Our Japanese Exchange Teacher

Sweat poured off my forehead as I glanced out my kitchen
window and I spied my neighbor's red car through the hedge.
Nooooo. I wasn't ready. The carpet installers had only finished an
hour ago and I still had a kitchen full of furniture to return to
the living room. I wiped my brow and dashed down the the car
and greeted Miki with "Thank-you" instead of "Hello."
She just gave me a weary smile and followed me into the house.
Thankfully I had moved the extra furniture out of her room first.
Terry came home and I realized I had forgotten milk when I shopped.
As he shook hands with Miki and went to the door
she stunned us by saying, "Terry, can I go to the store with you?"
Right then I knew what True Grit looked like.
After chaperoning fifty teenagers from Naga high school
for twenty-five hours to Kookmore Washington,
she wanted to shop.
She came back weighted down with a whole lotta foods
I'd never seen before. "Terry, what are you doing letting
her carry so much?!" I exclaimed. He gave me a surprised
look and said, "I swear she wanted to honey and I couldn't stop her."
Right then I knew that the notion that Asian women were
passive and reticent was a myth and Miki was the MYTHBUSTER.
My neighbor girl had one of Miki's charges so she was able
to carpool up to Inglemoor high school at O'Dark hundred
every morning while I slept in. Every day after work I'd walk
in the door and smell heavenly home made food cooking.
I thought to myself that about how nice it musta been for
Terry for twenty-five years before I quit cooking.
Our first weekend we left early and had breakfast
out at Snoqualmie Falls and hiked down to the falls and back.
I snapped a picture of Miki and Terry next to the sign showing
different kinds of wildlife. She pointed to the Sasquatch on the park
sign and asked if I had ever seen one. I said, "Yes, then I married a Bigfoot."
I took her out to Walmart for cheap souveneirs and she was in heaven.
She shopped for over four hours and spent half that time just
looking at everything. When I asked her why she told me our
packaging was more colorful and vibrant than in Japan and she
enjoyed it.
The next weekend I got a letter from Hillary Clinton and
asked Miki if she wouldn't mind if Terry took her to the Space Needle
while I went to the caucus to give a speech to my delegates.
She loved the huge sign I carried and we had a long talk
about women being second class citizens globally. She said in
Japan women are treated very poorly and in China and other areas
it is worse! That made me mad because all people deserve to be
treated with dignity and respect.
I was tired one night at dinner and called Miki Kim.
After the third time my room mate Khrystian asked me why I was
calling her Kim. I apologized and asked Miki why she didn't tell
me and she said she thought I was saying, "You."
Kim is You.
My heart leaped at the pink envelope in the mailbox.
It was from Japan and our friend missed us.
We miss her too.