by Fuyumi Ono
"That's a lie, that is. It isn't like I say it every year! This year is special. Why, all these funerals!"
"It can't be helped. It's nothing but old folks here," Takeko said, Yaeko laughing, too. Ikumi gave them a glare with chilling eyes.
"How nice you can laugh. Takeko-san's household just had a funeral, didn't they?"
"That wasn't us. That was the Sawmill. The Ohtsuka sawmill is indeed related to me, so I did go, though. Even though they are relatives, I've cut ties." Yaeko waved her hand. Takeko and Oitarou nodded seemingly knowledgable.
"They got up into some weird new religion, then had the nerve to come to us trying to convert us, putting us at our wits' end! When it came to the temple, they said they had nothing left to gain from them, so when their own grandson died, they weren't taken care of."
Oitarou nodded solemnly. "It's a punishment for the lack of respect shown to the temple. That's what I think of it, myself."
You've said it, Yaeko laughed.
Ikumi snorted. "Faith has to be faith in a proper God or it doesn't mean anything after all. Though, I worship at the temple and don't think I've profited for it. Well, even while the Sawmill's good for nothing, I'm sure they were tricked into it."
Yes, yes, Takeko said, interrupting Ikumi. If she let her go on like this, it was obvious she would have said something suspicious. "Well, it is true there are a lot of funerals. If it continues like this, I'm afraid next it might be my turn!"
"If it's you, you'll be fine. You're getting on fine somehow or another, aren't you?"
"I am, but still," said Takeko with a laugh, though Ikumi's gaze was fixed in place.
"It's been since Kanemasa moved in."
Tatsu opened her eyes.
"What is she even trying to say, this person, here. Kanemasa moved in after the misfortune in Yamairi!"
"But, since the house had been built. That place isn't good! She shouldn't have built there. And it doesn't have anything to do with Yamairi. That was a problem with the Murasako family, I told you. Gigorou-san simply got caught up in the Murasako's bad fortune. The funerals that have been continuing since after that, aren't they from after when Kanemasa moved in? A high school student in Shimo-Sotoba, died."
"Ah, Shimizu's Tokurou-san's place's grand daughter."
"Since then haven't they been on a roll? These funerals, and for some reason we're seeing ambulances coming and going! It's Kanemasa! Kanemasa. There's definitely something to them. That bunch summons in evil."
Tatsu sighed and shook her head. She'd gotten herself started again, she feared.
But it was a fact that there were many funerals. More than Ikumi thought, more than all of the old people gathered here thought; Tatsu had such a feeling.
(Something's happening.....?)
It might be, said a feeling stagnating in her chest. Something was off about this summer. ---No, lately, Sotoba was strange. She had the intuition that at least that much was certain.
Natsuno called out simply that he was going to Mutou's and left. There was a math problem he just couldn't solve. Mutou's older brother---and his younger sister Aoi for that matter---weren't terribly reliable as teachers but Tamotsu was a collector of crib notes. It was possible he kept some from when he was a first year, he realized. Their high schools were separate but fortunately the text book they used was the same.
The summer heat was still fierce. Fed up with it he looked up to the blue sky when the not-too-far off sound of bells were heard. Looking off the side of the road, a coffin draped in a white cloth was being carried out of a house by the roadside.
Again, thought Natsuno has he stopped. He didn't know which house that one was. It's pretty close, was all Natsuno had known. Yamairi, Megumi, and after that his parents had been involved in about two more Mourning Group tasks. Didn't that make for the fifth one? And in about one month.
Was it like this last year too, he thought. Natsuno moved in to Sotoba last year, though he didn't remember seeing any funerals then. Even though he'd seen zero since this summer, suddenly since August started, he'd seen a procession of funerals. If it was the fifth one in one month, that'd average out to more than one house per week having one. No matter how you thought about it, this was too many, but.
Cocking his head in puzzlement, he went to Mutou's. Going up to Tamotsu's room, he informed him there was a funeral, but it didn't seem to catch Tamotsu's attentions.
"Man, there's been a lot of funerals, huh?" Natsuno said, to which Tamotsu answered with a nonchalant "Have there?" while searching inside a cardboard box.
"Ain't that how it goes? Someone died, someone's about to die, you're always hearing something like that. ---Ah, found it. I've got some pretty good treasures myself, don't I? Be grateful."
As Tamotsu presented him with his crib notes, Natsuno gave him a sigh. "I'd be more grateful if instead of giving it to me like this you'd explain it to me, though."
"Depending on others's no good," Tamotsu laughed. "If you're planning on going to college, you'd be better off going to cram school."
"Like a college entrance cram school out in the country like this's be worth it. I'd be better off with correspondence courses."
"You're so un-cute." Tamotsu made an intentionally sulky face and crossed his arms. "That thing where you're all 'country, country' and making fun of us ain't cute either but the part where you'd seriously study through a correspondence course is the most not cute part about you."
"I have a consistent personality like that."
Well said, Tamotsu laughed. Natsuho laughed too and opened the note.
He didn't by any means like studying. To Natsuno this was the price he had to pay to get out of Sotoba. Whatever he had to do however, he wanted out of the village. If it was necessary, he'd do it. The thoughts of wanting out were urgent and so he continued was all it was.
(Even so, two more years...)
There was still that much more to go. Comforting himself with 'just two more years' was getting harder recently. Since Megumi had died. Imprisoned in Sotoba, Megumi was unable to escape---that was the needle prodding sharply into his back pressing Natsuno to hurry. If I don't hurry, something was going to wrap itself around him like a spider's web and he wouldn't be able to untangle it. It might not be too bad to live here, he could get to thinking, losing all direction until he thought there wasn't really a need to leave the village, was there?
---Then why can't that happen, a voice inside of him head. Adapt to the village, get comfortable; if you stop wanting to leave the village, wouldn't that be a comfortable situation in its own right? Yet Natsuno couldn't but abhor such a situation. It made him imagine an empty shell. As peaceful as it would be, all that would be left was a groundless version of himself. He feared it likely.
Shaking his head once, he tackled the problem. Incidentally helping himself to the Mutous' dinner, he finished the day's assignment after ten o'clock. Saying his thanks to Tamotsu's parents, he left the Mutous. Out of cigarettes, Tohru went with him.
"The night wind feels really refreshing, don't it?"
TOhru looked up at the western mountain. The sounds of the insects were vigorous. Even so, the wind that blew down from the dark bare surface of the mountain as if it were invited was thought of as chilly.
"Wonder if it's gonna be fall soon at this rate."
"Who knows? It's not Higan week again yet, after all. But, summer was hot, so this year winter might come early."
"What, is there a rule like that?"
"Nah. Just a guess."
That part of you, Natsuno said giving Tohru a poke. Tohru gave a light hearted laugh, then suddenly went quiet.
TOhru pointed ahead on the road. It came sluggishly down the road from the Western mountain, through the heart of Sotoba. Further down that road was one house's family on a plot of land without a fence or anything else in it, where the truck stopped.They opened the container of the truck and piled their luggage in.
"Moving? At this hour." Tohru said as if amazed.<
br />
"They might be running away into the night. Literally."
Tohru laughed. Natsuno simply shrugged his shoulders. Come to think of it, said Tohru, seeing off the workers in mover's clothes as he continued. "The wife at Sanyasu ran away, I heard?"
"Mm?"
"There's a family called that in Naka-Sotoba. They're officially Yasumori, but. They say that Sanyasu's wife disappeared, like. That in the morning when they woke up she wasn't there."
"She ran away from home?"
"Guess so. She was a younger wife but like it sounds like she didn't get along well with her in-laws. She was always disagreeing with her husband, then like that finally their love went cold and she walked out, the story goes."
"That happens even out here?"
Tohru gave a wry smile. "Don't make fun of the country. Even out here normal stuff happens in its own way."
"Well then, I underestimated the place."
Natsuno said, Tohru giving him a light nudge in the back and starting to walk. Natsuno turned back a moment a bit to look at the truck. They probably weren't running away into the night. Such an imposing, huge truck, was hardly going to hide them from anything he thought. Even so, he wasn't satisfied with just saying they were moving at night.
Suddenly Natsuno remembered that he had heard the words 'moving at night' a while before too. Right, that was when they were moving in. The owners of Kanemasa. They moved in at night and then---Natsuno tilted his head. He'd heard rumors that they'd moved in and that the owners had been seen but Natsuno had never seen the owners that were now living there. As Tohru said, it ended without any connection to him at all. So long as Natsuno could leave in two years according to plan.
"What's up?" Tohru turned back to look at him.
It's nothing, Natsuno murmured jogging to catch up. Tohru smiled.
"... Jealous?"
Natsuno's scowled.
"That's not it!"
3
On Monday, as soon as Ohkawa Tomio heard Matsumura's voice on the phone he shouted. "Matsu, you punk, what the hell time do you think it is?!"
"I'm sorry." Matsumura's voice which normally sounded weak willed sounded like the hum of an insect over the phone now.
"We've gotten all kinds of orders this morning. Then it's going on noon and you still ain't shown. You gotta know Mondays're busy, but. Whadda you think I pay your salary for? If you got the time to call in, then just hurry up and come in!"
"....Uhm, about that."
Matsumura's voice was weak, and on top of that halting. This man's always like this, Ohkawa though clicking his tongue in his mind. Matsumura Yasuzou was ten years older than Ohkawa but it was a match as to who was more capable between he and his son Atsushi, Ohkawa thought. Matsumura was a coward by nature, so he just didn't have the guts to do anything wreckless without thinking trying to show off like Atsushi. That was why the only difference was that he could be at ease in trusting him with collecting payments. Other than that, his uselessness and his inability to give a firm and quick answer to anything brought out the same irritation in Ohkawa with only minor technical differences.
"If you got an excuse, say it when you get here. I ain't got the time to be having no leisurely phone chat."
Matsumura tried to get something out, but Ohkawa overtook him. He called to the young worker bringing in the beer cases in a loud voice.
"Oi, where're you parking? That ain't no place to be unloading!"
The young man making the delivery was about Atsushi's age. He turned the same resentful eyes on Ohkawa. It was a face he'd never seen before.
"Behind the storehouse. Go around the side, the side. You pack 'em up in front of the store and we can't do business. I always tell youse to drive down the alley, but. What the hells you kids' problem!"
Without answeing that, the young man gave a single sharp glare to Ohkawa returning the load to the truck.
"Uhm.... Boss, the truth is, though?"
Watching the truck back up, Ohkawa, still holding the phone, remembered that Matsumura was on the other end again.
"To hell with what the damned truth is, already. You've been sniveling since this call started, what's up with you?"
"It's, uhm.... my daughter, uhm."
That was when at last Ohkawa realized Matsumur'a svoice was mingled with tears.
"Your daughter---Yasuyo-chan, eh?"
She was in about her mid twenties? She was nothing like her father, a brisk, level headed, good girl.
"....That's, uhm, she's gone, and."
"Gone? You're tryin' to say she died?"
"This morning, she was sick, I called an ambulance, but just now, it's come to a head. ....So, that's why."
His wife Kazuko made a dubious face as she looked to Ohkawa. Receiving her questioning gaze, Ohkawa gave her a nod.
"...I don't even know.... what I'm supposed to do now." Matsumura's voice was interrupted by sobs.
"You dumbass. At times like this, what's gonna happen if at least you don't get it together? Where're you now? The hospital? Which hospital? Aa---Anyway, I'll be right there. You called the regional manager?"
Yes he though, no he thought, Matsumura couldn't give a clear response. Ohkawa once again said that, anyway, he was coming there as he hung up the phone. Kazuko could hardly wait for that, quickly opening her mouth.
"Gone, you said, who? You can't possible mean Matsumura-san's Yasuyo-chan, right?"
"It's possible enough to be true!"
Dear, Kazuko said. Atsushi had overheard while stocking the shelves and said, "What a waste" impudently, causing Ohkawa to glare at his son.
"Gotta go help him out. After all, Matsu's that kinda guy, you know." While he was speaking, possibly finished with unloading the cargo, theyoung man brought the delivery slip with him into the shop. Ohkawa carelessly signed it and took the receipt. "Anyway, probably oughtta call up the Kami-Sotoba regional manager too, huh? Matsu and his wife ain't the most reliable 'n all."
"That's true. ....I wonder if perhaps I should go too?"
"Go on. The deceased's still at the hospital so there's no rush. Before you leave the store call up the customers and say there's been a misfortune at the shop and deliveries'll be running late, yeah? The urgent ones we'll leave to Atsushi, the rest we'll push to another day."
Kazuko nodded. Her husband had a violent, short temper, but he was certainly not an unfeeling man, and while he was prone to fault finding he was equally prone to looking after those with faults. At times like this, without a doubt it'd be all right if left to her husband.
Ohkawa went to the back of the shop to look for Kami-Sotoba's regional manager's contact information. Kazuko drew the delivery memo slips towards herself and found the accounting book with the destination's phone numbers in the desk drawer. Coming from the depths of the house, perhaps told the situation by Ohkawa, her mother-in-law Namie appeared.
"Yasuyo-chan died, you say? The deaths keep coming this year, don't they."
"They do, don't they. Just a while ago," so she started when Kazuko's hand stopped. She wanted to say that Shimizu Gardening had just had a funeral but, there was something weighing on her even more than that. "....Say, Mother? Are there people who sleep with their eyes half open, do you suppose?"
"There probably are, aren't there? I've head about them."
They must, Kazuko said to herself.
"What is it? Why do you ask?"
To Nami's question Kazuko found herself frowning. "Yesterday, I went to Ohsawa-san's place, from the post office. Somewhere or another I hear Ohsawa-san seemed to be sick, so I thought I'd make a get well visit and see how he was. It wasn't anything special, his wife had been saying but when she opened the sliding door in the living room, I saw him sleeping through the gap."
The bedroom had a window and was brighter than even the living room. Ohawa was lying down facing the living room, so she had a good look at his face. His eyes were half lidded and unblinking, his body unmoving. His complexion was deathly pale, looking s
omehow flaccid, a strange sensation as if he had keeled over with old age.
"He looked like he had died."
Impossible, Namie said with a frown. "That just couldn't be, could it?"
"That's what I thought, but. Still, his face looked like that of a corpse! I couldn't very well say 'he's dead, isn't he?' to his wife but while I asked if it wasn't very bad, his wife said that it wasn't anything serious, that he was sleeping well."
"Then, that's it isn't it? If his wife said so."
That's true, Kazuko murmured. She saw Ohkawa off as he barreled out, tended to a few odd tasks, asked Namie to watch the store, then Kazuko prepared herself. It couldn't be helped; Atsushi couldn't be left in charge of the store while they were out. At that time, her reliable daughter and second son were at school.
