Are you a male or a whale? He asks. He's drunk on ice cream, I'm drunk on sake. We are very far from home.
April 13th, 2013, 8pm
It was 10°C. The wind was calm.
After parting with our host in front of Sugiyama we walked up to Time Warner Center. On the way we talked about the 7-course kaiseki - the kids had never seen beef cooked on a hot stone before. The sake was getting to me and I had to go to the bathroom. After we finished we stood on the 2nd floor mezzanine looking out through the glass at a distorted Christopher Columbus. Home seemed very, very far away.
“How do you get to heaven?”
I looked over and realized that a young girl - no older than 27 - was standing next to us, looking at the same view.
“Excuse me?” I said, almost certain I had misheard.
“Are we near heaven?” She said, this time looking over at us.
“From what I understand, it’s pretty far,” I replied.
“Maybe we’re already here?” She had either not heard me or chosen to ignore me.
“Do you think this is what heaven looks like? I think this is what heaven would look like.”
I considered her question.
“It probably isn’t that far off. Maybe just a little different,” I added.
My son was now pulling at my arm. The girl seemed lost.
“Is home far away?”
She didn’t respond.
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