The school festival was now only three days away.
It felt like summer break had just ended. But as I attended school, went to the club room and filled my spare time with drum practice, the days had passed by in the blink of an eye.
Every Saturday, the whole band would meet up and practice in the studio. We split the fee six ways along with Misuzu, making it pretty affordable.
Since I didn’t have a part-time job, I had to ask my mom for money. But once I told her it was for band practice to perform at the school festival, she was more than happy to add a little more to my allowance.
We improved little by little, week by week. Everyone practiced on their own, and we confirmed each other’s progress each Saturday. Over time, we began to sound pretty good.
Last week had been our final group practice session. The festival was this weekend, with the after-party on Sunday. Until then, we would be practicing individually.
As preparations for our performance wound down, our focus shifted to our class projects.
“Someone get extra brushes from the event committee! We need two more!”
“And grab a hammer while you’re at it! Just one is fine!”
Inside our classroom, the team assigned to put together the decorations had taken charge. The plan was to have an area where visitors could watch the takoyaki being made and another area for dining. The cooking area was being decorated to look like a real takoyaki stand. The girls had come up with elaborate designs that the boys followed, using wood to build the structure.
I didn’t have the skills to do anything too complicated, so I was put in charge of painting the signs.
Students on sports teams who couldn’t afford to skip practice were allowed to continue attending their clubs. But others, like Kaoru and me, who would only be sitting around and reading if we went to our club room, were heavily involved in decorating the classroom.
Time flew by as we continued preparing for the festival. Before we knew it, the last bell had rung, and it was time to leave school. It was the first time I’d stayed until the final bell for something other than literature club, and as I changed into my outdoor shoes at the school’s entrance, a strange feeling came over me.
Kaoru and I were walking toward the gate, when we heard light footsteps approaching from behind.
“Yuzuru! Kaoru!”
We turned around and saw Ai running toward us.
“Were you two preparing for the festival?” she asked.
“Yeah. You, too?”
“Yep! Decorating the classroom is more work than I thought! It feels like we might not finish until the day before the festival.”
“Ha-ha. Same here.”
“There’s so much to do!” It sounded like she was enjoying herself. “I can’t wait for the festival and our performance at the after-party!” she said excitedly, and I nodded.
“Ai, there’s something on your uniform.” Kaoru had been walking slightly behind us and she pinched something off Ai’s shirt, then held it up to examine it. “Oh, it’s masking tape.”
“Heh-heh.” Ai blushed slightly. “I used a lot of that stuff today. Some must’ve gotten stuck to me. Thanks!”
“But how’d it get on your back?” Kaoru asked.
Ai thought for a moment, then clapped her hands. “Oh! It must’ve been when I lay on the floor during break!”
“Ai, you’ve gotta stop doing that.”
I recalled the first time I’d seen Ai after she moved back. She’d been lying on the ground out on the school’s soccer field.
Kaoru and I looked at her in disbelief, but Ai just smiled innocently.
We walked to the station together, discussing the festival along the way. Once there, I got on a train going in the opposite direction from my house. I was in the mood to practice the drums. I was still amped up from the excitement of preparing for the school festival, and I didn’t feel like going straight home.
I texted my mom to let her know, then continued on my way to Nagoshi’s house. I’d sent her a message in advance. Normally, I’d see the message marked as read with no reply, but she hadn’t read it that day. I figured she was busy.
I got off at the station nearest her house and checked my phone again, but she still hadn’t read my message. I wondered if she was asleep.
It was a ten minute walk from the station to her house. There were a lot of buildings near the station, but they grew fewer and further apart the farther I walked. After about five minutes, I was surrounded by rice fields.
There weren’t many streetlights and the road at dusk was a bit scary. But since I’d been making this trip for several months now, I’d grown used to walking through the quiet darkness.
At first, I felt bad about visiting so much, but Nagoshi always said it was okay, so eventually I stopped worrying about it.
I was concerned that her parents might be less understanding and asked her about it, but she simply said, “My parents don’t live here,” like it was nothing and smiled. “So stop worrying about it, okay?”
I felt like I’d learned a lot about other people’s family situations in the past few months. Kaoru lived with her mom and Ai lived with her dad. And apparently, Nagoshi lived by herself.
My dad was always away on business, and I basically lived alone with my mom, but other than that my situation was pretty normal. I could see either of my parents whenever I wanted, and I’d never really considered how many people couldn’t say the same.
Everyone had their own circumstances in life. But thinking about walking down this dark road every day back to an empty house made me a little sad.
After a few more minutes, Nagoshi’s house came into view across the rice fields. I sighed in relief when I saw the lights on. I hadn’t wanted to wake her up with the sound of the garage shutter if she was asleep.
But as I got closer to the house, something felt different. I could see that the shutter was already half-open, and a light was on inside.
“Maybe she’s in the garage?” I wondered aloud.
I jogged over to her house, then hesitated in front of the garage and peered inside.
I saw Nagoshi sitting on the chair in front of the electronic drum set, lost in thought. She noticed me right away. Startled, she said, “Oh! It’s unusual for you to come this late on a school night.”
“Sorry. I tried to contact you…”
“Ah, I left my phone in my room.”
I nodded vaguely. She must’ve been in the garage for some time. I glanced around, but I didn’t see any drumsticks. Was she just sitting there without playing?
She got up and closed the shutter with a clatter.
“Um, did something happen?” I asked.
“Huh? What do you mean?” She’d pasted on that smile of hers again.
“It’s unusual for you to be alone out here. And I’ve never seen you sitting at the drums before.”
She laughed and said, “You’re so observant.” Then, she walked over to the counter and sat down on her usual barstool. “Today’s the anniversary of her death.”
“What…?” I expected her to brush off my question like she always did, so her straightforward answer surprised me. And on top of that, it was pretty heavy. I didn’t ask who she was talking about. Somehow, I just knew—it had to be the woman she’d spoken about, the one who used to use the drum set.
“The woman you mentioned before…she passed away?” I asked.