Ushijima argued his case fervently, but Enoyoshi would have none of it. The world that Ushijima was painting held no interest at all for Enoyoshi. He wasn't indifferent to making money, but he simply wasn't ready to pursue it at the price of wrecking relationships. He could indeed imagine where it would all lead if he went after ever-increasing sales bonuses. He'd find himself in a sort of religious cult, a clique of similarly minded fanatics with one goal and one ideal, and it would be impossible to break away.
The Ushijimas reacted with clear displeasure and irritation. They spoke disapprovingly of Enoyoshi's lack of imagination, calling him a fool, even hinting that he was an inferior human being. With their vaunted imagination, they predicted that Enoyoshi would live and die as a pathetic man working all lifelong just to eke out a living, without worthwhile dreams.
Enoyoshi could not even be bothered to argue with them. Of course, spending his entire life as a mere salesman was a distinct possibility. It would have been pointless to tell them that the idea didn't really upset him. It would have been tedious. All Enoyoshi wanted was to get off the yacht as soon as possible. He'd had enough of not having solid ground beneath him and being aboard someone else's yacht. He loathed the craven subservience that the unaccustomed setting was inducing in him.
The yacht was moving steadily northward about a hundred yards east of the Wakasu Golf Links, which stretched north to south on a slender tract of land. It was only another mile and a half to the Ara River Bay Bridge, and beyond it was the entrance to the Dream Island Marina. He wouldn't have to put up with them much longer now. Once off the yacht, he would never have anything to do with them again.
His prayers for haste notwithstanding, the engine of the MINAKO sputtered and came to a stop. So strangely that Ushijima stopped in mid-sentence and gulped. He looked over at the outboard motor.
'Odd, very odd.'
Enoyoshi glanced unconsciously at his watch. 6:27 p.m., that was when the yacht came to a standstill. A Keio line train was crossing the iron bridge ahead of them, making a distinctive sound. The light from the train windows formed a stream of white in the evening sky above the mouth of the river. Lights were lit in almost every building that lined the bay. The yacht had stopped just as the black surface of the sea began to glimmer with the reflections of these lights.
The area where the yacht had stopped ruled out the possibility of having run aground. They were several hundred yards west of the sandbar known as Sanmaizu that extended due south of the Kasai Coastal Park near the mouth of the former Edo River. Iron poles marked such shallow stretches of water to indicate the hazard. At night the tips of these poles were illuminated. There was little risk of accidentally running aground on sandbars unless there were strong winds or a dense fog. The Dream Island Marina staff had warned them repeatedly about the shallows outside the entrance, and for all his faults as a sailor, Ushijima had been steering the yacht with particular attention to avoiding the shallows.
'The engine's stopped, hasn't it?' Enoyoshi noted incuriously, making no move to get up from his bench.
With a dubious look, Ushijima unscrewed the cap on the gasoline tank and peered in to check that it wasn't empty. He gingerly pulled the hand starter. The engine started immediately. The Ushijimas looked relieved, but only for a brief while. As soon as the skipper shifted into forward gear, the engine sputtered and died once more.
Now, instead of trying to restart the engine, Ushijima tilted up the drive unit out of the water.
'What is this?' Ushima exclaimed wildly, making Enoyoshi spring up. All three of them looked at the propeller.
In the evening darkness, soaked with seawater, the thing looked almost black. Ushijima reached toward the drive unit and retrieved, from in between the trim tab and the propeller, a child's blue canvas shoe. It had probably been floating nearby when the laces got tangled in the shaft and the whole shoe ended up being wound in to the propeller.
It was one of those Disney products, with a Mickey Mouse motif. Ushijima turned the shoe upside down to check the size. It was small and probably belonged to a young boy.
Shrugging his shoulders, Ushijima handed the shoe to Enoyoshi and made a face. His attitude suggested that he wanted Enoyoshi to get rid of it one way or another. With all kinds of objects floating in the sea, it wasn't strange to find a child's shoe. Yet, Ushijima seemed to find the thing somewhat sinister and seemed even afraid of it. After handing the shoe to Enoyoshi, he used a towel to wipe the palm of his right hand meticulously.
Ushijima prodded with a look, and Enoyoshi was about to throw the shoe back into the sea when he noticed a name on the heel. Kazuhiro, it said in black marker pen.
'Little Kazuhiro,' Enoyoshi muttered to himself.
'Just throw it away, okay?' Ushijima commanded rather menacingly.
Rather than hurl it away, Enoyoshi set it on the surface like a little boat and gave the heel a gentle shove.
The virtually brand-new left shoe bobbed unsteadily as it floated away. The current in this area was pretty swift, close as it was to the mouth of the River Ara. The shoe floated south and soon melted into the blackness of the sea. Enoyoshi pictured a little boy hopping about on his right foot.
Ushijima lowered the drive unit back into the water and started the engine. They'd removed the shoe that had caused the engine trouble; they ought to be ready to go. Enoyoshi's watch read 6:35. They'd lost five minutes but it looked like they'd return on schedule at seven.
'Let's be off,' said Ushijima, putting the boat into forward gear. This time the engine didn't stall and churned steadily.