“I witnessed it once. With a new girl on staff as she was supposed to be tidying a room. I peeked past the half-shut door and saw her sitting on his lap—I don’t know how she got there, but he wouldn’t let her go. I withdrew and loudly announced to an imaginary person down the hallway that I’d keep my eye open for Takahashi. A moment later he burst from the room, demanding to know who was looking for him. I answered that Yuki was, and without another word he hurried toward the elevators. A few days later the girl was let go. And he acted suspicious of me afterward for a long time.”
“Old Ms. Ozeki, too?”
“He mixes the rotations so it’s not obvious.”
“What about you?”
She looked toward the front desk again. “He’s tried it before. When Kōichi ran off or chased us away from the house. But he didn’t succeed.”
Anger welled inside Sedge, not only at Takahashi but also at Nozomi for never opposing this behavior. Both were guilty of thinking that whatever they did was beyond condemnation. “Tell me if it happens again.”
“What will you do if it does?”
“I don’t know. But I want you to promise to tell me.”
Mariko nodded, though her expression suggested there was no point in it. And perhaps there wasn’t.
On Saturday afternoon, Mariko approached Sedge’s table. He nearly touched her leg as he’d once touched Nozomi’s. The desire to do this took him aback. She stood so close to him, he wondered if she felt the same thing, or if he was simply reading her wrong. Nozomi had sometimes accused him of being kūki yomenai—unable to read the air.
“Something unexpected came up,” she said. “I’m afraid I can’t study with you on Sunday evening.”
“That’s all right.” The curtness in his voice was unintended, but for some reason her announcement upset him. “What if we met earlier?”
She looked at the dusky blue sky in which the treetops shook.
“Do you mind going for a picnic?”
It hardly sounded like an environment to study English, but he quickly agreed. “Just us?”
“Riku will spend all day with a village woodworker. I have to speak with the man when I pick Riku up and it might take a while.”
“There may be no better day for a picnic.”
She smiled, and he realized she was being patient with him. “Let’s meet at Yamanaka-za at ten a.m. I’ll prepare the picnic tonight.”
With that she left him in the lounge.
At 9:59 a.m. Mariko pulled up to Yamanaka-za in her K-car. The morning was already hot. She was wearing a light blue sundress that reached just past her knees, and he saw for the first time her calves and the slight swell where her thighs began. Her arms, too, were bare beneath the light covering of a shawl.
“Good morning,” she said. “I hope I’m not late.”
“You’re a minute early. I bought us cold tea at the Family Mart.”
“Thank you.” She pointed to a cooler on the back seat. “I made bentos for us. It’ll be the first time you’ve eaten my cooking.”
“You made me pie once. Or a slice of it. Afterward I wished I’d had the whole thing.”
“That was only something sweet,” she said, pulling back onto the road. “I’ve looked forward to cooking you something more substantial.”
He turned again to the back seat. “I’m tempted to eat my bento now.”
“No, you can’t yet. Or haven’t you eaten breakfast?”
“I did,” he said, his attention now on the traditional confectionery shops, antiques and crafts stores, and small restaurants they were driving past. “It’s just that you’ve made me hungry again.”
“Me?” She laughed. “I guess you meant my talking about food.”
He turned to her. “Which meaning would you have preferred?”
She glanced at him with more laughter in her face.
Rather than turn right toward the tunnel that would take them in the direction of Kanazawa, she continued westward through sparsely populated villages known for their crafts, too, as well as small lumber mills, Shinto shrines set back from the road, and eventually rice fields that shimmered into the distance under the bright May sun. Sedge asked if Riku had made it to the woodworker’s on time, and their conversation soon turned to the boy’s future.
“Is this arrangement with the woodworker something he asked to do?”
“Yes. He likes making things with his hands. But I don’t know if he wants to do what his father did. Especially if he won’t be as successful. He wants to do something he can surpass him in.”
Sedge was pleased to learn about Riku’s ambition. “He likely won’t find what that is right away.”
“You don’t think it’s possible?”
“Possible and likely are different things. He’ll need to be patient. And I’m not sure that’s his best quality.” When she didn’t respond, he added: “And from what I’ve gathered, he hasn’t figured out how to get along with other people. That’s the most important thing.”
She sighed and shook her head. “Honestly, I’m not sure what he can do. I don’t think he’d survive long in a company. Not more than a day, in fact.”
“You’ve really become his mother.”
