Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha

“And if Chiyo turns twenty without having repaid her debts?” Mameha asked.

“I’m sorry to say that in such a case, the investment would have been a poor one for both of us. The okiya would be unable to pay the fees owed to you.”

There was a silence, and then Mameha sighed.

“I’m very poor with numbers, Mrs. Nitta. But if I understand correctly, you’d like me to take on a task you think may be impossible, for fees that are less than usual. Plenty of promising young girls in Gion would make fine younger sisters to me at no risk whatever. I’m afraid I must decline your proposal.”

“You’re quite right,” said Mother. “Thirty percent is a bit low. I’ll offer you double, instead, if you succeed.”

“But nothing if I fail.”

“Please don’t think of it as nothing. A portion of Chiyo’s fees would have gone to you all along. It’s simply that the okiya would be unable to pay you the additional amount you would be owed.”

I felt certain Mameha was going to say no. Instead she said, “I’d like to find out first how substantial Chiyo’s debt really is.”

“I’ll fetch the account books for you,” Mother told her.

I heard nothing more of their conversation, for at this point Auntie ran out of patience for my eavesdropping, and sent me out of the okiya with a list of errands. All that afternoon, I felt as agitated as a pile of rocks in an earthquake; because, of course, I had no idea how things would turn out. If Mother and Mameha couldn’t come to an agreement, I would remain a maid all my life just as surely as a turtle remains a turtle.

When I returned to the okiya, Pumpkin was kneeling on the walkway near the courtyard, making terrible twanging noises with her shamisen. She looked very pleased when she caught sight of me, and called me over.

“Find some excuse to go into Mother’s room,” she said. “She’s been in there all afternoon with her abacus. I’m sure she’ll say something to you. Then you have to run back down here and tell me!”

I thought this was a fine idea. One of my errands had been to buy some cream for the cook’s scabies, but the pharmacy had been out of it. So I decided to go upstairs and apologize to Mother for having come back to the okiya without it. She wouldn’t care, of course; probably she didn’t even know I’d been sent to fetch it. But at least it would get me into her room.

As it turned out, Mother was listening to a comedy show on the radio. Normally if I disturbed her at a time like this, she would wave me in and go right on listening to the radio-looking over her account books and puffing at her pipe. But today, to my surprise, she turned off the radio and slapped the account book shut the moment she saw me. I bowed to her and went to kneel at the table.

“While Mameha was here,” she said, “I noticed you in the for- mal entrance hall polishing the floor. Were you trying to overhear our conversation?”

“No, ma’am. There was a scratch on the floorboards. Pumpkin and I were doing what we could to buff it out.”

“I only hope you turn out to be a better geisha than you are a liar,” she said, and began to laugh, but without taking her pipe out of her mouth, so that she accidentally blew air into the stem and caused ashes to shoot up out of the little metal bowl. Some of the flecks of tobacco were still burning when they came down onto her kimono. She put the pipe down onto the table and whacked herself with her palm until she was satisfied they’d all been snuffed out.

“Now, Chiyo, you’ve been here in the okiya more than a year,” she said.

“More than two years, ma’am.”

“In that time I’ve hardly taken any notice of you. And then today, along comes a geisha like Mameha, to say she wants to be your older sister! How on earth am I to understand this?”

As I saw it, Mameha was actually more interested in harming Hatsumomo than in helping me. But I certainly couldn’t say such a thing to Mother. I was about to tell her I had no idea why Mameha had taken an interest in me; but before I could speak, the door to Mother’s room slid open, and I heard Hatsumomo’s voice say:

“I’m sorry, Mother, I didn’t know you were busy scolding the maid!”

“She won’t be a maid much longer,” Mother told her. “We’ve had a visit today that may interest you.”

“Yes, I gather Mameha has come and plucked our little minnow out of the aquarium,” Hatsumomo said. She drifted over and knelt at the table, so close that I had to scoot away to make room for both of us.

“For some reason,” Mother said, “Mameha seems to think Chiyo will repay her debts by the age of twenty.”

Hatsumomo’s face was turned toward mine. To see her smile, you might have thought she was a mother looking adoringly at a baby. But this is what she said:

“Perhaps, Mother, if you sold her to a whorehouse…”

“Stop it, Hatsumomo. I didn’t invite you in here to listen to this sort of thing. I want to know what you’ve done to Mameha lately to provoke her.”

“I may have ruined Miss Prissy’s day by strolling past her on the street, perhaps, but other than that I haven’t done a thing.”

“She has something in mind. I’d like to know what it is.”

“There’s no mystery at all, Mother. She thinks she can get at me by going through Little Miss Stupid.”

Mother didn’t respond; she seemed to be considering what Hatsumomo had told her. “Perhaps,” she said at last, “she really does think Chiyo will be a more successful geisha than our Pumpkin and would like to make a bit of money off her. Who can blame her for that?”

“Really, Mother… Mameha doesn’t need Chiyo in order to make money. Do you think it’s an accident she’s chosen to waste her time on a girl who happens to live in the same okiya I do? Mameha would probably establish a relationship with your little dog if she thought it would help drive me out of Gion.”

“Come now, Hatsumomo. Why would she want to drive you out of Gion?”

“Because I’m more beautiful. Does she need a better reason? She wants to humiliate me by telling everyone, ‘Oh, please meet my new younger sister. She lives in the same okiya as Hatsumomo, but she’s such a jewel they’ve entrusted her to me for training instead.’ ”

“I can’t imagine Mameha behaving that way,” Mother said, almost under her breath.

“If she thinks she can make Chiyo into a more successful geisha than Pumpkin,” Hatsumomo went on, “she’s going to be very surprised. But I’m delighted that Chiyo will be dressed up in a kimono and paraded around. It’s a perfect opportunity for Pumpkin. Haven’t you ever seen a kitten attacking a ball of string? Pumpkin will be a much better geisha after she’s sharpened her teeth on this one.”

Mother seemed to like this, for she raised the edges of her mouth in a sort of smile.

“I had no idea what a fine day this would be,” she said. “This morning when I woke up, two useless girls were living in the okiya. Now they’ll be fighting it out… and with a couple of the most prominent geisha in Gion ushering them along!”

The very next afternoon Mameha summoned me to her apartment. This time she was seated at the table waiting for me when the maid slid open the door. I was careful to bow properly before coming into the room and then to cross to the table and bow again.

“Mameha-san, I don’t know what has led you to this decision…” I began, “but I can’t express how grateful I am-”

“Don’t be grateful just yet,” she interrupted. “Nothing has happened. You’d better tell me what Mrs. Nitta said to you after my visit yesterday.”