Ge-ge-ge no nyobou 6/4

[mbarker]

a.k.a. How can you live on that?

At the publisher's office, Tomita, the authors, and others involving his company were meeting. Tomita passed out a sheet of paper to each of them with the company financial information. One of the authors looked at it and said, "How can you possibly have no money?" Tomita said, "It's all down there. I paid, and got credit, and spent... there's nothing left. I'm so sorry." He got down on the floor and groveled.

Shigeru was standing near the door, holding the financial paper in one hand. He was amazed to see a strange ghost appear near Tomita. Matted hair, a gnarled red walking stick, a funeral robe... the man smiled at him, an eerie glowing smile with eyes lit with the same odd pearly glow. Shigeru said, "Bimbo-gami!" (The ghost of poverty)

Meanwhile, Fumie opened the rice keeper, a tin box, and sighed. "Almost gone." She looked in the miso jar, a brown pot. "Nearly gone, too." She jumped as Shigeru ran in. "What's wrong?" He said, "He almost caught me." Fumie said, "Who? The electricity man or the water man?" Shigeru looked worried. "I think it was the electricity man. Should we hide upstairs?" Fumie shook her head. "I don't know. Always lying to them isn't good for our spirit."

The electricity man knocked on the front door. "Murai? Your electricity bill is three months overdue. We're going to have to turn it off."

There was no answer from inside. In the workroom, the door to the outside was open, with the curtain blowing in the breeze. There was no one in the house.

Near the river, Shigeru and Fumie walked. Shigeru said, "It's a good day for a walk." Fumie said, "I still don't think we should lie to them all the time." Shigeru said, "It's not a lie. We're not at home right now." Fumie laughed. Then she looked past Shigeru and said, "Oh, look. The camellia is blooming." They walked over and looked at the big red flowers. Shigeru sighed. "Why can't money grow like flowers? Oh, well, we've avoided the bill collectors again. But the mortgage is a big problem. I don't know what to do about that." Fumie nodded.

As they walked, Fumie looked at the ground. "That's chickweed! We can eat that. Let's pick some to take back, and I'll fix it for tonight." She started to try to bend down, or to kneel. Her heavy abdomen, full of the baby, made that difficult. Shigeru said, "Wait, just tell me what you want and I'll pick it." He bent over and pointed. "No, not that." He moved his hand. "That's not it either." Fumie nodded, "Yes, that's it. But pick the young tips, not..." Shigeru said, "Look, I'll just pick the whole thing, and you can separate it later, okay?" He pulled up several handfuls, and dropped them in her apron.

Shigeru had searched for other work, and found some small jobs. But they didn't pay well, and he worked long hours, trying to make enough money.

As he was drawing, Fumie took three kimono out of her drawers. She unfastened the paper wrapper, and ran her hand over the pink kimono that her mother had sewed for her wedding, and remembered how proud her mother had been. She sighed, and tied the wrapper again.

Downstairs, in the kitchen, Fumie laid the kimono on the table. She looked at Shigeru and said, "Will the pawn shop give us money for these? They're not so special." Shigeru looked at the wrapped kimono and shook his head. "No." Fumie said, "Oh, the pawn shop won't take kimono?" Shigeru said, "That's not it. But we can't take your kimono..." Fumie shrugged, and caressed her stomach. "I can't wear them now, they're just taking up space. And if you take them to the pawnshop, we can get them back later, right?" Shigeru nodded, slowly. Fumie said, "So it's just for a while." Shigeru put his hand on the kimono. "For a while. Right." He opened the wrapper, and started to fold the contents. "Okay, so there's a kimono, an obi..." He stopped and pulled out a paper. "What's this?" Fumie said, "Oh, leave that. It's... well, it's a wish to come back soon." Shigeru said, "What?" He read the writing on the paper, and chuckled. "Fumie, this is a poem about getting a cat to come back." Fumie looked surprised. "Really? I always thought it was good for anything that you wanted to come back soon." Shigeru nodded, and tucked the paper back in with the kimono. "I guess maybe it is."

Later, in the bedroom, Fumie looked at the antique hairpin that her grandmother had given her for her wedding. She said, "I wonder how much the pawnshop would give us for this?" Then she closed the box and patted her stomach. "No. If you're a girl, you'll want this."

At the pawnshop, the pawnshop man looked at one kimono. "This is really good. Your wife came from a good family." Then he opened the one with the pink wedding kimono. "Oh, this is a fine wedding dress. But won't your wife cry?" Shigeru looked nervous. The pawnshop man said, "Well, I guess you keep her happy." Then he found the paper and started to pull it out. "You forgot this." Shigeru held up his hand. "Please just leave it with the kimono. It's... it's to make it come back soon."

Back at the house, Fumie was sewing. Someone called from the doorway. Fumie went to answer it. Two men in suits stood outside. "Is this the Murai residence?" Fumie nodded. "Yes, but who are you?" The men slipped identification badges out. "We're from the tax department. We've got some questions..."

As Shigeru walked up to the house, he heard Fumie announce, loudly, "We have no such things!" He quickly stepped through the gate, and said, "What's going on? Why such loud voices?" He looked at the two men and said, "Who are you?" They turned and said, "We're from the tax department. Are you Shigeru Murai?" He nodded, and said, "Okay, let's go inside."

In the entryway, Shigeru sat on the floor facing the two men. One of them tapped a clipboard. "According to our records, you haven't paid very much in taxes recently." Shigeru rubbed his neck. "Being a manga artist is not very good business." The other man said, "So you don't spend much time at it?" Shigeru shook his head. "No, I spend 10 or 12 or 14 hours a day at it." One of the men glanced at Fumie. "I see you have a baby coming. Do you mean you don't have money saved for that?" The other man said, "Tell us the truth, what else do you do?" Shigeru said, "Nothing! Just manga." The man tapped the clipboard. "With this mortgage? You're hiding something, aren't you?" The other man asked, "With this income? How do you eat?" "I can't believe... you've got stocks, don't you? Or maybe something else?" "Look, just tell us, I know how easy it is to forget something..."

Shigeru yelled, "Who are you to question our life!" He stood up and ran into the workroom, then came back. He held up a thick wad of pawnshop tickets. "Here! This is how we live. Now get out of here!" He throw the tickets at the men, a cloud of white fluttering around them.

The men walked away. In the street, one of them pulled a pawnship ticket off the other one, and ran back to give it to Shigeru.

As Shigeru drew in his workroom, the ghost appeared, again, behind him. As Fumie sewed in the kitchen, the ghost appeared, then winked out of sight as she turned to look.

<to be continued>

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[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, apparently the ghost yesterday was also this male figure -- yesterday it was only shown briefly from the back, and I misjudged the gender. Today with a front view, it was clearly male. Sorry about the confusion.