Life as an afterthought

Chapter 5, page 12.

            "The woman in that book does what’s the right thing for her to do. And as a result she loses everything, even her own life. I think that might be the ultimate good deed, you do something you know you have to do, you just try to do what’s right, even if it will destroy you.”

              David shifted himself in the chair, nodded, made a “Hm” sound from somewhere between his mouth and nose, and took another sip of tea. His whole body language was saying he was uncomfortable with the direction their conversation was going. The abstract ideas didn’t seem to bother him, but it apparently wasn’t his favorite field. Junko understood he was basically a man of pragmatism, He belonged to a world where there were no internal struggles and agonies, just problems to solve and hurdles to overcome.

              “Do you have any brothers or sisters?” David asked.

              “No, I’m an only child. Do you?”

              “I have a sister. A younger sister. Name’s Jane.”

              “Is she in L.A.?”

              “Yeah, but I think she’ll move to San Francisco. She’s kind of a hippie.”

               “Wild child?”

              David laughed.

              “Something like that, yeah. She’s a student, but she’s not really going to her classes I think.”

              Junko laughed along, wondering why it was almost customary for everyone on campus to laugh when talking about a student who’s known for class-skipping habits. For Japanese college students, it was a sign of camaraderie, relief to know everyone else was doing it, not just you. She wondered what it was that made David laugh, what it meant in American universities. Were they secretly happy the competition would be not as tough? Or was it a sign of secret envy, for doing something they wished to but couldn’t really do for themselves?