Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [61]
There was nothing on the table. The dishes were all clean and stacked. Akira didn’t answer his question. Instead, he pulled out a cigarette from his breast pocket and lit it.
From behind him, Uncle Lou asked, “Where’s Kuniko?” His voice sounded harsh in Wataru’s ear.
“Asleep,” was Akira’s terse answer.
Something was wrong. Everything was wrong! They were acting like his mother was sick. They were acting like someone had died.
“Wataru,” Akira said suddenly. “Come over here and sit down.” He waved him over as he walked to the sofa. Stretching out a hand, he crushed his cigarette in an ashtray. It wasn’t something his father would normally do.
“Akira!” Satoru said, his tone sounding almost threatening. “Your son is home. How can you…”
“Quiet,” Akira said, coldly cutting him off.
“But…”
“It’s your fault for bringing him here, for making me do this.”
Wataru walked over to the sofa and sat. His knees knocked together. He had been so frightened just hours before, when the pack of screw-wolves attacked him in Vision. He was more frightened now.
Uncle Lou stood behind him quietly.
“I didn’t want to have to tell you like this,” Akira began. His voice was slightly trembling. “I would rather you heard it from your mother later. That’s why I wanted you to stay with your uncle for the night.”
“That’s not fair,” Uncle Lou said quickly. “He deserves an explanation.”
“And I didn’t think I could give it to him,” Akira said, lifting his eyes to look at his brother. A faint smile played on his lips. “That’s why I asked you.”
Uncle Lou was silent.
“Listen, Wataru,” Akira said, looking into his eyes. Wataru stared back at him. Deep inside, he could hear a part of him screaming in a tiny voice, Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.
“I’m going away,” Akira Mitani said slowly.
Going away.
“Your mother and I are getting a divorce. You understand what that means?”
Getting a divorce.
“I know this is a horrible thing to do to you, and your mother. But I’ve made my decision. It took a long time, I thought very hard, but I’ve made up my mind, and I’m not changing it.”
A horrible thing.
“I told your mother tonight for the first time. We’ve been talking since then, but I think she was very surprised—it came as quite a shock to her.”
Wataru opened his mouth. The voice that came out was surprisingly weak, not steady and calm as he had intended it to be. “Is Mom asleep?”
“She was when I checked on her a while ago,” Akira replied. “I still have a lot of things I’ll need to discuss with her: the house, you and your mother’s livelihood…details, many things that need to be decided.”
Wataru blinked slowly. He blinked again, and again, but nothing was different. He couldn’t change the channel. This wasn’t some mistake, some gross misunderstanding. It wasn’t a dream. It was reality. I’m not in Vision anymore.
Still, the sight of his father telling him he was leaving was somehow more unreal than the screw-wolves on the imaginary desert had been.
There were so many things he needed to ask, so many things he had the right to ask, he was sure—but Wataru hadn’t the slightest idea what they were. Like sand trickling through his fingers, the thoughts slid out of his mind before he could complete them. It was like a hole had been opened in the bottom of his heart and everything was draining out.
“Where will you go, Dad?” he managed to ask at last.
“I’ll tell you when I’m settled in. I’ll reach you by cell phone.”
Akira stood. Wataru looked up at him in a daze. Was that it? Was this the end?
Akira stooped and pulled something out from behind the sofa. It was his travel bag, the familiar one he always used for business trips. Wataru had never seen it stuffed so full. The seams were bulging.
“Akira…” Satoru said, his voice hoarse. “You don’t have anything else to say? Nothing else to say to your son? Is that all?”
When Akira responded, he was looking at his brother, not