There's always something that makes me return to what I seemed to have abandoned. I have no excuse for not writing. I just didn't feel like it. Life just got too busy. And it's amazing how many things can change in so little time. Caro is a mother of a healthy baby boy. They named him Christopher, after her husband's late father. A rather boring name if you ask me, but the baby is cute and doesn't seem to be bothered with it, yet. Mom returned to Salinas for a little while. Caro is doing fine in New York, didn't need mom's help, so she returned here to see if she could assist Granna who was raising me. I was raising me, of course and only let Granna help me. I love Granna. She convinced mom I was doing fine and didn't need her help, so mom took a job as a caterer in Las Vegas and took off again. We now Skype a lot, which is far better than having her around to breathe down my neck.
My dad Morris and his wife did not stay in town, despite the fact their kids adapted pretty well. His wife just couldn't settle here in the west. So they went back to Delaware and decided to spend their summer holidays here. I was a bit disappointed, because it was fun hanging out with their kids, my half-brothers and sister. But I'll see them in the summers, when I'm here. I am now living in their house. Granna's granddaughters Emmy and Rachel moved into mom's house, so Granna can keep an eye on them. They're students at the university of Monterey Bay, but preferred to live off campus. My kinda people! They're nice and I sometimes hang at their place, my old home. Or they give me a ride to the beach and then pick me up again when they go home after school. They're twins, have I mentioned this already? I guess not. They're real twins. They dress alike. They think alike. They sound alike. But I can easily tell who's who.
I am on a sabbatical. Morris decided Caro needed her money now, being a mother and all and so he also gave me mine. But it's not as if I am spending it whenever and however I can, no. Not like that at all. And I don't hang out at the beach every day. There's lots of stuff I do.
There's something I need to tell you about Tommy? Remember I was wondering about the keys he gave me? And how I was kind of lingering, to open the deposit box? Well, I finally succombed and opened it. It contained a biscuit tin full of letters from strangers. Old letters. And a note he wrote. To me. That was really weird, to suddenly hear his voice again after so long. I put the stuff back, took the note and went home. And then I read the note again.
This was months ago, you know. A lot has happened since. I've learned so many things I did not know before. But given the current events happening, the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, and its impact on the whole world, I felt compelled to start writing again. I can't just keep this to myself!
Some of the letters were from American-Japanese citizens who were forced to live in the Salinas Assembly Center during the war, back in 1942. The center was on the California Rodeo Grounds. America was at war with Japan, so everyone who looked like the enemy or who had Japanese ancestry, was relocated to these internment camps. For national security reasons.
Some people say it's karma. What's now happening in Japan? Because they don't treat animals well. They keep on hunting down whales, fishing for tuna in the ocean while there hardly is any tuna left. So the sea, the water settled the score. The water rushed ashore fiercely, conquered the land and devoured all on its path. Some people even say it might still be connected to what happened in World War II. It makes me wonder. I mean, there are so many things America did wrong, in the past. They should not have kept these people prisoners the way they did, right? They took away their homes, their livelihoods, their career options, their education. They took away everything. If life is about karma, what can America expect then, for its wrongdoings?
