Living with a Legend
By Leslie Stern
Chapter Three : Family Stories (An Excerpt)
One of Iwao’s oldest and dearest friends, Stanley, is over six-foot-four inches tall with thick, bushy eyebrows and is – let’s see, how can I put this delicately? – definitely Jewish and definitely not Japanese. He and Iwao were enjoying one of their usual lunches together one day and there was a ditsy blond waitress serving them. Iwao, being five-foot three inches tall and of course, of Japanese heritage, was laughing and joking with Stanley in the way men who have known each other for many years tend to do when they are as close as these two men were. The waitress saw the obvious rapport between the two of them and asked what the relationship was.
Since Iwao was inherently funny or he could not have created such animated humor and Stanley, who is a criminal defense attorney, also has a great sense of humor, they began to concoct a story on the spot, for this dim waitress. Of course, the beauty of Iwao’s sense of humor in real life was his deadpan, almost British style of humor. The waitress was completely taken in by their combined explanation of their close rapport. They very seriously told her they were twin brothers from different mothers.
“Really?” the waitress said, astonished and believing every word of this absurd story.
“Absolutely,” Iwao replied without missing a beat. “We were born on Hokkaido but had different mothers.”
“Hokkaido?” the waitress asked.
“That’s in Japan,” Stanley explained with equal deadpan honesty.
“Oh!” the dingdong replied. “But you don’t look anything alike.”
“That’s because we had different mothers,” Iwao replied seriously.
“I see,” she accepted. Not realizing that this of course, was not only ridiculous, but impossible.
As the years went on, the story grew and grew. When my mother and Iwao were on a cruise and actually went to Hokkaido, Iwao sent Stanley a post card. It read simply:
Hi Bro,
Visited our mishbucha (Yiddish for extended family) in Hokkaido. They all look just like us.
_______________________________________________
Leslie Stern is a freelance writer and writing coach. Leslie wrote her first short story when she was ten years old and has never stopped writing. She owes her passion and work ethic to her family : Her step-father was world-renowned animation genius Iwao Takamoto, whom her mother married when Leslie was five years old. Leslie's next book featuring personal stories about Iwao is called Living with a Legend and will be releasing soon. Leslie is a member of several writers groups including Writer's Guild of America, Atlanta Writer's Club, and Zona Rosa. Find out more at www.leslieestern.com
_______________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment