The morning of the trip, Junko looked a little uneasy, but she made all the necessary arrangements with her usual determination and departed. Takiji looked down from his balcony as a minibus pulled up in the convenience store car park and the members of the association began to board. The ladies were all decked out in showy clothes and carefully made up, laughing gaily together as they surrounded Shiba. The men in this building are all fools. Aren’t they embarrassed that their wives are all losing their heads over this man who’s young enough to be their son? And to think that he was in the same boat!
As if he felt Takiji’s eyes on him, Shiba glanced up as he was boarding the bus. Their eyes met.
“I’ll take good care of your wife, so don’t worry!” he called out pleasantly, beaming up at Takiji. The easygoing look on the manager’s face infuriated him. The man had some nerve, joking about it like that.
“I’m not worried about anything at all!” Takiji called back, trying hard to mask his twitch of irritation with the semblance of a smile. If he raised his voice in anger now, he’d have lost the battle. Takiji stepped back inside, smile still plastered to his face. Back in the tidy living room, he sank down onto the sofa and closed his eyes. He remained in that position until the commotion downstairs had faded, and then, once all had returned to quiet, he stood up.
He went down to the Tenderness convenience store on the ground floor. A male clerk was attending to customers at the register, and a female clerk was busy restocking items on the dessert shelves. Takiji took a casual look around.
Takiji seldom visited convenience stores. It annoyed him that everything was sold at full price, and he also remembered reading an article in a magazine years ago about how the food items in the boxed bento meals were full of additives. Aside from purchasing the occasional canned coffee drink, or maybe a pack of lozenges in order to be allowed to use the toilet, he never went into the places. He had always told Junko and Nanao to use supermarkets and discount stores instead, whenever they could, in order to save money. Convenience stores were for the lazy, he said. To those who lived their lives properly, they were of no use.
He purchased just the single can of coffee and moved to the dine-in space that Junko and her friends cleaned three times daily. Maybe there were members of the group who didn’t participate in the trip, or the staff at the store had taken over while they were gone, because the place was as tidy as usual. Vases containing cosmos had been placed in three suitable locations.
“Hmmph.”
Takiji sniffed, taking a seat at the counter. Nursing his coffee, he considered how he was going to spend the next three days. Ah! Perhaps he should get in touch with a few former colleagues and arrange a visit? It was just a few hours to Nagoya on the bullet train. He could suggest a drink that evening at a grill pub in the Higashi Sakura neighborhood, downtown. That might interest a few of them. He was halfway out of his chair, but then sat down again. He had been to Nagoya about a month ago, for the funeral of an old mentor of his. There were a number of people who failed to show, even for an event like that, because they were sick in hospital or had settled into retirement. And the ones who did come had nothing to say about the deceased, they just droned on and on about their own physical infirmities and nursing situations with no sense of propriety. Everyone seemed to have become a bit tired and slow somehow, and just thinking of the impressive figures they had cut in their former lives set Takiji’s teeth on edge. Even if he contacted the lot of them out of the blue like that, who would take the time? It was likely that not one of them would show up.
“I’ve been leading a dull life, haven’t I?”
He said it quietly, out loud, and then thought to himself, That’s really the problem. He had tried his best to be true to himself, but that clearly wasn’t good enough. And what could he do about it now? His wife had left him, his daughter blamed him, and he had no friends around to know how he felt.
He felt a presence and turned. A boy had just entered through the side door from the store. Looking at the boy’s sunburned face, Takiji let out a short bark of surprise. It was the boy he had seen the other day, through the coffee shop window. Ah, that was it! He had recognized him because he had seen him so often before, here in the dine-in space. The boy was always here when Takiji went for his evening walk.
The boy directed a quick glance his way and their eyes met again, but it seemed that he didn’t remember seeing Takiji before. He looked around the room and took a seat at one of the four-person tables. He removed a curry bento and a bottle of carbonated fruit juice from his bag and started to eat.
A convenience store bento for breakfast, on a Saturday morning?
Takiji shook his head slightly. What on earth were the boy’s parents doing? From what he could tell, the boy was probably still in elementary school. Weren’t they concerned about letting their young child eat such a poor breakfast? And just the fact that he’d seen the boy’s face often enough to remember it meant that he must be relying on convenience store bento for most of his meals. A growing child should have meals made with love and care, and with much more nutritional value.
Takiji’s thoughts had little effect on the boy. He finished his meal quickly, gathered up his rubbish and dumped it in the bin, then took a portable game console from his bag. He inserted a pair of earphones into his ears and began to play. Sneaking surreptitious glances at the boy’s blank face, Takiji bit his lip in frustration. It was utterly deplorable. Convenience store bento and video games, on such a beautiful autumn weekend morning! It just wasn’t right.
There was a peal of laughter, and another group of boys on bicycles rolled into the car park. They parked their bikes in the rack and entered the shop. Soon after, they made their way into the dine-in space.
“Look! Isn’t that Hikaru?” A large boy noticed the young man with the video game and spoke.
“Oh yeah, it’s Hikaru.”
The three boys surrounded Hikaru at the four-person table. For a moment, Takiji was relieved that the boy’s friends had arrived, until one of them smacked Hikaru on the head.
“Hikaru, what are you doing here?”
“If you have free time, you need to practice, practice, practice!”
Hikaru responded to the chorus of voices with a sullen look. “Go away,” he said. “It’s just a sports meet. Practice, practice, practice is dumb.”
“We want our class to win first place. How can it be dumb to practice?”
Listening to them talk, Takiji gleaned that the Sunday after next was the field day for the school the boys attended. Apparently, Hikaru’s entire class had been staying late after school to train, but Hikaru hadn’t joined them once. Takiji was looking at Hikaru in disapproval, thinking, This is no good, when one of the boys piped up with a sneer in his voice.
“Your dad will probably be away for work again, anyhow. It’s the same every year. He doesn’t show up, and you have to have lunch with the teachers in the faculty lounge.”
“Huh, what? What are you talking about?” one of the other boys interjected.
“Hikaru’s mum moved out,” said the boy with the sneer. “His parents got divorced. His dad always misses special events because of work or something. My mum said he hasn’t come once—not even on Parents Day.”
“Wow, seriously? Then what about the father-son three-legged race? Our class has to win all the races! My dad bought a new track jacket and he’s really ready this year.”
“Maybe we could pair him up with some teacher? Like Mrs. Noda from the infirmary?”
“No way! Mrs. Noda’s too old, isn’t she? Can she even run?”
“I want to win, but I’d really like to see that! Mrs. Noda is even fatter than my mum.”
The boys burst into raucous laughter. Whoa, that’s too funny! I want a photo of that!
As Takiji observed quietly from the sidelines, Hikaru’s face became visibly red with anger. His hands, still holding his game console, started to tremble. Finally, he slammed it on the table and shouted, “Shut up, all of you! It’s none of your business! And it’s not funny, so quit your stupid laughing!”
“What’s up with you? Don’t get so mad over nothing.” The boy sitting next to him slung his arm over Hikaru’s shoulder, but Hikaru swatted him off violently. At the sound of the slap, the boys’ expressions shifted.
“What the heck, Hikaru? That’s messed up!”
“Hey there, sorry about that. That’s our Hikaru for you,” Takiji stood up and called out loudly. The children, who had seemed like they were headed toward an explosive situation, paused, flustered by the sudden sound of an adult voice. They looked at Takiji, who smiled back at them.
“I’m going to attend field day this year. I’m older than all your parents, but I still know a trick or two, and I think we can win that—what is it? That three-legged race of yours.”
Hikaru gaped at him. Confirming this out of the corner of his eye, Takiji continued. “I hope it’ll be good weather on field day. I’m quite looking forward to it, too.”
“Oh, er, okay…you are?”
The boys gave him a wary look, then left, calling to Hikaru on their way out, “Don’t forget to practice!” Takiji watched them go, waving good-bye as they rode off on their bikes.
“Um, what…?” came a small voice. Hikaru was looking at him quizzically.
“Ah, sorry. I probably shouldn’t have butted in.”
He had intended to keep his mouth shut and listen, but then he couldn’t help but get involved. He scratched his head in embarrassment and said, “I just got so annoyed listening to them. So I made up that strange story. I shouldn’t have.”
What was he thinking, getting so worked up over a children’s quarrel? Hikaru’s shoulders relaxed. “Thank you,” he said. Takiji looked at him in surprise. The boy was smiling, ever so slightly.
“I was surprised, but those boys were totally shocked. It was funny to see all of their faces. Thank you.”
Hikaru took the game console from the table and stowed it in his bag. “It’ll be okay. I’ll just tell them that Grandpa got sick and couldn’t come.” He started to leave, but Takiji called out to him.
“Uh, wait a sec. Would it be really bad if I came? To the field day.”
Hikaru turned back toward him. Takiji looked at his round eyes.