December 7, 1941
There
was lot of commotion in the neighbourhood.
Known faces were peering from their window panes. People were
scuttling across the road. The news was that U.S. forces had
barricaded the area; and Takashi Mori's house was their target.
And in no time, they barged into Mori's house.
From the door left ajar I
could witness the army handcuffing Mori. Probably, they were taking
him away to some undisclosed camp location. A camp recently set up by
the U.S. government in San Francisco.
Felber, his friend, hadn't
failed to figure out all the foofaraw. It was expected; the arrest,
the side-effect of being a Japanese.
***
“Felber,” Mori said, and
then choked up.
An eerie silence had engulfed
the farm space. Only Mori’s hiccupping cry could be heard now.
No, he wasn’t expecting any
help from his Swiss friend. Only a nut case could think of
confronting the self-aggrandizing U.S. army.
Felber could only gather so
much courage to mutter,” Friend this would also pass.”
Teary-eyed Mori looked at him.
Felber could see that the arrest had sucked the marrow out of him.
Felber kept murmuring, mostly
to himself “Oh! God help him, Oh! God help him, Oh! God help him,
over and over again until the chant unhinged from its meaning. He was
still saying it when suddenly Mori spoke: “Felber, my friend,
goodbye forever. If possible, sell off my flower farms.”
“I’ll do, whatever I can.
And don't you worry, you'll make it back, safe and sound,” Felber
assured Mori amidst flashing guns and thumping black boots. (thank
heaven the army however, did not bullshit him, spared him from any
kind of serious torture.)
***
The following day Felber
logged on to a site called, “Your Estate, Your Price” to post an
ad there.
“Orphaned Flower Farms
Looking For Owners,” offered Felber’s wife, Vienne.
“Beautiful Tulip Farms In
San Fransisco for sale,” said Felber.
Finally both got together and
crafted this:
SMILING SCARLET FLOWER FARMS IN SAN FRANSISCO FOR SALE
Ten acres of beautifully
landscaped SMILING FlOWER FARMS, exclusively growing scarlet tulips,
for sale. Our farms specialize in both regular and rare tulips.
You’ll find lovely purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green
tulips. The flowers have been planted and nurtured with loads of luv
and care. They’ve brightened our lives and have taught us to SMILE
always irrespective of the setbacks in our life. Welcome this Smiling
Flower Farms into your life and welcome joy into your life, forever.
When Felber checked his email
an hour later, he found out that there was a maze of suitors to
choose from.
He got excited and started
responding to their mails.
But the price quoted by the
potential buyers was way too low, given that the farmland was owned
by a Japanese.
Disheartened, Felber made up
his mind; he’d take care of his friend’s farm land too.
***
Their friendship had got many
heads turning. Takahashi Mori from Japan and Christopher Felber from
Switzerland were next door neighbours who lived with their families
in San Fransisco, U.S. Both Mori and Felber were into the same
business: flower farming. Anyone seeing them interact would feel that
they their friendship was eons old. Their flower farming business was
going great guns. Tulip were their favorites. Their farms, in fact,
was a dizzy kaleidoscope of color as tulips burst into life: Vivid
purple, yellow, red, pink, orange and green tulips flooded their farm
space. They planted, tended, harvested, priced, and even sold
beautifully cut tulips together,to flower shops. Both friends were
the Alpha and Omega of each other’s lives. Their dissimilarities in
language and culture and physical appearance never came into the
middle of their friendship.
But then suddenly the arrest
happened.
***
The news was that the Imperial
Japanese Navy had bombed United States naval base at Pearl Harbor.
The attack had sacred the living daylights of the U.S government. The
stats read something like this: 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed;
2,403 Americans killed and 1,178 others wounded. The attack
put America in disarray. Within no time, it got its act together. It
entered into World War II. All the Japanese citizens in America came
under direct threat. All of them were herded into camps. Mori was one among them.
Year 1944
Mori spent around 3 years in
the camps. When the World War II came to an end, he and his family
were released. While journeying back home, he kept thinking about his
farms and his former friend. Whether he was alive? Whether he was
taking care of his farms? Or whether he had forgotten him and kept
the farms for himself, thinking that he would never make it alive?
Only one-fourth of his mind agreed with him that Felber won't cheat on him,
while three-fourth of his mind kept fighting against the one-fourth.
As he stepped down from the
train, to his utter delight and dismay, he found Felber and his
family standing to greet him with a bouquet of tulips. Mori was
overwhelmed with emotions. He knew those flowers. They were his.
“Welcome home Mori,” said
Felber,“ “but your farms are in RUINS.”
“I bet,” Mori said and
gave a flowery laugh.
But when Felber presented him
the cheque earned out of selling flowers from his farmland, Mori
simply couldn’t resist his tears. He let his tears fall through.
“Why are you crying, dear
friend,”
“Simply,” he said
He then hugged Felber and
said, “Your friendship is priceless. Like an insubstantial wisp of
smoke you could have easily chosen to forget our friendship and could
have kept my farms for yourself but then you didn’t do that.”
”Stop this haranguing,”
said Felber, “I just did what my conscience prompted, nothing more.”
