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Back This Time Will Be Different Save as PDF
Chapters (77)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part I
  6. 3
  7. The History of My Beef with Brynn Foer-Preston
  8. 4
  9. 5
  10. 6
  11. 7
  12. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part I
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part I
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part II
  20. 13
  21. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part II
  22. 14
  23. 15
  24. 16
  25. 17
  26. 18
  27. 19
  28. The Complicated History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Imaginary Relationship with Her Nonexistent Dad
  29. 20
  30. 21
  31. 22
  32. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part III
  33. 23
  34. 24
  35. 25
  36. A Brief, Backward History of the McAllister Family, as Paraphrased from the San Jose Mercury News
  37. 26
  38. 27
  39. 28
  40. A Quick and Eerily Relevant History of Asians in America
  41. 29
  42. 30
  43. 31
  44. 32
  45. 33
  46. 34
  47. 35
  48. 36
  49. A Brief History of Chisaki Joan Katsuyama’s Romantic Learning Opportunities, Part IV
  50. 37
  51. 38
  52. 39
  53. 40
  54. 41
  55. 42
  56. 43
  57. 44
  58. A Series of Screw-ups: The Chisaki Joan Katsuyama Story, Part II (Or Maybe It’s a Prequel)
  59. 45
  60. 46
  61. 47
  62. 48
  63. 49
  64. 50
  65. 51
  66. 52
  67. 53
  68. The History of the Katsuyama Family, Part III
  69. 54
  70. A Note from the Author
  71. Index of Flowers and their Meanings
  72. Acknowledgments
  73. About the Author
  74. Praise for This Time Will Be Different
  75. Books by Misa Sugiura
  76. Back Ad
  77. About the Publisher

“Yeah. I think you’re a bigger softie than you let on,” he says, but he’s wrong.

Twenty minutes later, we’ve finished checking everything off and putting the supplies and extra materials away. Owen turns to me and says, “Hey. You got anything to do after we’re done here?”

I wish I could say I was doing something with Shane, but I haven’t heard from him since that text last night, so I shake my head.

“You wanna drive down to the coast? We’ll be just in time to catch the sunset.”

I do love a good sunset. “Fine,” I say.

Owen opens the passenger-side door of his truck with a flourish and a bow—he’s got to stop that. “Your chariot awaits.” He extends his hand, and I take it and step up into the passenger seat, and he shuts the door behind me. I text Hannah and tell her I’m leaving with Owen.

“Where are we going?” I ask as he settles into the driver’s seat.

“Pigeon Point Lighthouse.”

22

NEARLY AN HOUR LATER, WE PULL INTO THE Pigeon Point parking lot off Route 1. The sun is already low in the sky, so we hurry down the path, past the lighthouse, past the old keeper’s residence, to the end of the point. We lean on the white picket fence and look northwest, up the coast toward Half Moon Bay and Mavericks Beach.

Owen, being Owen, drops some historical trivia. “Did you know that the Montara lighthouse—that one up past Mavericks—was built in Boston in the 1800s, and it was a lighthouse on Cape Cod for like, fifty years before they shipped it out to California? Then they used it in San Francisco for a couple of years, and then they brought it to Montara. I learned that on a field trip in fourth grade.”

“You amaze me, you know that? It’s like you have a piece of useless historical information for every occasion.”

“It’s not useless. That story is a metaphor for how you can start over in life. Or how there’s always someone, somewhere, who needs you.”

“You can’t help yourself, can you.”

“It’s a gift and a curse.”

“Why do you like history so much, anyway?”

Owen stares at the horizon, arms folded across his chest against the wind. He says, “I started liking history when I was in grade school. I didn’t have a lot of friends, and like, Harry Potter was a great escape, but he’s magic, right? He had Dumbledore looking out for him, and Ron and Hermione. I liked reading about real people who made it without magic. Without friends. And then I got interested in all the other stuff.”