Mitsuri spent the rest of the morning trying desperately to deal with the distraught patrons—that is to say, Shiba’s fans—and left it to Ukulele, who had completely missed any chance he might have had to go home, to try to contact Shiba and Tsugi.
“I felt like I might die…” By the time she had finally restored order, Mitsuri was more exhausted than ever. She had steeled herself for a difficult shift yesterday, on Christmas Eve, but today she had been caught completely off guard. Both Muraoka and his colleague Kido, a young woman who had the afternoon shift, had a hollow look about them.
“Even New Year’s Eve won’t be as bad as this…!” The makeup on Kido’s normally perfectly styled face was smeared, and half-missing in places. Muraoka nodded silently. Normally the two of them would have worked each other up into a chorus of complaints, but he no longer seemed to have the energy. One possible reason for that was the hard time his friend had given him about Shiba: “You must be blind if you can’t see how wonderful the manager is. If you’re going to be a useless ass, who needs you?”
“Anyway, I hope the manager’s little sister will be okay,” Kido said.
“Ah. Mrs. Ōtsuka’s husband dropped by a little while ago and said it was just a bad cold. They gave her fluids at the Sakaida Clinic, and now she’s dozing in the Ladies’ Association meeting room.”
“Oh, really? That’s good.”
“Apparently the Ladies’ Association members are looking after her.”
The ladies were all experts, trained over long years of caring for children and grandchildren, so Jewel had nothing to worry about.
“But where would the manager have gone?”
“You know, there have been times in the past when I couldn’t reach him.”
The three of them were puzzling together over the question when Ukulele came galloping out of the staff room with the phone handset. “I found him! The manager said he was with the Whatever Guy, and now they’re coming here. He said his little sister left to come here without telling their parents, and everyone was looking high and low for her. Mitsuri, he wants to talk to you.”
He handed her the phone, and Mitsuri hastened back into the staff room. “Hello?” she said, and in a voice lacking in his usual composure, Shiba said, “I’m so sorry for all the trouble! Takagi gave me the basics, but I gather it was a rough day for everyone?”
“It’s all settled down now. But what in the world happened to you?”
According to Shiba, his parents had noticed Jewel’s absence that morning. At around the same time, he and Tsugi had left together for their home in Miyazaki, bearing Christmas presents for their sister.
“You couldn’t reach us because our home is up in the mountains here in Miyazaki, so there’s no cell signal. We didn’t have any idea that Jewel was going to Mojikō, so we had just been searching the area here. Then my brother just blurted out, ‘I have a funny feeling she’s in Mojikō…’ ”
“Of course. His magic sixth sense, right?”
She heard a sigh from Shiba on the other end of the line. And Tsugi grumbling, “Why’d she have to go all the way to Mojikō?”
“Mitsuri, did Jewel say anything to you about it?”
“No, even if she had wanted to, she wasn’t in any condition to talk. My shift ends at three p.m. today, so I’ll go look in on her then.” It would be wrong to make the Golden Villa Ladies’ Association do all the work.
“Thank you,” Shiba said, “that’s a great help.” He thought he’d arrive in the evening and would have to rely on her until then.
Mitsuri finished her shift, and when her work was done, she went up to the meeting room. Ukulele hovered around as if he wanted to join her, but at the last minute, he just handed her an armful of bottled electrolyte and energy drinks, saying, “Give her these. It might scare her to have a strange man around.” Mitsuri was just thinking how impressed she was by his thoughtfulness when he added, in all seriousness, “Can you make sure she’s really his sister? If she’s his girlfriend, I might not be able to work anymore due to the shock.” His face was so solemn that Mitsuri just nodded silently and didn’t make a single joke about the fact that he seemed to have fallen in love.