The Great Renovation of the Apple Hut
Mother grew increasingly jittery as the bus approached Shiriuchi. She checked her reflection in a mirror, fixed her hair, blew her nose, and read and reread the letters she’d received from Mr. Numahata. That’s when it dawned on Totto. Mother’s voice sounded bright as she said, “We’re nearly at Suwanotaira!” but she must have been nervous about whether Mr. Numahata would welcome their family.
Even Totto knew it was unreasonable for a mother and her children to appear at someone’s doorstep unannounced, when there was not even a blood relation. But in the three days since departing Ueno, Totto and her family had been helped by a great number of people. They could never have come this far, could never have put their hands together at the tomb of Jesus Christ, had they tried to do it all themselves. Totto could only pray that Mr. Numahata would allow them to stay.
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They got off the bus in front of Shiriuchi Station and checked the schedule for the Tohoku Line. If all went well, they would be able to make it to Mr. Numahata’s station before sundown. “We decided to ask Mr. Numahata for help, so that’s exactly what we shall do,” Mother said, as though trying to reassure herself.
Suwanotaira was situated three stations away. Upon arrival, they showed Mr. Numahata’s address to a station attendant who pointed them in the general direction and told them it would take about thirty minutes to reach the house on foot. Shortly after they set off, they came to a structure that looked to be a produce market. Totto spotted a bright red apple that had fallen into a ditch in front of it.
“Ooh! An apple!” Totto cried. She rushed to scoop it up, but Mother interjected, “If an apple has been left on the ground here, in a place where so many people come and go, don’t you think there will be more at Mr. Numahata’s farm? And in better condition?”
“I’ll throw it away if we find a better one!” Totto rebutted, but upon closer inspection, she saw that the apple was rotting in some spots and starting to brown. Still, Totto kept a firm grip on it as she walked to the head of the group. Carefully, so as not to get lost, she led her family down the route the station attendant had instructed them to follow. It soon got dark enough that they had to rely on the light spilling from the windows of the homes along the path. How wonderful it was not to have to worry about air raids! Finally, they came upon a large house that could only belong to a farmer. This was Mr. Numahata’s home.
“Hello! Pardon me!” Mother called.
A woman whom they took to be Mr. Numahata’s wife came to the door. “Our name is Kuroyanagi, and we’re here from Tokyo. We were very grateful for the apples and vegetables that you sent to our home,” Mother said by way of introduction, then began to explain why they had come. Moments later, Mr. Numahata emerged and said, “The details can wait,” then invited them into the house. Relieved, Totto set down her apple outside the front door.
Even though the family of four had shown up without any warning, they were treated to a lovely dinner of white rice, soup, grilled fish, pickles, and fruit. As she savored the taste of white rice for the first time in ages, Totto thought that perhaps her mother had been concerned for nothing. Mari-chan, who was having white rice for the first time in her life, kept asking Mother, “What is this?”
“Do you know of anywhere the four of us might be able to stay? Even a shed would be wonderful.”
Mother described their circumstances in detail and put her whole heart and soul into the request for assistance. That night, Totto and her family slept side by side at the Numahata home.
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Next morning, Mother got down to work. The children couldn’t go to school without a home, so she and Mr. Numahata knocked on the door of every house in the neighborhood to see if they could find a place for the family to live.
At long last, Mother was given permission to make use of a hut located on an apple farm. The small structure, situated in the middle of an orchard, was meant for organizing and boxing apples for shipping, as well as keeping an eye out for fruit thieves. The space was approximately 130 square feet. It had a straw-thatched roof and planked walls that were full of gaps, and its only source of light was a kerosene lamp. But Mother chirped gaily, “Isn’t it lovely how the sun streams in through the windows and ceiling?” This must be what people mean when they say it all depends on how you look at things, Totto thought, impressed. “We were fortunate enough to borrow futons and kitchen items. There’s a big river nearby, and we can get drinking water from the lumber mill. This will do nicely.”
Mother was brimming with motivation. She threw all her energy into renovating the hut, putting her magic touch on full display. First, she flipped over an apple crate, lined it with cotton and straw, then covered it with the Gobelin fabric she had used to wrap and carry their belongings from Tokyo. Then she nailed the fabric to the top of the crate and let the left-over lengths drape from the sides as frills. Voilà: a fashionable rococo-style chair.
Next, she transformed a sheet gifted to them by a neighbor into a fine wall tapestry by painting it light green and drawing numerous apples on it. One part of the floor, which stood about three feet off the ground, she converted into a children’s bed. And just like that, the dreary apple hut was reborn as a home, complete with the charm of the family’s Kitasenzoku house.
Following the living-space renovation came the garden. “It’s time to make a farm!” Mother said as soon as the snow melted. Mari-chan was all smiles from her spot upon Mother’s back while Totto and Noriaki-chan helped to till around the house. Mother brought home vegetable seeds and seedlings, then sowed and planted them around the garden. It was springtime and Totto enjoyed the tasks, which reminded her of her days at Tomoe Gakuen.
“What kind of flowers will bloom?” she wondered. “What vegetables will grow? How are my Tomoe friends doing?”
Working in the garden, Totto looked up to the sky and thought she heard Tomoe Gakuen headmaster Mr. Kobayashi’s voice from above the clouds.
“Let’s all do this together.”
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Mother’s Heroic Efforts
It took almost no time for Mother to secure a job at the local farmers’ cooperative. From the apple hut window she had noticed people walking into the building with loads of vegetables on their backs and decided that she would join them.
“I’ll be paid, of course, but I might also be able to bring home produce that can’t be sold, such as crushed apples and potatoes,” she said.
Mother had never held a job before, but she was fearless.
When asked in her interview, “Can you use an abacus?” she replied, “Yes, I can,” even though she had dropped out of music college to get married and had never learned to use the calculating tool. She was hired on the spot. To her great relief, she later learned that the abacus would be used mainly by people in the accounting department.
The salary Mother received for doing miscellaneous work at the cooperative wasn’t enough to feed the whole family, however, so she also toiled away at night to make clothes for neighbors, turning to style books and magazines for reference. Everything was stitched together by hand as she didn’t own a sewing machine, but even Totto could tell that the garments Mother made were lovely.