SUMMERTIME RECORD SIDE -NO. 2- (2) It was late at night, and the sound of flowing water resonated loudly in the room. I had just wrapped up the dishwashing, making sure the sliced-up flounder filets in the pot were cooled down before pushing it into the fridge. The fish could keep for a few days, but with this summer heat, I’d better not chance it for too long. Marie really liked it, I guess, so maybe I could wrap it up into smaller portions and put them in the freezer. Oh right—better think about what we’ll have tomorrow. The unexpected bounty meant we had a ton of flounder and not much of anything else. We’d need to go shopping, or else it’d be a pretty out-of-whack dinner tomorrow. The sponge we used to clean the bathroom was getting pretty worn out, too—we’d better buy a new one of those. Man, there’s no end to the chores around here. But I’ll have to start working pretty soon, too, or my wallet’s gonna look pretty empty. I enjoyed the part-time stint I had at the flower shop, but that was strictly a day job, so I needed something else to take up the nights. As I thought over all these unfamiliar topics, I realized that I was about to wash the same dish I’d rinsed off just a moment ago. Look out, man. Gotta keep it together, or else I’m gonna be feeding Marie that new sponge for dinner tomorrow. Tossing the dishwashing sponge back into the wire holder in the sink, I headed for the living room to take a break. Having no particular drive to return to my room, I headed over to the sofa to have a seat, only to find Marie in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes as she staggered in. She had gone to her room to sleep about an hour before. Maybe she’d had a scary dream or something. I opened my mouth to ask, but she spoke up first. “…Can I help you with something, Seto?” “Huh?” That was a rare offer. Marie was never the type to volunteer for household work; even when she did, it was always light duty like making some tea. I was glad to hear it, but sadly, there was nothing left I really needed a hand with. “Oh,” I said with a smile, “I actually just wrapped everything up, so that’s all right. You can help out the next time I need something.” “…All right. I’m going to bed then.” With that, Marie staggered back into her room. It seemed a little dangerous, the way she almost fell over on her feet. I didn’t think that was just fatigue. I began to wonder a bit about her hair. Marie didn’t seem to take much note of it, but her white hair used to come down to her hips; now it didn’t even reach her shoulders. Considering how much lighter my head felt after a quick trim, losing so much of her hair must’ve been enough to change the entire way Marie’s body moved. I opened my mouth to say something else to her, but she had already disappeared behind the door before I could come up with something coherent. The door shut behind her, the sound echoing into nothingness shortly. The silence returned. Left alone in the living room, I tried closing my eyes to rest my mind a bit. But my brain naturally began thinking about Marie again. The events of this evening had come as quite a surprise. Wouldn’t that be the first time, in fact, that she’d offered to go out shopping by herself? The mere idea of going out would make her a nervous wreck before. Something big must’ve changed in her heart. “A change, huh…?” My chest began to stir, in stark contrast to the quietude of the room. But I couldn’t let that omen seize my mind. So I lay there, my mind clear, counting the seconds until the fatigue finally knocked me out. The sun had pretty well reached the apex of its ascent by the time Marie’s voice flew over me, serving as my wake-up call. “You can’t do that, Seto! Just because there’s nothing to do, you can’t sleep this late!” I laughed a bit. It sounded like a mother scolding her son. But I had definitely overslept, so I shot up out of bed. Then I instantly regretted shooting up without any destination in mind. I had pretty well collapsed under the comforter without preparing for sleep, so I looked, shall we say, less than decent. I feared what Marie would think, but she just gave me a funny look, as if nothing bothered her at all. Whew. If the sheets had gone this way instead of that as I zoomed up, it could have been a real disaster. I calmed my beating heart and resolved to purchase some full-body pajamas before long. Gently shooing Marie out of my room, I switched to some casual clothes and headed for the living room. I’d had a hard time getting to sleep the night before, so when the morning sun had first poked into the sky earlier, I had decided to go to bed with a little breakfast prepped. I had it all set up so it was just heat ’n’ serve, and I guess Marie must’ve eaten it, because there was an empty natto container on the floor. I picked it up, tossed it in the kitchen garbage, and then ran into Marie back in the living room. There were two teacups on the tray she was carrying, the sweet scent of tea wafting up and naturally relaxing my facial expression. “Good morning, Seto. You missed most of it, though.” She smiled. It startled me, but not enough to keep me from wishing her a good morning back. The day had begun, more or less. “Oh right. There’s a big show today. I heard about it eating the curry yesterday.” “A big show?” I said as I blew on my tea, the two of us seated on the sofa. A show, a show… Given her mistaking flour for flounder the night before, I didn’t want to make any assumptions about what she meant by that. Given the time of year, though, I thought I had a decent idea. “You mean a big fireworks show, Marie?” “Yeah! That! The ol’ man said I should go to it.” I didn’t want to guess what kind of “old man” she’d gotten to talking to at the supermarket as she purchased that flounder. But I understood what she meant. Mostly. “All right,” I said. The clock had just passed eleven. “Why don’t we go see it together? It’s a little early still, but once it’s closer to evening, I bet there’ll be a lot of stands to check out, so…” This brightened Marie’s face considerably. She practically jumped on top of me. I winced at this sudden assault—her hand battering my shoulder—but considering the cup I had in my hand, I could do little but pull my head back. “Stands?! What’re those? Do you go around ’n’ around on them? Is it fun?!” “N-no, it’s not a carnival ride or anything! Like…they’re these little buildings that sell food you can’t get anywhere else, or let you play all kinds of weird games. They’re run by these guys in funny outfits…” I was making them sound much creepier than they were. I struggled to define them as I spoke, my guidance collapsing into a pile of incoherence. But my shoddy explanation still piqued Marie’s curiosity. “We gotta check them out,” she vowed, the tempo of her breathing going up. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever been to an event like that. I was invited to things like the fair at my father’s school in the past, but I just recoiled at the idea of being anywhere a lot of people were. The idea of someone like me inviting Marie out to see some fireworks was pretty weirdly out of character. Dealing with her, I guess, was making me act in all kinds of unpredictable ways. “…Wait, Seto. Wouldn’t it be too late if we go in the evening?” “Huh? No, I think that’s the perfect time if we want to see the fireworks…” “But we can’t see them in the dark! Do they have lights?” I froze, not following her for a moment. Then, realizing what she meant, I wound up laughing in her face. Marie puffed out her reddened cheeks at this, resenting my picking on her. “Well, what? Am I wrong? You can’t look at fireworks when it’s all dark!” “Ahh, sorry, sorry. You’re wrong, though, Marie. You’re supposed to enjoy fireworks at night. It’s like these great big flowers of fiery light that bloom in the night sky.” “Flowers of light…in the sky…?” She was probably having trouble connecting my description to what she knew about flowers. The look on her face was puzzled, questioning. She must’ve thought I was still messing with her. “R-really! It’s true. And it’s a lot prettier when it’s dark out, so they set off all these fireworks at night. I mean, they disappear really quick up there, so that’s why it attracts all those people. They want to be sure they don’t miss out on them, and stuff…” This explanation was ample for Marie. She nodded to herself, her face back to normal. I guess it was kind of odd, now that I thought about it. The idea of “flowers” blooming in a space occupied only by the moon and the stars, usually. If I didn’t know about it, I’d be pretty suspicious, too. Being questioned about it so innocently like this made me realize I’d been cruising on what I knew about the world, or common sense, or whatever else in my life. Or, at least, that’s how I’d lived until I’d met this girl. I’d probably never be able to live like her, going forward. “Well,” Marie said with a laugh, “we’d better look at them before they wither.” Then she gave me the biggest smile in the world. “Yeah. We better. Don’t want to forget about them.” “Ooh, an airplane cloud!” Looking up, I spotted a straight line of white shining in the sky, bursting with layers of blue and scarlet. “Yeah… Kind of elegant, isn’t it, Marie?” “Elegant? What’s that?” “Huh? Ummm… I don’t really know, either, I guess.” The humidity that coiled around my skin, and the sounds of the cicadas around us, still showed no sign of abating. As much as the city wanted this summer to be over, as far as the world was concerned, we were smack in the middle of it. I kept Marie calm as she was constantly distracted by this and that around her, and the two of us walked along a concrete levee, going briskly but not too briskly downstream. There were a few people in yukata outfits among the crowd joining us, and I was using them as a guide to where we should be headed. The site of the fireworks wasn’t too far away from our hideout, and by this time of the evening, the heat I had been worried about had dulled considerably. Despite that, there weren’t many clouds in the sky. The people around us chattered about how it was “perfect fireworks weather,” and I had to agree with them. “Oh, they’re doing something!” Something else had caught Marie’s attention. She pointed straight ahead at it. The bridge up ahead blocked my view partially, but at the edge of the levee as it curved around a turn in the river, there was a line of several tents. None of them had their lights on yet, but between the traditional red lanterns and the guys in happi coats in front of the stands, it was one of those classic festival sights. Fireworks may have been the focus of this event, but these stands were traditional icons of any festival in Japan. The sights, sounds, and smells of the area were sweeping the whole crowd into an excited furor, pushing them to walk faster toward the party. This is bound to grab her, I thought as I looked down at Marie. Her eyes were squarely on the stalls, but she still resisted the urge to run over to them, which I found cute. Every step we took closer to the site, we saw more people joining us. Before long, we were part of a seemingly vast line of visitors as we made it to the upper area of the festival. Holding hands with the perpetually wobbly Marie, I went down a stone stairway, only to be greeted by what had to be the most stereotypical summer festival I’d ever seen. The stands bunched up against the river seemed to stretch on forever, their colors decorating the entire riverfront. My nose was struck by the aroma of sauce from the yakisoba noodle place, only to be overruled by my eyes as they took in the vivid sights of candied apples, chocolate-covered bananas, and other sweets at other stands. A shaved-ice storefront had a blue flag in front of it; right next door was a plastic pool for yoyo sukui (a game where you try to scoop small balloon toys off the surface of the water), the splashing sounds making the surroundings seem that little bit less hot. It was the ideal summer fest, stimulating all five senses at once. I had seen scenes like this on TV, but I’d had no idea they were this mesmerizing. The bewildering sights made me a little dizzy—but then, a pale little face next to me ran off, eyes blazing in wonder. I guess she couldn’t hold out anymore. Reaching out, I managed to grab her sleeve just in time, making her squeal a little. “Dahh! Don’t go running off by yourself, Marie! What am I gonna do if you get lost?!” “Aw, don’t be so mean, Seto! And gimme some money, too!” She was now a slave to her desires, and her hands were looking for the wallet I had sneaked into my pocket. No, Marie! Don’t succumb to the urge! I just barely managed to keep her from her goal, putting a little distance between her and me. “Hee-hee… C’mon, I want some money… Cotton candy… Turtle catching…” “Ngh…!” Oh no… I had no idea a festival could drive someone so far into the depths of insanity like this! Thanks to all the time we had before arriving, I had explained to her all the things she could expect to see at the fest—and now, I realized, I shouldn’t have done that. Now, as she snickered and furtively grabbed at my wallet, I could see that there was no appealing to her sense of morals anymore. I couldn’t just fork over my wallet, though. That premium-class fish had caused serious damage to our finances; they were precarious enough as it was. I wasn’t saying we could only mill around and look at things, but if that girl got my wallet, I could guess what might happen. Something I could easily imagine…and something I wished I couldn’t. “Okay, okay! Let’s do this!” I thrust my palm before Marie, stopping her in her tracks. Whew. At least her ears still worked. “You and I can play against each other in one of these stall games. If you win…I-I’ll give you my wallet. But if you lose, Marie, you’ll have to listen to me today, all right?” “Just one game?” Marie’s oddly calculating reply made my upper body shudder. Her eyes were resolute, observing. They were the eyes of a winner. “Um, best two out of three,” I weakly replied. It couldn’t have sounded more pathetic. “…Okay. That’s a promise!” The murderous intent in Marie’s eyes disappeared as she came back to my side, the same as always. Man, what is with this girl…? No. Think this over, Kousuke. She’s the same lovable Marie she always is. There couldn’t possibly be some darker side to her. No. No way.
Chapter 123
14 min read