She wanted to know which author he liked best. It seemed she admired foreign scenery and wanted to read books written in those far-off places.
As Rintarou averted his eyes from Satoko as she looked at him, as if she was too bright to look at, the two cats appeared by their feet, helping pick up their dropped conversation.
Doesn’t look like he’ll need me anymore.
Haruka was about to head back up to the second floor when Sumi ran over to him.
“Sumi, you stay here and help Chiyo-san mind the store,” he said, bending to stroke her back.
When he walked a few steps away, her eyes stayed locked on the window. She eventually headed toward the reading counter, looking back a few times as she did. There was a little boy outside of the window, about three or four years old. He was peeking into the store, eyes wide.
“He must be here for the cats. We’ve got two here today, after all.” Haruka thought about bringing him inside, but he didn’t seem to have a guardian nearby.
For better or worse, the people who lived nearby didn’t pay attention to other people. While they’d treat anyone well without discrimination, they would do nothing as long as you stayed quiet. Picking up Sumi in his arms, Haruka headed outside.
“Do you like kitties?”
The moment he spoke to the little boy, he stiffened up, but he walked closer to Haruka as soon as he saw the cat. Haruka knelt down, telling the boy to pet her gently and showing him how. The boy hesitantly reached out, and the moment his hand touched Sumi’s back, he smiled.
“Were you on your way to Shinjuku Gyoen Park?”
“Yeah.”
The little boy’s backpack was packed full, slipping off his shoulders. Despite the fact that he was alone, he didn’t seem nervous. He probably knew the area well.
“What did you come to see?”
“The big ginkgo tree.”
“Do you mean the one on the promenade? The entrance that leads to it is nearby. It was pretty, wasn’t it? Who did you go with?”
As Haruka tried to indirectly get information out of the kid, a woman pushing a stroller ran up in a panic. Bowing and apologizing to Haruka, she pulled the boy’s hand and stood him up.
“Don’t leave Mommy behind just because you know how to get there yourself!”
Scolded, the boy pressed his lips together hard. He didn’t apologize.
Haruka waved to him as he left, looking back longingly a few times. His mother hurried him along.
“I get it completely,” he said to no one in particular. “I was the same sort of kid. I couldn’t do anything but what I wanted.”
Just as he was about to walk back into the store, his eyes fell on a golden ginkgo leaf that had fallen on the ground. He picked it up, spinning it around by the stem. The little boy must have brought it with him from the walking path. It looked pretty complete for a leaf that had been stuck to the bottom of a shoe.
“Oh, maybe it’s…”
He checked the date on his wristwatch. It might have been today. He’d go have a little look.
Haruka went back inside, lowering Sumi to the floor. He thanked her in his mind for helping serve to close his gap with the little boy, then headed back to his office on the second floor to grab his coat.
“I’m going out for a bit. Take care of the store.”
He headed toward the walking path from Frère. Just as he was coming out on the T-shaped road, he bumped into Keiichi.
His gaze was sharper than usual, and his lips in a straight line. He might have seemed cranky, but this was how Keiichi looked when he was fighting back sleepiness.
“Huh? What’s up? You going to Frère?” Haruka asked.
Keiichi went to answer but put a hand over his mouth, yawning instead. Then he started again, saying he was going to check on his shelf. He must have been worried about Rintarou, since he’d called him in a panic this morning.
“You?”
When Keiichi asked, Haruka pulled the ginkgo leaf out of his pocket.
“Do you know what day it is, Keiichi?”
“Huh? What day is it?”
“Come with me. It’s really close.”
Haruka started walking, and Keiichi followed him, stifling another yawn.
The walking path was called the Tamagawa Aqueduct, Naitou-Shinjuku Waterworks Promenade. It was the junction where the Tamagawa Aqueduct became the city’s tap water in the Edo Period. The path was created to remember the period where it had been the city’s water source. Along it were landscaped trees that let you enjoy the changing of the seasons. It was a place you could enjoy without buying a ticket to Shinjuku Gyoen Park. And while Haruka would suggest it to people who visited Frère, he hadn’t been there himself in a while, since he was always looking out at it from the window on the second floor.
As soon as they got on the promenade, they saw a crowd of people. They were all surrounding a huge ginkgo tree, gazing up at it and taking videos of the strange sight of its leaves dropping in unison, seemingly without the help of the wind. The ground around it was already covered in a golden carpet.
They could see children innocently stretching their hands out to catch the falling leaves. The little boy Haruka had met moments before had probably gotten one caught between him and his backpack while he was playing in much the same way.
Haruka stopped, standing off to the side of the path.
“You were talking about the falling leaves?” Keiichi asked.
“Of course you knew. I was surprised when someone told me that the leaves of a ginkgo tree would all fall off within a single day. Or rather, I thought they were lying. I’d always noticed the ground turn gold suddenly, but that was it.”
“This might be my first time seeing it myself. When I read about it in essays and novels, I couldn’t believe that it could really be a thing, so I looked it up, but…”
It seemed Keiichi’s drowsiness had been blown away as he looked up at the ginkgo tree.