He smiled and said, "There was a gentleman from Korea - - he too disappeared for several days. Yesterday he reappeared and when I asked him where he'd been, he told me he'd been out doing wireless telephone business. Ha ha."

     "You don't know what a wireless line is? A wireless line means you're penniless. You spend no money to play. You go to any restaurant, order whatever you want to eat and drink, and when they ask you for money, you tell them you don't have any. Sometimes you get beaten by the owner, and are sent to the police, but you eat well. Not bad, eh?"5 The owner tried to make me laugh.

Listening to him helped me to relax a little bit. "Well," I said, "if someone was so poor they didn't have to worry about his honor, it wouldn't be too bad."

     He laughed again. "Please come in. You look very tired. Come in and rest."

     When I went upstairs, the owner said, "Well, Mr. Yang, you have been up to something, ahven't you?" He placed his hand upon his bosom, and looked at me questioningly, indicating his suspicion that I'd been picked up by the police for pick pocketing. Pick pocketing was common among the unemployed people of Tokyo. I didn't get angry, but I told him I would never do anything like that. He obviously didn't believ me, but he didn't press any further. He led me into the room to rest.

XIII.
     After enetring the room, I sat down to think about myslef, about my wretched tired body. No wonder he though I'd just come out of the detention center of the police station.

     I stretched my back and just as I was about to fall into a heavy sleep, the owner came back, clapping his hands to wake me up. "Oh. I forgot to tell you that there's a registured letter for you. Since I didn't know where you'd gone, I kept the letter here. I'll go get it." As he spoke, he ran to fetch the letter.

     I felt strange. Who could have sent me a registered latter? When the old man handed me the letter I felt very uneasy. It was from my mother. Why did she send me a registered letter? My hands trembled as I opened the letter. There was a check for a hundred and twenty dollars. I was shocked. I wondered if I'd lost my mind. My heart was pounding. In a daze I read my mother's scrawled words. Without realizing it, I wept in front of the old man.