“You already know the legend of the mermaid, right? Did any of it strike you as strange?”
The young woman tapped the end of her cigarette on the ashtray, not caring if she dirtied the bedcovers.
“The details…”
“Yes.”
“The whole setup was strange. Supposedly, the people of the village always helped one another out and were known to lend a helping hand when people were in trouble. So then why did the fisherman try to care for the mermaid all by himself at first instead of relying on his neighbors or getting a doctor? Maybe if the fisherman was some sort of oddball loner, that might explain things, but…”
“That’s just it.” Susaki crossed her legs. “The fisherman was odd. Odd because he knew that the villagers were dirtbags. The reason he tried to look after the mermaid all by himself was because he knew that something awful would happen if he told them. Of course, they figured it out in the end.”
The smell of the tobacco was making me want to smoke. I rubbed my lips with my fingers, waiting for her to continue.
“Did you know that eating mermaid flesh is supposed to grant immortality?” she asked.
“Like in the legend of the eight-hundred-year-old Buddhist nun?”
“I wouldn’t know about that. But yeah, supposedly, there are legends. That’s why after the people of this village discovered the mermaid, they decided to kill her and eat her.”
I glanced at the mermaid in the oil painting. Her hollow smile reminded me of the old man I had seen on the beach.
“Can you believe the story they’re telling now? The people of this village are such lying sacks of shit. You know, our village was actually the first to have a legend about the mermaid.”
“So then I take it the part at the end where the fisherman chooses to row off into the sea by himself was made-up, too?” The woman’s only response was a mad grin. This was unlike the smile of radiance I had seen on the old man’s face earlier. It was a morbid, possessed grin. “Let me guess. The villagers killed the fisherman before they killed the mermaid. Because he tried to resist when they demanded he hand over the mermaid. Then they murdered and ate the mermaid, and once dawn came, they disposed of the fisherman’s body. Is that right?”
“Not quite,” the woman said bluntly. I shrugged. “They nearly killed him, that’s true, but somehow, he managed to survive. He was tossed out to sea in a broken boat, but he was able to use one of the wood fragments like a kickboard to swim to the neighboring village.”
“And how can you be so sure of this?”
Susaki cocked her head in a childlike fashion.
“Because that fisherman was my grandfather,” she said, simple as you please.
My jaw dropped. I must have looked like a fish washed ashore. I started to stand up from my seat, but then I sat back down on second thought. Susaki chuckled at my reaction.
“After washing up at our village, my grandfather wound up getting remarried to the woman who nursed him back to health, my grandmother. Apparently, they had a rough time of it, since our two villages never got along. My family’s been pretty poor ever since then. I didn’t get to go to school very much, either. And now look where I am.”
If this troubled young woman’s grandfather had really been the fisherman of the story, that would make this village’s whole tale a lie. But then why would the mermaid bless the villagers if they had butchered and eaten her?
“Everyone in my family said to never have anything to do with this village, but my grandfather told me the story right before he died, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. It’s hard to explain, but ever since I was young, strange things have had a way of flocking to me. I thought, maybe if I visited this place, I would figure something out.”
Susaki used her legs, which were covered in scratches, to fiddle with her slippers. A few of the psychics and mediums I had met in the course of my work had sported similar cuts. They had claimed it was some form of communication from things invisible to the eye.
“And did you? Figure something out?”
“Yeah. I discovered how messed up the people of this village are. But I also learned something far worse—”
I suddenly heard the howl of a loose fan belt outside the window, and the screeching of skidding tires, followed by an explosive crash. I pushed aside the sooty curtain and looked outside. A compact car had plowed into a telephone pole, which was now tilting to the side. The nose of the car was crushed up like a bulldog’s. A short distance away, I could see a motorbike as well, lying on its side and belching out smoke. I glanced around for Miyaki, who I had left waiting outside, but I didn’t see her anywhere.
“If you’re gonna go, you should go,” Susaki said, her cigarette now short. She made no attempt to look. “I’ll stay here a little longer. It would be better if we didn’t leave at the same time.”
“Thanks for your help.”
I pulled the money for the room from my wallet and left it on the desk, before racing outside.
A crowd of onlookers had already gathered, and I could hear an ambulance siren in the distance.
Miyaki, who was watching from the edge of the crowd with her arms crossed, noticed me.
“Are you done?”
“I guess. What happened here? Was it an accident?”
“Yes. Two people from the village, apparently. The person in the car only has mild injuries. As for the kid on the bike, though…”
A man who appeared to be the driver was standing in front of the smashed car, pressing a bloody towel to his forehead. A black skid mark had left an arc across the asphalt at his feet, stretching all the way to the motorbike, which looked as if it had been launched against a wall.
“Clear the road—the ambulance is here!” an onlooker shouted.
The villagers parted to either side. Without thinking, I slipped into the gap left behind, making my way closer to the scene of the accident. Pushing my way through the wave of people, I caught sight of the rear tire of the bike, which was still spinning. The murmuring of the villagers began to reach my ear.
“Thank goodness, though!”
“What do you mean?”
“Take a look.”
“Oh, you’re right.”
A young man in a rider’s jacket who seemed to be a college student was currently lying on the ground. Dark-red blood clawed its way across the surface of the asphalt. The boy was far more injured than the cheerful voices of the villagers seemed to suggest. A steady gush oozed from his head, and one half of his face was already completely red. As I got close enough to see the young man’s expression, I heard one of the villagers speak. It was already too late to regret what I saw.
“Thank goodness, he was able to receive the mermaid’s dream.”
Copious volumes of blood streamed from the young man’s cracked head as a glorious smile, exactly like the old man’s at the beach, spread on his crimson face.