I could only really shrug my shoulders. “…Who knows? Maybe it really was a fever dream after all.”
All four of us couldn’t help but feel like we’d been bamboozled.
After saying our goodbyes to Shohei and Koharu, Anzu and I set off toward our next destination. We hopped off the train and headed down the road that ran alongside the train tracks. After passing by the closed-down rice dealer and the old fire station—its doors still shuttered to this day—we arrived at our destination.
It was my house, or rather, the house I used to call my home. We walked right past the big No Trespassing sign and up to the front door. The locks hadn’t been changed, thankfully, so I was still able to let myself inside. I’d heard from Shohei that my father had long since moved away from Kozaki but had been unable to find a buyer for our old house, so now it just stood there, slowly withering away. It didn’t surprise me that he’d been unable to sell the place; it was an old wooden house that would need a lot of renovations. I wouldn’t have been shocked to see it demolished by the next time I came back to look at it.
“Sorry for the intrusion,” Anzu said politely as she walked in the front door behind me. Obviously, there was no one living within who might respond or care. It was still broad daylight outside, yet the house’s interior was surprisingly dark due to the shutters on the windows and screen doors. We walked over creaky floorboards down the hall as the rich smell of dusty hardwood filled our lungs. We made our way up the stairs, taking care not to get caught in any of the spider webs hanging from the ceiling, and arrived at my bedroom door. I reached out and opened it.
“…Nothing left, huh?” Anzu muttered to herself.
The place had indeed been stripped clean of all its personal effects, though I had to admit, it did feel surprisingly roomy without my bed and writing desk taking up so much space. Anzu, however, quickly slumped her shoulders in defeat. It had been her idea to come here in the first place; she wanted to see if there were any childhood mementos that we might be able to salvage. I assumed she had been hoping to at least find an old photo album or something.
“Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you in advance. Had a feeling my dad would’ve cleaned the place out.”
“Yeah, but you’d think there’d be something left.”
“So what now? You wanna check the other rooms too, just in case?”
Anzu shook her head. “No, I’ll admit defeat. If they were this thorough in clearing out your room, I highly doubt we’ll find anything interesting in any of the others, and I’d feel weird rummaging through stuff that isn’t even yours… Let’s go home.”
I nodded, and we headed back down the stairs. Just as I got done putting my shoes on in the entryway, I remembered something. Something important.
“Oh yeah, that reminds me. There is something we should grab before we go.”
“What’s that?”
“C’mere. I’ll show ya.”
We headed out the front door and circled around to the backyard. I quickly found the familiar gap in the crawlspace and reached my hand inside. My fingers touched something cold and metallic. Thank God, it’s still here. I pulled it out and wiped the dust from the lid of the old rectangular tin.
Anzu looked at this box of treasures in wonder, as if she could already tell how valuable it was to me. “What’s that?”
“It’s where I keep every memento I still have of my little sister.”
Upon hearing this, Anzu’s face went pale for a split second, but she quickly collected herself. “Oh, wow…” she whispered softly, a tone of reverence in her voice.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve got a few old photos of me in here too. Though I only really set aside the ones that were of me and Karen together, obviously.”
I lifted the lid off the tin and was greeted by the sight of the heel straps of Karen’s bright red sandals. On top of them, however, there lay an envelope, one that I’d never seen before.
“Huh? What’s this?”
It was a plain old manila envelope with nothing written on it whatsoever. I had no recollection of ever putting anything like it in there. Tilting my head with curiosity, I opened it and peeked inside. It contained only a single sheet of folded notebook paper. I pulled it out and opened it. The only things written on it were an address and phone number I didn’t recognize…and then at the very bottom of the page, my father’s name.
“Wait…”
I could only assume that this was my father’s new address and phone number. Had he really known about my treasure box all this time? Or maybe he’d found it after I’d left for the Urashima Tunnel. Either way, he’d somehow known about this old metal tin and deliberately chosen not to throw it away, opting instead to leave his new contact information inside in case I should ever come back to retrieve it. Of that much, I could be certain. A twinge ran through my chest.
Goddammit. I thought I was supposed to be over this crap…
“Is that…your father’s address?” Anzu asked, her voice full of concern.
“Yeah… Looks like it.”
“What are you gonna do with it?”
“…Let’s bring it home with us. You never know… Maybe there’ll come a time when I’m ready to face him again.”
I caught myself thinking that if that ever came to pass, it would be nice if I could talk amicably with him again, just like old times. I bit my lip with chagrin at the realization that even after all this time, somewhere deep down, I still held hope for a decent relationship with him. Then all of a sudden, Anzu grasped me by the arm.
“If it’s too much for you alone, you know I’d always go with you, right?” she offered, flashing me that perfect, fearless smile of hers.
“Yeah. I’d like that,” I said, smiling right back.
With the treasure box tucked under one arm and Anzu on the other, I left the old, ramshackle house behind. A gust of wind shook the power lines overhead, and an icy chill crept up the back of my neck. As I shivered from the cold, I realized for the first time that I hadn’t heard any cicadas chirping in a good while. It seemed that after thirteen years of summer, Anzu and I were finally ready to greet the fall—together. I never thought I’d be sad to see it go, but I couldn’t be too upset, because I knew another unforgettable summer was waiting just around the bend.