One Fateful Night

Where does one’s story begin or end? Is it precisely demarcated and bookended by a birth and a death or is its timeline more jagged than one can discern?

Mine began when I was born but it also started when Matthias decided to marry Isabella in 1910. Their union was the catalyst that catapulted my story into a dark container van pervaded by a stench that even death would find disgusting.

My great-grandfather, Matthias, was the only son of the third wealthiest man in New York City in the 1900s; but he was disinherited when he married my great-grandmother Isabella, a struggling doctor and scientist who didn’t have a single dime in her bank account. But the two of them worked together to build a name for themselves and established the most advanced pharmacological research company in North America.

Alejandra, the only daughter of Matthias and Isabella, married Akira Fukushima. Akira was the son of a proud Toronto-based Japanese family and they were opposed to his relationship to Alejandra from the get go; so they eloped, flew to Japan, and settled in a small town in the outskirts of Tokyo.

My father, Hansuke, got my grandma Alejandra’s blue eyes and curly hair and my granddad’s sense of humor. It was his knack for making people laugh that captivated my mother, Kumiko, when they met on a college hiking trip to Mount Fuji. Before they knew it, they were in love. But alas, the 'family curse' seemed to have touched their story as well.

Kumiko was the heir to Japan’s most successful pharmaceutical conglomerate -- Matthias and Isabella’s bitter rivals since the 1940s. When her parents got wind of her romantic alliance with Hansuke, she was shipped off to New York to finish her studies; but Hansuke was not about to let her go without a fight. He followed Kumiko to New York, opened a restaurant at the heart of Times Square, and married her against the objections of both their families.

“Momotaro Fukushima!” a harsh, sonorous voice interrupted my musings and brought me back to my dank reality inside a container van, where the only light came from a cellphone held by a man I couldn’t see but whose heavy breathing was disturbing enough it might as well have been Darth Vader who abducted me.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, trying to sound intimidating.

“Don’t worry we won’t hurt you. At least, not yet,” Darth Vader said.

“What do you mean? Who’s ‘we’? What have I done to you?”

“You haven’t done anything. Yet. But this is a warning so you would not do what you’re considering on doing.”

“I don’t speak riddles. I may be Japanese, but I’m not the smart kind; so please be straight with me.”

“Liliana.”

“Liliana who?”

“Liliana Montgomery. The girl you had dinner with two nights ago. She’s off limits. If I were you, I’d stay away from her if you value your life.”

“Lily! But I thought she was single. Are you her boyfriend? If I knew she was involved with someone, I’d never have gone out with her. I swear! Now can you please let me go! I promise to not even so much as look at her.” I never lie; I hate lying, but the situation called for it. Darth Vader didn't deserve the truth.

The truth is, I was in love with Lily. After that last night of rehearsal for the upcoming Spring Speech Festival in our campus, when Lily gave me the sandwich she made for her dinner because my hands shook from mild hypoglycemia, I knew I wanted her in my life. It was a grueling six months of rehearsals and I barely had time to eat or sleep. Lily and I worked closely during those months, but it wasn’t till that last night that I admitted what I have felt all along.

“Mo! I know that look. Who is she?” Anthony asked me when I got back to the dorm room after that last rehearsal night.

“Huh? Who? What?”

“You look like you experienced something you’ve never had before. You look star struck, my friend!”

“I am not!” I said.

Anthony was my best friend and I told him everything. But my growing feelings for Lily, I wanted to keep to myself. It was too special to be shared with anyone. But when Darth Vader indirectly forced me to denounce my love for her, my heart broke. No, Darth Vader didn't deserve the truth, but I was so scared the lie might catch up with me and become truth and I shuddered at the thought.

“She’s not my girlfriend. Liliana is the great-great-granddaughter of Marco Montgomery,” Darth Vader explained.

“Marco Montgomery? The railroad legend? The third wealthiest man in the world during his time? That Montgomery? But that’s my great-great-grandfather and he only had one child, Matthias.”

“But Matthias was disinherited, wasn’t he? Marco needed someone to uphold the family legacy so he adopted Benjamin, Liliana’s great-grandfather.”

“Ok... so what’s the problem? If Benjamin was adopted then Lily and I are not blood relatives. Why am I not allowed to date her? Besides, that’s ancient family history that she and I have nothing to do with.”

“It may be ancient family history; but it’s a history you know so little about and you have everything to do with it. I suggest you ask your parents about it. Just stay away from Liliana!”

All of a sudden, I felt a heavy fist land on my face. The next thing I knew I was lying on my bed inside my dormitory. I stared at the ceiling. It seems the 'family curse' has found its way to me and I wondered, “I love her, but is all this worth it?”

-----

Tonight, 30 years later after that incident, I couldn’t help but think how my life would’ve turned out had I answered that question differently. I turn in the bed and stare at the woman lying next to me. I gently move the wisps of long dark hair covering her face and I feel the love of centuries well up in me and a deep sense of gratitude for the decision I have made that one fateful night.