“See you tomorrow, Grandpa.”
“Yes, see you soon.”
With that, he returned home to the silent apartment. The lights were off, and in the kitchen Takiji’s glass was still sitting where he had left it.
“What? She’s not home yet at this hour?”
She had said she didn’t have work or volunteer duties, so what was she up to? Was she determined to make a fool out of him, staying out so late without contacting him? Well, for now he’d take a shower at least. But going to the bedroom to change, Takiji received a shock. There in the darkened room was Junko, lying in bed and crying out as if in the throes of a nightmare.
“Wh-what? You…were here?” He raised his voice involuntarily.
“Oh! It’s you…yes, dear. I think I’m sick.” Junko’s response was interrupted by a deep coughing fit. Her voice was so hoarse she sounded like a different person.
“But what happened? You weren’t at all like that earlier today, were you?”
“I haven’t been feeling so well since then.”
When he thought about it, she had seemed out of sorts, hadn’t she? She was sighing a lot and had sounded distracted and listless. Takiji had thought she was just in a mood.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have taken you to the hospital right then!”
“I thought I’d feel better if I got some sleep,” she said. “But we’re old now, aren’t we? It isn’t that easy.”
He turned on the light and looked at Junko’s face. Perhaps she had a fever? Her cheeks were bright red.
“Okay, first things first. Let me take your temperature. Uh…where’s the thermometer?”
“Not here. It disappeared somewhere when we moved…”
He wasn’t sure what to do next. Takiji and Junko had both been blessed with strong constitutions, and neither of them had ever been bedridden. When Nanao got sick, Junko was always the one to care for her, so Takiji had no experience nursing anyone.
“Should I call for an ambulance?”
“What are you saying? It’s not that serious. I just need to keep warm and sleep, and I’ll be fine.”
Junko tried to laugh but dissolved into a violent coughing fit. Takiji became suddenly anxious that she would start to vomit. Weren’t you supposed to cool the head of a feverish person? Maybe he could use ice cubes or something. But was there anything like that in the house?
“I need something to cool your head. What should I do?”
Junko just said, “Down below.”
“Down below? Down below where?”
“They sell frozen bottles of water downstairs. I can put them under my arms…”
Bottles under her arms? Not on her head? He didn’t understand, but Junko seemed to think it would be fine. In any case, Takiji grabbed his wallet and hurried downstairs to do as he was told.
He passed through the dine-in space on his way to the convenience store. Hikaru was still there, eating his bento dinner.
“Hey, Grandpa. What’s going on?”
“Oh dear, well, when I returned to my apartment, my wife was in bed. She said she didn’t feel well.”
Takiji explained that he was looking for some kind of ice pack to cool her down, and Hikaru stood up. “That’s rough,” he said. He stuffed the remains of his bento into his mouth. “I can help.”
“No, that’s…it’s okay.”
“I’m a really good nurse. Because when anything happens to my father, I take care of him.” Hikaru threw away his rubbish, and Takiji entered the side door of Tenderness with the boy at his heels. “Does she have an appetite?”
“Hmm…I’m not sure. Now that you mention it, I don’t know if she had lunch this afternoon…she may have left her toast this morning, too. It’s possible she hasn’t eaten anything.”
“You don’t know?” Hikaru looked surprised.
“Sorry,” Takiji replied, scratching his head. He had never paid much attention to Junko’s appetite.
“If you want an ice pack, she must have a fever, right?”
“Oh, I forgot—we don’t have a thermometer, so I’ll have to go to the pharmacy after this.”
The pharmacy was at least a ten-minute walk from the apartments, wasn’t it? For a moment, Takiji thought it would probably be best just to go back to the apartment, but Hikaru broke in: “They sell them,” he said. “They have them here, I’m sure.”
Without hesitation, Hikaru led him straight to the household items. Takiji had never so much as glanced at the products here, since he didn’t think it was economical. Lined up on the shelves were hot water bottles, flasks, thermometers, and the like.
“Oh! They have all this?”
When he looked more closely, he saw there were all sorts of products—diapers, aprons, electrolyte solutions. Takiji was surprised and wondered why. “Probably because it’s all older people upstairs,” Hikaru said. “It makes life easier for them, doesn’t it, Mr. Manager?”
Hikaru raised his voice toward the dessert aisle. Shiba’s head popped up. His hands were full of cakes, so apparently he had been restocking.
Shiba smiled gently and said, “That’s right. We serve the residents of the building, and we also have quite a few elderly customers among our regulars in general. We give careful consideration to our stock, so they won’t run into trouble in a time of need. By the way, our stores in student neighborhoods carry a much wider selection of stationery—and desserts, too.”
Takiji nodded. It was undoubtedly convenient.
He put an ice pack and a thermometer in his basket, then added a few bottles of electrolyte beverages. He took a few bottles of frozen water, too, as per Junko’s instructions.
“She said she’d put them under her arms, but maybe she was just delirious from the fever?”
Takiji spoke quietly, almost to himself, but Hikaru spoke up. “It’s easy to bring down a fever that way,” he said. “There are a lot of large blood vessels in the armpit.”
“Is that right?”
He was impressed that Hikaru had such information in his repertoire.
“Next is food,” said Hikaru. “I recommend these.” He was holding a heat-and-serve bag of rice porridge.
“They have these, too?”
“Grandpa, why are you so surprised about everything?” Hiraku gave a little laugh.
Takiji was slightly embarrassed and shrugged. “I guess I’ve never really made proper use of a convenience store. I’ll admit, though, they’re unexpectedly convenient. I’ll have to change my thinking.”
When he first looked at the apartment, he remembered, the agent had mentioned how handy it was to have a convenience store downstairs. At the time he had snorted and wondered exactly what was so convenient about having a shop right downstairs, with people coming and going at all hours, nonstop. At the very least, they’d have to put up with a terrible racket all the time, he’d thought.
In actuality, things turned out to be very different, and the building had decent security, so he didn’t have to worry about strangers going in and out. In light of his current situation, he suddenly appreciated the value of this “convenient” store the agent had touted.
“If you have these, you don’t have to worry about meals,” said Hikaru. No matter how little he knew about cooking, he could at least heat up a bag of food. He took the porridge, whereupon Hikaru said, “And this, too.” He looked. It was an egg custard. Apparently the boy had found it in the section with the bento boxes.
“Egg custard?”
“I’m telling you, I recommend it.” Hikaru grinned, as Takiji looked at him curiously.