…..now that I’ve got your attention, I’ve got quite story to tell! Yesterday evening we had a couple of friends over for dinner. As I was making the peach cobbler, I noticed the little old lady who lives behind us wandering around in the parking lot. She’s really, really, REALLY old and usually has a couple of people check on her, bring her groceries, etc at least every other day. She doesn’t come outside too often.
She seemed kind of lost and confused. I noticed her peeking into our car (which isn’t THAT weird….people are always really curious about anything that has to do with the foreigners) and then she sat down on a concrete slab next to our neighbor’s house. She just awkwardly sat there for a few minutes before wandering off. Then she came back about an hour later. Ian and I were in the kitchen dishing up curry for everyone, and she came right to our kitchen window and started mumbling……something. At first we ignored her, hoping she’d go away, but she was so insistent! She kept repeating……something. She didn’t even seemed phased that we were foreigners. Normally if people say something to us and we have confused looks on our faces, they either try to speak more simple or move onto someone who is a native speaker.
Neither Ian nor I could understand the thick Kuma-bend (think HEAVY redneck accent) coming out of her mouth, so we called David over to decipher. He went outside to talk to her and came back saying that she was looking for someone. Nothing like this had ever happened before, and we thought that she was just a little confused.
After everyone left, the old lady was back to wandering around in the parking lot. She came to our front door and knocked. She kept asking us if Sugi-chan was there. We told her no, and she asked where she was. We kept saying that we didn’t know. She seemed confused by our confusion about what she was saying….once again not even really noticing that we were foreigners.
She left again, and I finished dishes and hopped in the shower. Before I even got out of the shower, I heard her “konnichiwa!” at the front door. Ian and I didn’t answer it that time. We knew something was up, but we weren’t sure what to do about it. ……call the police? …..and tell them…..what? ….call my supervisor? …..ignore it? Since Japanese houses are paper thin, we heard her talking to other people outside. By this time it was dark, and I peeked out the window. Through the darkness I could see a couple of neighbors gathered outside. I’m not sure what they told her, but she went away.
Fast forward to about an hour later. Ian and I were cuddled up in bed watching some TV. Since it’s so hot outside, we did indeed have the minimum amount of clothing on. I had a tank top and the tiniest of shorts, and Ian only had on shorts. Our door faces the street, so we can always see car headlights coming. However, last night I saw stranger, slower moving lights. Just as I was about to ask Ian what those were, the lights were on our doorstep with three knocks to the door and a guy saying, “Keisatsu desu!” KEISATSU=POLICE!!! They had walked to our door with flashlights in hand.
Ian immediately jumped up and put on a shirt, but I crawled into the corner and whispered, “I’m not here if they ask!” (Not because I was afraid of the cops but rather because I was so scantily clad!) Ian answered the door, and the cops started off asking a lot of questions. After an awkward pause from Ian and a few fumbled words of Japanese, I think they realized that they needed to sloooooooooow doooooooown. Ian only had to say one word, “obachan?” (old lady?) in order for them to be on the same page. The cops were asking if Ian had seen her, what she said, what she did, etc. Then they asked if he was the only one there. He said no, that his wife was there as well. The cops asked to speak to me….me….ME, WHO WAS SITTING HALF-NAKED IN THE HIDDEN CORNER. Luckily, Ian asked them to wait a moment and closed the door. I jumped up and put on some more appropriate clothes.
I basically re-iterated what Ian had said about the old lady. Since the cops were on my doorstep, I thought it might be necessary to call my supervisor. I haven’t had to call my supervisor outside of work since the very beginning, so I’m sure that when she saw my number on her phone at 9PM on a Sunday night, her heart sank. When I handed the phone to the cops so that they could explain what was going on, I’m sure her heart sank even further when she heard, “Konnichiwa. Taragi keisatsu desu.” (Hello. This is the Taragi police.) They got our names and numbers, and I suppose…..call us if they need us…..?
Nothing like a little police action to get the blood pumping! We still don’t really know what exactly happened with the little old lady, but it certainly made for an interesting night and story to tell!!
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