Wherever You Are

The meeting was filled with tension and awkward looks, but the rules were laid out in stone. Under no circumstances, celebratory or otherwise, was Leda allowed to drink. We shouldn't leave her alone, either. "At least not until we know for certain that she's not experiencing withdraws." I thought that was going to be the hardest part. From what I could tell, the only person who spent a lot of time with her was Michael and she nearly hated him, albeit a little less than she hated the rest of us. I didn't bring this up in the meeting, though. I didn't want to make everyone think negatively. Dani stressed the importance of staying positive, especially when speaking to Leda who no one doubted would be incredibly grouchy. Still, we had to try to help her for the sake of herself and the careers of the rest of us.

Michael said that the first day would be easy. He would ask Leda to take him out into the city, keeping her busy until it was time for the show. I thought about the two of them being forced to spend the morning together and I quickly volunteered to help. Realistically speaking, Leda would grow to hate Michael as soon as he suggested going into the city, but maybe I could act as the buffer between them. Sure enough, the three of us woke up around nine in the morning and left the hotel for a good place to play games. On the train, Leda admitted to having grown up on this side of the city. Michael asked her questions of interest, like how she liked growing up out of the country. Leda wasn't interested in sharing details though, so the last half of the ride was spent in silence. On the street, it was difficult to keep up. There were crowds of people moving in all directions, their shoulders nudging and shoving against me as I tried to take longer strides. Michael, on the other hand, had no problem in keeping up thanks to his long legs. He and Leda were tall, but I definitely wasn't, so I nearly got lost twice on the way to the arcade. It was worth it when we made it, though. Leda said that it was the best arcade in the city, and Michael's energy levels quickly sky rocketed to the rhythm of the blaring pop music. I didn't understand arcades on a general basis, but a Japanese arcade was like a world of it's own.

Half of the games on the floor distributed prizes of some sort. They were little anime figurines of characters that I didn't recognize, apart of a show that I didn't watch. Michael, however, had fallen in love. I had never seen someone as focused on anything as he was on video games. I couldn't help but feel like it was intense. Leda grew bored rather quickly and began to walk away from the games, towards the cafe section where people were ordering food. I couldn't read Japanese, but I eyed her drink rather carefully as they filled the glass. It was a simple milk shake with some sort of powder. When she took her first sip, I asked what it was. She rolled her eyes, her teeth gritting together before she answered. "It's just green tea. It's not like I'm going to get shit faced in front of ten year olds." I glanced around the large room, making note of the fact that there weren't many children. Most of the patrons were teenagers who seemed to be spending a lot of time standing around and talking, as if comparing prizes. It was incredibly disorienting to not understand a single word being said in that room, so I welcomed Michael's English speaking voice when I heard it. "Are you guys hungry? I need some food."

I glanced at my watch and was pleasantly surprised to see that we had lost hours in this arcade. To me, it had merely felt thirty minutes, but I wasn't about to complain. I had recently started my new diet and was glad to have something distract me so well from eating. I wasn't ready to eat lunch, but Leda agreed on the behalf of both us before I could give a response. I wasn't going to argue with her when she was already so annoyed with me, so we left the arcade and walked back to the station. Along the way, Leda asked Michael what kind of food he liked. She described different dishes like Yakisoba and Katsu, and other foods that I couldn't begin to pronounce because she made the sonds of the syllables so fast. I didn't even try to join in on the discussion, afraid of how hungry I might become if I indulged in fantasies about noodles and soups and vegetables. Instead, I tried to keep up as we walked through the crowded station and then stood off to the side of the platform. "Train should be here in about three minutes," Leda read the calligraphy on a television screen, and I was so in awe of it. I only spoke and read and wrote English, so having someone as well versed as Leda in such a busy and complicated city was a blessing. A short lived one, though.

"Leda Jeanine?!" I could hear the high pitched call of another English speaking person, and Michael and I turned around simultaneously to see who had called through the crowd. There were three people, clearly American. A thin woman who stood the same height as Leda, her brown hair was almost as long as she was. She was wearing an obnoxious dress that looked like faded denim with sunflowers stitched onto it. She walked closely to an incredibly tall man, a man who was taller than even Luke. He had a bald head, but wide rimmed glasses and wore an obnoxious sweater vest. They strode through the crowd, moving ever closer to us before I saw the third person. A young girl, no older than fourteen. Her hair was almost as long as her mother's, and certainly just as brown. I couldn't help but get creeped out. They looked as though they just walked out of "Sarah, Plain and Tall". Leda looked mortified, and my adrenaline rushed as the exchange began.

"What did you do to your hair? Is this how you're living your life?" The woman sounded incredibly angry, her voice practically scolding Leda as her hands reached out to touch the fluffy skirt of Leda's dress. She hesitated however as her hands cut short, too afraid to touch it. I wondered if she thought that such style was contagious. "This is fashion, mom." My throat instantly became dry at Leda's response. Was this her family? They still lived in Japan? They didn't even fit in among the crowd. "Fashion is a fallacy, LJ, you know that." Her father's voice was more stern than that of his wife's. He called her LJ and I thought I saw her lips twitch into a two second frown. "The world is bigger than the bible-" "Fallacy!"

He screamed it and I jumped, noticing that Michael did too before he took a step forward, ready to defend himself. Leda's family didn't bother to step back at all, and I questioned the kind of strained relationship they carried. "LJ, please come back to Jesus." The young girl spoke, her voice practically cracking as her eyes watered. Leda scoffed, perhaps unknowingly. "We need to be a family again, to praise God with our familial devotion." A loud announcement blasted from a speaker somewhere as a train hurtled towards the platform. Leda said nothing, and neither did Michael nor myself. Her family still had a lot to say, though. "Repent fast, LJ, or face God's wrath in the depths of hell." The young girl was in tears as the trio seemingly scuttled back into the crowd, being lead away by the father who whispered to his wife during their walk. Michael and I shared an awkward glance before turning our attention to Leda, whose pale face held no real emotional response. It seemed that both Michael and I were too afraid to ask, so we followed her onto the train instead and rode in silence.