I loaded it, along with the one from last time, onto the truck. Yuma was in the passenger seat today.
Time to go down to the village.
I drove to Yumoto-san’s place, and he greeted me with an ear-to-ear smile. “Ooh, he’s grown pretty big! Wait... He? She? Wasn’t that thing a rooster?”
“Apparently not...” I muttered.
“But now you’ll be able to get fresh eggs, huh?”
“I guess that’ll be nice...”
I wanted Yumoto-san to take the vipers off my hands, so I headed straight to his house.
Come to think of it, there aren’t any active volcanoes in the mountain range around here...right? Just between you and me, that possibility freaked me out a bit at first.
When I hopped out of the truck, Yuma acted like she wanted to tag along, so I brought her with me. She looked kind of cute strutting around the earthen floor of the old man’s home.
“Here, Yumoto-san—I brought you these vipers.”
“Oh! You caught two of them? Nice job!”
I gave him the two plastic bottles.
“All right then, now let me get your pay.”
“Pay?” I asked.
Yumoto-san’s wife (her name is Machiko-san, so I’ll call her that to avoid confusion) soon stepped into the room. “I can’t believe there’re so many vipers there,” she said in a concerned tone. “Are you all right?” She had brought tea and snacks—big, crunchy rice crackers. Yum.
“Thank you,” I said, accepting the refreshments. “I haven’t had any trouble with them so far. I do see them quite often near the house, though. I figure they might have a nest in some abandoned house or shed.”
Looking into the infestation seemed headache-inducing. I didn’t want to get jumped by a wayward viper.
“Why don’t you have my husband go get rid of them?” she suggested. “It’s not like he has anything better to do.”
“It’s okay. My chickens catch them...” I said.
“Bright creatures, aren’t they? Who’s with you today?”
“Her name is Yuma. She caught one in the backyard just this morning.”
“My, Yuma-chan, you’re such a good girl! Want some veggies?”
Machiko-san gave Yuma some vegetable scraps that were on the corner of the earthen floor—carrot skins, radish leaves with holes, stuff like that. With the old lady’s permission, Yuma came over and began eating. I really do get the impression that these chickens can understand what we’re saying...
“I’ll give you a thousand yen a viper,” said Yumoto-san. “Take some vegetables too.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.”
I didn’t know what the market price for vipers was, but I’d heard of places that bought them for two thousand yen apiece. It wasn’t like I had any use for them at home, though—at best, they’d end up as food for the chickens—so a thousand yen was still a good deal for me. And besides, Yumoto-san had been helping me out with all kinds of things.
“Shohei-kun, we’ve got a lot of beverages and canned food too. Feel free to take some with you.”
“Thank you very much.”
The Yumotos lived in an old-fashioned house with a large storage shed full of canned goods and other stuff. A year into his retirement (he’d been reemployed, so he was already well into retirement age), Yumoto-san had come to the realization that he was getting more than he could eat in midyear and year-end gifts. Their two sons lived in the city and came to visit about once a year, but...
“Our kids don’t like it when we send them canned food,” admitted Machiko-san, “so we can’t count on them to help us get rid of it.”
“Oh, really?”
Most of the stored food had been gifts, so the quality was higher than your usual canned fare, but the selection was hit-or-miss—not a lot of stuff you could eat straight from the can. I picked out a few, taking care to choose things that were within six months of the expiration date. I then thanked them and went on my way. They invited me to stay for lunch, but I didn’t want to impose any further, and I also had shopping to do.
Well, at least my shopping list is smaller now, what with all the food they gave me.
I intended to buy some meat at the village’s general store. If I wanted to go to a proper butcher shop, I’d have to go to the town past the mountains, which was a thirty- or forty-minute drive from the village. Pretty boring trip, but at least I had someone to keep me company.
“Yuma, did you eat your fill?”
Yuma cackled. She really liked the vegetable scraps Machiko-san gave us.
“Saves me the trouble of throwing the rest of the scraps into the fields. Thanks, Yuma.”
She cackled again in response.
The villagers were warm and welcoming, and they didn’t seem to mind that the chickens could understand human speech. Rather, they just found it convenient.
I felt truly indebted to the village. I took plastic, cans, bottles, and other recyclable trash to Yumoto-san’s house, and he disposed of it for me. Thankfully, garbage disposal was free here—otherwise I would have needed to take it myself to the town’s disposal site. I’d already been there a few times to dispose of oversized garbage.
There were three general stores in the village, and when I had time, I liked to check all three of them. I stopped by a candy store, where I saw a kid contemplating what to buy. It was nice to see kids roaming around the village.
“Big chicken!”
“Right?”
The boy pointed at Yuma. Because there weren’t many places that let their chickens roam free, my chickens often attracted attention.
“Does she lay eggs?” the boy asked.