Min Lee - Pachinko

“Shut up,” he said quietly, knowing she’d never listen. “Please, please shut up.”

“You know that you’re the one I loved. Hatsukoi was such a stupid idea to me until I met you. I’ve been with so many men, Solomon, and they were disgusting. All the filthy things I let them do. I’m so sorry for all of it. You, I loved, because you are good.”

“Hana, you are good.”

She shook her head, but for a moment she looked peaceful.

“I did bad things with boys after Mama left. That’s why I came to Tokyo. I was so angry when I met you, then when I was with you, I stopped being so upset. But I couldn’t handle it so I left and started hostessing. I didn’t want to love anybody. Then you went to America, and I was, I was—” Hana paused. “When I was drinking a lot, I thought you would look for me. Like in that American movie. I thought you would find where I lived, climb on a ladder up to the window, and carry me away. I used to tell all the girls that you would get me. All the girls wanted you to come for me.”

Solomon stared at her mouth as she spoke. She had the prettiest mouth.

“It’s disgusting, isn’t it?”

“What?” He felt like someone had slapped him.

“This.” She pointed to the lesions on her chin.

“No. I wasn’t looking at that.”

She didn’t believe him. Her eyes fluttered lightly, and Hana leaned back into the pillow.

“I want to rest now, Solomon. Will you come back soon?”

“Yes, I’ll come back,” he said, rising from the chair.

When he returned to his desk, Solomon could not stop thinking about her. Why hadn’t Etsuko helped her? Something inside him hurt, and the ache felt familiar. He could not read the documents in front of him. He was supposed to run through some projections for the golf club project, but it was as if he had forgotten how to use Excel. What would have happened if she had not left him that summer? Would he have been able to go to New York and stay away for so long?

Phoebe wanted to marry him now; he knew this, but she never brought it up because she was a proud person and wanted to be asked. When he heard Kazu’s voice in the hallway, Solomon looked up to see his boss standing before him. Solomon’s office mates were out; Kazu closed the door behind him, walked over to the credenza near Solomon’s desk, and stood in the space between the credenza and the enormous window.

“She’s dead,” Kazu said.

“What? I just saw her.”

“Who?”

“Hana. Did my father call you?”

“I don’t know who that is, man, but Matsuda-san, the old lady, is dead, and it doesn’t look good. When the client wanted the property, he didn’t expect that the holdout seller would die a few days afterwards.”

“What?” Solomon blinked. “The seller is dead?”

“Yes. She sold the property to your father’s friend Goro-san, then our client bought the property from him. Our client is not in trouble, but it smells bad. Do you know what I mean?” Kazu said this in a flat, calm voice while staring at Solomon’s face thoughtfully. He picked up the Hanshin Tigers baseball on the credenza, tossed it up and caught it.

“How did she die?”

“Not sure. It could have been a heart attack or a stroke. They don’t know. There are two nieces apparently. I don’t know if they’re going to make a fuss or what the police might do.”

“She could have died of natural causes. Wasn’t she old?”

“Yes, I expect that could be true; however, our client has canceled this transaction for now because the news could affect their public offering next spring.”

“What public offering?”

“Never mind that.” Kazu sighed. “Listen, man, I have to let you go. I am sorry, Solomon. I really am.”

“What? What did I do?”

“We have to do this. There’s no other way. I think your father’s friend responded a bit too enthusiastically about the land sale, nee ?”

“But you have no proof, and you are accusing my father’s friend of something impossible. Goro would never ever do anything to hurt—”

“I’m not accusing your father’s friend of anything. But the facts remain that there is a dead woman who didn’t want to sell her property. Everyone knew she wouldn’t sell, and moments after she sold, she died.”

“But Goro paid a lot of money for that property; it was fair market value; and he’s Korean. She didn’t mind selling it to a Korean. I thought that’s how we were supposed to get around her refusal. He wouldn’t have killed an old woman for something like this. All his life, he’s helped all these poor people. What are you saying? Goro did this as a favor for my father and me—”

Kazu held the ball between his hands and looked down at the carpet.

“Solly, don’t tell me anything more. Do you understand? The investigators are going to want to know what happened. They may not make a big deal of it, but the client is very spooked, dude. The client wanted to develop a country club; they weren’t looking for a run-in with the yaks. Do you know what kind of hell they can raise in shareholder meetings?”

“Yaks? Goro is not yakuza.”

Kazu nodded and tossed the ball again and caught it.

“The transaction is unfortunately contaminated, so it will be put on hold. This comes at a great financial cost to the client, and it looks poorly for us as a premiere banking company. My reputation—”

“But the client got the property.”

“Yes, but no one was supposed to die. I didn’t wish for that.” Kazu made a face like he was tasting something sour.

Solomon shook his head. All he could think of were the innumerable times he had spent in Goro’s presence listening to his hilarious stories about his many girlfriends and his constant encouragements for Solomon’s future. Goro had this remarkable clarity about the world. A great man, his father always said about Goro — a noble man — a true bushi who understood sacrifice and leadership. It had been Goro alone who had built up Haruki Totoyama’s mother’s uniform business from nothing, and all because he’d felt bad for a single mother raising two boys. His father said that Goro was always doing good things for poor people quietly. It was absurd to consider that Goro could have been responsible for the lady’s death. The woman would have sold the property to Goro because he was known as a good Korean businessman. Everyone knew this.

“Human Resources is waiting outside. Solomon, you don’t know how it works, I don’t think, because this is your first job at a bank, but when you’re terminated from an investment bank, you have to leave the building immediately for internal security reasons. I’m sorry.”

“But what did I do?”

“The transaction is postponed for now, and we will not need such a large team. I’m pleased to give you a reference. You can put me down for whatever you want. I would never mention this to your future employers.”

Solomon leaned back in his chair and stared at Kazu’s hardened jaw. He paused before speaking:

“You brought me in on purpose. Because you wanted me to get the Korean lady to sell. You knew—”

Kazu put down the baseball and moved to the door.

“Brother, I gave you a job, and you were fortunate to have it.”

Solomon covered his mouth with his hands.

“You’re a nice boy, Solomon, and you will have a future in finance, but not here. If you are trying to imply that you were being discriminated against, something that Koreans tend to believe, that would be incorrect and unfair to me. If anything, you have been preferred over the natives. I like working with Koreans. Everyone knows this about me. The whole department thought that you were my pet associate. I didn’t want to fire you. I just don’t agree with your father’s tactics.”