Eriko

It isn't hard at all to pick Eriko out of the Iwao Bridge crowd, even in her "street" wear, which at this point is the fancy coat and jewelry that her customers have gifted to her over the years. She doesn't have much trouble picking me out, either. Her voice pierces the noise so well that I can't hear anybody else for a few seconds. "Ruby-chaaan!" she calls, her voice reminding me of...one of those F1 cars, really.

"Eriko, how's stuff?" I call back.

"Ha ha! It sounds so funny when you talk all casual like that!" Her laughter hits my ears a little too directly. I try not to cover them out of reflex.

"Sure, it's not like I've been trying to become a naturalized citizen or anything like that..."

"So where are we going tonight? Drinks? Karaoke? Pool?" Her excitement has her bouncing so much I wonder if the bridge became a trampoline overnight and I missed the memo. "Ooh, maybe we could get burgers! I always wanted to try one!"

"...Why haven't you already?"

"Because I wanted you to be there to tell me what's good! You know, that secret American burger lingo!" She's practically grabbing me by the arm to drag me to the nearest Smile Burger.

"Eriko, you have enough trouble with English." I have no choice but to go with her down the stairs to the boardwalk, lest she rip my arm off. "...Speaking of that, though, how are your lessons going? You're not blowing 'em off too much, are you?"

"Nah, I've been going, relax. You know how serious I am about vacationing to the States!" Which is to say, she only started getting serious about vacationing to the US a day after she met me. "I got a question, though. Do you know what this means? OH MY GAAWWWD!" I cringe so hard from her shouting that I slip right out of her arm lock.

"That's..." I shake my head out like I'm some kind of cartoon. "That's a rude thing to say in America. You wanna be careful with that one. Especially with as loud as you say it."

"Oh, I know, but what does it mean?" Jesus H. Fuck. I've been with this woman for barely five minutes and I have to explain to her the concept of taking the Lord's name in vain.

This page is pretty unfinished. Weasel plans to get to it eventually. Probably.