The next day is her day off and Jia Crawford’s determined to see her grandfather. She gets up first thing in the morning and feels relieved that for once she doesn’t have a hangover. The power of going to bed early and getting some real sleep. She’ll still have to bike to the nursing home today but she’s pretty used to biking at this point. She’s biked almost everywhere since getting home from school.
Her car was a real piece of junk and while it managed the cross country ride home, it broke down less than a week after her return. She didn’t have the money to replace a transmission or buy a new car but her old bike was just sitting there. It’s usually nice this time of year so it hasn’t been an issue.
In a few months she probably will want a new car and that will be an issue. She doesn’t have any money. She’s been working at the winery but isn’t getting paid. Her parents give her room, board, and a little spending money now and then but no steady wages.
Temperatures are already starting to drop and while afternoons are still nice, mornings are chilly the last few weeks. By January the bike isn’t going to cut it.
She knows she should start looking for a job in her field but she isn’t sure how much is out there for someone with a liberal arts degree. Already she regrets not studying a more practical field. Her parents didn’t want to be the stereotypical Asian family pushing her away from the arts. If they had been she might have a real chance at a job.
There are worse things than relaxing, drinking and spending time with family but in a few months when the temperatures get really cold and she finds herself biking home from the bar she might not enjoy it as much. That’s if her parents give her enough money to afford the bar.
For now the days are beautiful, filled with sun. By mid afternoon when she’ll be heading home it might even be a bit too warm. She’s lucky the ride to the nursing home is mostly uphill. She can handle that in the cooler morning and on the way back she can just cruise downward, enjoying the breeze.
Visiting hours don’t start until noon so she decides to swing by one of her favorite restaurants in the valley and get lunch for her and her grandfather. She has thirty dollars her parents gave her recently and one of the many celebrity chefs operating in Napa has a fantastic fried chicken lunch she can afford two of.
Picking up two portions, the aroma of fried chicken sends her to heaven. Just thinking about the crispy skin and the flaky biscuits makes her mouth water. Balancing two of these on a bike’s handlebars while trying to power her way up what is literally a mountain isn’t easy but it’ll be worth it when she bites into those biscuits. Jia relishes the burn. Her bundle slows her down, but not long after visiting time starts she arrives with lunch. Now she has to hope Grandpa Takeshi is doing well enough today to enjoy it.
After locking her bike to a tree, Jia makes her way inside. The scent of the chicken causes heads to turn in her direction the entire way to her grandpa’s room. The halls are filled with elderly people struggling along. Most appear happy but moans are coming from a room at the end of the hall. Arriving at the correct room, she pounds on her grandpa’s closed door to make sure he hears her. He shouts to come in and she enters to find him sitting in his ragged recliner staring at the TV. Grandpa Takeshi is 97 years old and on a good day he seems mostly like the same man who taught her to garden twenty years ago. Good days come less and less recently. Far too often he can’t figure out where he is, or even who he is. Any day he recognizes her is a decent start.
Takeshi’s lived in California his entire life and has rarely left outside of his brief stint in the army during World War II. With his family locked up in camps during one of the darkest hours in this country’s history, Takeshi volunteered to serve. He was eager to prove his loyalty to his home but he also wanted to feel free again.
It’s impossible to imagine him as some great martial artist. Then again, it’s equally difficult to imagine him as a military man. He was already old by the time Jia was born but he’s always been a gentle man. She grew up in his kitchen where his food always tasted incredibly fresh, mostly because he sourced most of his ingredients from his own garden.
His sense of peace and equilibrium was striking even to someone as young as Jia. Nothing got under his skin. One time when she was a baby and learning to walk, he caught her rummaging through his silverware, happily playing with a pair of steak knives. Maybe those should have been out of reach but the man barely blinked. He took them away and went about their day as if nothing happened.
Today he looks at her with confusion that never fails to sting. “Is it time for my pills already?” There’s no sign of recognition. Definitely not a good day.
That doesn’t necessarily mean this is a lost cause. There are days when he doesn’t know what he had for breakfast and doesn’t recognize anyone but he’ll still remember details of a little restaurant he ate at in Italy in 1946. She came here to talk about the past anyway. She desperately wants to understand more about her family’s history and her place within it.
Setting her bag down on his table, Jia starts unboxing their food. “I brought you some chicken for lunch. Thought you might enjoy that. I know you’ve always liked fried chicken.”
Despite her grandpa’s mental state having taken a turn for the worse the last few years, physically he’s still in fantastic shape. He takes a couple of pills but they’re more vitamins than anything. He’s allowed to eat more or less whatever he wants, which is why fried chicken can be on the menu today. Jia can only hope at his age she’ll be in such good shape.
Smelling the food across the room, Takeshi’s seemingly pulled from his chair and quickly reaches the small two seat table in the corner. “Smells delicious,” he says while sitting and tucking a napkin into his shirt. He doesn’t say anything about who she is and Jia is pretty sure he doesn’t much care at the moment.
Dishing them both up a nice plate, she sits down to dig into their meal and start digging for information. She knows she needs to be careful to not cause distress. Best to start with easy questions and build to the big stuff. If he’s not receptive or doesn’t remember she’ll let it go. He plows through the food like he hasn’t eaten in weeks, pausing only to say these are the best biscuits he’s ever had. Without prompting he starts talking about his morning. He’s been watching a marathon of the game show network for the last few hours. He’s able to recite the last four shows he watched and what the contestants won. Maybe this isn’t hopeless.
“Grandpa Takeshi,” she says before stopping to wipe the grease from her mouth, “someone told me that you used to be a great martial artist. Is that true?”
Looking up from his chicken he starts to nod vigorously. “I was the best. I could fight anyone, anywhere. I practically did too.”
“When was this?”
“When I was young. The war, after the war.” He shrugs, not seeming to give much thought to his answer. Jia was afraid he wouldn’t remember anything but these memories seem to come easily. He tends to do better when thinking about his youth and he seems to understand her questions so she pushes forward.
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“What kind of martial arts did you do back then?”
This gets a big open mouthed laugh out of him with his mouth still full of baked beans. ”You don’t know it. No one knows it anymore. Or at least not many.”
He’s talking and seems lucid but if anything Jia has more questions than when they started. Maybe she’s not asking the right questions? “What did you do during the war grandpa?”
His face gets serious. “We did it all. Saw it all. I don’t want to think about that. It’s over. We won.”
He trails off and this line of questioning is clearly agitating him. Jia decides to stop for now and just get him back to enjoying his game shows. His smile returns as he makes his way to his chair and gets back to watching people win fabulous cash and prizes.
She sits with him for a couple hours. They’re mostly silent but every once in awhile one of them will comment on one of the contestants. She’s really not sure what to ask. She doesn’t want to upset him again. Her reward today may need to be getting to see him. She always used to make a point of stopping by his house at least once or twice a month when she was home.
Since she returned from college the visits have been less common. It’s hard to see him like this when there are so few good days now. She wishes she had a way to know when they’d be. It’d be amazing to look at him and see recognition in his smile.
Sensing her grandpa is reaching the end of his rope and will probably want to take a nap soon, Jia considers one final attempt at getting answers. That is why she came but she doesn’t want to leave on a low note. The only thing she can think to ask safely is, “Grandpa, how are things with your daughter Lia?”
It’s like watching him refuel before her eyes. His head straightens and his smile stretches wide. “Wonderful girl. Smart. Tough. Why do you ask? Do you know her?”
“Yes grandpa, she’s my mom. Does she know the same martial arts you do?”
His smile wavers a bit but doesn’t leave his face. It’s definitely sadder now though. “I taught her everything I could. She had the potential to be even better than me. Maybe she even was better than me, I don’t know. She never wanted it though. Didn’t want to follow in my footsteps or take over. My father taught me and I wanted to pass down my knowledge to her. I guess I did pass it down. She probably won’t pass it to her kids but at least it doesn’t die with me. My father would be proud I tried.”
There’s no more. Takeshi trails off and is soon absorbed in his show. His head starts to sag again and after a few minutes more Jia can hear snoring coming from his chair. He’s out cold and probably will be for the next few hours. That lunch could put anyone to sleep. She could use a nap herself but knows she has a long ride ahead. She sits with him for a few minutes before hearing a light knock at the door. She turns to see a nurse smiling at her. “I’m just going to leave his medicine here on the table. He’s better than most at taking it. I’m sure he’ll do so once he wakes up.”
Jia smiles and nods but at first doesn’t say anything. As the nurse turns to leave, she realizes the woman may be able to help her. “How’s he doing? He doesn’t seem to know me at all today. How many good days are there at this point?”
With a pained look the nurse says, “Today actually is a pretty good day. He knows who he is and kind of has an idea where he’s at. He doesn’t remember everything or much recent, but that’s about as good as he does at this point. Once in awhile he’ll have a really lucid day but no more than one or two a month. There are some days where he doesn’t have a clue where he is. Even a day or two where we’ve had to restrain him to stop him from leaving. That’s not as easy as you’d think with a man his age either. He’s really strong. He dislocated one of the attendants’ shoulders last week. No major damage but it had to be popped back into place.”
Glancing at her snoring grandfather, Jia almost laughs. He looks strong for his age but doing that kind of damage to someone young who does this all day? At his age? Thanking the nurse, it’s time for her to hit the road. Thankfully the trip home should be easier than her trip here, but she’s stuffed from lunch and it’s gotten warm outside. As she waves goodbye to the orderly at the front desk she’s glad she didn’t smuggle in the wine she almost brought. This is already going to be a volatile trip. Add booze to the equation and her last memory of that glorious lunch would be seeing it again on the side of the road.
Mostly Jia can let the mountain do the work for her. Drifting slowly downward, she knows she’ll eventually get home as long as one of these drunks on the road doesn’t side swipe her. That’s one of the downsides of biking in Napa Valley. There’s always a lot of drunk people driving around here. Practically the whole point of the region is to drink all the time so the cops tend to be lenient. As long as you’re not swerving back and forth across the road they give you a wide berth. Sometimes people don’t start swerving until it’s too late though. She’s never been hit but more than a few people have come close. It’s enough to make a girl nervous when hurtling down the side of a mountain.
As she pedals onto her street, Jia can’t wait to reach home and get that wine. Nothing washes chicken down like a nice pinot. A few more minutes and she can open a bottle. Pushing herself down this final road, a blue convertible rips past, though not close enough to worry her. She’s surprised to realize it’s her little brother Shin sitting in the driver’s seat. She thought he said he was leaving town for awhile the last time she saw him. Where’d he get a car like that? Last she knew he was unemployed and living in LA. How can he afford something that nice? Maybe mom and dad will know.
Reaching the winery, she hops off her bike and throws it in the shed outside the back door. The winery’s closed for the day but that’s not an issue. She has a key. Making her way inside, she doesn’t bother to flip on the lights before heading for the fridge to see what’s left from the day. They make a point of drinking the leftover bottles before opening new ones. Wine’s never as good the next day, better the customers get a fresh bottle.
Disappointment washes over her when she realizes there’s no pinot open. The only red is a barbera and she can’t stand it. The more she thinks about it, the more she realizes she isn’t in a red mood. It got really warm on the ride back and she wants something to cool down. That immediately sends her in the direction of their sweeter whites where she finds a half bottle of moscato. She also grabs a half bottle of rosé sitting there. They don’t make rosé but it was hot this year so they made a deal with a winery down the street to carry theirs.
Locking the winery behind her, she makes her way to the house. Entering through the side door, Jia announces her arrival and hears, “in here,” from the kitchen. Her dad’s standing at a counter pounding out pork chops for dinner while chatting with her mom who has already started a bottle of her own. Happy to see the party’s started, she grabs a glass and pours some moscato while throwing the rosé in the fridge.
“I saw Shin as I was pulling up. Is he back home? I thought he was heading back to LA a few weeks ago.”
Her dad shrugs. “Kind of. He’s staying with friends over in Sonoma. Just stopped in to say hi, let us know he’s alive, that sort of thing.” Shin has a tendency to go missing and not get in touch with them for days or even weeks at a time. He’s a couple years younger than Jia and at one point they didn’t hear from him for nearly two years. Her dad was a mess the whole time, though her mom mostly just shrugged and said she was sure he was fine. She’d been the same way when she was younger, needing to get out and explore. He eventually showed back up and acted like he’d never been gone.
Dad says dinner will be ready in thirty minutes so Jia heads upstairs to her room. On her way she notices someone has been in the attic. The stairway leading to it which tucks into the ceiling is still pulled down and she can see light shining from the hole. She considers going to her room but something tells her she needs to go up there. The stairs are creaky and she tries to keep quiet, sipping her drink the entire way.
Someone was digging through the loads of junk stored here. The boxes which are usually stacked neatly against a wall are in disarray. She finds a bunch of the boxes are labeled, “Serenity.” She pulls the lid off the first one she can lay her hands on and sees a bunch of newspaper clippings and notebooks. Just as she’s starting to look she hears her mother call from the kitchen, “Do you want wine with dinner?”
For some reason Jia freaks and throws the box’s lid. She knows she shouldn’t, she has things up here after all, but she can’t help it. She’s snooping and knows she shouldn’t be. She calls down that yes, she would like wine, before retrieving the lid, closing the box, and immediately going down the stairs. She makes sure to leave the light on and not put the stairs up. Whoever was up there, she doesn’t want them to know she was as well.