Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [102]
Uncle Lou rubbed his face with his hands. “She said that? Now I’m starting to wish I took a swing at her too.”
“She said Mom lied, and she wouldn’t be fooled again—but my mom would never do that! She wouldn’t lie to anyone. That woman’s the liar.”
“Wataru…how about coming out from under there now? I don’t like seeing you scrunched up in such a tiny place. Come out, for me? You and I can go to Chiba. We’ll go down to the sea every day. We’ll swim, catch fish, build a campfire, and eat ’em. I’m a terrible surfer, but I’ve got some good friends—we could learn together. And I’ll teach you how to fish like a pro. Once you’re good enough, why, we can travel all over Japan to hit all the great spots. I’ll save up some money and get a cruiser so we can do some trolling. Then, I’ll make you captain. We’ll go wherever we want to go…”
Uncle Lou was talking like a machine gun, tears trickling down his cheeks.
He’s crying. Things must really be bad.
“Yeah,” Wataru said quietly. “Let’s go to Chiba. But let’s take Mom with us. You wouldn’t want to leave her here alone, would you?”
“Of course not,” Uncle Lou said, wiping his nose. “We’ll take your mother. I’ll teach her how to fish too.”
Just as the late-night news programs were beginning, Grandma arrived from Chiba. She was breathing heavily, and hefting two giant supermarket bags.
Wataru had crawled out from under the bed, taken a bath, and was busily packing his clothes. Grandma said she would make dinner and went straight to the kitchen. Moments later she called Wataru, complaining that she had no idea where anything was. He showed her what he could, and she sent him back to his room. As soon as he was gone, she began talking furiously to Uncle Lou, but they were too quiet for him to hear what they were saying. His mom was asleep the whole time, and never came out of her room.
The three of them sat around the table and ate. Grandma always used way too many spices, she had no idea what Wataru liked, and she cooked the rice too long so it was all mushy. It was terrible. Still, Wataru ate quietly, wary of the fearsome glares he got whenever he put down his chopsticks.
“Satoru—about Kuniko. I don’t think it’s a good idea to take her to Chiba,” Grandma said just as they were finishing up. “Oh, you should come, Wataru, it’d be good for you. But your mother still has lots of things she needs to do here. Isn’t that right? We just can’t take her.”
Wataru looked at Grandma and found himself speechless.
Grandma, the tank.
“But Ma, I don’t feel right leaving her here by herself,” Uncle Lou protested.
“She could go to Odawara,” Grandma snapped.
“But we can’t separate her and Wataru, not with things the way they are.”
“Oh? I think this will be good for the boy. That Kuniko is running him ragged.”
The debate was on. Just from hearing them talk, it was clear to Wataru that this was merely one of a long string of similar debates that had taken place between the adults in his life over the past few weeks. They had told him nothing, so he knew nothing.
“I think it’s pretty clear the two of them are split for good,” Grandma was saying. “Things can’t go back the way they were before now.”
“Ma, please, not in front of Wataru,” Uncle Lou said, looking severe.
“What’s the problem?” she fired back. “You can’t hide things from Wataru forever.”
“But…”
“We can talk about it until we’re blue in the face—Akira won’t change his tune. He’ll still want a divorce. You ask me, there’s no redoing this, not now. Things get this bad, it’s best for everyone to just end it quickly. Kuniko isn’t so old that she can’t start again, you know.”
“Like it was that easy.”
“No one’s saying it’s easy. Why, I never dreamed I’d reached such a ripe old age, only to receive this as my reward. I wanted to spend my golden years in a little peace.”
Wataru was staring wide-eyed at his grandmother.
“What, you don’t want to deal with it, so you’ll just stand by and let Akira do as he pleases?” Uncle Lou roared. “Well, I won’t stand for