omens

i actually managed to drag my ass out of bed when my alarm went off at 9am for second day in a row, the rising sun of Nihon shining in my face. i put on my running clothes and heard an odd sound outside like a bamboo stick full of beans.

it was rain. a passing cumulonimbus was raining down in a freak sun shower. it made me think of Charlie Brown, how everything sort of rained on his little pocket of the world and how he'd feel sorry for himself about it... but i just sort of marvelled at it, thankful that i was actually awake to see it. i thought it was omenaic (omenaic, is that a word?) of something good to come. after watching the raindrops decline to the size of little fibreglass shards reflecting the white of the sun i went out for my run, through which i felt mostly alive for a change, even up that damn incline going to the park. ahhhh.... after the stagnation and overall ICK of last week kicked off by the consumption of a sunday night bottle of wine, maybe today would be a good day.

i was drying my hair when my phone rang. it was Yumi, from work.

"Chris-chan! it's Yumi. Manager wants you to give a model lesson at 1:30, so don't leave the school after you clock in."
"Um..." you'vegottabefuckingkiddingme " ok, what's her level?"
"I don't know, Yuri will give you details when you get in."

FUCK. i hate model lessons with a fiery passion as it is, let alone when i don't even know the student's damn speaking level. Tuesdays are supposed to be my easy day, and now i have to give a model lesson to some assclown businessman who can't get over himself enough to actually learn something from me, and then blame my manager for my poor teaching skills. shit shit shit.... so much for good omens.

but this visitor was nothing like i'd had in mind. Rieko came in at 1:30 on schedule. I said hello and gave my half-bow and half-nod. it was difficult to tell her age; like many Japanese women she could have been 19 years old or 35, and she was dressed in simple cargo pants and a blue hoodie.

the lesson began at 2:00. she'd lived in Australia for a year and a half, so i went out on a limb and taught her something from the Level 8 book, and she excelled. not only was her language great but... you know those rare times when you meet someone, and it feels like you were "supposed" to be friends with them? not in any kind of cheesy romance novel sort of way, i'm talking about that immediate friendship click that shatters any and all assumptions you might have about building trust and familiarity with time, and makes you think that maybe people really are connected to each other somehow. maybe that's not hippie new-agey bullshit after all.

at the end of the trial lesson (which turned into more of a drinking round minus the alcohol than a lesson really) i slipped back into Corporate Whore Teacher Mode and started recommending courses that would be a good fit for her. at which point she smile and whispered, with a slight Aussie twang:

"Can you keep a secret?"
"Yes, of course."
"Pinkie promise?"
"Yes, pinkie promise."

after we pinkie swore (something i haven't done since i was about 13 in my friend Laura's basement), she told me her secret. i can't disclose the contents of that secret--hey, i do not fuck with the Pinkie Promise--but i will say that she had no intentions of taking English lessons at my school, and hadn't in the first place. she had business-related ulterior motives for coming to school that day.

"oh, but... we are the same age and it would be fun to take your lesson... i'll miss you so much!!" spoken like we were lifelong friends at an airport about to depart to a different country after instead of a teacher and potential customer at a language school having met 30 minutes ago. "you won't tell anyone then?"
"no, of course not. can i tell you a secret?"
"yes."

there was more whispering about visas and work and whatnot, and she said she may know someone who could help me get a job and/or a visa. wow! a cool new friend, and a person who could quite possibly be an important work/visa connection. the freak sun shower turned out to be a good omen after all.

i looked up at the clouds; like the arm of a polar bear hugging the mountains miles away. when i walked home from work tonight, i breathed in the October air, air that smells the same way across the largest of the world's oceans, my favorite smell of fire and rot, death and rebirth.