I AM NOT ASHAMED 02 THE MEGUMI STORIES BY MEGUMI KATO AND FRIENDS VOLUME 03: I AM NOT ASHAMED BY KIMIKO KOBAYASHI AND MEGUMI KATO CHAPTER II Dinner at Home So it was a relief to get home, banish these pleasurable but frightening thoughts, bathe and wash my underwear, and change into a dress with a comfortable long, wide skirt. Ken and his wife were already there. Chizuko went to help my mother in the kitchen and I wanted to join her, but my mother told me to keep my brother company instead. Our house is old-fashioned and the room where we would eat had tatami mats on the floor. I knelt correctly on a cushion, my toes tucked neatly under me, while Ken lounged beside me. As I sat and poured his beer for him - Asahi Super Dry, his favourite - I said: "I had a call today from someone you know." "Oh, yes?" "From Megumi Kato. You remember her?" I watched his face discreetly to make sure I wasn't upsetting him. He said nothing. "She's getting married." "Oh, is she?" "She's working in a film studio, isn't she?" I asked innocently. "Yes, that's right," he said shortly. "What sort of films does she appear in?" "Oh, nothing you'll have seen," he said evasively. That was just what Megumi had said, I remembered. "You mean, they're so arty and intellectual I wouldn't understand them?" Ken's desire to make films too difficult for any audience to understand was a great joke in our family. "Well, in a way," he said. "Did she say who she was marrying?" "She said a Mr Otani. The new Chairman of the company she works for. That's a big responsibility for her, don't you think?" "Mr Otani? Now, that really _is_ interesting." "Is it?" I said, pleased that I was neither upsetting nor boring him with my gossip. "Mr Otani founded a company in America which distributes the films made by Marucho. Marucho is the company where Megumi works. He's half American." I looked anxiously at him. "Will that be all right for her, do you think? Marrying a foreigner?" "Well, half a foreigner. And very Japanese to look at, and speaks Japanese properly. I guess she'll have to spend a lot of time with him in the United States, though." "But she said he was now running Marucho." "Well, the Chairman of Marucho, Mr Nagao, had a heart attack recently, and can't carry on running the company. So Mr Otani put a lot of his own money into it and now runs both. I expect he'll merge them one day." I admired my brother's knowledge of what was going on in the film industry. "Will she continue with her career, do you think?" "I expect so. I hope so. She's very talented." There was a pause. I poured him some more beer, then asked shyly: "Were you very fond of her?" "Oh, yes. She's very beautiful, and sexy, and we had a lot of fun together. But it wouldn't have been any good. She has her own career, and I have mine. I'm not sorry about the way things worked out." "I'm glad," I said softly. [Next in Part 03: Chapter III: The Wedding Reception] For complete series so far see /files/Authors/Bob_Williams