Michael and Keiko (2&3)

Part II: The Departure, Summer 1975

The academic spring quarter would end in three weeks. Keiko had to go back to Japan for the summer. She was scared to death about the pregnancy. Her dad would be so upset that he would kill her with no regard for the fetus in her womb. Her mom would be so ashamed of the unchaste daughter that she would kill herself.

Keiko had an abortion two days before flying back to Kyoto.

Michael & Keiko_2“When you come back in August, we’ll move into an apartment together, buy a new bed, so that you won’t get bit by the pregnant bug again. Not for a few years, anyway.” Michael said to Keiko at the airport.

“You funny, Michael-san.”

“I love you, Keiko-san.”

“I love you.”

Part III: Summer, Fall, Winter 1975

Michael wrote Keiko a letter that Sunday night after she left the United States and he mailed it the next day. He would keep writing a letter every day like a diary and mail the whole week’s worth of letters on Saturday morning at the post office.

On the Monday that was a week after Keiko left Michael received his first letter from Keiko. She wrote that letter on the plane and told him how much she already missed him. Two days later, on Wednesday, he received the second letter from her. She wrote that letter from a hospital bed. She said she developed an infection in the uterus and had a high fever when she returned to Kyoto. She was fine now, and told him not to worry. She would stay in the hospital for a couple more days before she went home, she said.

The following Monday he received her third letter. She said that her doctor had told her parents about the abortion. They were extremely upset with her. She was forbidden from returning to her studies in the United States and she was not to write or call him again, ever. She asked him to be patient with her and her parents for a while. When things cooled down a bit, she would write again.

Keiko never wrote again.

Keiko had given Michael her parents’ phone number before she left. He called that number twice, both of which were answered by a Japanese woman who told him Keiko wasn’t there and he was not to call that number again. Michael knew the gist of what she was saying from the few Japanese words he had learned in class and from Keiko, which were exemplified by the unfriendly tone of the speaker’s voice. He couldn’t believe that Keiko would do that to him. No, it couldn’t be her. Michael kept faith and continued to send at least a letter a week for four months. He knew she received them. He begged her to return. But she never wrote back a single word.

Michael was devastated. How could that be? He could her family be so cruel? He truly loved her, didn’t they know that?

The fall quarter at school started. Michael spent all his days thinking about Keiko. His grade average for the first two years of college was a stellar 3.80 out of a possible 4.00. His grade average for the first quarter of his third year was 0.75. In other words, he failed all his classes.

He was put on academic probation immediately. He didn’t fare any better the next quarter. The school expelled him.

*** To Be Continued ***

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