Last Days II

     I suspected that the landlady had changed my door code to the same "1234" that it was when i first moved in, but i figured it best that i not go where i wasn't wanted. The air conditioning was probably disconnected anyway.
    It was 36 degrees by 9 in the morning that day, and almost 40 degrees by noon. In my hand I had a shopping bag with the remaining contents of my fridge: 2 water bottles, a bun, a quarter bottle of tomato juice, and a quarter bottle of peach vegetable juice.
    I still had my phone connected, so i phoned James who was often at home when he should be at work. It turned out he was at work at the time, and he didn't answer his phone on account of a free cell game.
    I figured i better drink the peach vegetable juice while it was still cold.
    Eventually my phone rang and it was James. We had circled around to his school by this time, to the gym where the band was playing "A Whole New World." James could hear them too and he sung a few of the lyrics for me before telling me that his apartment was unlocked and that we could hang at his place for an hour until he got off. He had lost his key, so his place had been unlocked for the last few days.
    James and Lauren weren't leaving Japan for another week, so their apartment looked the way mine did the week before -- maybe a little worse. James had lived there for 3 years, and  he had a bit more baggage to take care of.
    We had some time to kill, so we sat on the balcony with a can of Asahi that i had left there from the night before. The fourth floor was nice. It had a breeze and a good view of my neighborhood.
    We eventually went inside and I played guitar for a bit and looked through some of the books on the coffee table. I started to look at a book on India, but Janice wouldn't approve of any destination-based literature until we got back to Vancouver.
    When James arrived home, it was time for me to meet Shike Sensei to tie up loose ends and then to meet with everyone again for a last sushi dinner. James found his apartment key at dinner -- it was buried in his wallet.
    We rushed a bit for dinner and said some hurried goodbyes in order to make it to the staion by 8, but it turned out that our bus didn't leave until 8:45.
     "Get used to it," I told Janice, as we prepared to start the first leg of our next month in China together.