He handed it to me. Zander had an apartment in LA, which was listed as his personal residence. Then there were four more all around the world: New York City; Mykonos, Greece; Monte Carlo, Monaco; and Whistler, British Columbia in Canada.
“What the heck?” I asked as I read it.
“What’s wrong?” Mom asked.
“Two of them are in Europe, and one is in Canada,” I told my mom.
“When do you need to know?” Mom asked.
“End of business today,” Mr. Voorhees reminded her.
“I suspect my son just made up work for me to keep my mind off of my worries,” Mom complained. “I’ll have to make some calls to see what I can find out. Send me the list.”
Mom disconnected. I took a picture of the sheet of paper Mr. Voorhees gave me and texted it to her.
“Wow. I would’ve gone to my office to scan it. This was a lot quicker. I never even thought of using my phone like that,” Mr. Voorhees said, showing he was old.
I took a few minutes to explain how this had all come about. Mr. Voorhees had heard of Paddy and asked for his number. He had some other cases that could use a ‘fixer’ to move things along. I didn’t want to piss Paddy off, so I declined. I was much more scared of Paddy than I was of Mr. Voorhees. Plus, I didn’t really care about Mr. Voorhees’ opinion of me. When this was over, we were done.
◊◊◊
Manaia had been sent to pick up my family from the airport. So, when it came time for everyone to go to lunch, Lexi and I boarded one of the buses. Paradise Cove Beach Café had blocked off their patio dining area to accommodate our group. They had tables set up in the sand with giant blue umbrellas over them.
I was happy to see my family had arrived before we had. Uncle John and Grandma Dawson showed my grandfather’s influence when they greeted everyone and made them feel welcome. Lexi had seen me acting similarly at different outings, and she was intently taking it in.
She and my Aunt Bonnie grabbed a table while Uncle John, Grandma, and I made our rounds. It didn’t surprise me when my grandmother joined the production staff at one table, and Uncle John found my mentor and joined him and the older actors. I sat with the younger actors, with Misaki and Haru seated on either side of me.
I waited for the waitstaff to get drink orders before I stood up to talk.
“We have a saying that goes, ‘I want to be your favorite hello and your hardest goodbye.’ I looked forward to working with you all, and when I joined the cast, you accepted me, even though I was an outsider. Now that our time is coming to a close, I want to say that I’ll miss all of you. I’ve made some great friends. That’s why I think that quote is appropriate and why I wanted to invite all of you to lunch today.
“I also wanted a chance to single out a few people and thank them …”
I made a point to thank each person individually. Mr. Nomura had pointed out that it was important for morale and team-building to publicly recognize everyone and make them feel special and appreciated. This dovetailed nicely with my dad’s philosophy of ‘praise in public and chastise in private.’
When I was done, they came and took our orders. Then Mr. Otsuki addressed the group.
“I realize many of you wanted to be a part of this shoot so you could experience American culture. I hope we captured some of that in our filming. For myself, I admit I had many misconceptions about what to expect. And I was more than a little nervous about having an American cast as one of the leads.
“I was worried that David’s free spirit would cause problems. He was ‘freer’ off set than I probably wanted,” he said and got a good laugh.
I admit I probably freaked them out by going skinny-dipping and doing some other similar activities. My Japanese castmates were a lot more conservative when it came to stuff like that.
“What I discovered is that people here generally have good hearts. As you can see, David has his family here today, and we all met his mom and dad. They’ve all shown the importance of family, which I think you would agree is important back home as well.
“You’ve all done a good job, and I expect the series will be popular when it airs. I want to thank David for being a gracious ambassador and host, and I want to thank the rest of you for your hard work and dedication,” Mr. Otsuki concluded.
It was interesting to note what people ordered for their meal. The Japanese wanted either burgers or barbecue; the Midwesterners ordered seafood; and Lexi, the California girl, wanted a salad. She was the only one who didn’t want to try something they wouldn’t ordinarily eat at home. But then, I guess she was home.
◊◊◊
Can I just say that the rest of the day sucked? Mr. Otsuki worked us nonstop. I finally snuck outside to hide for a minute. I took in the blue sky and checked the weather back home. Even if I hated what I was doing right now, I might as well be doing it in California.
I called my mom to see if she had any news.
“Your dad is doing fine and should come home tomorrow,” she assured me.
“That sounds great.”
