Arthur Golden - Memoirs of a Geisha

A few weeks passed, and then one evening in a hallway at the Ichiriki, Mameha suggested the time had come to collect on her bet with Mother. I’m sure you’ll recall that the two of them had wagered about whether my debts would be repaid before I was twenty. As it turned out, of course, they’d been repaid already though I was only eighteen. “Now that you’ve turned your collar,” Mameha said to me, “I can’t see any reason to wait longer.”

This is what she said, but I think the truth was more complicated. Mameha knew that Mother hated settling debts, and would hate settling them still more when the stakes went higher. My earnings would go up considerably after I took a danna ; Mother was certain to grow only more protective of the income. I’m sure Mameha thought it best to collect what she was owed as soon as possible, and worry about future earnings in the future.

Several days afterward, I was summoned downstairs to the reception room of our okiya to find Mameha and Mother across the table from each other, chatting about the summer weather. Beside Mameha was a gray-haired woman named Mrs. Okada, whom I’d met a number of times. She was mistress of the okiya where Mameha had once lived, and she still took care of Mameha’s accounting in exchange for a portion of the income. I’d never seen her look more serious, peering down at the table with no interest in the conversation at all.

“There you are!” Mother said to me. “Your older sister has kindly come to visit, and has brought Mrs. Okada with her. You certainly owe them the courtesy of joining us.”

Mrs. Okada spoke up, with her eyes still on the tabletop. “Mrs. Nitta, as Mameha may have mentioned on the telephone, this is more a business call than a social call. There’s no need for Sayuri to join us. I’m sure she has other things to do.”

“I won’t have her showing disrespect to the two of you,” Mother replied. “She’ll join us at the table for the few minutes you’re here.”

So I arranged myself beside Mother, and the maid came in to serve tea. Afterward Mameha said, “You must be very proud, Mrs. Nitta, of how well your daughter is doing. Her fortunes have surpassed expectations! Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Well now, what do I know about your expectations, Mameha-san?” said Mother. After this she clenched her teeth and gave one of her peculiar laughs, looking from one of us to the other to be sure we appreciated her cleverness. No one laughed with her, and Mrs. Okada just adjusted her glasses and cleared her throat. Finally Mother added, “As for my own expectations, I certainly wouldn’t say Sayuri has surpassed them.”

“When we first discussed her prospects a number of years ago,” Mameha said, “I had the impression you didn’t think much of her. You were reluctant even to have me take on her training.”

“I wasn’t sure it was wise to put Sayuri’s future in the hands of someone outside the okiya, if you’ll forgive me,” said Mother. “We do have our Hatsumomo, you know.”

“Oh, come now, Mrs. Nitta!” Mameha said with a laugh. “Hatsumomo would have strangled the poor girl before she’d have trained her!”

“I admit Hatsumomo can be difficult. But when you spot a girl like Sayuri with something a little different, you have to be sure to make the right decisions at the right times-such as the arrangement you and I made, Mameha-san. I expect you’ve come here today to settle our account?”

“Mrs. Okada has been kind enough to write up the figures,” Mameha replied. “I’d be grateful if you would have a look at them.”

Mrs. Okada straightened her glasses and took an accounting book from a bag at her knee. Mameha and I sat in silence while she opened it on the table and explained her columns of figures to Mother.

“These figures for Sayuri’s earnings over the past year,” Mother interrupted. “My goodness, I only wish we’d been so fortunate as you seem to think! They’re higher even than the total earnings for our okiya.”

“Yes, the numbers are most impressive,” Mrs. Okada said, “but I do believe they are accurate. I’ve kept careful track through the records of the Gion Registry Office.”

Mother clenched her teeth and laughed at this, I suppose because she was embarrassed at having been caught in her lie. “Perhaps I haven’t watched the accounts as carefully as I should have,” she said.

After ten or fifteen minutes the two women agreed on a figure representing how much I’d earned since my debut. Mrs. Okada took a small abacus from her bag and made a few calculations, writing down numbers on a blank page of the account book. At last she wrote down a final figure and underscored it. “Here, then, is the amount Mameha-san is entitled to receive.”

“Considering how helpful she has been to our Sayuri,” Mother said, “I’m sure Mameha-san deserves even more. Unfortunately, according to our arrangements, Mameha agreed to take half of what a geisha in her position might usually take, until after Sayuri had repaid her debts. Now that the debts are repaid, Mameha is of course entitled to the other half, so that she will have earned the full amount.”

“My understanding is that Mameha did agree to take half wages,” Mrs. Okada said, “but was ultimately to be paid double. This is why she agreed to take a risk. If Sayuri had failed to repay her debts, Mameha would have received nothing more than half wages. But Sayuri has succeeded, and Mameha is entitled to double.”

“Really, Mrs. Okada, can you imagine me agreeing to such terms?” Mother said. “Everyone in Gion knows how careful I am with money. It’s certainly true that Mameha has been helpful to our Sayuri. I can’t possibly pay double, but I’d like to propose offering an additional ten percent. If I may say so, it seems generous, considering that our okiya is hardly in a position to throw money around carelessly.”

The word of a woman in Mother’s position should have been assurance enough-and with any woman but Mother, it certainly would have been. But now that she’d made up her mind to lie… well, we all sat in silence a long moment. Finally Mrs. Okada said, “Mrs. Nitta, I do find myself in a difficult position. I remember quite clearly what Mameha told me.”

“Of course you do,” Mother said. “Mameha has her memory of the conversation, and I have mine. What we need is a third party, and happily, we have one here with us. Sayuri may only have been a girl at the time, but she has quite a head for numbers.”

“I’m sure her memory is excellent,” Mrs. Okada remarked. “But one can hardly say she has no personal interest. After all, she is the daughter of the okiya.”

“Yes, she is,” said Mameha; and this was the first time she’d spoken up in quite a while. “But she’s also an honest girl. I’m prepared to accept her answer, provided that Mrs. Nitta will accept it too.”

“Of course I will,” Mother said, and put down her pipe. “Now then, Sayuri, which is it?”

If I’d been given a choice between sliding off the roof to break my arm again just the way I did as a child, or sitting in that room until I came up with an answer to the question they were asking me, I certainly would have marched right up the stairs and climbed the ladder onto the roof. Of all the women in Gion, Mameha and Mother were the two most influential in my life, and it was clear to me I was going to make one of them angry. I had no doubt in my mind of the truth; but on the other hand, I had to go on living in the okiya with Mother. Of course, Mameha had done more for me than anyone in Gion. I could hardly take Mother’s side against her.

“Well?” Mother said to me.

“As I recall, Mameha did accept half wages. But you agreed to pay her double earnings in the end, Mother. I’m sorry, but this is the way I remember it.”