Father Lucius's house was a small affair, set back from the main road. Takasan, the samurai from Jack's house, rang the bell hanging by the gate and
waited for a response.
Jack heard shuffling footsteps and the gate swung back. Father Lucius
appeared, bleary-eyed and wheezing.
'Welcome to my humble home, heretic. Do enter.'
Jack stepped through the gateway and into a small garden that bore little
resemblance to Uekiya's paradise. This was a muddy patch of root
vegetables and herbs. There were no ornamental features or pretty little
streams, just a solitary apple tree bearing the beginnings of a few fruit. The
garden was for growing, not contemplation.
Taka-san, having delivered Jack, bowed to them and left.
Father Lucius led Jack into a small room, simply furnished with a table,
two chairs and a makeshift altar. A large wooden crucifix adorned the back
wall.
'Take a seat,' instructed Father Lucius, who settled himself into the chair
on the opposite side of the table. He coughed sporadically into his
handkerchief.
'So how is the young samurai today?' mocked Father Lucius.
'Why have you summoned me?' said Jack, ignoring the priest's scorn.
'I am to teach you Japanese.'
'Why?' asked Jack, incredulous. 'You didn't seem too willing to help me
yesterday.'
'It is wise to do what Masamoto asks of you.' He looked Jack in the eye.
'We shall begin at this time every morning. You will do as I say, when I say.
Perhaps you can even be saved.'
'I don't need "saving". Teach me Japanese, but don't give me any of your
sermons –'
'Enough of your insolence!' Father Lucius slammed the flat of his hand
on the table. 'God protect you from your ignorance. We shall start. The
sooner you know their language, the sooner you can hang yourself with
your own tongue!'
He wiped his mouth of spittle, then continued.
'The key to the Japanese is their language. It has a vocabulary and
sentence structure all of its own. In a word, it is unique. It reflects their
whole way of thinking. Understand Japanese, and you understand them. Do
you follow so far?'
'Yes. I have to think like a Japanese person to speak it.'
'Excellent. I see your mother's taught you to listen at least.'
Father Lucius reached behind him and slid back a small panel in the wall
to reveal a cupboard, from which he removed a thick book and some paper,
a quill and ink. He laid them upon the desk and so the lesson began.
'Compared with other languages, Japanese is relatively simple to speak.
On the surface, it is less complex than English. There are no articles
preceding nouns, no "a", "an" or "the". The word hon may mean book, the
book, a book, books or the books.'
Jack was already beginning to think that a Jesuit sermon would have
been less painful than learning Japanese!
'There are no conjugations or infinitives of verbs…' Father Lucius
stopped abruptly. 'Why aren't you writing any of this down? I thought you
were educated.'
Jack grudgingly picked up the quill as instructed, dipped it in the inkpot
and began to write.
By the time Taka-san returned to collect him, Jack's head had become a
jumble of verbs and Japanese idiosyncrasies. But he refused to appear fazed
by Father Lucius's teaching and made a show of greeting Taka-san in
halting Japanese.
Taka-san gave a brief puzzled look, blinked, then smiled as he recognized
Jack's heavily accented Japanese greeting.
They returned to Hiroko's house, and immediately after lunch Jack was
ushered into Masamoto's room.
Masamoto sat on the raised platform, dominating the room like a temple
god on a sacred shrine, the inevitable armed samurai on ceremonial guard.
The black-haired boy was there too, silent and brooding by his side.
To Jack's dismay, Father Lucius entered through the other shoji and knelt
opposite Jack, but he had only been summoned to interpret again.
'How was your lesson with Father Lucius?' asked Masamoto, through
the priest.
'Ii desu yo, arigatō gozaimasu,' replied Jack, hoping he had pronounced
the words correctly to say 'Very good, thank you very much'.
Masamoto nodded appreciatively.
'Jack, you are a quick learner. That is good,' continued Masamoto
through a malcontented Father Lucius. 'I have to return to Kyoto. I have my
school to attend to. You will remain here in Toba until your arm has healed.
My sister, Hiroko, will look after you well. Father Lucius is to continue his
teaching and I hope that when I return you will be fluent in Japanese.'
'Hai, Masamoto-sama,' replied Jack, once Father Lucius had finished
translating.
'It is my intention to be back in Toba before the winter sets in. Now I
introduce to you my second son, Yamato. He's to stay here with you. Every
boy needs a friend – and he will be your friend. For in truth, you are now
brothers.'
Yamato bowed curtly, his eyes trained on Jack's. Hard and challenging,
they delivered a clear message: Jack would never be worthy enough to
replace his brother Tenno and he had no intention of being Jack's friend…
ever.