Atlantic Ocean.
“My father,” Benjy said, “was born here in Boston, in America.”
Benjy started to sit down. “What about your grandparents?” Nai prompted. “Where were they born?”
“My mother’s mother, my grandmother,” Benjy said slowly, “was born in Africa.” He stared at the map for several seconds. “But I do not remember where that is.”
“I know, Mrs. Watanabe,” said little Nikki immediately. “May I show Benjy?”
Benjy turned and looked at the pretty girl with the jet-black hair. He smiled. “You can tell me, Nikki.”
The girl rose from her chair and crossed the room. She placed her finger on the western section of Africa. “Nonni’s mother was born here,” she said proudly, “in this green country. It’s called the Ivory Coast.”: “That’s very good, Nikki,” Nai said.
“I’m sorry, Nai,” Benjy now said. “I’ve been working so hard on fractions I haven’t had any time for geography.” His eyes followed his three-year-old niece back to her seat.
When he turned to face Nai again, Benjy’s cheeks were wet with tears. “Nai,” he said, “I don’t feel like school today… I think I’ll go back to my own house.”
“Okay, Benjy,” Nai said softly. Benjy moved toward the door. Patrick started to come over to his brother, but Nai waved him away.
The schoolroom was uncomfortably quiet for almost a minute. “Is it my turn now?” Kepler finally asked.
Nai nodded and the boy walked up to the map. “My mother was born here, in Thailand, in the town of Lamphun. That’s where her father was also born. My grandmother on my mother’s side was also born in Thailand, but in another city called Chiang Saen. Here it is, next to the Chinese border.” Kepler took one step to the east and pointed at Japan.
“My father, Kenji Watanabe, and both his parents were born in the Japanese city of Kyoto.”
The boy backed away from the map. He seemed to be struggling to say something. “What is it, Kepler?” Nai ‘asked.
“Mother,” the small boy said after an agonizing silence, “was Daddy a bad man?”
“Whaat?” said Nai, completely stunned. She bent down to her son’s level and looked him straight in the eyes. “Your father was a wonderful human being. He was intelligent, sensitive, loving, humorous-an absolute prince of a person. He…”
Nai had to stop herself. She could feel her own emotions ready to erupt. She stood up, gazed at the ceiling for a brief moment, and regained her composure. “Kepler,” she then said, “why are you asking such a question? You adored your father. How could you have possibly—”
“Uncle Max told us that Mr. Nakamura came from Japan. We know that he is a bad man. Galileo says that since Daddy came from the same place—”
“Galileo,” Nai’s voice thundered, scaring all the children. “Come here immediately.”
The boy scampered into the room and gave his mother a puzzled look.
“What have you been saying to your brother about your father?”
“What do you mean?” Galileo said, trying to look innocent.
“You told me that Daddy may have been a bad man, since he came from Japan like Mr. Nakamura.”
“Well, I don’t remember Daddy very clearly. All I said was that maybe—”
It took all of Nai’s self-control to keep her from slapping Galileo. She grabbed the boy by both of his shoulders. “Young man,” she said, “if I ever hear you say one word against your father again…”
Nai could not finish her sentence. She did not know what to threaten, or even what to say next. She suddenly felt completely overwhelmed by everything in her life.
“Sit down, please,” she said at length to her twin sons, “and listen very carefully.” Nai took a deep breath. “This map on the wall,” she said, pointing, “shows all the countries on the planet Earth. In every nation there are all kinds of people, some good, some bad, most a complex mixture of good and bad. No country has only good people, or bad people. Your father grew up in Japan. So did Mr. Nakamura. I agree with Uncle Max that Mr. Nakamura is a very evil man. But the fact that he is bad has nothing to do with his being Japanese. Your father, Mr. Kenji Watanabe, who was also Japanese, was as good a man as ever lived. I’m sorry that you cannot remember him and never really knew what he was like…”
Nai paused for a moment. “I will never forget your father,” she said in a softer voice, almost to herself. “I can still see him returning to our home in New Eden in the late afternoon. The two of you always shouted together, ‘Hi Daddy, Hi Daddy,’ as he entered the house. He would kiss me, lift both of you in his arms, and take you out to the swing set in the backyard. Always, no matter how trying his day had been, he was patient and caring…”
Her voice trailed off. Tears flooded Nai’s eyes and she felt her body beginning to tremble. She turned her back and faced the map. “Class dismissed for today,” she said.
Patrick stood beside Nai as the two of them watched the twins and Nikki playing with a big blue ball in the cul-de-sac. It was half an hour later. “I’m sorry, Patrick,” Nai said. “I didn’t expect to become…”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” the young man replied.
“Yes, I do,” Nai said. “Years ago I promised myself that I would never show such feelings in front of Kepler and Galileo. They can’t possibly understand.”
“They’ve forgotten it already,” Patrick said after a brief silence. “Look at them. They’re totally engrossed in their game.”
At that moment the twins were having one of their typical arguments. As usual, Galileo was trying to gain an advantage for himself in a game that did not have rigorous rules. Nikki stood beside the boys, following every word of their dispute.
“Boys, boys,” Nai called out. “Stop it. If you can’t play without arguing, then you’ll have to come inside.”
A few seconds later the blue ball was bouncing down the street toward the plaza and all three children were running gleefully after it. “Would you like something to drink?” Nai asked Patrick.
“Yes, I would… Do you have any more of that light green melon juice that Hercules brought last week? It was really tasty.”
“Yes,” answered Nai, bending down to the small cabinet in which they kept cool drinks. “By the way, where is Hercules? I haven’t seen him for several days.”
Patrick laughed. “Uncle Richard has recruited him to work full-time on the translator. Ellie and Archie are even there with them every afternoon.” He thanked Nai for the glass of juice.
Nai took a sip of her own drink and walked back into the living room. “I know you wanted to comfort Benjy this morning,” she said. “I only stopped you because I know your brother so well. He is very proud. He does not want anyone’s pity.”
“I understood,” Patrick said.
“Benjy realized this morning, at some level, that even little Nikki-whom he still thinks of as a baby-will quickly surpass him in school. The discovery shocked him, and reminded him again of his own limitations.”
Nai was standing in front of the map of Earth, which was still affixed to the wall. “Nothing on this map means anything significant to you, does it?” she said.
“Not really,” Patrick replied. “I have seen many photographs and movies, of course, and when I was about the twins’ age my father used to tell me about Boston, and the color of the leaves in New England during the autumn, and the trip he took to Ireland with his father. But my memories are of other places. The lair in New York is quite vivid, as well as the astonishing year we spent at the Node.” He was silent for a moment. “And the Eagle! What a creature! I remember him even more clearly than my father.”
“So do you consider yourself to be an Earthling?” Nai asked.
“That’s an interesting question,” Patrick replied. He finished his drink. “You know, I’ve never really thought about it… Certainly I consider myself to be a human. But an Earthling? I guess not.”
Nai reached out and touched the map. “My hometown of Lamphun, if it were larger, would have appeared here, just south of Chiang Mai. Sometimes it doesn’t seem possible to me that I actually lived there as a child.”
Nai’s fingers ran over the outline of Thailand as she stood quietly beside Patrick. “The other night,” she said at length, “Galileo threw a cup of water on my head while I was bathing the boys, and I suddenly had an incredibly vivid memory of the three days I spent in Chiang Mai with my cousins when I was fourteen years old. It was the time of the Songkran Festival in April, and everyone in the city was celebrating the Thai New Year. There were
