Leavesly

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “Fine,” she said and walked away.

  Hours later the faint drum beats emanating from the front of each boat could be heard and the crowd reconvened on the shore with blow horns and cheers. Two boats were neck to neck leading the way, with a third close behind pulling swiftly ahead of the other two boats.

  “No!” Lexi wailed as Elliott’s team struggled to stay in the lead.

  “C’mon, guys! You can do it!” Julia shouted along with the crowd.

  At the final stretch the third boat undauntedly continued to power ahead and Elliott’s team came in a tight second. A roar of cheers, horns and firecrackers sounded off further down the beach where the winning team’s family and friends were celebrating. Julia kept up with Lexi as they weaved their way over to greet Elliott and his team with water bottles and Gatorade. Valerie showed up next to them holding a tray of iced cold Boba milk tea from Lollicup.

  “Good job, guys,” Lexi called to the guys despite their disappointed expressions.

  “We had it,” Craig bemoaned. “We were so close.”

  The guys climbed out of their boats sunburned and drenched in sweat.

  “You did good, Ellie,” Julia said as he wearily trudged through the shallow water towards them.

  “Not good enough,” he muttered and let out a disgusted sigh of frustration.

  * * *

  “Hello, may I help you?” The receptionist behind the front desk asked politely. Julia tried not to stare at her, but found it difficult. It was so strange seeing someone other than her mother manning the front room of her father’s dermatology office.

  “I’m just here to see my dad.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” the lady apologized and quickly gestured for her to come through the adjacent door. “Dr. Kyoto is with a patient right now, but you’re welcomed to wait for him in his office.”

  “Thanks,” Julia smiled politely back and walked in.

  Less than fifteen minutes later, her father entered the tidy back room. Her mother had furnished and decorated this room back when they first bought the building, transforming it into his functional and impeccable office.

  “Julia,” he said, surprised.

  “Hi, dad,” she greeted him softly. Sadness filled her at the sight of him. He seemed older.

  “What are you – Is everything ok?”

  “I’m fine. I just missed …” She faltered. It seemed strange to say she missed him when she rarely saw him even when he did live at home. “I just wanted to see you.”

  He smiled gratefully but didn’t say anything in response. They stood in silence for a moment. She felt like there should be more for them to say to each other, but she couldn’t think of anything to bring up. When she had asked, her mother had told her he was renting an apartment near the office. He was a grown adult, so Julia assumed he knew how to take care of himself. What else was there to ask?

  After an awkward goodbye, Julia walked back out to her car, disheartened. Why couldn’t she seem to emotionally connect the dots from what she was feeling to the people most important to her? Ever since she found out her parents had separated, she had thought about them often. But her thoughts never ended up with a phone call back home. And now with all the concern she felt for her parent’s well-being, she was still unable to communicate her care for them. She wanted to help, but just couldn’t figure out how to do it.

  * * *

  The cold blast of air conditioning felt good on her skin as Julia stepped into Target. She headed over to the Photo Department to pick up her pictures. She had finally gotten around to uploading the photos stored from her digital camera and got them developed. The girl behind the counter was helping an elderly man figure out how to upload his photos on their machine, so Julia got in line and waited for her turn.

  “Next, please,” the girl called out in a bored tone, and Julia moved to the front of the counter. “Name?”

  “Lia Kyoto.”

  “Julia?” the girl gasped.

  Julia stared at her unable to place who she was. But then in the next moment her heart slammed to a halt as she recognized the girl.

  “Sharon,” she murmured, barely able to get the name out. She looked different, like she had gained weight and was not as threateningly beautiful as she had remembered her to be.

  “Wow,” Sharon Su gushed, and stretched her arms out as if trying to give her a hug across the counter. “How have you been? Are you in college now? It’s been like forever.”

  “I’m just back for spring break.”

  “Oh, watch out! Spring break! Girls gone wild!” Sharon squealed to no one in particular. Then laughed at her own attempt of a joke. “So tell me, are you dating anyone right now?” Before Julia could reply, Sharon leaned in and said in a confidential tone, “You heard about how Craig and I have broken up, right?”

  “He’s a heartbreaker, alright.”

  “Oh,” Sharon laughed forcefully. “He didn’t break my heart. I totally dumped him. Yeah, so glad I finally got rid of him.”

  “I’ll let him know you said so.”

  She glanced up sharply. “You still keep in contact with him? After the way he treated you?”

  “He wasn’t the only one to blame.”

  Sharon gaped at her, clearly offended. “Are you saying it’s my fault he cheated on you?”

  “You knew we were together,” Julia pointed out. “But you still chased after him.”

  She scoffed. “I didn’t chase him. He came to me. I understood him. If you would’ve just opened up a little more to him maybe you could’ve gotten to know him as well as I did.”

  “Well if you two were so great together, what happened?”

  She laughed humorlessly. “People change, Julia. We grow up and move on.”

  “So you weren’t perfect for each other.”

  Sharon gave her a dirty look. “You know, I think I liked you much better when you used to be this shy little mouse. What happened?”

  “People change. We move on.”

  She frowned at her.

  “So, can I get my photos?”

  Sharon whirled around without a word and dug through the drawers until she found her thick package. “Nineteen twenty-five,” she muttered sourly, snatching the money from Julia’s hand. “Say hi to Craig for me,” she added sarcastically.

  “Will do,” Julia said a frigid smile and walked away.

  * * *

  Shoving the photos back into the red envelope, Julia let out a frustrated sigh and headed downstairs. She had been excited about getting her pictures developed, but after her run in with Sharon, the photos no longer held the same appeal.

  Who had she been kidding? It wasn’t likely that Wynn was going to put the picture of the two of them at Helm’s Island into the picture frame she had given him. But the thought of Kate’s picture being displayed in her gift to him nauseated her.

  She pulled off the lavender bed sheet her mom had placed over her favorite sofa to protect it from the kitchen construction’s dust and sat down. Using the remote control, she flipped aimlessly through the hundreds of cable stations listed on the flat panel HD screen.

  “Oh, Julia,” her mom said a moment later padding into the room in her house slippers. “You want some persimmon?”

  “Sure, thanks, mom.”

  There was an Alexis Bledel marathon on TV. Julia curled up on the plush sofa getting comfortable for the back to back showings of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” 1 and 2, followed by “Post Grad.” Her mom reappeared with a plate of perfectly peeled and cut juicy red persimmons and handed it to her.

  Julia was surprised when her mom uncharacteristically sat down on the other end of the sofa and pulled her Home and Garden magazine from under the coffee table and began reading. They rarely ever hung out in the same room.

  Holding out the plate, Julia said, “These are really sweet. Want some?”

  “No, thank you,” her mom replied without looking up from the
glossy page. Staring at her hands, Julia noticed they were slightly discolored. Her skin was a blotchy red which was odd since her mom took extremely good care of herself, buying only the most expensive lotion imported from Japan.

  “Mom, what happened to your hands?”

  Self-consciously placing the magazine back on the table, she tucked her hands away and said, “It’s just the persimmons, it’ll go away.”

  “Since when have you been allergic to persimmons?”

  “Always,” she said as a matter of fact, and stood up to leave the room.

  “Then why do you buy them?” Julia said to the empty room, and frowned at the plate of fruit. From the moment the fruit came into season each year her mom always kept their kitchen well stocked with persimmons.

  Julia remembered very clearly the first time she’d ever tasted a persimmon. It had been ripe and juicy and fresh from Lexi’s backyard. Her parents had picked her up late in the evening as usual, after closing hours at their dermatology practice. During the car ride home, Julia remembered declaring it was her favorite fruit. She had been uncharacteristically talkative, telling her parents about how she had helped Grammy Lois tend her garden and gather all the overly plump persimmons that fell straight from the tree. From that day on, her home was always well-stocked with persimmons.

  Oh.

  Julia glanced behind her at the gutted kitchen the construction workers had abandoned for the night, their tools and saw table littered across her mother’s usually picture perfect room. How many times did she vent her helplessness and frustrations of the circumstances around her and the people in her life by reconstructing the only thing she could control?

  Standing up, she followed her mom into the downstairs bedroom that had been turned into a home office years ago.

  “Mom?”

  Her mother whirled around in surprise. The look on her face made Julia wonder when the last time she sought out her mother on her own initiative was, if ever.

  “Yes?” her mother asked when Julia continued to stand silently at the doorway.

  “Um, I was just wondering how you’re doing?”

  Her mother looked away and nodded slowly. “I’m fine.”

  She looked lonely and unloved.

  But Julia knew that was untrue. Her father might not be the most outwardly affectionate person, but she knew how much he cared about her mom. He always lit up proudly whenever she stood next to him.

  That same sadness she felt at her father’s office clenched at Julia’s heart. She was selfish, thinking the world revolved around her. Always complaining about how her mother didn’t show any affection, when she was guilty of the same charge. They were all guilty.

  Julia wondered what her mother would think if she said she was praying for her. Would she be offended? She knew her mom liked to pretend everything was fine even when they clearly were not.

  God, she needs You. I wish she knew You.

  But old habits are hard to break. And Julia couldn’t find the words to express to her mother how she felt. And how she wished she could help.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Like the rain showers beckoning forth new blossoms on the bare branches, Spring Quarter brought with it a sense of second chances and renewal. The first weekend back, Leavesly Church had a Spring Cleaning Day. Julia was surprised when the whole church showed up Saturday morning to polish the pulpit, wash the windows, and clean the floors. Some of the women brought their sewing machines and made new curtains for the Sunday school classrooms. Some of the men carried out pews to repaint the wooden seats. Any chairs or tables with wobbly legs were tightened, and even several of the flickering light bulbs were switched out.

  After the mothers served a hearty lunch, a few families with young children who needed to nap went home. Wynn asked Julia and her friends if they’d like to stay a little longer to help with the planting. Lexi answered for the three of them with an enthusiastic “Yes!” And Julia was curious to see what they were going to do. She had never been one with a green thumb.

  “My dad plants a new Cherry blossom tree every spring. He’s been doing it since the first year our church began,” Wynn explained as they walked around the church towards the cluster of trees. Julia’s eyes lit up in anticipation of being a part of this church’s tradition. She scanned the grove, but lost count when Wynn started talking again. “We’re planting the eighteenth tree today,” Wynn said, amused. Julia blushed when she realized he had read her mind. “All of these trees came from the same root.”

  “Really? How far back does it go?”

  “When my great-grandfather first left Japan to come to the states as a college student, he cut a branch from the tree planted on his father’s land. It’s rare for a cutting to grow new roots, especially after a long period of time. But he planted his first stem cutting in the backyard of the missionary’s home that he was living with at the time.”

  “Were you close with your great-grandfather?”

  “No, I’ve never met him. He passed away a couple years before I was born. But I’ve heard all the stories about him a thousand times. As my dad likes to tell the story, all my great-grandfather did the first four years in America was study and tend to his Cherry blossom tree.”

  “Did he go to school here in California?”

  “No, he went to school in Illinois. The weather was too cold for the tree to grow very strong, but it didn’t die. When my grandfather got married and moved out to California, his father gave him a small sapling grown from that tree. During the war years, when my family was placed in the internment camps, my grandfather uprooted the tree and replanted it in the camp.”

  “Really?” Julia said, aghast. Why would anyone want to bring something beautiful and pure into a place like that?

  “Yeah,” Wynn shrugged, confused at her reaction. “The tree reminded him of God’s faithfulness. It’s our family tradition to replant the same roots wherever our home is.”

  “But in the,” Julia hesitated over the word, thinking about her mother, “in the internment camps? That’s not his real home.”

  “God’s faithful,” Wynn said softly, “even in the internment camps.”

  The unofficial planting ceremony was beginning, and the church family crowded around as they watched Pastor Yoshida carefully cut a stem from one of the Cherry blossom trees. He cleaned away any remaining buds off the new cutting. Instead of planting the new cutting into the ground, he rooted it in a small pot. Then he straightened up and smiled proudly at the newest tree, and the small gathering applauded.

  Soon after the crowd began to disperse, and Wynn gave them a mischievous look as he held up a pair of shears, “Anyone up for some trimming of our own?”

  Lexi’s eyes grew round as she stared at the Cherry blossom trees. “We get to plant our own little tree too?”

  Wynn laughed. “No. But you can help me trim the bushes over there,” he said, pointing to a row of shrubs by the edge of the parking lot.

  “Let’s trim it into the shape of a dolphin!”

  “A dolphin?”

  “What,” Lexi teased, “Too complicated?”

  “Too easy,” Elliott scoffed. “I was thinking a T-Rex.”

  “Dolphins are cooler than dinosaurs.”

  “You know what’s even cooler? A T-Rex eating a dolphin.”

  “Ok, you don’t have to get all Edward Scissorhands,” Wynn laughed as Lexi and Elliott fought over who got to hold the shears first.

  “My dolphin could totally take your dinosaur,” Lexi muttered defiantly when Elliott out muscled her and ran towards the bushes.

  “Hey, no running with scissors!” Wynn called after them. He turned around when Julia didn’t follow him. “You coming?”

  Julia glanced back to where Pastor Yoshida was tending to the young sapling.

  “I’ll be right there,” she answered. Wynn nodded and went to join Lexi and Elliott. Julia slowly walked over to Wynn’s dad. “Hi, Pastor,” she said when he looked up with a smile.


  “Beautiful, aren’t they?” Pastor Yoshida said, placing the watering can on the ground.

  “Why isn’t the tree going into the ground?”

  “It’s too new. The chances it’ll survive are greater if it’s first planted in a pot, more protection. But once it gets bigger, it’ll be ready to root itself deeply into the ground.”

  “When will you know when the tree is ready to be moved into the ground?”

  “The roots will let us know. You know, as a young man, I used to think the glory of the Cherry blossom tree were the blossoms. Did you know these flowers only bloom for about a week?”

  “Really? That seems really short.”

  “Yes. In the Japanese culture the blossoms represent the intensity of life, encouraging people to live passionately because life lasts for only a moment.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “But now that I’m older, my perspective has changed. Now I realize the glory of the tree is not in its blossoms, but in its roots. If the roots are deep and strong then no matter the weather, whether harsh or pleasant, it will be able to faithfully sustain the tree through all the different seasons. Come spring the buds will once again sprout, the leaves will grow back, and the blossoms will once again bloom.”

  * * *

  Julia was excited to begin classes again, especially her Children’s literature class taught by Professor Palermo. She met up with her classmate Willow one afternoon and they exchanged their latest pieces of writing for feedback.

  “I really like your story about the girl and The Ice Queen,” Willow said as they pulled out their binders under the umbrella table. “There’s an epic feel to it, like it could belong in a longer narrative.”

  “Actually it’s part of a chronicle,” Julia said, pleased that Willow could sense its purpose. She had chosen to write about The Ice Queen, the once upon a time evil antagonist from her childhood days. Growing up, whenever she felt angry or bitter towards her home life, Julia would pour out her frustrations through her fantasy stories. They usually revolved around a girl, her problems transformed into symbolic creatures or parallel to the trials she would face. “In past stories, the girl starts out locked in The Ice Queen’s castle. After she breaks free from her imprisonment there, she goes on this soul-searching journey and meets up with different characters and faces different challenges along the way.”