Musashi - Eiji Yoshikawa [250]
“That’s enough. Any more and I won’t be able to remember it all.” “All right, just tell her what I’ve said so far.”
While the boy ran to Otsū and repeated Osugi’s message, the old woman, pretending not to watch, sat down on a rock and gazed toward a shoal where a school of minnows were making patterns in the water. Would Otsū come, or would she not? Osugi stole a glance, faster than the lightning movements of the tiny fish.
Otsū’s doubts were not easily dispelled, but eventually Jōtarō convinced her there was no danger. Timidly she began walking toward Osugi, who, reveling in her victory, smiled broadly.
“Otsū, my dear girl,” she said in a motherly tone.
“Granny,” replied Otsū, bowing to the ground at the old woman’s feet. “Forgive me. Please, forgive me. I don’t know what to say.”
“There’s no need for you to say anything. It’s all Matahachi’s fault. Apparently he still resents your change of heart, and at one time I’m afraid I thought ill of you too. But that’s all water under the bridge.”
“Then you’ll pardon me for the way I acted?”
“Well, now,” said Osugi, introducing a note of uncertainty, but at the same time squatting down beside Otsū.
Otsū picked at the sand with her fingers, scratching a small hole in the cold surface. Tepid water bubbled to the surface.
“As Matahachi’s mother, I suppose I can say that you’ve been forgiven, but then there’s Matahachi to consider. Won’t you see him and talk to him again? Since he ran off with another woman of his own free will, I don’t think he’d ask you to come back to him. In fact, I wouldn’t permit him to do anything so selfish, but … “
“Yes?”
“Well, won’t you at least agree to seeing him? Then, with the two of you there side by side, I’ll tell him exactly what’s what. That way, I’ll be able to fulfill my duty as a mother. I’ll feel I’ve done everything I could.”
“I see,” replied Otsū. From the sand beside her, a baby crab crawled out and scurried behind a rock. Jōtarō latched on to it, went behind Osugi and dropped it on the top of her head.
Otsū said, “But I can’t help feeling that after all this time it would be better for me not to see Matahachi.”
“I’ll be right there with you. Wouldn’t you feel better if you saw him and made a clean break of it?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then do it. I say this for the sake of your own future.”
“If I agree … how are we to find Matahachi? Do you know where he is?” “I can, uh, I can find him very quickly. Very quickly. You see, I saw him quite recently in Osaka. He got into one of his willful moods and went off and left me in Sumiyoshi, but when he does things like that, he always regrets them later. It won’t be long before he shows up in Kyoto looking for me.”
Despite Otsū’s uncomfortable feeling that Osugi wasn’t telling the truth, she was swayed by the old woman’s faith in her worthless son. What led to her final surrender, however, was the conviction that the course proposed by Osugi was right and proper. “How would it be,” she asked, “if I went and helped you look for Matahachi?”
“Oh, would you?” cried Osugi, taking the girl’s hand in her own. “Yes. Yes, I think I should.”
“All right, come with me now to my inn. Ouch! What’s this?” Standing up, she put her hand to the back of her collar and caught the crab. With a shiver, she exclaimed, “Now, how did that get there?” She held out her hand and shook it loose from her fingers.
Jōtarō, who was behind her, suppressed a snicker, but Osugi was not fooled. With flashing eyes, she turned and glared at him. “Some of your mischief, I suppose!”
“Not me. I didn’t do it.” He ran up the dike for safety and called, “Ots