Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [388]
“I do! I remember it all. Crazy, huh?” His mother smiled. “Wataru, you made a very dashing adventurer, I must say.”
“Mom?” Wataru said after moment. “I think…I think we’re going to be okay.” I know now how to not punish myself for what I’ve lost. I know how to take care of the future.
“Even if Dad doesn’t come home?” she asked in a tiny voice.
“Yeah,” Wataru said, nodding. “There’s a whole world out there waiting for us.”
My Vision. My real world.
In his mother’s eyes he saw the blue-gray sparkle of Meena’s eyes, and the black eyes of Kutz the Rosethorn. He even saw the clear blue eyes of Captain Ronmel.
His mother hugged him.
Several days later, his mother came home from the hospital, and it was decided that she and Wataru should go to his grandmother’s house in Chiba for a while. Grandma had grumbled a bit, wondering if Kuniko wouldn’t much rather go to her parents’ house in Odawara. But her resistance to the idea faded away when Kuniko told her she wanted to talk to her about their future. “I’d really appreciate your advice.”
That had been enough for Grandma. The hard lines in her face softened, and she had gone home on the first train to do a little housecleaning before they arrived.
Wataru’s father called several times. He saw his mom talking with him on the phone for hours. She wasn’t crying or screaming anymore though.
Wataru told his dad he was doing fine.
“I’m sorry, Kuniko, I really am,” he overheard his grandmother saying.
Wataru had to tell Katchan the news. If Katchan’s parents let him, he could come out to Chiba to play. Uncle Lou said that, if he wanted to, he could stay for all of summer vacation. “Of course, I’ll be putting you two to work on the beach!”
Katchan was ecstatic, but he had one request. “I’ll go as long as your uncle doesn’t force us into a watermelon battle.”
“What’s that?” Wataru had asked.
“It’s like a piñata. You know, when you blindfold someone and they take a stick and try to hit something? But instead of a piñata, you’re swinging at a big watermelon. And a lot of people are doing it at the same time. If I played with your uncle, he’d crack me over the head for sure and with those big arms…” Katchan shivered. “Yowch!”
There was one other place Wataru needed to go. Right up until the moment he left Katchan’s house, he was half-thinking of inviting his friend along. He didn’t know if he had the guts to go there alone.
But in the end, he said goodbye, and set off by himself.
He began walking in the direction of the Daimatsu building. The haunted building.
He hadn’t gotten up the courage to come here before today. He guessed that it was probably the same as it always was. Why would it be any different? But for some reason, he was scared to check for himself. He was scared to see that skeleton of abandoned iron girders, quietly rusting beneath faded blue tarps, that rain-beaten sign announcing the plans for the building.
Because when I see that I’ll know it’s really over. The spell will be forever broken.
So he walked slowly, his eyes cast downward.
He heard it before he saw it: the whine of heavy machinery. Wataru looked up to see a bulldozer and a crane busy at work.
The haunted building was naked, its blue tarp dressing torn to the ground. A long rusted girder was hanging from the arm of the crane.
They’re taking it down!
Wataru ran.
He stood watching the steel staircase where he first met Wayfinder Lau. Lost in thought, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
“Well, isn’t that our young friend Wataru?”
He looked around to see Mr. Daimatsu grinning at him.
“H-hello!”
“I’ll bet you didn’t expect this!” Mr. Daimatsu said, waving his hand at the half-dismantled building.
“You’re taking the whole building apart?”
“That we are. It sat out in the rain so long, the metal fittings started to disintegrate. So we’re razing it to the ground and building it back up from scratch. Finally got all the money in order, this time. It will be a fine building, for sure.”
The haunted building was going for good.
Wataru’s vision blurred ever so slightly. The roaring of the big