Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [63]
Outside the window was a clear blue sky. The rainy season must be over. There hadn’t been a hint of rain yesterday, and the sky this morning was particularly clear. Not a single cloud.
Wataru looked at the clock. It was near eight already. His uncle had his back turned to the sunlight and was sleeping soundly. Even Wataru’s muddled head remembered that it had only been a few hours since they fell asleep. If he didn’t wake his uncle, he’d doubtlessly sleep for a few more hours.
Not a sound came from his parents’ room. He wondered how his mother was doing. Was she sleeping? Was she pretending to be asleep? Did she not want to get up? Either way, Kuniko didn’t know that he’d come home the night before.
For a moment he was tempted to go in and talk to her, but eventually he thought better of it. He didn’t want to talk to anyone this morning. He didn’t want to be seen. Quiet as a mouse, he would run off to school. He’d be late if he didn’t hurry.
He washed his face, brushed his teeth, patted his hair down, and changed out of his wrinkled clothes. He had just shoved his textbooks and notebook into his schoolbag when it occurred to him that he didn’t need to go to school. He could go anywhere. He didn’t even have to come home.
He could go to Vision. He could forget everything.
No, I can’t. He would just be caught again by one of the karulah, and that’s if he was lucky. He could just as easily end up as screw-wolf food. In the end, he realized he didn’t have anywhere else to go but school.
His usual morning walking buddies had already left for school. The rule was firm: miss the meeting time and get left behind. Otherwise everyone would be late. Wataru was on his own today. By the time he reached the schoolyard, he could hear the five-minute bell sounding. He ran for the front gate, just like he had the day before. Nothing had changed. Nothing was different. He had just slept in and skipped breakfast, nothing else.
Unbelievably, class that day was completely normal. Their teacher was even a little more cheerful than usual. She chatted with them about how nice it was now that the rainy season was over. The Mitani household had imploded, and nothing had changed at all. The world went on.
A while ago, somebody-or-other’s Book of Prophecies had made the rounds at school. They even talked about it on TV. Apparently, the prophecies had originally been written on a stone tablet they found in an ancient ruin, and one of them predicted that mankind would perish in the year 2014. Among the guests appearing on the show was an expert on pyramids. He had annoyed the moderator by saying that, although it was fun to discuss these sorts of things, one shouldn’t take them too seriously. Even if you thought the world was coming to an end, there was no good reason to believe this particular prophecy. That makes sense, thought Wataru at the time. He was able to go to bed that night without thinking anymore about it.
The world went on. People could be destroyed, so simply it was almost comical, but the world went on. For the time being.
When the first-period class ended, the teacher called him to her desk.
“Wataru, the principal’s office just had a call from your mother. She wanted to know if you were in school or not. I told her you were sitting in class, but I wondered…” his teacher raised an eyebrow. “Is something the matter at home?”
“Mom’s been sick,” Wataru hurriedly explained. “She was sleeping when I left this morning, that’s why.”
“Oh, I see. That explains it. You came in all by yourself, then, didn’t you? When classes are over, you go straight home so your mother doesn’t have to worry too much.”
Wataru nodded and said yes and went back to his seat. For the rest of the day, he sat in class, the words around him blowing like a breeze over the smoking husk that was Wataru Mitani’s world.
By the time he left school at noon, the sun was hot