When the Emperor Was Divine Read Online Free PDF Page B

again, and again she did not know what it was. She wondered where his wife was, or if he even had a wife at all. She looked for his ring finger but his ring finger was one of the fingers that was missing. “What’s he saying?” she whispered to her mother.
    â€œSomething about strawberries. He used to grow strawberries.”
    â€œThat’s very nice,” the girl said to the old man.
    He bowed his head and smiled.
    â€œHe doesn’t understand you,” said her mother.
    â€œYes he does.”
    Her mother took out a hairbrush from her purse and said, “Turn around.”
    The girl turned toward the window and closed her eyes as her mother began to brush her hair. “Pull hard,” she said.
    â€œWhat happened to your bow?”
    â€œHarder,” said the girl. The brush made a sound like soft cloth ripping. “It fell out.”
    â€œYou’ve got such pretty hair. You should wear it down more often.”
    â€œToo hot.”
    â€œWho were you talking to back there?”
    â€œNobody,” said the girl. “A man. A rich man.” She paused. “Ted,” she said softly. “He said to tell you everything would be all right.”
    â€œHe can’t know that for sure.”
    â€œHe said you were beautiful too.”
    â€œDid he?”
    â€œYes he did.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t believe everything a man tells you.”
    The girl turned around and looked at her mother’s face. There were little lines around her eyes that she had not noticed before. “When did you stop wearing lipstick?”
    â€œTwo weeks ago. I used it all up.”
    The girl stood up and shook out her hair. Outside the window she saw a restaurant on the side of the highway called Dinah’s Shack. Three big trucks were parked in front of Dinah’s Shack. There was no other building around for miles. Bright yellow lines were painted on the asphalt but the trucks had not parked between them. They had parked wherever they wanted to. The door to the restaurant opened and a man wearing boots and a cowboy hat stepped out into the heat of the day, laughing at something that someone inside—maybe it was Dinah—had just said to him. When he saw the train he stopped and watched the cars go by and then he touched the brim of his hat with his forefinger and walked across the lot to his truck.
    The girl did not know what it meant when a man touched his hat. Maybe it meant the same thing as a nod, or a hello. It meant that you had been seen. Or maybe it meant nothing at all. She reached into the pocket of her dress and fingered the knot on her ribbon. Then she reached for her scarf and turned to her brother. “Tell me something,” she said, “is this not the most beautiful scarf you have ever seen?”
    The boy sat up straight in his seat and blinked several times.
    â€œTell me the truth,” said the girl.
    â€œI always do.”
    â€œWell?”
    The boy paused. “I remember you wore a prettier one last year.”
    â€œI didn’t wear a scarf last year.”
    The girl turned around and looked down the aisle to see if Ted Ishimoto had come out of the lavatory yet. She saw the door open and a young woman with a baby come out. The baby was crying and its face was bright red. The front of the woman’s blouse was wet. Ted Ishimoto was gone.
    She reached into her suitcase and took out a worn pack of playing cards and began to shuffle the deck. “Pick a card,” she said to the boy, “any card.”
    The boy did not answer her. He was looking for something in his suitcase.
    â€œAll right,” she said, “
I’ll
pick a card.” She pulled out a card from the middle of the deck and slipped it out the window. “Guess what card that was.”
    â€œI am not in the mood for cards right now.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    â€œNothing,” said the boy. “I forgot my umbrella. I thought I brought