Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [51]
“Actually,” Wataru began, “there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Relating everything that had happened to him recently, and explaining how he had felt about all of it turned out to be no small task. It was about a hundred times more difficult than giving an oral report at school. It helped that his uncle listened intently to every word he said, never interrupting his story—although he did laugh once or twice at the funny bits. Wataru told him everything: the invisible girl with the voice like honey, the wizard in the haunted building, the ghost in the photo at Mihashi Shrine, every event and every detail he could remember.
By the time Wataru had run out of things to say and the energy to say them, his uncle had finished all the beers in the room’s mini-bar. He crushed the last empty can with a flick of his wrist, and stared at it for a time before suddenly asking, “That haunted building, it’s right near where you live, right?”
“Yeah, on the way from our apartment to the school.”
“Well, after we get something to eat, would you mind stopping by there on our way back home?”
This surprised Wataru. “You want to go inside?”
“Sure. Who wouldn’t want to meet a wizard?”
This wasn’t the reaction Wataru had expected. “Do you think that I’m making all of this up?”
“What? Were you?”
“No, of course not!”
“I didn’t think so. Let’s go see it.”
Uncle Lou stood up from the bed. His face was a little red from the beer, but he seemed to be perfectly sober. His tolerance for liquor was pretty high. “I’ve never met a wizard before,” he said, “and I never play video games, ’cept when you come over. But if there’s some strange old man living in that building and giving children a hard time, that bears checking out.”
Wataru mumbled something through his teeth. He wasn’t sure himself what exactly he wanted to say. He was glad his uncle hadn’t laughed at him outright, but this reaction wasn’t exactly what he had hoped for.
“I don’t think he’s giving children a hard time…actually, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one he’s met.”
“Not likely. A haunted building like that is a kid magnet—there’s bound to be others. Didn’t the old man ask if you’d heard about the place from a friend?”
“Oh, yeah,” Wataru admitted. I guess he’s right about that one.
“Well,” his uncle said with some authority, “that old man is probably also the ghost, not to mention whatever it is that showed up in that photograph the pretty-boy psycho transfer student took. I bet that’s why he made fun of you and won’t show the photograph to anyone, and why he won’t give it to that stupid sixth-grader Ishioka.” Uncle Lou’s face lit up like a beacon. “Wait a second, I got an idea!” he shouted, clapping his hands together. “What if that wizard guy is Mitsuru’s grandfather?!”
Wataru didn’t know anything about Mitsuru’s family. He didn’t even know if he had a grandfather or not. But he did know that the spell cast on him was real, and he didn’t find his uncle’s theory very amusing. Uncle Lou was laughing so hard his belly shook.
“Wouldn’t that be funny? It’s well within the realm of possibility. There are people out there that’ll do just about anything to cause a stir.”
It had taken a long time for Wataru to tell his tale, and it was already after six-thirty. Uncle Lou suggested they try to visit the haunted building around the same time of evening that Wataru had seen the wizard. Their course of action decided, they grabbed a quick dinner near the hotel. Wataru had been hoping to feast on macaroni and French fries and a chocolate sundae while regaling his uncle with tales of his recent adventures, but somehow things never seemed to go according to plan.
As he ate, Uncle Lou watched him, observing carefully, as though Wataru was some sort of extremely delicate object—yet one which was clearly flawed and needed attention—and he wasn’t quite sure if he had the necessary tools to handle the job. He told his nephew that he should learn to swim the two-hundred-meter crawl this summer. Plus, he reminded him that work at the beach house would be hard,