The air up here is much nicer. We were having atypically nice weather, so I opened every window in the house. I also did the laundry, though I wasn’t sure if I would be able to dry it outside. I’ve got a clothes dryer, yeah, but drying them under the sunlight just feels so much nicer. I put out the futon to dry too—I was already beat. I hope that at least helps with the moisture a bit.
Although I was totally sober again, it was still the next morning after staying overnight somewhere else. Sleeping at someone else’s house just wasn’t the same.
“That’s right. Starting tomorrow, the chickens don’t need to go to work anymore...” I wouldn’t be needing to drop them off every morning, so that was one less thing to worry about. From now on, I can spend some time focusing on the mountain. The rainy season’s almost over, after all. I’ll have a lot to do after that. I wonder when I’ll have time to sit down on my veranda and relax.
I got a message from Aikawa-san asking how the meeting went. I was so relieved I forgot all about that, even though I was asking him for advice on the chickens. That’s pretty rude of me.
“It was all right. I’ll tell you more about it some other time,” I replied. I didn’t want to talk to anyone else for the day.
I’d been given loads of vegetables as a reward for the chickens’ hard work. There was still the money, which I’d receive separately—the veggies were just a token of the farmers’ gratitude. I did think the gift might be too much for me to eat, but because I remembered I had three chickens with voracious appetites to help me get through them, I took home as much as I could.
“The rice is especially welcome.” For vegetables, I had been managing to grow some cucumbers and komatsuna, but I had neither the infrastructure nor the know-how to grow my own rice. Our ancestors who bent over backward to grow rice must have been really sick of the hunter-gatherer life.
I’d gotten a lot of pickled vegetables too, so for lunch, I had only rice and pickles. The saltiness of the pickles soaking through my body felt great after all that work. Pickles are handy as preserved food, but back in the day, when practically everyone was a manual laborer, this saltiness was probably indispensable. Today, Tama stayed by my side while Pochi and Yuma went on patrol. Good, go and move around as much as you want.
Incidentally, yesterday when I came home, I found an especially filthy Tama. “Hey, Tama, what did you do last night when you were here all by yourself?” I asked her. She just tilted her head as if she didn’t understand what I was saying. Maybe I have to speak in clearer terms.
“Did you sleep properly? You didn’t spend all night playing on the mountain, right?”
She averted her gaze. Hey, hold on now. What is this?
“Tama? You did sleep in the house last night like you were supposed to, right? Surely you didn’t play all night and then sleep until we came back. Right?”
When we’d gotten back, we’d found Tama lying down on the earthen floor—she’d been incredibly dirty. The first thing I’d done after getting home was give her a good wash. It was normal for them to come back dirty from patrol, but for some reason, every time I had Tama stay by herself overnight, she got much dirtier than usual. This had also happened last time when I stayed over at Aikawa-san’s place, and I found it odd. Just where was she running around to get this dirty?
Tama tried to slip away. Yep, something’s fishy here. I grabbed her tightly so she couldn’t run off.
“Tama! It’s dangerous to play outside at night, even if you have good eyesight! Hey, don’t run away!”
I was holding her pretty tightly, so she couldn’t get away that easily. Tama tried to run off while I was still holding her. H-Hey, she’s going pretty fast. And that’s with me holding her... Just how strong is she?
“Tamaaaa, apologize!”
“Buzz off!”
“‘Buzz off’? Where did you learn that?!” Papa didn’t raise you like that! Wait...
Papa? Me?
Bad chicken! Whatever that means.
Tama ran around the house and the fields before finally shaking me off her in front of the entrance and running away.
“That’s some serious strength and stamina, all right...”
I’ll have to give her another scolding if she doesn’t come back tonight. I brushed the dirt off my work clothes, then gazed at the house and surrounding area. Such a pleasant sight. Other than all the bugs flying around. Or maybe that’s part of what makes it pleasant.
Oh yeah, I think I saw a giant hornet around here the other day. There might be more than one nest nearby, so that’s another thing to watch out for on patrol, or it could be big trouble for us come autumn. I wonder if we have honey bees too. I can’t really afford to get into beekeeping right now, but I do like the idea.
Yuma came over to me as I was checking the abandoned houses.
“Hm? Oh, Yuma, you’re back. Are you done already?”
“Back!”
“Yup, yup! That’s my Yuma—such a good girl.”
It looked like she’d traded places with Tama. That delinquent chicken! I’ll make sure to give her an earful when she comes back.
Yuma came over to appease me and cuddled up to my side. Gaaah, Yuma’s just too cute! She’s my solace! What, you got a problem with that?!
Pochi and Tama didn’t come back until the sun had almost set.