Light From Uncommon Stars(15)

However, this had been her third time back to the Big Donut, and though the donuts had been impeccably consistent, Donut Lady had either not been present or passed by quickly, barely saying hello.

Well, Donut Lady was probably married, since she had kids. And even if she was a single mom, she was probably looking for good man, anyway.

And it wasn’t as if Shizuka had time to start dating.

“Then I’ll have a Texas Donut.”

“We don’t have a Texas Donut. Kindle Donuts has one, so you should go there.”

“Excuse me?”

“Wait! Please!” came a frantic voice from the back. The older sister, Shirley, rushed to the counter.

“Sorry, ma’am. He usually doesn’t work the counter—”

“But you told me to be helpful, and I was being helpful!”

“Come on, Edwin…”

Shizuka watched as Shirley pushed him into the kitchen. Then she turned back to the counter and fell into the firmament of Donut Lady’s eyes.

“Welcome back,” Donut Lady said.

“One Alaska Donut, cut in half?” Shizuka finally managed to say.

“Sure thing,” Donut Lady said, just as she always had.

“See? I told you, she should just get two smaller donuts,” Shizuka could hear the boy say from the back.

“Shhh! Mother is taking care of this. And remember, you always give the customer what they ask for!”

Donut Lady gave Shizuka her order, then rushed away. Shizuka went to her usual table with her coffee, her half donut, and her other half donut.

She sipped her coffee, as before. She ate her half donut, just as before. Frantic bathroom trip excepted, everything was as before. Other customers were looking at her, as before. As before, she was alone.

No matter. Shizuka did not belong here. She was only here for the half donut and the coffee. She was only here to connect with a student, and once she found that student, she need not ever return.

As for Donut Lady?

If she had a song for every moment that might have been.

Shizuka put a lid on her coffee and looked for a napkin to wipe her hands.

“Mother, she’s leaving! Talk to her,” Shirley said.

“Oh no,” Lan said. “Next time. Next time for sure.”

“You said that last time. I think she’s looking for a napkin.”

“I can give her a napkin,” Edwin offered.

Shirley rolled her eyes.

“Edwin, go say hi to Aunty. Mother, here. Napkins. And take this—she’ll need a to-go bag.”

“No, wait—”

Shirley pushed her mother to the front of the shop. Seriously. Sometimes organic brains …

“Here are some napkins,” Lan said. “And a bag for your half donut.”

“Thank you. I’m so sorry for the confusion,” Sunglass Lady said.

“No, no I’m sorry, Miss—”

“Shizuka.”

“Oh. Here you go then.”

Shirley watched her mother thrust the napkins and the bag at the woman.

No, no, no! Shirley thought. Mother, you can do this. She told you her name! Now tell her yours. Mother. Tell her your name.

“What’s your name?” her mother asked.

Shirley cringed. Mother, she already told you that!

But the woman smiled. “Shizuka. It’s a Japanese name … And yours is?”

“Shizuka…”

Mother!

“I mean Lan! My name is Lan Tran.”



* * *



Katrina coughed, then winced. The magical day with that violin teacher seemed ever more distant and unbelievable. She’d searched “Shizuka Satomi” on the Internet. No images, no music, no nothing. A few articles mentioned a teacher in Europe by that name, but she would have been far older than that woman in the park.

Skylar was sure it was a scam. Evan suggested she was a tranny chaser who was hoping to give Katrina more than violin lessons.

“Lesbian tranny chaser … ewww … That is so wrong,” Jewel had said. She pointed to the violin case.

“So you want to make videos?”

“Y-yes,” Katrina said. “I’m doing covers of gaming music and some anime. I already posted a few online, and I thought maybe Evan might help—”

Jewel rolled her eyes. “Gaming music? That is so lame!”

“Oh wow, I always wanted a fiddle. How much did you pay for it?” asked Aidynn.

“I-it’s from China. Not too expensive.”

“China … fucking master’s tools. bell hooks said that,” Skylar said.

bell hooks? Katrina had been sure Skylar had quoted Audre Lorde, but what could her violin have to do with Audre Lorde?

Then Evan started talking about wanting to take up the ukulele. Aidynn and Jewel fangirled about a TV show where there was a pawnshop and how weird cool it was and how one day they wanted to check something like that out.

Eventually, Katrina must have fallen asleep. When she came to, Evan had something in his hand.

“How do you play this with no frets?” Evan asked. He was strumming it like a ukulele.

“No! You’ll break it!” Katrina shouted. She reached for it, but Evan pulled it away.

“Dude, chill. I’ve got it ukulele-tuned, but the strings kept slipping and buzzing.”