Master Yoshi

"All those scenes were incredibly racist, both real racist and the kind of fake-racist stuff the cartels pull to make it seem like it's not business."

"So, with the increasing violence, whole families murdered and burned, police disappeared, the US agents started a task force and included some of the Elders, meaning, me."

"Fast forward to last week, things start getting really messed up. You two drew out a wanted fugitive, David "Duke" Powell. More than that, you managed to enable the capture a whole group - your family and some others living on the other side of your property - high ranking Aryan Brotherhood folks."

"So, it wasn't just your two moms and dad - who isn't really your dad, by the way. The raid on that farm, and the interviews you gave, girls, about how the trail cameras were hidden all over this county, is a firestorm that's got ... LOTS of people in hotel rooms and conference centers tracing down leads right now. That, and the 'Poop Camera'. You got some REALLY interesting shots on that thing."

"Meanwhile, you're happily oblivious to this, living your little high school lives and thinking you dodged a bullet. That ain't workin. That dog don't hunt." She laughed grimly, "Ain't gonna no more. Your whole house and phones are bugged and every word you've said, almost certainly, in the past week since then is on paper in two places - Homeland Security or NSA, and whatever organization the Aryan Brotherhood is running. Might be the Sinelona Cartel."

We all inhaled. We were dead people walking.

"Yeah, you get it now? This racist crap is a front. Sure, it's also racist, but it's big business. Your family here, it's about to get dead, just to close off a loose end, and unfortunately, Breet here, my granddaughter, is another end.... Breet, get the P box."

"Yes, Elder Horse."

I almost laughed at her saying that, but it was so mundane at the same time. In that moment, Breet was being an Elder's assistant first, and a granddaughter second.

The fact that the girl that was Jane's friend, who had the apple dessert waiting and held the cellphones, was this important lady's granddaughter, fit together and I got a better picture.

Picking up a small box, Breet started handing out... passports? "Take one, open it, hand it to who it belongs to." This was a girl who was in charge. Her voice made that an order, and I knew that came from her knowing things we didn't.

Taking the passport, I looked at it closer. It was a newer design than the one I'd had tucked away from long ago when we went to Japan.

"Issued the day before yesterday, I called in a favor and got it done fast."

"So, Marta, Mack, I couldn't get ones for you, or for your other kids. You're going to have to hoof it, fast and far. I suggest ... hell, I'm not going to say, you might actually go there. If I'm tortured, I'd have to say. Don't tell me squat."

They nodded grimly. I think they had gotten some more info than we had, Marta was taking this better than I thought. I was just kind of in shock.

"Kevin. Some of this hinges on you, sorry to say. It's my price. You talked about 'arranged marriages?' Well this is gonna be one. Every arranged marriage has a negotiation phase, the parents get together and decide if the match is good, and if money has to change hands to make things more equal. My price is, my granddaughter, for about $700,000 in cash."

I was confused. "You want to sell me your granddaughter?" I tried to make a silly voice since nothing else made sense.

"You marry her. Right here, right now. I give you and your family, total, $700k, to take her away and make her safe. I know you enough to know, you're worth it."

"We don't have a..."

"No rings needed, or Marta can let you have hers. Hell, I'll give you mine, but you'd best pawn it, it's pretty distinctive.". She pulled off a ring and handed it to Breet.

Breet was strangely calm at this. I looked at her. "You're okay with this?"

"Grandma has her priorities. I know all about you. If I stay here, or really anywhere in the Nation or the USA, I'm pretty sure they'll find me and kill me. I've known for a while, been hiding out. We have to vanish. She's giving me an out, and if you are ... a possible way out... yeah. I honor my traditions, I swore that oath 5 years ago."

"Uh..."

Marta said, in one of her typical enigmatic religious phrases, "Path of life diverging."

Tallia, not one to be in the middle of anything, turned to me, desperate but fierce in her eyes, "If you're marrying HER, too...?"

I nodded an understanding at her and held up a hand.

Spring Horse looked at me. "You have a counteroffer?"

I looked at Tallia, not quite believing this was happening. "Tallia, will you marry me?"

She replied fast with, "Oh, yes!" I think she was going to hug me but Mack grabbed her and held her back. This was not done yet.

I turned to Breet. "Breet, I don't know what to ask."

Surprising the hell out of me, she knelt on the ground, one knee, and crossed one arm across her chest, but was silent.

Spring Horse said, "She's doing a thing she does with me sometimes, she's promising "yes", and without question, it's ... a yes to everything."

I looked down. There was a choice here, but it was me being put into an arranged marriage instead of me being the sort-of instigator. Well, what comes around goes around, I thought, and held out my hand to Breet to stand.

As she stood, I said, "Breet, uh... just Breet? Uh... Will you marry me?"

She smiled at me, but her look of worry, I just knew, wasn't about me. Her eyes glancing at the door and at her watch told me that. She said, "I accept. Yes. As an Equal, though. I'm not second to anyone."

I was confused, "Of course?"

"Good."

Looking back at Elder Horse, I asked, "We don't have a preacher here?"

Spring Horse shook her head like, no, this was incorrect. "I'm a tribal elder, a religious leader of 250,000 people in four states. My marriages are more binding than county law. The Cherokee Treaties are with the US government, federals. If I say you're married, you're married."

I looked at her. That was kind of definitive.

She looked over at Jane. "You ready? Ken?"

They looked at each other, surprised.

"You're BOTH just as dead as they are, you don't get outta dodge. Everything you said in that house was recorded. You'll be tortured first though, it's not pretty. I could marry Breet off to you, Ken, but I don't know you well, and I've been reading a lot about Kevin here lately. Jane, you ready? It's my condition for you getting to safety, I don't want bodies on my conscience, so it's my price. And, it's my money's gonna make this happen."

The attention moved, and Spring Horse said, "Well, Ken, you need to ask."

Ken turned to my sister and said, recognizing the moment, "Jane Cooper, will you marry me?"

Jane looked at me and at Spring Horse, then back at Ken and (with a logical voice), "Yes."

I was pretty sure we'd figure out what the emotions of all this meant later.

Spring moved forward and started getting people lined up in groups - me with Breet and Tallia on either side, and Joanie and Carrie behind us, then Jane with Ken.

She spoke quickly. "My words at weddings are simple: Love, Honor, Respect. Give these things, in equal measure. Request these things, do not demand. Give more than you get. Kevin, do you take Tallia and Breet, to join you, Carrie, and Joanie, in sacred and ancient traditions of Marriage, holding each as a treasure and giving of yourself, if so, say, 'I do'?

"I do."

"Breet and Tallia, do you take Kevin, Joanie, and Carrie, in lawful and ancient traditions of Marriage, giving of yourself and building an honorable tribe, if so, say, 'I do'?"

They said, "I do."

Moving on to Jane and Ken, she repeated it for them.

"Very well. In sight of the ancestors and the Great Spirit moving in me, I declare these marriages sacred and binding on your souls and bodies. Let all who witnessed feed Life and make a clear path to help them and the promise of their Gifts."

I had a feeling 'gifts' meant kids. I wasn't sure I wanted those right away, but I had no problem with the idea.

Otherwise, it was beautiful. Tallia stepped towards me and we kissed, a slow, passionate one.

Breet was next, and it was odd since I'd never met her before and there she was, kissing me. Admittedly it wasn't quite as full of passion as with Tallia but that was understandable.

I turned and got inspired. I needed to make sure there was some equality around expressions of love, maybe? It felt right. I said, "Tallia and Breet, please kiss Joanie and Carrie. Seems to me we're... all in this."

They did, though it was more pro-forma and I didn't know what I expected would happen, because of course it was.

Marta came over and gave me a big hug and kiss on the cheek, and even Mack gave me a hug.

Spring Horse interrupted this. "You have maybe another few minutes, and you've gotta get going. The van outside is gassed and ready."

She moved to the door to the garage, ready to open it. "Get in and go. There's no time for long goodbyes with Marta... or me, Breet. I'll burn your cellphones. Money is in bags in the van. Live your lives. Make happy babies. Be your best selves. Live, and may Justice yet prevail."

I gave Marta one last hug, and the group of us, two married 'groups', got in a now-crowded rusted Chevy Suburban, and drove off, ducking below the level of the windows so we weren't visible.

The Ancient and the New

Our voyage is complete, now, and I'm writing this with the intention of sealing it in the shrine vault.

The Shinto priest gave me what amounts to an absolution, dissolving the blessing/curse that my mother had (accidentally?)(requested?) invoked those many years ago. To perform the ceremony, though, he had to make the balance even.

He said, he had no way of knowing if we were net in the negative, meaning suffering accumulated, or in the positive, joy accumulated, area. The balance being restored mean these were no longer being stored, for us. We could specify that if we had extra joys to give to someone else, we could do that, but it might not have the intended effect.

I told him that my joy would be to see justice done on the people who made us have to run away, so we didn't have to run anymore. If I owed suffering for that, I would sacrifice to make that happen, to keep my wives and 19 children safe, and my sister and her husband and kids safe, too.

I knew that could mean I'd be hit by a bus or whatever thing, later that day, and oddly I was okay with that.

The priest laughed and said wishes for Justice where suffering has been prepaid, they are clear and blessed already, and saying that before being told made good results far more assured.

I counted myself lucky, and decided that I really was hoping for 'Master Yoshi', a distortion of the Japanese word, 'masayoshi', a trial judgment. It wasn't my name, but in a way it was my life.

Whether or not the blessing or curse was true or not, and I believe it was, it has had a profound effect on my life.

My unjust suffering at the hands of mean people around me, I felt, had accumulated.

Some suffering wasn't unjust.

Practicing piano for endless hours gave me skill and happiness as time went on.

Running cross country and track practices full of physical pain gave me skill and self assurance.

However, suffering the loss of two parents and estrangement from my immediately nearby sister, for far too long, was unjust suffering at the hands of damaged sibling/cousins.

Being threatened with death or torture at the hand of a distant enemy, these were unjust hardships, too.

But, I may have the last laugh.

I have deep joys. I have beautiful, capable, loving, imperfect, delicious, oddball, wonder-filled wives.

I have growing joys. Each of them has given kids to us, to our larger family, and to the world. Each of those kids has their own separate brilliant light-in-a-dark-room case of affirming the glory of God and wisdom of the Great Spirit.

Sometimes that glory and wisdom means making Really Large Messes, but, hey, there's some balance in the world, and great joys apparently require full bags of flour exploding all over living rooms. Choosing love is sometimes a challenge.

May you, dear reader of one hundred years passing, read of my life and find your own justice in the small and mundane and happy and joyous little feet around you.

May your suffering be affirming - and your joys boundless.

The end

== ==

Aster / Kylor Family:

Joanie Marie Kylor, Carrie's half-sister, same grade, also a runner, track, cc.

Carrie Melissa Aster, med-height dark-blonde trim exceptional ass, track, cc

Father: Oberon

Rachel Kylor, Joanie's mom

Ferne Aster, Carrie's mom

David "Duke" Powell

Others:

Pastor Jergins, Castlerock Evangelical Prayer Church

Paster David Boffers

Jim davis, fellow runner, faster.

Coach Diane

Mrs. Huffman, choral and band.

Brian Cardiff, friend from cross country

Brian's girlfriend, Sue

Ken, friend also from CC and friend of Brian, nice guy, very geeky-smart and funny.

Rocknit school principal

Mrs. Dawkins school admin

Rob Lowden, read riot act, good guy

My family (coopers):

Jane, sister, soccer-player / runner. Age 20. Dark long hair. Bossy, irritated.

Mom, died when Kevin age 6. Grew up in Japan but half japanese

Dad, died when Kevin age 8, american. Alcoholic.

Ortiz / Adopted family:

Mack: Oldest, car/tractor mechanic, 25

Jake: distant works-all-the-time brother, 22

Zeke: always conniving mean cousin-brother, 19, left for college

Brenda, psychopathic sister-cousin, 23 years old, left for work in Vegas

Tallia, sister-cousin (adopted), med-height, Estonian-Russian. Very shy.

Hank "uncle" Ortiz, died when Kevin is 8, same accident as Dad Cooper. Alcoholic.

Marta Ortiz, "aunt"/wife of Hank