However...
The next evening, an exhausted-looking Yumoto-san brought Pochi and Tama to me, much to my confusion. I hurriedly checked my phone for any missed calls from him. No calls or messages... What’s going on?
“Hey. Sorry for the sudden visit,” he said, sluggishly raising his hand to greet me.
“No problem... What happened?”
I told him to come inside, but he said he’d be leaving soon. Our conversation went as follows.
“Talking...in their sleep?” I asked.
“Well... Looks like they couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. I could hear them last night...”
“I... I’m sorry.” I’d occasionally heard the chickens when they would wake up at night—they’d start clucking. Was it something like that? I recalled that happening a few times back when I first got them, but eventually, it had stopped, so I’d forgotten about it.
“I don’t mind it myself, but I was worried about the neighbors, y’know. I think it’s better to just have them come over during the day instead of sleeping at my place. What do you think? I’ll bring them back here in the evening.”
“So I just need to take them to you in the mornings?” I asked.
Yumoto-san nodded. “Yeah. Is that okay with you?”
“No problem. Let’s do that.”
“Sorry. I’ll pay for the gas, plus some extra.”
“Huh? Oh, no, don’t worry about it...”
“We’ve been over this. Take the money.”
“O-Okay...”
Yumoto-san was very principled when it came to this sort of thing.
It was already getting dark, but I could sense that Pochi and Tama still hadn’t gotten enough exercise. They seemed raring to go.
“Pochi, Tama, come back before it gets too dark, okay?”
Pochi replied with a loud cluck, and the two took off running. And this is after a hard day’s work at the village. Where do they get all that energy from?
“Here’s something from the old lady,” Yumoto-san said, handing me a package.
“Thank you. Around what time should I take them to you tomorrow? Eight or so?”
“Hmm... Same time as yesterday should be okay. See you then.”
“Good night.”
I couldn’t hold in my grin after I saw Old Man Yumoto’s truck off. Pochi and Tama would be here, if only for the night. That still felt like the world to me.
The package from Machiko-san—I gotta remember to thank her—contained pickled cucumbers and turnips. Thanks to her, I had a very enjoyable evening.
The problems started after that. The chickens were up clucking, cackling, and cock-a-doodle-dooing.
Of course, this was in the middle of the night.
As a mountain dweller, I didn’t have to worry about bothering the neighbors, but still—it was the dead of the night. I could see why Yumoto-san was troubled. The houses in his neighborhood had a fair amount of distance between them, but not nearly enough for this.
When Pochi clucked, Tama followed—in a lower volume.
“Shuuuuut uuuuuuuuup!!!” I bellowed. They were so noisy that I had to kick them out. “You can come back when you’ve had your fill of making noise!”
I left the glass door at the front unlocked so they could open it—these chickens could open doors. After that, I was finally able to fall asleep.
The next morning, I woke up to find Pochi and Tama covered in grass and sleeping on the earthen floor. They got up as soon as they saw me.
Wait a minute... Could they have woken up in the middle of the night because they didn’t get enough exercise yesterday?
“Pochi, Tama, Yuma, good morning. Pochi and Tama, let’s wash all that filth off you.”
The bathwater from yesterday had already gone cold, but it wasn’t as cold as the river. After I washed them outside, they seemed to feel refreshed, and they shook the water off their bodies. Ah, shoot! I already told you not to do that near me! At least I haven’t changed yet. I dried them off, made breakfast, and before I knew it, I needed to take the chickens to the Yumotos’. I let out a big yawn.
Yuma tagged along today. I told her I was just going to drop them off, but she stared at me with her cute, round eyes, and I couldn’t say no. My little chickens can’t be this cute! I’m aware I have a very limited vocabulary, yes.
I’d been meaning to ask Yumoto-san how Pochi and Tama were faring on the job—maybe this was a good opportunity.
It was drizzling gently. I’d thrown them outside last night, but only because it hadn’t been raining, of course. Wondering what to do about the chickens, I drove to the old man’s house.
“Hey, Shohei, thanks for bringing them.”
“Er... Can I ask you what Pochi and Tama have been up to for the last two days?”
“Hm? Two days ago I had them watch over a neighbor’s fields... Yesterday it was mine and the other neighbor’s. They caught two medium-sized snakes and found some eggs too. They did a great job!”
“That was their work for two days?”
A couple of farms a day... I pondered to myself with a serious expression.
“What about it?”
“Well, uh, how should I put it...”
These were farms with fields and rice paddies, so obviously, they were pretty large in terms of area. However, this was a village in the mountains, meaning the farms were smaller than average. I’d wager each property is about six thousand meters or so...by my estimates.
My mountain was about fifteen times as large, and that was only counting the mountain I lived on, without the other mountain I’d still barely been to. I’d bought the two mountains as a set of around forty acres of land, which was, to put it lightly, a lot for a single person to own. I suppose it must be around the same for Aikawa-san’s and Katsuragi-san’s properties. My chickens had been spending their days patrolling my vast mountain. In other words, they hadn’t been able to get enough exercise for the past two days.
“I think it’s probably okay to have them patrol across a wider area,” I said. “Something like five farms every two days. My chickens patrol the mountains every day, so...”
I thought maybe my explanation might’ve not been clear enough, but he seemed to have understood what I was getting at.
“Oh, so that’s what happened!” Yumoto-san exclaimed. “No wonder that amount of exertion wasn’t enough for them!” He turned to glance at the chickens. “Problem is, we’ve already decided the order for the farms. We’re gonna discuss it again over the next two days. I’ll tell them about this and see what we can do. Sorry for not realizing sooner.”
“No, no, I should have been more attentive myself.”
Yumoto-san took Pochi and Tama to the farm where they had an appointment today.
“Sorry, Sho-chan. I didn’t realize either,” his wife said.
“No, this is my responsibility.”
“Oh, there’s no need to beat yourself up over it.”