Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [73]
“Whoa.”
Wataru wasn’t sure why, but suddenly, convulsively, he laughed like a madman. “Pretty out there, isn’t it?”
Katchan nodded vigorously. “I only know like one other person whose parents got divorced, and that was a long time ago!”
“Me too. Hey, but aren’t Yutaro’s parents divorced? And I think there’s another kid in cram school whose parents got divorced.”
“Maybe we’re thinking of the same person? Tanaka, that guy in Class Two?”
“No, no, it’s a girl, Satoko-something. She doesn’t go to Joto.”
“I know one kid whose parents died in a car crash,” Katchan said solemnly. “I never thought it would happen to someone I knew! I mean, uh, it’s not like he died or something, but still!”
Wataru felt the exact same way.
“So why do you want to talk to your old man now?”
“If I don’t, how will I know what happened? I don’t like this not knowing what went wrong. It ticks me off.”
“Yeah, I hear that.”
Katchan peered into his empty glass and belched again. This time he didn’t smile. “Shouldn’t you just leave it up to your grandma? Sounds like she’s pretty hardcore about fixing him.”
“You think my dad will come home if I do?”
“Sure. Married people are always gettin’ into fights and then gettin’ back together.”
“Who’d you hear that from?”
“Oh, they talk about it at the bar all the time. My dad and mom, they’re great at ironing out those marital disputes. Lots of people come to them for advice.”
“You mean customers talk about their private lives like that? At the bar.”
“You bet.”
“Wait, so, even if my dad has this woman on the side, you think I should just wait it out and he’ll come back? You can’t guarantee that!”
No one could. Katchan chewed his lower lip in thoughtful silence.
“I just don’t want to leave it like this,” Wataru said at last. “There has to be something I can do.”
“You’re bright, Wataru. That’s why you don’t like it when people do dumb things,” Katchan said. “If all you need to do is call him, I might be able to help you out.”
It took Wataru a few seconds to process what his friend had said. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. His number’s in the call list.”
“The call list? What’s that?”
Last year their neighborhood held a fire prevention day, with all the local community boards participating. Katchan’s dad had been one of the committee members.
“See, we gathered a list of emergency contact numbers for everybody in the town. Your dad wasn’t on the committee or nothing, but he was like this emergency contact for when there’s an earthquake or fire or something like that, so his name, his company, the address, and the phone number are all on that list. I remember seein’ it there.”
Wataru grabbed him by the shoulders. “Show me!”
Katchan raced to get the book. It was a sheaf of stapled photocopied pages, with a simple piece of colored paper as a front page. The numbers were there, as promised.
“Akira Mitani…got it!”
The book listed both the name of his division and the direct phone line.
“Can I borrow your phone?”
“Sure, but you won’t get him today. It’s Sunday. Companies are closed.”
Oh, right.
“Come over after school tomorrow. I’ll call for you.”
“You’ll call?”
“Yeah. I’ll pretend I work at a shop, and that a Mr. Mitani left something, and get them to the phone. I do that kind of thing all the time. You gotta throw ’em a bit of a curve ball, or they’ll just ask to talk to your mom.”
“Good thinking, Katchan.”
Katchan grinned. “Hey, you share your homework assignments with me and all, but this kind of stuff is my specialty,” he said with evident pride. “Also, what if you said you were a Mitani calling, and he didn’t even answer the phone?” Katchan looked at Wataru’s face and his smile faded. “Sorry. Got a little carried away.”
Wataru shook his head. “No, it’s okay. It’s like you say—I mean, Dad tried to leave when I was out of the house.” The likelihood that he would try avoiding any sort of direct contact with Wataru was high. Wataru looked back at his friend. “Let’s play a game or something.”
Katchan slowly picked up the game controller. The