Snowblood

Chapter 11: Busted

"Uh, hi, Dad. I just wanted to wish you and Doctor Kuwano Merry Christmas. How's Tahoe?" Kari got all the words out in a rush.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Kari. I've no idea how Tahoe is. Thanks to the weather, we didn't go," her father replied.

"Then where are you?" she blurted.

"At the moment, stuck in traffic in route to a five star restaurant."

"You're not talking on the phone while driving, are you?" she asked, shocked. Her dad was always dead set against that sort of thing.

"Believe me, driving is the last thing I'm doing right now," he said. "Did the skybike arrive on time?"

He had sent her a new skybike for Christmas, one with a ten-foot vertical axis instead of the five-foot she'd been using since she was twelve. "Yes, it did. I can't wait to try it out."

"Good!" There was a moment of awkward silence until she ended it.

"Um—I did my English essay on the differences between Throne of Blood and Macbeth, and the teacher was impressed just by the topic alone. Please, thank Doctor Kuwano for me?" Why had she made it a question? Because she was nervous, insecure.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I never would have thought of doing an essay on Throne of Blood if you hadn't mentioned she liked Shakespeare because of it," Kari explained.

"All right, I'll pass it on." She heard his voice rumbling but not his exact words as he lowered the phone to relay the message, then a lengthy pause before he laughed and told her, "She says, if you want to go beyond Kurosawa and you like spooky movies too, you should try a film called Kwaidan that was made in the sixties."

"Uh—Sure! I'll do that! So—where all are you going in Japan? I really love samurai movies, and I get several manga, and—are you going anywhere near the shrine of the 47 ronin? I've got, like, so many questions."

"I can tell." He sounded amused. Another long pause while he repeated what she said, and then he came back on to say, "Yukie is sending me our itinerary to forward on to you. Then you can work out what you want to know more about. That'll be simpler than trying to answer everything now. How about that?"

"Okay!" she said. "So—what did you get her for Christmas?"

"Take a look for yourself," he answered, and a moment later, she got a photo. The screen on her phone was so small she couldn't tell much more than that the doctor was wearing a gold chain and earrings.

"Good choice," Kari said.

"Are you talking about the present or the woman?" her father asked.

"Daaad!" Kari groaned.

He chuckled. "There—there's the itinerary sent. I've got to go, it looks like traffic is finally opening up. Merry Christmas, Kari-kat."

"Wait—I can call again when I have questions, right?" she stalled.

"Of course. Bye for now." He ended the call.

Kari downloaded the itinerary, and looked at it for a moment. Then she sent it and the photo to her computer for a better look. So this was Yukime Kuwano...

It was a bit surprising, because the woman in it looked little like the polished, professional doctor in the symposium video. Instead, Dr. Yuwano looked vulnerable, approachable. Large eyes set in a thinnish face with a high forehead and a soft-looking mouth, that was her first impression. The second thought she had was that Yukime Kuwano looked—startled. Yes, definitely startled.