LATE THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON, Takiji was putting on his trainers in the front hall when Junko returned from her trip.
“Oh! Where are you going dressed like that?” Still holding her suitcase as well as a paper bag from a souvenir shop, she looked him up and down in surprise. She seemed perplexed to see him in the tracksuit, which was hardly part of his regular repertoire. She asked again, “Is something going on?”
“Not particularly,” he replied. “Just going out for a little bit.”
“A little bit where?”
“Anywhere, really. It doesn’t matter,” he said with deliberate carelessness, leaving the apartment and stepping into the lift. When he exited on the ground floor, he noticed that a number of the ladies hadn’t returned to their apartments yet and were still standing around in the lobby, talking among themselves in evident amusement.
“Oh! It’s Mrs. Ōtsuka’s husband.” Mrs. Nosé, the president of the Ladies’ Association, noticed him and bowed slightly in greeting. Takiji didn’t know what kind of games they had played on the trip, but she seemed tired. He gave her a polite smile.
“Welcome back. Did you enjoy the trip?”
“Yes, thanks. We had a good tour. We apologize to all the husbands for the inconvenience, but we’re very grateful to them for sending us off so willingly.”
Mrs. Nosé spoke deferentially and bowed her head, perhaps more politely than necessary, but Takiji waved her off, saying, “Please, don’t mention it.” Perhaps Junko had told them that she had encountered objections from her husband. She had never been an indiscreet woman, but he wasn’t sure about this new Junko. He hated to think that way, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Well, I’m off for a walk,” he said. “See you later.”
He left the lobby without dropping his smile. Still, a dark feeling was welling up inside him. It made him mad, and there was nothing he could do about it. For all the smiles and apologies, he thought he’d probably be angry when Junko returned from her trip, and sure enough, he was. Was this what Nanao meant when she said he kept her mother under lock and key? No, that wasn’t the whole story. Junko had to share some of the blame. Her conduct may have been perfectly natural to herself and their daughter, but from Takiji’s perspective, she had just suddenly begun to indulge her every whim, out of the blue, without the slightest explanation.
“Damn it.”
He had given up tobacco all of ten years ago, but at times like this he just wanted a smoke. He was thinking maybe he should just go have a beer at a pub somewhere, when he heard a voice. “Grandpa!” He gave a start, and there was Hikaru, standing at the entrance to the park. He was wearing gym clothes and beaming from ear to ear.
“Hello! Have you been waiting?”
“Nope, I just got here! Thank you for coming!” the boy said as Takiji drew closer. “I don’t have as much time on weekdays. Let’s start our training quick.”
Takiji patted the boy on the head and noticed he was already sweating. He must have run all the way here, he thought, and the emotional storm that had been raging inside him began to subside. Let’s forget about the problems at home and spend some time with this child. Takiji smiled.
After that, for days to come, he spent his evenings in Oimatsu Park, training with Hikaru for the three-legged race.
The training was intense. Takiji suffered from bad muscle cramps all over, but the pain in his legs was the worst. He covered them with compresses, but after his bath, exhaustion would overtake him and he’d barely manage to finish his dinner before crawling into bed. There wasn’t even time for his evening drink. During the daytime, he would just sprawl on the sofa in a desperate attempt to recover his strength for the next training session. I’m dead on my feet, he thought. That’s the perfect description of it. But when he was with Hikaru, he forgot his exhausted body completely. Besides, he didn’t want to give up the training sessions. He had become too committed to helping the boy take first place.
It was hard to believe. Takiji lay on the sofa, eyes closed, wearing the tracksuit that had already become like a uniform to him. The idea that he’d be working himself half to death over a child’s field day—and the child of a complete stranger, to boot! If his former self could only see him now, he’d be shocked beyond words.
“You know, dear, you’ve been acting funny lately.”
As he was chuckling to himself, he heard a voice and opened his eyes. Junko was seated at the dining table, giving him a dubious look.
“Oh. Are you home today?”
“I told you, today’s my day off at the supermarket.”
“And the Ladies’ Association?”
“They said it wasn’t my turn.” Junko heaved a deep sigh. “What’s going on with you?” she asked listlessly. “Are you still mad about my trip?”
“Huh? Oh, that. No, I’d forgotten all about that.” When he was with Hikaru, his anger had just evaporated somehow. He wondered if he had attacked the training sessions with such fervor because it allowed him to let go of such fruitless burdens. “I’m just doing what I want, the same way you’re doing what you want.”
“Even so, it seems like you’ve changed somehow.”
“I could say the same about you.”
Junko sighed again, and an uncomfortable silence descended upon them. As the seconds ticked by, Takiji’s frustration grew. He had been completely unable to understand Junko since they moved here. He was the one who wanted to ask what was going on with her.
“I’m going to take a little nap now,” he said. “And you should do whatever you want, too, as always.”
Junko didn’t reply. Takiji wondered if his remark had come off as sarcastic, but decided it was okay to leave things as they were. He closed his eyes again and fell asleep in spite of himself.
He awoke to the buzzing of his phone, which he had set as an alarm clock. He got up and did a few deep stretches. He looked around, but there was no sign of Junko in the room, or anywhere in the apartment. She seemed to have gone out.
“So this is what it’s come to,” Takiji said to himself, and laughed bitterly. He couldn’t help but think that the old Junko wouldn’t have left the house after a conversation like that. But maybe that was just his own self-centered emotions having their say.
Standing in the kitchen, he drank down a cup of cold barley tea, then headed to the front hall. He put on his trainers and hurried to Oimatsu Park, where Hikaru was waiting for him as always.
After their training sessions, Takiji had fallen into the habit of walking Hikaru back to the apartment building. He would return to his own apartment, and the boy would buy a bento at Tenderness for dinner. It seemed that Hikaru had been extra hungry of late, so he was now buying two bento instead of one. When he heard that, Takiji wanted to invite the boy up to his apartment for dinner, but he felt that such a decision wasn’t entirely up to him alone. Takiji’s repertoire only included two items—fried rice and fried noodles—so he would have no choice but to ask Junko to prepare Hikaru’s meal. Furthermore, he hadn’t met the boy’s father yet. The plan was to do that on the man’s next day off.