‘He saw plainly the mysterious peculiarity
that distinguishes every individual from every other individual.’ Leo Tolstoy, The Awakening
When Aika and Hideki
Wakahisa both became parents together at the birth of their first child, they
were also pleasantly surprised at the moment of the ensuing second expected
birth, a twin, which was also a girl. She was born one minute and twelve
seconds later than her elder sister. When mother was resting she was doing so
in a hazy daze of a world filled with nothing but thoughts of endless, mutually
attentive love. Hideki too was feeling like his wife, spending the visiting
time in just holding her hand. Could things possibly get any better?
But when Hideki made his visit the next
day Aika was in full business mode. She had something to say about their
daughters’ futures.
‘Firstly, Wakahisasan, thank you for bringing
me our beautiful daughters, Kasumi and Sakura. My heart and breath are
forevermore thine.’ Hideki blushed.
‘It is because I love our two daughters so
much,’ Aika continued, ‘that I absolutely insist on raising them as unique
individuals, not as exact copies of each other, doing everything the same, and
without any real sense of life. My twin sister and I absolutely hated having to
be exact copies of each other. Now I can make amends for that horrid life. And
I expect you to help out in doing so.’
‘Anything you say, darling. Now let’s have
a cup of tea.’
Hideki drank the tea and pleasantly chatted
with his one true love, and only briefly glimpsed the car that rocketed out of
a side street into his own car on his way home afterwards. Hideki died almost
instantly, still enwrapped in calming thoughts of a beautiful future. The
driver of the other car was saved by his car’s airbag. He fled the scene but
didn’t get far. He was found to be high on ice and obviously in a raving
psychotic state.
Aika, thankfully, took the news very
calmly. The crash investigators found her number in Hideki’s wallet, on a slip
of paper under the inscription, ‘Maternity Ward.’ Two female officers
volunteered to convey the news, as both a support to each other and to Aika.
Aika instantly felt that she had to look out for her daughters even more now.
She was their only guardian. She thus felt she had no choice but to call upon
her own sister’s help to look after the children. Finding another husband would
take too long, and another one was not really wanted either.
Akemi Morishige, Aika’s twin sister, the
elder, was delighted to help. She got permission to leave work early to visit
her sister (easy when you’re a physics professor at a distinguished Sydney
university) and by the end of visiting hours they had come up with a simple,
yet comprehensive, plan to bring up the two newborn girls. Akemi had always
been single and was still waiting for the gentleman that turns a vague, hidden
key deep within her. And if she did find this gentleman, well, then he’ll have
to accept her charges along as well.
Aika and Akemi envisioned no problems.
Well, nothing that they couldn’t handle.
*
Problems there were
indeed in rearing the girls, but both were right in knowing they could handle
them. So well, in fact, that the family is now celebrating the twins graduating
from university over an expensive dinner, with a PhD each, at the age of
twenty-four. Kasumi and Sakura were the most talkative that they’d ever been.
‘My first million is going to my favourite
parents,’ gushed Kasumi, the eldest, almost through her very first glass of
French Champagne. ‘Easy money for an intelligent astronomer like me in the
U.S.’
‘I’ve already vaguely outlined my Nobel
Prize for Biology speech,’ said Sakura, mock seriously. ‘Biology is also going
to be in high demand in pretty short order.’
‘How about we work together on something
for the Nobel?’ asked Kasumi of her sister. ‘We could maybe do some xenobiology.’
‘Even work on some top secret stuff with
the U.S. government,’ suggested Sakura.
‘Above top secret stuff is what you really
want. Real history shaping stuff.’
‘On an intergalactic scale.’
Thus they all spent the night, everyone
pleasantly floating with pleasure, but also firmly grounded.
This attitude carried through to the next
day and both spent four weeks, twelve hours a day, in looking for jobs in their
fields. They naturally both received several very generous offers of employment,
thanks largely to the fact that they had good work experience and good work
references, as well as excellent university results. Their choice was made
exactly four weeks after their job search began and both chose AuCU, Aus Central
University, because it had the best equipment. Sure the salary was a good bit
lower but it was worth it in order to work with such well-maintained, precision
instruments. It was also fantastic now that both of them had the world at their
feet, side by side at AuCU. Who needs husbands?
They began their new careers well but each
continued onto two entirely different paths. Kasumi was offered an Associate
Professor position after working at the university for only a little over a
year. Kasumi had a natural rapport with the intelligent science students she
lectured and her classes were also spoken of well by the students. Likewise
marks under Kasumi were high and the university’s Chancellor saw her as a
Godsend, a great researcher as well as a great teacher, who could also show the
world that AuCU was indeed Central.
Sakura fell in love instead. Seven months
into her job as a biologist that was better than expected, she fell in love with
a PhD candidate. The candidate, Rawson Peters, though, thankfully, made a pass
at her first. Sakura was not expecting love, vaguely considered it to be bosh,
a simple word to justify every animal’s fundamental need for sex, and as a
result she was helpless in its throes. Which was the reason Rawson left her
after six months – she was too needy. Sakura was devastated, always believing
that true love, if it did exist (unlikely), is forever. Instead, true love
passed, and there was nothing to replace it. Sakura took a week’s sick leave
after Rawson had arrived to leave her. She could only eat dry toast and juice
during the week off and was also sleeping a lot, both to dream of Rawson and to
forget him. Kasumi, during a visit, eventually talked Sakura into returning to
their parents’ place for a while. Have a good talk with them. A broken heart
can be healed, by loving one’s mind, affirmed Kasumi.
Sakura returned to normal in about a further
two weeks at her parents’ place but resigned from the university. She told her
family that it was because she might see Rawson there. In fact, she had to get
out of the science field altogether, where Rawson was naturally bound to be. But
what other work could she do? She knew only science.
‘Do you still go to art galleries?’ asked
Kasumi, tentatively taking stock.
‘As often as I can, but that’s not often.’
‘So you’ve still got a bit of a feel for
the art world?’
‘Yes. Why?’
‘How about we set up an art gallery?’
‘An
art gallery?’
‘I saw Edvard Munch’s The Scream, when I was in Oslo a few weeks ago, at a conference, and
actually seeing the great piece in real life made me realise that science makes
people comfortable, but art, all art, answers the paradox of each our
sentience. I really want to show that to people. Science gives answers but art
really does give purpose and pure thought. So, what do you say? Our combined
intelligence will easily bring us to the fore of the art world.’
Sakura took no time to reply.
‘Of course I will. Just what I need, a
complete change of scenery.’
‘Well, let’s start the plans for our distinguished
centre of notable art.’
Their gallery was well attended on its
opening night, largely as a result of twelve weeks of intensive research into
the art market and getting to know those important in the Sydney industry. The
sales were excellent and they began their art career stunningly, their early days
in the gallery being very profitable.
So it was unexpected when Sakura wanted to
leave the business, after ten months of continued excellent sales. After all,
it was a lot of hard work. Sakura had no objection to hard work per se, but she
no longer wanted to be a middleperson in the art world, a world she had come to
adore because of its utter originality, and self-perpetuating nature. No,
Sakura now wanted to set the trends. She was going to set herself up as an art critic,
bound to set an entirely new tone to present art discourse. Naturally, she felt
assured of achieving another goal.
Achieving it was not to be though, the
first thing in which she had failed. Sakura just couldn’t write a good art essay,
despite the weeks she spent at it. Her sister was unable to help either,
because she was busy running the gallery to repay the bank its business loan. Sakura
quickly realised that she was an amateur writer, clumsy, and did not want to
spend ten years (a hypothetical amount) in learning how to write well. An art
critic she could not be. Working in science she still couldn’t do, in case she
met Rawson again. She could have worked in policy, or maybe pharmaceuticals,
but if she couldn’t work in Biology she didn’t really want to expend her
energies in a false substitute. No, better to take an easy job and simply not
worry about life anymore. She then tried looking for shelf packing jobs, and
the like, but was repeatedly told she was overqualified. The constant
rejections wore her down, never expecting science to be her downfall, and she
eventually decided to take a small break from the job hunting. Her savings were
also almost used up, so she may as well apply for unemployment welfare.
Sakura soon realised she was almost
destitute, her sister paying almost half of her rent (Kasumi could easily
afford it though), and could see no reasonable way out. She considered leaving
it all behind. Just walk out of her flat far from Sydney’s centre and opt out
of the struggle for survival. Just walk out into the wilds about her
neighbourhood. It sounded like bliss.
Kasumi still doesn’t know where Sakura is,
suddenly disappearing one morning. She left no note and the police could see no
evidence of foul play. They couldn’t track her either by looking at her ATM
card transactions, for she took her welfare out in one deposit from different
places. She has also made no phone calls on her mobile, turned off. She also
must have changed her clothing to avoid detection by CCTV along the route to
the ATM. She was alive, thank God, but trying to be forgotten. Kasumi can only
wait, hopeful Sakura will return.
~~~
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