.

He carefully unlaces his shoes, takes them off of his feet, and climbs onto the platform. The wood slats under his feet creak as if in pain.

‘I knew you would come,’ Steven hears someone.

He looks towards the source of the sound. He sees a figure in the doorway to the living room. It bows and sidesteps to allow him entrance. Steven recognizes it. It is Haruko.

How can it be? Haruko has been dead for two years.

‘Am I hallucinating?’ Steven wonders.

He enters the living room. All the things are still there in their usual places. A cupboard filled with books, figures of Shinto gods and goddesses, knickknacks, a kerosene heater, a TV, family photographs in artistic frames on the walls, a low dining table in the middle of the room with several seat cushions around it, the carpet on the floor, and the curtains on the windows. Everything has deteriorated with disuse, is covered with a thick layer of dust, and all the colors are faded. The spiders have invaded every corner, window, and door of the room with their cobwebs.

Steven walks around the table. The carpet feels damp under his feet. He looks up and sees cracks in the ceiling. Rain water must have dripped during monsoon seasons. He bends down and lifts a corner of