The four-hour drive from his home was unremarkable. It was a quick jaunt that barely stirred up an appetite for lunch especially after his mom’s hardy-as-usual breakfast. The Rand McNally map proved accurate, guiding his route to the small college town and then further to the university’s main graduate residence hall without the slightest course deviation. The residence, which would be his home for coming year on campus, loomed 14 stories high over a nearly full parking lot. He had arrived a bit late in the morning. Obviously, a good number of incoming students had beaten him there. After locating a free spot, he jumped out and eagerly walked toward the entrance. The university’s East Asian Studies department, which featured several renowned scholars, had offered him sufficient financial support to embark on a study Chinese philosophy and literature, with the goal of obtaining a Ph.D. and eventually becoming a professor.
As he exited the lot, he passed near to someone standing on the side smoking a cigarette. He noticed that this fellow appeared to be of Asian descent. He interpreted this as a good omen considering his future academic intentions and decided to approach to say hello. The fellow returned the greeting in a heavy Japanese accent.
Kazufu was there to attend graduate school. He had come from Tokyo to pursue doctoral studies in English literature. He had left his wife and child behind, but they would come over to join him sometime in the new year.
What good fortune. he was aware that he would need to add minor in another East Asian language for his doctoral studies. Japanese could absolutely fit that bill, especially since the Japanese have been studying China for centuries and would therefore offer interesting perspectives on Chinese philosophy and literature.
At the end of the short conversation, Kazufu invited him for some tea at 8 pm in the residence’s ninth-floor lounge – quite a nice way to enhance his language and academic objectives.
Buoyed by this encounter, he waltzed into the lobby to register and receive his room assignment and key. After grabbing his things from the car, he ascended to his eleventh-floor room to settle in and wait for dinner. Later, he was pleasantly surprised to encounter two fellow undergrad alums in the food line down in the hall cafeteria. They too had come to the university for graduate studies, Dave for French and Dan for Spanish. The great day had continued.
While they were eating, he mentioned that he had seen an ad in the local paper for a French movie showing at a downtown cinema. The film was at 10. They all decided to go; and since he had his car, he would drive. Dave and Tom finished their meals and returned to their rooms. They would all rendezvous in the hall lobby at around 9.
He went to grab some coffee and a couple cookies. When he returned, he noticed a cute blond girl sitting over at the next table and asked whether he could join her. She obliged. A native Hoosier from Indianapolis, Gail intended to do a master’s degree in library science. They had a pleasant conversation. Though she was not necessarily his type of girl, she did seem congenial, so he took the opportunity to invite her to join him and his friends for the movie later in the evening. She agreed. He would come get her at around 8. He wanted to allow enough time to drop in at the ninth-floor lounge for that tea invitation.
At 8 he knocked on Gail’s door on the tenth floor. She was already set to go when he mentioned the tea invitation. Gail seemed reluctant to go. This was a bit of a quandary for him, and her reaction made him hesitate a moment. No, he conjured a different calculation: Which was more important, go out on a group date with this cute but not quite interesting lady or take advantage of an opportunity to further his connection with a native language informant. He voted for Japanese.
They descended to the ninth floor. Sure enough, Kazufu was there standing in the lobby with a kettle pouring hot water into a Japanese-style teacup. He hailed them over to join. At least three other people were sitting, talking, and drinking tea. One was a beautiful and intriguing young woman. He could not make out her ethnicity. Dark caramel skin, Asian of sort, perhaps Filipina.
He introduced himself, and when she replied he detected another foreign accent – French. Asking her name and where she hailed from, he was blown away by her reply. Wow! She was the first person he had ever met from that distant island country. Accordingly, he continued en français. She seemed pleasantly surprised and asked where he had learned French. He told her he had recently lived in Paris and had attended classes at the Sorbonne. She had an amazing smile. He also told her that he knew where her country was located, that it was a former French colony, that a number of very exotic and unique animals lived there, and of course that he looked forward to hearing more about it. And by the way what is your room number?
She in turn said that she had arrived a week earlier in Bloomington. Flying in a puddle jumper from Chicago over the vast corn fields of Indiana, she felt that she was going to be studying in some rural hinterland. She told him that he was the first person she had met since her arrival who knew anything about her home country. He dared not mention how he knew where the country was located – through playing a popular strategy board game. Her island is often one of the last places left on the board to acquire.
Gail stood there quietly making a long face. Evidently, she was not comfortable with this conversation done in a foreign language. He quickly got the message, turn to thank Kazufu, and bid all goodbye as he led Gail out of the lounge to meet Dave and Dan in the lobby. The group proceeded to his car and then drove to the theater.
La nuit américaine (English title: Day for Night) is a romantic comedy-drama set in a story about the making of a movie. It had won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film that year. The film was quite good, but what caught most of his attention most was the male lead, Pierre Léaud. As the film kept running, he came to realize that he resembled the famed French actor especially in facial appearance. In addition, the first name of the main actor’s girlfriend happened to be the same as that of the exotic lady whom he had just encountered. Interesting.
The film ended, and the group shuffled back to the car. He returned everyone safely to the residence hall and bid all good night as each exited elevator to their respective floors, including Gail. She was a pleasant girl, but his thoughts were elsewhere.
The following evening after dinner, he knocked on the door of room 931.
A surprised, but beaming exotic lady opened the door. She invited him to enter, and a long conservation ensued. They had a long conversation about her home country, the reason for coming to the US – receiving a Fulbright for a Ph.D. in American studies, and so on. After a while, he suggested that they continue with a walk on the campus.
They walked and talked and walked and talked on into the warm late summer evening, going past sunset. They continued all the way up to within view of the university basketball stadium. Suddenly she became aware that she had left the dorm in night slippers. The long walk the sidewalk and street pavement had worn through the sole of one of her slippers. They laughed.
From that day on, they were a constant item in the residence and often on campus.
But Gail obviously did not forget that movie night. She began to act in a bizarre fashion. Whenever she encountered them in the residence or on campus – in a corridor, at the cafeteria, at the nearby convenience store, and so on. She would make strange faces or scowl or just glare. It was weird and at times even bothersome. He could never understand how going out to see a movie for just one night, and on a group date to boot, could generate such a reaction.
This odd behavior continued for about three to four months. Then one day when they were each doing their own laundry down in the basement, he noticed that Gail and another person were also in the room. Just as they had, the two had just put their clothes into the dryers and were exiting the room to wait elsewhere for the laundry to dry. All four then entered the elevator at the same time.
Upon entry Gail immediately turned toward the man, threw her arms around the very rotund fellow and squeezed him, almost to death. When the elevator reached their floor, they immediately tumbled out and rolled onto the floor laughing as the elevator door closed. They had realized that Gail had at last found her man. That was the end of the end of stalking.
A year later Kazufu’s wife and child arrived from Japan, and he invited them again for some tea to celebrate. When they had all gathered at Kazufu’s apartment, he told them that the tea invitation the previous year was done on purpose. As the senior Japanese person in his dorm room, he felt obliged to try hooking up his bachelor roommate with a female friend. However, as is custom in Japan, he also felt the need to test first how well his proposed candidate would do in a social setting before introducing her to his suitemate and fellow countryman. Well, the exotic lady sure had passed part of the test. They all then burst into laughter about that memorable day.
The matchmaking magic at that moment had been mighty, just misdirected!
© 1975, Kenneth Koziol. All rights reserved.
