Miyoko is now watching from the window of her living room. A spring rain falls like mist on the lawn in her garden. This is a city called Seattle, USA. The days of Palau have long passed. It has now been ten years. Miyoko married to Michael. Michael, who had been silently building a hut on Leo's island, is now a salaried man, wearing a suit and tie, going to the office every. Miyoko still teaches Japanese.

    Miyoko holds in her arms a heavy, fat yellow striped cat. A 5-year-old male cat named Wicky. Miyoko, however, will never forget Banana. 

    What happened to Banana after that? Banana　had chosen to chase mice in the jungle rather than living with Miyoko. Life on the island should be tough.  It is sure that Banana is no longer alive. Did he die peacefully surrounded by his children and grandchildren? In Miyoko’s mind, Banana is still a kitten less than one year old.

    There were many things had happened in the ten years. After all, Miyoko stayed in Palau for four years. Michael extended his stay in Palau. Miyoko and Michael got married in the United States. Michael enrolled and graduated from the Arizona Graduate Business School that Bill mentioned at the barbecue party. Michael, who was building the hut quietly all alone, is now a salaried-man. Wearing a necktie and business suite, he goes to the office every day. Michael now speaks Japanese fluently and works with Japanese people at the firm.

    Ryan, who was a teacher at Iboban Agricultural High School, got his long-awaited chicks and built a big poultry farm in the school. Eventually, fresh eggs began to appear in the market in Koror.

    Miyoko and Michael often visited Iboban High School. Iboban High School is a dormitory school, facing the ocean, created in thej ungle  A wide river was pouring into the sea from the jungle. Miyoko and Michael paddled the canoe from Koror, went along the islands and shores to Iboban. The two further went up the river by canoe to the waterfall in the deep jungle. On this trip, Miyoko saw a crocodile for the first time. Modern infrastructure was coming to Palau. There was a company making a road progressed above the waterfall.  It was disappointing to Miyoko to see a construction company bringing a large bulldozer to the jangle.  However, at night, Miyoko and Michael were amazed to see the sheer number of fireflies which filled the waterfall.  It is a sight which one can never forget once you see it. It was a beautiful and powerful experience no less gorgeous than the bioluminescence on Leo's island. Fireflies are vulnerable to changes in the environment. Miyoko hopes them to continue to flock to the waterfall.

    Ryan took a vacation shortly after Miyoko and Michael left the island.  He lived alone on Leo's island for several weeks. He took over Michael's hut and continued to build it. Miyoko had the opportunity to go back to Leo's island a long time later. Although the hut still had no roof, the floor was completely finished and it looked like a nice hut for napping.

    Ryan extended his stay in Ivoban, as he said on the night of the barbecue party. Hethen enrolled for a graduate school in Chicago, USA. After getting the master’s degree, he has been to Palau again as a technical advisor at the request of the US government.

    At that time, Miyoko and Michael were already living in Seattle. Ryan wrote a letter to Michael that someone thatched the roof of the Michael’s hut, it is now completed and looking nice.

    

    Linda, who has a beautiful smile, returned to Atlanta and got a job.  She married to Daniel, the architect who drove a wooden red boat. They were blessed with two children. Miyoko and Michael received Christmas cards with pictures of the children every year. The daughter has the same charming smile as Linda’s.

    Miyoko didn't know the whereabouts of Nancy and Mack for a while, but when Michael was still in the graduate school in Arizona, he ran into Mack on campus.

    Mack also chose this graduate school based on Bill's information. Nancy, with a ponytail, was the mother of a boy then. Michael graduated from the school before Mack did.Miyoko doesn't know where Mack and Nancy live now. Unfortunately the last letter sent to them came back with an “unknown forwarded address”. 

    Bill is no longer in this world. After leaving Palau, Bill went to Taiwan. After only half a year in Taiwan, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Bill chose to spend his last days in Taiwan instead of returning to the United States. It was because he met a Taiwanese lady and they became deeply in love with each other. Miyoko and Michael, still living in Arizona, received a letter from Bill's parents in Colorado. The letter was to inform them about Bill’s final days.  When Bill's death was approaching, his parents flew to Taiwan, and Bill died surrounded by his parents and his sweetheart. Both Michael and Mack went to the graduate school in Arizona based on the information from Bill, Bill's own life ended just before he was to go to the school in Arizona.

    A wonderful photo is hanging in Miyoko’s living room. Ryan, Daniel, Michael, and Bill in short pants line up on the white sands of one of Palau's islands, all laughing at the camera with their spear gun standing on the sand. Everyone is beaming in good health and happiness. Michael stopped in front of this photo and said,

    "Everyone is getting older. Only Bill is still 24 year-old."

     Miyoko can't forget Bill's big smile that she saw through the net of the tent before going to sleep. She can still hear the rhythmic percussion of Bill’s clicking palm nuts together.

    What happened to the canoe? Before leaving Palau, Michael gave the canoe to a businessman named Johnny who lived in Koror. Johnny ran a travel agency and was organizing tours for travelers from Japan which were gradually increasing in numbers at that time.  Johnny happened to own as well a tiny island near Koror. The island is so small that one can see everything on the island in one glance from end to end. The island had pretty sandy beaches, and a simple palm trees bush, and a shelter. The Japanese travelers loved this island. Johnny thought it must be a good idea to equip the island with a traditional outrigger canoe. The canoe still had the knife marks which Miyoko had made when she cleaned the many fish on the crossbar.

    Miyoko looked at her collection of shells in her living room wall. Some of the shells were obtained from Palau. The shells were gotten when she was almost fainted from sunstroke. The clam, about the size of a rugby ball, which Michael harvested from the reef, is sitting on the table in front of Miyoko.Over the years, the pale pink on the outside shell has faded.

    The uninhabited island in Miyoko’s mind as a child, the one that made Miyoko so excited, had faded after living on Leo's island. Now, it is sleeping deep in her heart wrapped in a mist.

    Since then, many people in Palau have come to call that island where Banana escaped from Miyoko Banana Island. Most of Palau's many uninhabited islands are nameless. If necessary, the island is called by its owner, but most of the time nameless is fine.

    Both those who knew the namesake of Banana Island and those who did not know, called it Banana Island. Miyoko sometimes wonders if Palauans still call that island Banana Island.They may wonder why it's Banana Island, even though there are no banana trees on that island.

    In Miyoko's mind, Banana still sits with a long tail wrapped around his body, in the middle of a white sandy beach, keeps looking at Miyoko and Michael's canoe floating off the shore....all alone.

 

 

                   The end

2010 - present

2010 - present