Statue

Statue
Originally uploaded by thegreatplotnik.

The tall, beautiful T.A. is the subject of much conversation amongst the students in Kanji class.

"She'd be a handful," one guy says.

"How do YOU know?" says another.

"Does anyone know her name?" says Plotnik.

"Whose name?" says the woman who sits next to Plotnik.

The guys all stare at her. "Whose name? Who do you think we're talking about?"

"Oh," says the female classmate. "That one."

Yes, that one. The tall, beautiful T.A., though appearing to be unaware that her beauty transcends the importance of how to write "used car" or "green tea," has probably been the topic of Japanese conversations since she was three years old. Where the other T.A.s look directly at the students, as they have been taught, the tall, beautiful T.A. can often be seen staring out into space.

She seems to be very nice. She might not know what she does to those jeans. But Plotnik thinks she does.

"Purotniku-san," she says, getting ready to correct his pathetic Kanji blackboard smudges, but Plotnik is thinking: "There may not even be a Kanji for tall, beautiful Japanese women. But if there is, it has to start with the radical for 'statue.'

"Purotniku-san," she repeats.

"I wonder what the kanji for 'statue' looks like," Plotnik dreams. "Does it have big eyes and..."

"Pu-RONTIKU-san!" she says a third time.

Plotnik grimaces, smudges out 'statue' with his fist and tries to remember 'used car.'