“Here, hold him.” Shizue brought Mimita closer to her.
Abino turned her face away. “I don’t want to. Chitose will be sad when she comes back.”
Then she hurried to her room on the second floor and sobbed into her pillow.
“My dear, I won’t forget you. I won’t ever get another cat.”
Laughter floated up from downstairs. Mimita was probably happily playing with the two women. He wasn’t lonely without her attention.
Still, at night, Shizue brought Mimita to Abino’s room. It was impossible to ignore the cat in her small room, but she pretended not to see him. Mimita seemed to restrain his friendly nature and kept his distance. After watching Abino tug the pull cord of an old light, he voluntarily retreated to his woven wicker basket.
Tonight, once again, Mimita sat, attentively observing Abino. There was a hint of longing in his eyes. Was he lonely? Or perhaps he saw through Abino’s needs and desires?
As they locked eyes, Abino was reminded of Yuriha’s words—“ohagi coated in soybean powder.” Mimita’s round face truly looked like a plump and squishy ohagi. Abino loved both coarse and smooth bean paste. They were sweet and filling. She chuckled softly.
Mimita, responding to her faint laugh, leaned back, holding up his short front legs. She was surprised by this gesture. Mimita was looking for a way in. He stepped closer to her and watched. She recalled from the instruction leaflet that if she called out his name, he’d surely come to her. Just imagining scratching that round head of his made her chest tighten. Again, she felt a wave of guilt come over her.
I can’t. She turned her face away. It was too convenient to seek solace in another cat just because she was having a hard time. She couldn’t accept him like Shizue and Yuriha had. She needed to maintain distance.
After a while, Mimita lowered his front legs. He seemed to have lost interest. His round, soybean powder–colored face looked somewhat lonely.
Abino took Ioka’s hand as they walked the short distance to the taxi that had pulled up next to the restaurant.
“Mr. Ioka, the ground is muddy, so watch your step.”
“It sure poured down, huh?”
He looked up at the night sky before getting into the taxi. Until a moment ago, it had been raining heavily, but now, there wasn’t a cloud in sight. The full moon lit up the wet cobblestones like a giant lightbulb.
“Abino, I’m counting on you for the next one, too. This time, I’m bringing Dr. Suda and the folks from the whatchamacallit volunteer group, so please make sure they have a good time.”
“Of course. I’ll be waiting.”
“The young one in the group—he’s going to be surprised to meet a beauty like you. He’s an odd guy who only talks about animals.”
“Oh, then, we might get along just fine. I’m also odd. I look forward to meeting him.”
Abino hopped into a courtesy car with the other geishas. Along the way, her sister geishas got out at their homes, leaving Abino, who lived at the okiya, last.
She could see the moon through the car window. It was so beautiful that she suddenly had the desire to take a nighttime stroll. Usually, she wouldn’t walk alone at such a late hour, but she thought it might be fine once in a while and got out one street before the okiya. With her back to the bustling main street and the car’s headlights, she began to stroll, enjoying the lack of people giving her looks in her geisha attire.
When she glanced up, she saw a huge full moon shining a vibrant yellow. It looked like a kinako ohagi.
“Oh, my…”
Abino came to a halt. As she thought of ohagi, the full moon appeared to her as Mimita. A yellow, perfectly round Mimita with ears that looked like ribbons on his head floating in the night sky. It was already strange enough that the moon brought rice balls to mind, but it was more bizarre that she was being reminded of a cat.
“Ugh, I can’t stand this.”
She turned her face away from the moon.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, she would give back Mimita and finally be free from this strange confusion she’d been feeling. She wanted to focus on Chitose, but having Mimita around was distracting her. Yes, she had to think only of Chitose. Chitose had no one else but her. It was too convenient to try to fill the gaping hole in her heart with something else. She couldn’t allow herself to be happy when Chitose was still missing.
The moonlight reflected off the wet cobblestones, shimmering brightly. Soon, her whimsical walk came to an end, and she found herself outside her lodging house.
As she reached for the sliding door at the entrance, something startled her. For a moment, she braced herself, thinking that she saw a person’s silhouette, but it wasn’t. A cat sat at the end of the long shadow cast on the wet cobblestone. Backlit by the moon, it appeared completely black. Its tail stood tall, with a slight bend at the tip.
Well, I never. She squinted to get a closer look. The cat approached, revealing half its body in the darkness. It had a round body and short legs. It seemed like the bent tail was just an illusion.
“Mimita?”
She broke out in a cold sweat. There’s no way. At this hour, Mimita should already be upstairs in her room. But as the approaching cat came into focus, it became clear that it was indeed Mimita. He had somehow managed to slip out of the house.
How can this be happening again?
Abino extended her hand. Mimita stepped back. Half his body was once again swallowed up by the darkness. His expression looked different, and he seemed cautious. He raised a front leg, ready to run at any moment.
“M-Mimita. You’re a good boy. Come here. I’ll give you a treat. You like treats, right?”
The more she called out to him, the more Mimita lowered his posture. For an indoor cat, the outdoors was uncharted territory. Excitement and fear prevented him from hearing human voices.
Much less my voice, thought Abino as she bit her lip. For the few days she had taken care of Mimita, even when Mimita had made an effort to approach her, she had pretended not to notice. It was no wonder he didn’t fully trust her.
Still, I need to do something.
She knew she had to act right there and then, or else there would be no turning back. But if she took even one step, he would flee. Her body trembled. She was scared. She didn’t want to lose a cat again.
