Brave Story - Miyuki Miyabe [81]
When Wataru woke up in the morning before the last day of school, his right cheek was swollen and red. It hurt so much he could barely open his mouth. His mother took a look. “Your gum’s swollen,” she announced. “You need to go see a dentist. No school for you today.”
Not that it really mattered—the classes for the year were pretty much over, and he wouldn’t be able to get in the pool for P.E. in his condition anyway. Wataru did as he was told, and before lunchtime rolled around, he was sitting in the waiting room at the dentist’s office.
It wasn’t a cavity, said the dentist, it was gingivitis. “Don’t normally see this in children,” he said, and asked whether Wataru had eaten something hard recently, maybe cut his gum? Had his mom said anything about him grinding his teeth at night?
The dentist fixed him up, and though the swelling didn’t go down, the pain wasn’t so bad. He was told there was a chance that he might run a fever, and sure enough, he was starting to shiver. Even under the hot summer sun he didn’t break a sweat.
He got home to find his mother out shopping. There was a note on the kitchen table that read, “Put on your new pajamas and get some sleep.”
He wasn’t that sick. A quick snooze on the couch sounded like a better idea. He had just flopped down when the phone rang.
Maybe it’s Grandma? Or Uncle Lou. Or it could even be Grandma in Odawara. The last time she called she started crying right away. Wataru didn’t fancy the idea of talking to her right then.
Reluctantly he picked up the receiver. He heard a woman’s voice, unfamiliar, maybe a salesperson.
“Hello, Kuniko Mitani?”
He tried to tell the caller that his mother wasn’t home, but the swelling in his mouth and the lingering effects of the anesthesia made it hard to say anything coherent. Meanwhile, the woman on the line continued talking.
“I heard from a colleague that you called the office yesterday. I thought we agreed last time that you wouldn’t call here…did you forget, perhaps?”
It was a pretty and polite voice, but Wataru could hear a little bit of anger simmering beneath the surface. She was talking a little too high, a little too fast. What kind of a salesperson talks like this?
“…This sort of, well, harassment—look, I’m human too, and there’s only so much I can take. I don’t think that us meeting and talking would be particularly fruitful either, to be honest.”
You’ve got the wrong number, Wataru attempted to explain, when the woman with the strange voice began talking faster, each word hitting the receiver with the force of a punch.
“Akira says that if you insist on carrying on like this, a divorce trial isn’t out of the question. He’s quite angry. I really think you might want to reconsider your actions. That’s all I wanted to say. Don’t call the office again. I’ve already received complaints from my superiors about personal affairs intruding on work.”
Wataru sensed that she was about to hang up the phone, so he blurted, “I’m noph my mother!”
The silence that followed rang in his ears. The receiver echoed Wataru’s voice.
“Heffo?” Wataru managed through swollen lips. “Thiff ith Wataru. Wataru Mitani.”
He heard a faint noise like someone swallowing on the other side. Then there was a click. She had hung up.
The telephone call had lasted only a few moments, but it caused Wataru to break out in a cold sweat.
Without a doubt—that was her. Dad’s other woman.
That was the woman Akira Mitani was living with. The woman he wanted to end his marriage to Kuniko for. The woman he wanted to marry.
She had a pretty voice—like a television announcer’s—Wataru thought. He hated himself for thinking it.
The strength went out of his knees, and he knelt down on the floor. That’s when he heard the other voice, sweet and small—a