Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [50]
“Hey, that was pretty good!” The girl’s voice sparkled in his head. “That man had a knife on him! Things could have gotten ugly. I have to admit, you’re pretty quick on your feet, aren’t you?”
Wataru sat in a daze, listening to the girl’s voice. His uncle grabbed him and shook him by the shoulders. “Wataru, are you all right? Can you hear me? C’mon, speak to me! Can you see my face? Wataru!”
“Ungh, ugh, argh…” Wataru managed, dizzy from the shaking. “Y-yeah, Uncle Lou, I can hear you fine.”
“You can speak! You’re okay!” His uncle looked to be on the verge of tears.
“I’m f-fine so s-stop sh-sh-shaking me!”
“Oh, sorry! I don’t believe this…here I am supposed to look after you for just a few hours, and I end up letting you get hurt!”
“It’s not bad,” Wataru hurried to say, wiggling his stepped-on fingers. “See? Everything works. No broken bones or anything. I’m feeling a lot better too.”
The demonstration helped to calm Uncle Lou down a little, but his deeply tanned, leathery cheeks still held a touch of red.
“Can you believe that guy?” Uncle Lou said with a long sigh as he helped Wataru upright. “People like him think the world revolves around them. Never a thought for their fellow man, or all the trouble they cause. What gives them the right?”
Wataru silently watched the afternoon shoppers walking by. Some people had glanced over in their direction when it looked like there might be a fight, but now that it was over everyone was busily pretending that nothing had happened and getting on with their day.
The girl hadn’t said anything since praising him for his quick thinking.
“C’mon, let’s go,” Wataru said, tugging on his uncle’s sleeve. “I wanna get away from the crowd.”
His injuries didn’t seem serious enough to go see a doctor, but his hand had swollen a bit.
“I have a first-aid kit with compresses and bandages,” Uncle Lou said “Let’s get you back to the hotel and ice down that hand of yours.”
Uncle Lou took Wataru back to his hotel, a simple place catering to businessmen near the middle of town. It looked pretty cheap from the outside, but the room was surprisingly clean and had twin beds. Wataru recalled the time that he had spent the night in a hotel with his grandparents from Odawara when they took him to Tokyo Disneyland.
“Whoopee!” Wataru shouted, jumping up and down on one of the beds. “Hey, one bed for me and one for you! Can I stay the night?”
“What about school tomorrow?” his uncle scoffed, but his eyes twinkled. “Staying in twin rooms is a little extravagance of mine. Single rooms make me feel like I’m sleeping in a matchbox.”
Uncle Lou had a canvas overnight bag and something that looked like an attaché case. I guess he really did have business in Tokyo.
As his uncle wrapped a compress around his right hand, Wataru asked, “By the way, what did you have to do in Tokyo? Are you done with your work? If you still have something to do, I can wait for you here.”
His uncle was amazingly deft at first aid. He had emergency response training from his many years as a beach lifeguard. He wasn’t one to brag, so not many people knew, but he had saved more lives in his time than he could count on both hands.
“Nope, I’m all finished. Okay, there you go.” Uncle Lou finished wrapping Wataru’s hand. “No crab or steak dinner for you. You’ll only be able to hold one utensil at a time.”
“How about macaroni and cheese! We can just go to a Denny’s or something.”
“You sure are a cheap date, aren’t you?” Uncle Lou said, laughing. “Let’s take a short break, and then we can wander around and see if we can’t find a place that looks good. I think I’ll have myself a beer before we head out.”
Uncle Lou got an orange juice from the refrigerator for Wataru, who propped himself up against the head of the bed and put up his feet. Sitting in a hotel room like this made him feel like they were on a trip—not just a short errand, but a real voyage to someplace far, far away. It was the perfect time to