Chapter 52: Volume 2 - CH 2.5

The next morning, we headed to visit the cemetery.

On the way to the temple by cab, we stopped at a flower shop and my mother bought a bouquet of chrysanthemums. When she returned to the cab, my mother said, "These are for Tomoko and Rina-chan's part," When we arrived at the temple and stepped out of the cab, a flicker of sunlight so strong that it hurt my eyes momentarily tinted my vision white.

"It's too hot," my brother, carrying a backpack, said, squinting and ruffling his brown hair.

"Let's go."

My mother, dressed in jeans and a blouse, strode ahead, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

The walk from the temple to the cemetery was about 100 meters through a bamboo grove. After borrowing a bucket and ladle from the temple at the outside waterworks, we headed for the path through the bamboo grove. The path was shaded and cool, but I was almost choked by the strong smell of summer grass. The deafening cicadas seemed to be coming down from the lush foliage all around us. The light through the leaves was tinged green.

We entered the cemetery and stopped in front of my father's family grave. I put the bucket on the ground and filled the water pot with water with a ladle. My mother put the flowers she had bought on the flower stand. Then we put incense sticks, which my brother had lit with a lighter he had taken out of his pocket, into the incense burner and stood side by side, hands clasped together.

I closed my eyes, gave him a report on my recent activities, and reminded him that I was going to start studying for the entrance examination and that I would do my best from now on, and then opened my eyes. My brother, who was beside me, was no longer clasping his hands together and was standing there, but my mother was still clasping hers.

Suddenly my eyes met my brother's. My brother scratched the back of his head with his hand, a little embarrassed for some reason.

Eventually, my mother also stopped clasping her hands and said, "I'm going to go. See you later," she said at the grave and turned on her heels. I picked up the ladle and bucket that I had left on the ground.

As I was returning the bucket and other things we had borrowed to their original location after washing them in the water supply outside, I saw a Shiba Inu, a dog owned by the temple, sitting in front of its kennel, staring at me. I had been told by a monk at a Buddhist memorial service that the dog was a very popular signboard dog among parishioners. He was a friendly dog, and his eyes were shining as if he was expecting something. When my brother sat down beside him and patted his head, his tail wagged happily from side to side. The clouds had covered the sun, and the brightness of the sun, which had been so intense, eased a little.

Then we left the temple and walked back to the main street where the cabs were passing. My mother was going to go shopping for souvenirs in the city center after this, so we were separated from her. She got into a cab by herself, saying, "I'll see you later,".

"Maybe I won't be coming here much anymore."

And after we both saw our mother off, my brother muttered.

"Here?"

"Yeah. It's already been three years, and next year you'll be studying for the entrance examinations. Speaking of which, are you thinking about your future?"

"---I didn't expect you to bring up such a subject, Ryuu-kun."

"No, well, it's not that I'm not interested in what you're going to do."

"I haven't decided for sure, but I'm interested in sociology, so I'm thinking about going into that department. Maybe I'll get a job in that field."

"That's solid."

"Unlike you, Ryuu-kun, I'll have to work hard to survive in this world."

"You have a surprisingly good sense of balance. I think you'll do better than me."

"......Ryuu-kun, you use too much energy in a flashy way. I get nervous sometimes."

When I said that, my brother laughed. Then, in a casual tone of voice, he suddenly said something like this.

You are reading story Chikasugiru Karera no, Juunanasai no Tooi Kankei at novel35.com

"I'm going to be on a TV debate show.

"What?"

I couldn't immediately understand what he was talking about, so I asked back in a dumb voice.

"It's a late-night commercial TV show. I'll tell my mom about it this time. Though it's going to be troublesome."

"But why so suddenly?"

"Cause I got a call suddenly."

My brother replied, and turned his gaze away from the shimmering road. Then, "When dad died," he began to talk.

"I was not only sad, but I felt that it was a waste. I had always been aware of the tremendous amount of knowledge he possessed. I wondered what he was thinking, and where his ceased thoughts had originally led him. When I thought about that, I became more and more frustrated. I still feel that way."

"---I can kind of understand," I said. I had felt it during the days when I was living in my room surrounded by the many books I had taken in. I wondered how much time I had spent reading all these books and accumulating knowledge.

"Of course, I have my own interests and things I want to do, so I have no desire to follow in the footsteps of what dad was trying to do. But if I have a chance to know what kind of place that person was working in, I want to experience it and know."

Listening to him talk like that, I suddenly felt sad about the fact that I would not be able to see my father anymore, a fact that had been in the shadows recently.

If my father were still alive, I wonder what our life would be like now, living with Izumi and the four of us in that house. I wonder if Yuriko and my elementary school teammates and I would have kicked a ball together sometimes.

When I imagined such a world that could have been, I felt a cold, hot, tingling pain in my chest.

The sound of cicadas is falling. The air is hot, as if melting time and space. The distant landscape was shimmering in the sun, which was rising from the asphalt.

Later, after taking a bus to the city center with my brother, I parted ways and looked around the city by myself. Even if I did nothing, it was fun to look around an unfamiliar city. The houses and stores were older than those in my city. But there, I felt the signs of the lives of strangers and the accumulation of time. It was strange to feel nostalgic in this old townscape, even though I had not spent much time in this place and had no memories of it. After spending the afternoon in this way, I returned to my grandparents' house just as the sky turned red and the shadows grew darker.

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The next day, while waiting for the plane to leave, I went into a store at the airport to buy some souvenirs. I first chose a souvenir for Izumi, then looked for a while for something for Yuriko as well, and chose a small box with an illustration of a cute cat, which contained several cookies from a popular local store. I also bought two larger boxes of sweets for the club members, as they would soon be attending a club camp.

After returning to Haneda, I parted from my brother and mother, who were going shopping in Tokyo, and I took the train straight home.

When I arrived at the local station, the sun was already setting, but it was still very hot. I walked from the bus stop to my house in the pale blue dusk, unlocked the front door, and entered. The air was warm and clammy, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the smell of my own home.

I left my luggage at the front door and opened the windows in the living room, the window in the middle of the stairs, and the window in my room to change the air in the house. It was pleasant to hear the faint sound of the wind standing still and the evening breeze passing through.

Then I lay down on the sofa in the living room. Somewhere, a lone evening cicada was singing. It was terribly quieter than the one I had heard in my grandfather's town at the foot of the mountains.

When I was in the quiet house, I had a strange sense of time. It must have been only two days since I left for my grandparents' house, but it felt as if much more time had passed.

Izumi, too, would return to this house in three days. Until that day, I was at a club camp. My schedule for the first half of August was unusually busy, but it would soon be over.

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