Blind Luck2: No Way Back Chapter 3
Blind Luck2: No Way Back
Chapter 3
At last Ogata seemed to have finished whatever it was he had been doing, and he flopped down of the leather chair across from Sai. He audibly exhaled, the relaxed casual sound reassuring Sai a little.
'Is everything okay?' Sai tentatively asked, deliberately not adding 'between us' in case the other man didn't want to talk about that.
'What? Oh, yes, I was just making some room for you.'
'For me?'
'Yes, I cleared out some of the cubby-holes on the left side of the front door, on the right when you come in, so you can put your shoes and whatever else you like in there. I'll clear a drawer in the bedroom for you later.'
Sai sat stunned. Never had he had had a place to put his possessions. He gulped.
'Thank you.' He sounded unbelieving to his own ears. It then occurred to him that that meant Ogata was going to let him stay on a more permanent basis.
'Thank you!' he repeated with more enthusiasm, having just realized that this meant everything was just fine between them, smiling broadly. The joy and sheer relief raced through his body, making his breath gulp and his hands tingle. Sai was about to thank the man again when the doorbell went, breaking the moment. Ogata got up and moved to the door to accept their dinner order.
Over dinner they talked about Touya and Hikaru and their styles of Go. Sai knew he was talking too animatedly, but he was so elated he just couldn't simmer down.
He wanted to know what Ogata thought of Hikaru's style. Ogata admitted that he had not seriously played Hikaru yet, as Hikaru was still a lower dan, so he had never had cause to play him officially, and had only seen him play others so far.
Ogata was very interested in Hikaru; the boy had some brilliant techniques. Some were very old in style, not un-reminiscent of Shuusaku's style. Some were downright novel, never seen before. Ogata had also noticed, as Sai had, that Hikaru could look deeply into a game, very deeply sometimes. Ogata concluded that Hikaru was one he would keep a close eye one.
Sai swelled with pride for his protégé, at Ogata's assessment, while he ate all five sandwiches he had been served. With the relief he felt earlier, his appetite had returned with gusto, and the sandwiches made a good start to filling his stomach.
Ogata ate his dinner, which smelled delicious to the blind man. Sai said so, after his last sandwich was gone.
'Are you still hungry, after all that?' Ogata asked, not unkindly.
'Uh, well, yes,' Sai stammered, suddenly feeling embarrassed. Hunger had been a constant companion, since he'd moved to the shelter, he could count the times he had had a full belly on one hand. But his pride wouldn't let himself ask for more, and thanks to the pro player's generosity he didn't have to.
'Well, they gave me an extra bowl of sauce and pickles, shall I make you up some crackers?'
'Yes please.' Sai was quick to accept, telling his pride firmly that he hadn't actually asked.
xXXx
Before the game Ogata said he had to give his mail a quick sort through. He did so as Sai sat back enjoying a cup of green tea. With his belly pleasantly full and the cup warming his fingers, the blind man basked in the quiet, looking forward to a good game of Go with a good and generous friend.
Presently Ogata cussed, causing Sai almost to spill his tea, his happy mood instantly transforming into worry. It wasn't his fault, was it? All he had done was sit still and sip tea, so he couldn't imagine what it could be. Unless... Sai swallowed. Unless the pro-player had served him a big generous dinner as a consolation prize before sending the blind man back to the shelter for the night and maybe boot him out of his life permanently?
'Problem?' Sai asked, trying to sound calm.
'Yeah, I forgot to pick up that book that I ordered months ago, again!' There was the sound of papers being shuffled. Sai slowly blew out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Ogata hadn't been upset with him after all.
'And I won't be able to get it tomorrow morning either, as I have a client. If I don't pick it up right away I will forget about it again. It's a good thing I paid for the damn thing already or the bookstore will black list me if I keep doing this.' Ogata sighed.
Sai pondered the mundane problem, his relief still zinging through his veins, as Ogata finished up the paper work and moved to the leather chair he seemed to prefer. The leather creaked as he sat down.
'This bookstore, is it far away?' Sai asked, an idea forming in his head.
'Not far, 'bout five blocks up.' Ogata sipped his tea audibly, sounding distracted.
'Is it hard to find?' Sai asked.
'Really easy I should think, it's in a shopping mall on this street. Why do you ask?' Ogata's chair creaked again as he shifted forward in it, his words holding a tinge of idle curiosity.
'Well..., I was thinking, if it has been paid for already, how about I go pick it up while you are with your client, tomorrow morning? And maybe we could go the Go club afterwards?' Sai suggested tentatively.
Ogata was silent again and Sai brought up his fist wrapped in his sleeve to his mouth. Had he over stepped the bounds of propriety? Basically he was butting into Ogata's private business here...
'Why would you want to?' Ogata finally asked, his voice carrying puzzlement.
Oh well, that was a fair question Sai supposed.
'I like to explore,' Sai explained, 'And as you say you are busy tomorrow morning, I would like to explore around here for a bit. Collecting that book for you seems the perfect excuse to explore this street.' Sai held his breath in the silence they followed.
'But how would you find your way; you've never been here before?' Ogata sounded bewildered.
Sai smiled, he knew it was a little vain of him but he wanted to boast about his travels, and this seemed the best opportunity for it.
'Ogata-san, the Go club I met Kawai-san at is two hours walk from the shelter,' Sai tried not to shudder as he thought of that place, 'I found that all by myself, and believe me, it's not situated in a straight line from the shelter!'
Ogata was silent again. Then he spoke slowly as though he was speaking before he was quite ready, still thinking out what he wanted to say.
'Look I appreciate that you know your way around your own neighborhood, but we're in a totally different part of Tokyo here. I don't think you wandering around unattended here is such a good idea. The dangers of being on strange streets while blind...'
'I'd not be wondering around,' Sai interrupted him, starting to fear that not only would the other man say 'no' to this little outing, but also not let him go anywhere on his own, while being Ogata's guest.
'You said it was pretty straight forward to find. If you point me in the right direction, I'll be just fine.' When there was no answer, Sai added, 'please?'
Ogata was silent again, making the blind man's heart beat loudly in his chest.
'I don't know...' the titleholder said after a while. 'How about I take you to the mall after I've dealt with my client?' he offered.
The blind man felt the disappointment lace through him; if there was no Go to be played tomorrow morning, he had wanted to go out exploring, the existence of the book and the mall were mere convenient excuses.
And what else was he going to do all morning? He asked the Go pro exactly that, cringing a little at the whinny tone in his own voice. Ogata did not strike Sai as being a person who appreciated whining.
'Why, you can stay here, I'll be back by 2. If I lock the door, you should be safe enough...' The man fell silent, when the former ghost could not keep his face as impassive as he would have liked. Sai knew his face betrayed his every emotion, and right now he was hurt.
'Uhm, maybe not...' Ogata trailed off again.
'Please?' the blind man tried again. He knew he was getting very close to real begging, but the thought of being locked in actually frightened him.
'It's not far, I won't get lost, I promise,' he added.
Then Ogata got up, walked to where Sai knew was a book case, came back and started unfolding a piece of paper. A very big piece of paper, by the sound of it.
He put it on the coffee table, the edges touching Sai's legs, and the paper crackled as if he was trying to smooth out the creases.
'What's that?' Sai asked as he fingered a point of the giant sheet.
'A map of Tokyo,' Ogata informed him.
The point of the map slipped out of Sai's fingers as Ogata rotated it on the table. He smoothed the paper some more.
After a while Ogata said, 'We are here.' Ogata probably pointed on the map, which meant nothing to Sai.
'The mall is here.'
Sai remained silent, not feeling he had been addressed.
'Hmm, as you leave the main entrance of this building, you turn left and you should stay on this side of the street.' Ogata's voice was contemplative, sounding very much the teacher.
As a reflex Sai started to visualize the instructions in his head. He created a sketchy map of it and would fill in the details later.
At the same time he realized that Ogata was showing him the way to the mall and that meant he was letting him explore tomorrow, didn't it? Sai's heart leapt for joy.
'The mall is at a small square with a fountain on it. You should be able to hear that from across the roadside.'
Sai nodded, noting the added information, not daring to interrupt the man with over exuberant thank-yous lest he change his mind. /Ogata was going to let him go!/ he thought over and over.
'The fountain is on the other side of the street, stay on this side and the main doors to the mall are right across from the fountain.' Ogata paused. 'I remember the bookstore being one of the first stores on the left hand side as you come in. It's called Sakura Books*. Be careful inside the mall; the place is full of pillars.' Ogata stopped here, then started again, 'There are several street crossing between here and there, shall I describe them?' Any and all information was welcome to the blind man; after all this really was a new and unknown area to him.
'Yes please,' Sai nodded.
Ogata did so, going in detail about side streets and crossings, which was all useful information and was carefully added to the sketchy map in the blind man's head.
All in all it sounded like a doable trip.
Ogata got up again, retrieved something and sat down again. Another card appeared in Sai's hand.
'My card. It has my phone and address.'
It felt exactly the same as Touya's, probably made by the same company, so Sai marked it differently with 2 nail scratches and a differently folded corner. He'd treasure it as he did the others, the contact information not being the only thing of worth in them. It was also that each had been a gift from a friend. From his first friends. He hoped to have many more and maybe if he could keep going to the Go salon Ogata and Touya frequented, he'd meet a lot more good Go players and make more friends. Oh yes, playing great Go with good friends, it would feel like heaven.
He asked Ogata to read the card out to him. He did so. Sai then produced Touya's card and asked the titleholder to read that too. Ogata complied.
'Sai-san, can you remember all these addresses and numbers? And the directions to the mall? I can go over them again if I need to...' Ogata hastily added.
'Don't worry, I can remember it all.' Sai assured him.
'No offense, but are you sure?' It was mildly annoying that Ogata kept asking that but Sai could understand Ogata's concern. To assuage it, Sai repeated in total, the directions to the mall verbatim, and the all addresses and phone numbers. He however, neglected to repeat Hikaru's.
xXXx
It wasn't until 10:30 that they were ready to play, after Sai had asked if he could call the shelter, to let them know he would not be needing a bed for the night.
The resulting game certainly wasn't the best of the 3 games Sai had played against Ogata so far; Sai was tired and his game suffered a little under his fatigue. Still he managed to scrape a narrow 1½ /moku/ win.
After the game Ogata must have noticed that Sai's eyes kept falling shut even though the blind man did his best to give the titleholder a worthy post game discussion, because he ended the discussion fairly quickly and called it a night.
Getting to bed still took some organizing as Sai had slept in Ogata's bathrobe on the couch the night before, and the proper bed had yet to be set up. This time Ogata insisted that he sleep on a futon in the bedroom, like Ogata did. And that he dressed the part. Of course Sai had no night attire, usually sleeping fully clothed in the shelter for warmth and safety, so Ogata lent him a set of pajamas, into which Sai changed in the bathroom.
Sai thought about putting his bag in the cubby-hole that Ogata had cleared for him, but instinct stopped him. He supposed he was just too used to have everything he owned on him at all times, that the thought of his things being that far out of reach was unsettling. He did move his sandals, which he taken off upon entering the flat, as per Japanese custom, from the floor into the lower of the three cubbies. It was the best he could do for now.
He put his bag under his pillow, as he had done every night for over a year, on the advice of Kuma that first night in the shelter. It was good advice, because his stuff was never stolen from there.
As he lay on the futon he thought about his day. This morning he had been an amnesiac blind man with one friend (two if you counted Touya) and a burning passion for Go, but without answers. Now he knew some answers, answers that evoked more complicated questions, to be sure, but answers none-the-less. And he had regained a real friend.
Even though Ogata and Hikaru didn't get along very well; they had almost been hostile to each other, Sai hoped things could be worked out. The fact that Ogata seemed to have accepted Sai’s explanation with a minimum of fuss gave him such hope.
Sai found that the list of things he wished for most in his life had grown longer with meeting all these new people. There used to be 'family found' and 'belly filled' as the only two items on it. Now he had food enough, a place to stay and three fine friends to play, and the only things he wished for were more friends and playing loads more of challenging Go. And he started to feel that these longings were reasonable and could actually happen, and were not a pipe dream any more.
With that thought, Sai closed his eyes and rolled over, feeling himself sink away into lalaland.
oOOo
Author’s notes:
*I made up Sakura Books.
And the mall, and the square, and the fountain. And Ogata’s street. And…well, you get the picture.
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