Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [60]
Uncle Lou looked down at him, his face drawn. The corners of his eyes still glistened with tears.
Wataru realized he still hadn’t apologized sufficiently. His uncle must’ve been worried sick. “I’m sorry. I am—I must have been tired. I wasn’t sick. I was just sleeping, like Mr. Daimatsu said. I wonder when I fell asleep. I must’ve really been out cold.”
His uncle nodded. “No, it’s okay. I overreacted.” He walked ahead, when Wataru realized something was wrong. He was walking in the opposite direction from their apartment.
“Uh, Uncle Lou, we’re going the wrong direction. That’s not the way home.”
“You’re not going home tonight.”
“Huh?”
“You’ll be spending the night with me in the hotel, Wataru. We’ll walk to the main street and get a taxi.”
Wataru followed his uncle, looking up at him. Even in the dim light of the streetlamps he could see his uncle’s face twisted strangely, like he was about to burst into tears. Then, quite suddenly, he seemed unusually happy.
“That phone call, it was from your father.”
He must be talking about the call that came in on his cell phone in the haunted building. “He said you could stay with me for the night.”
A problem with that plan suggested itself immediately to Wataru. “But I don’t have tomorrow off. I have school tomorrow.”
“We’ll get up early, and I’ll take you there.”
“But I don’t have a change of clothes…”
Wataru looked down at his shirt and trousers. Suddenly, he remembered the screw-wolves. Those bone fragments! There’s still got to be some on me.
“Uncle Lou, don’t I smell? I mean, smell funny?”
Wataru began frantically brushing at his clothes. His uncle stood quietly, hand over his face. Wataru was so absorbed in what he was doing, he didn’t find his uncle’s expression odd until he was finished.
“Hey? What’s wrong? You feeling okay?”
Uncle Lou talked through his fingers. “I can’t do this. I just can’t,” he said.
Wataru stopped.
“I won’t lie to you. And telling you this isn’t my job.”
“Huh?”
His uncle lifted his face and grabbed Wataru by the hand. Then he pulled him violently in the direction of his apartment. “Let’s go, Wataru. It’s your house too. You’ve a right to go home. You’ve a right to hear the whole story.”
“Huh? Wh-what are you talking about?”
“Just come. I’m taking you home.”
His uncle dragged him by the hand, walking faster than Wataru had ever seen him walk before. They were practically running.
But when they reached the apartment complex entranceway, his uncle suddenly stopped and hesitated. Steeling his resolve, he dragged Wataru to the elevator. Arriving on the correct floor, he hesitated once more. It was as though his uncle had to battle some horrible monster at every step to advance, a monster that only his uncle could see.
Wataru was scared. Suddenly, he didn’t want to go home. Something dark and ominous rose in his chest. When his uncle said they would be staying at the hotel, he should’ve just agreed. Why did he have to worry about school, or a change of clothes?
Uncle Lou pressed the doorbell to their apartment. The sound of the chime echoed down the quiet hall. Wataru glanced at his wristwatch. It was already past midnight.
He heard slippered feet shuffling toward the door. There was a click and the door opened. The chain was drawn. Akira Mitani’s face peered out from behind the door. Wataru stiffened. His father’s face was pale and tired. He looked like he had aged a hundred years in a single day.
“Satoru?” he muttered, then he noticed that Wataru was with him, and his mouth tightened.
“Good, I’m glad you’re still here,” his uncle said in a low voice. “I brought Wataru home. Let us in.”
Akira closed the door. There was the sound of him clumsily unfastening the chain, and then they were let in without a word. Ahead of them Akira turned around and went back into the living room. Wataru hadn’t even been able to see his face.
The light was on in the living room, but the kitchen and the bathroom were dark. Kuniko was nowhere to be seen. The door to his parents’ room was closed tightly.
“Did Mom go to bed already?” Wataru asked,