“Looks like they’re not gonna feed us, huh? No refreshments or anything…”
“I mean, what did you expect? That poor woman’s got enough on her plate right now, especially as the lone breadwinner in the family. Anyway, did you hear what the cause of death was?”
“Yeah, acute alcohol poisoning, right? Heard they got the autopsy back yesterday…”
Alcohol poisoning, huh. In other words, he drank too much. Though actually, I remembered learning in health class that in most cases, it wasn’t actually the alcohol in the victim’s bloodstream that killed them. It was choking on their own vomit. I didn’t even want to consider that in further detail; the image of Sodeshima’s star athlete spending his final moments like that was too much to bear.
As the line moved forward, it eventually came to be our turn. Akari and her mother were handing out the thank-you gifts personally, so we gave them our condolences, and then I politely accepted the small gift bag from Akari.
“Wow, look at you,” she whispered softly, scanning me up and down as she handed over the little paper bag. “Wait, where’d you get a Sodeshima High uniform…?”
“What, this? It’s my dad’s old one. Can’t wait to get home and take it off, honestly. It’s super tight around the neck.”
“Ohhh, gotcha. Looks good on you, though… Really.”
As she emphasized that last word, her eyes suddenly began to water. I wasn’t sure if I was reminding her of Akito in his uniform or what—but I scrambled to pull out my handkerchief and offer it to her. It was a good thing my grandmother had convinced me to bring one along.
“Listen, uh… I know we haven’t really talked for a couple of years, but if you need someone to talk to, you know I’m here for you,” I said, cringing internally at how canned and predictable my words must have come across. Akari seemed to take it as a genuine offer of solace, as she gave a weak little nod while dabbing the corners of her eyes with the handkerchief.
There were still other people waiting in line behind us, so we said our goodbyes and made our way out of the building. Outside, the night sky was crystal clear, and the air was cold enough that it felt like winter still hadn’t left us completely. My grandmother suggested that we start heading home, and so the three of us quickly got to walking. We’d hardly even made it a block from the facility when I heard footsteps running up on us from behind. I turned around—it was Akari.
“Hey, what’s up?” I asked. “Oh, you don’t have to give me back the handkerchief right now, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s not that,” she said, catching her breath. “Listen, um… There’s something I need to tell you, Kanae-kun.”
“There is?”
“Yeah. About what’s been happening with you the last four days… Or what’s going to happen, I guess I should say.”
At first, I didn’t have the slightest clue what she was trying to tell me. A moment later, the implications of her knowing something about “the last four days” hit me like a truck. I practically pounced on her, placing my hands on her shoulders.
“Wait, you know what’s going on?!” I demanded.
She squealed in surprise, but I paid it no mind. It wasn’t until I felt her shoulders trembling that I realized how wildly inappropriate it was for me to grab her like that. Immediately regretting my actions, I tore my hands away.
“Oh, s-sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I just…don’t know what’s going on, and…” I tried to explain.
“No, it’s okay… I get it. I can’t explain everything to you right here and now, so…” she trailed off, then brought her lips in close to whisper in my ear: “Meet me in the old abandoned park tomorrow at five in the afternoon. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
She pulled her head back, said a quick “Okay, see you tomorrow,” then turned around and started trotting back over toward the community center. I watched her round the corner, already sensing Eri’s suspicious glare burning a hole in the back of my head.
“What was that about?” she demanded, right on cue.
“…Couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to,” I replied. Hey, it was the truth. Under my breath, I added: “Hopefully I’ll find out tomorrow.”
When I awoke the next morning, the first thing I saw was my cell phone lying next to my head. I snatched it up and checked the date and time. It was April 6th, at 8 a.m. I buried my face in my pillow. Time hadn’t magically returned to normal overnight. It was starting to seem like this really wasn’t a dream, much to my dismay.
After we made it home from the wake last night, I quickly took care of my nightly routine, then holed up in my bedroom. I didn’t try to get any more information from Eri or my grandmother about the last four days; I didn’t want to raise any red flags, but my main reason was that I had a glimmer of hope to cling on to at last, thanks to Akari.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”
If she could shed some light on this bizarre and terrifying phenomenon that was happening to me, I’d be forever in her debt. That said, I had no idea how on earth she could know about the four-day gap in my memories, since I hadn’t told anyone about it—and that wasn’t the only mystery, either. There were several other gigantic question marks, like why she told me to meet her at the old, abandoned park—a place that I didn’t even know existed until I stumbled upon it after the last time I talked to her on April 1st. It was possible she’d discovered it on her own, of course, but then, how could she be so confident that I would know where it was?
Things weren’t adding up, and it was starting to give me a headache. Given that I’d been working my brain virtually nonstop since yesterday, though, that wasn’t a surprise. Perhaps the brain could get strained or pulled from overuse, like any other muscle? It was as good a reason as any to go back to sleep for a while, so my brain could get some much-needed rest.
I awoke again sometime around noon and ate a light lunch with my grandmother. She told me that Eri had gone off to the mainland with a friend for the day, which came as a bit of a relief. She’d been blatantly suspicious of me ever since last night, and I didn’t want to get trapped in another interrogation scenario with her. I did recognize, though, that all her prying was because she was concerned about me. I was the one who gave her cause to worry in the first place.
When we finished eating, my grandmother asked if I could help her with something.
“I’ve been meaning to reorganize the attic,” she explained, “but there’s so much clutter and so many heavy boxes that I’ve been putting it off. A strong young man like you would be just the helper I need.”
I still had plenty of time before I was supposed to meet up with Akari, so I agreed to help. I used the little ladder we had in storage to climb up into the attic. Thanks to the illumination provided by a single undressed light bulb, I saw that there were a bunch of cardboard boxes strewn around the musty storage space, and each one looked pretty darn heavy. I began hauling down the individual boxes my grandmother requested one by one. It didn’t take long before I was sweating like a pig; after a while I even accidentally knocked an entire box over and spilled its contents out all over the attic floor. It had been filled with textbooks and other reference materials.