Ge-ge-ge no nyobou 8/14

[mbarker]

a.k.a. a place in the country?

Fumie looked at Takashi, her brother. "I think I let the spirit of busyness distract me. I wasn't listening to Aiko. I wasn't listening to my own children." Takashi winced, and said, "Me too." Fumie shook her head. "What?"

Takashi said, "I've been so busy trying to make a success of the sewing machine business, pushing on that. I haven't spent enough time with my wife." Then he looked at the sewing machine and said, "But you work hard on your family." Fumie looked at him. He stroked the sewing machine. "I can tell, you've used this machine hard, but taken care of it. And you don't sew like this for yourself."

Then he looked up at Fumie. "I guess maybe I better go home tomorrow and talk to my wife, huh?" Fumie nodded. "But you're young, just starting. I think she'll understand." Takashi grinned at her. "You too. Don't let the spirit of busyness win."

The next day, Takashi walked into the street with his suitcase. Fumie, Aiko, and Yoshiko followed. Takashi said, "Well, take care." Yoshiko said, "Please come back?" He grinned at her. "I will!" Aiko said, "Thank you for visiting." Takashi said, "It was my pleasure." Fumie said, "Stay healthy, and tell everyone hello for us." He nodded. Then he turned and walked to the corner. He turned there and looked back. Fumie waved. Aiko and Yoshiko bounced up and down, waving. He smiled again, and waved.

Later, Fumie was in the kitchen. Shigeru came in, putting his glasses on. "Where's Takashi?" Fumie said, "He left already." Shigeru said, "Oh." Then he picked up a newspaper and started to read.

Fumie said, "Shigeru, we need to talk." He said, "About?" Fumie said, "I told you that Aiko wrote a story about climbing Takao Mountain with her family?" He put down the newspaper. "Yes." Fumie said, "Well, I think maybe we should make that real. I think maybe she told us what her dream was in that paper." Shigeru leaned forward. "Takao Mountain?" Fumie nodded. Shigeru said, "It's a nice place, but I think maybe a taller mountain would be better. Something like Mount Fuji." Fumie said, "Mount Fuji?"

Shigeru got up, went into the other room, and came back in a moment. He spread several photographs on the table. "I started looking, and I bought this place. For a summer house for us." Fumie looked at the pictures. Shigeru said, "When I was young, we went up here, and spent the day. I looked for kappa." Fumie looked up from the pictures, at him. "You've been thinking about this?" Shigeru shrugged. "I don't really know what the house is like. It may be kind of rough. But at least it will have a roof."

Fumie said, "You were thinking about this? But... I thought your head was full of work." He shook his head. Then Fumie said, "You need to talk to me when you're thinking like that." He looked down at the pictures, then nodded.

Shigeru picked up the pictures. He said, "It's about a two-hour drive." Fumie said, "So, maybe this week or next week?" Shigeru said, "Yes. I'll put these away for now." He started to walk out of the kitchen. Fumie said, "Shigeru? Dan-dan." (Thank you)

The next Saturday, they drove up to their new summer house on Mount Fuji. It was a nice drive among the trees. Then they pulled into the driveway, and got out. Fumie lined up with Aiko and Yoshiko, and Shigeru stood beside them. They looked across the yard, with old tires, a broken bench, and other odds and ends in it. The house had a board leaning down from the roof, and the walls were old wood. Fumie said, "Is that... it?" Aiko said, "It's run-down." Shigeru looked around the yard and at the house and said, "Are you kidding? This is a great place." He put his hand on the mailbox. It fell off the fencepost.

Shigeru pulled open the sliding door in the front of the house, and peered inside. There was an enormous cobweb in one corner of the ceiling. As they stepped inside, Fumie said, "It smells... moldy?" She ran her finger across a tabletop, leaving a track. "Dusty, too."

Shigeru walked across the room, and up to the windows in the back. He pulled the curtains aside, and opened the window. He looked outside, with AIko, Yoshiko, and Fumie. They all smiled at the trees, and the smell of fresh air blowing through.

After a moment, Fumie looked at the girls. "That's really nice. So, how about if we all clean this up?" Yoshiko and Aiko looked back at her, then said, "Yes!"

In the yard, Shigeru picked up one of the old tires laying out front. He started to walk it to a junk pile beside the house. Yoshiko ran up and grabbed the tire. He looked at her and said, "Oh, you want to help? Good." They carried the tire to the junk pile. Shigeru said, "Let go now." He tossed the tire on the pile. Then he looked closely at a leaf beside the pile and reached for it. "Yoshiko, look!" He let the ladybug he had found crawl onto his fingers, and showed it to Yoshiko. She said, "It's cute!" He laughed, and put it back. Then she looked past him and held her hand to her ear. "What's that sound?" He looked up the mountain side and listened for a moment. Then he said, "That's the mountain sighing."

Inside, Fumiko and Aiko wiped off the table under the window. Then they put a tablecloth on it. Fumie looked at it. "There, that should be good for dinner, right?" Aiko looked at it and said, "It's like we have our own forest restaurant."

Then she looked at Fumie and said, "Mom? Will father stay here tonight?" Fumie chuckled. "He can't drive the car, so I think he has to stay with us." AIko said, "But what about deadlines? Won't it be harder later?" Fumie shook her head. "He needs a vacation, too. Don't worry, he's going to stay here with us tonight."

Then Fumie glanced out the window. "Oh, look. Quietly. There's a bird..." Aiko stepped closer. "Where?" Fumie pointed to the bird, sitting in a nearby tree with a beakful of something. Aiko and Fumie watched it for a moment before it flew off.

Later, Fumie and the girls were outside in the front yard when Shigeru came out. He said, "Well, there's no electricity. I guess they didn't get it turned on yet." Aiko said, "Without electricity, what will night be like?" Shigeru glanced around and said, "On the mountain? It's going to be really dark." Then he grinned. "But in the back room, they've got a lot of these." He reached into his back pocket, and pulled out three large candles. He waved them in the air. "Tonight, we can have a candlelight dinner. Just like royalty used to have." He handed each of them a candle. Yoshiko and AIko paraded around the yard, chanting, "A royal dinner!"

That night, the four sat at the table, with candles. Everyone said, "Itadakimasu." (The polite Japanese phrase that everyone says at the start of a meal. Literally, we have received. There's at least an implicit thank you to the gods in there.)

Then Aiko looked across the table and said, "Did royalty really eat in the dark like this?" Shigeru nodded. "It helps set the mood." Aiko frowned. "But you can't read a newspaper. Is it okay?" Shigeru smiled. "Actually, royalty, animals, even lots of people eat dinner without reading a newspaper." Then he shook his head. "I need to get rid of the spirit of busyness. So no newspaper while we eat, okay?"

Aiko frowned again. "There's not really any spirit of busyness, is there?" Shigeru looked at her. "What do you mean?" She said, "Oh, nothing." He said, "Aiko, please tell me. What do you mean?" Aiko looked at Fumie, who gave her a slight nod. Aiko looked at Shigeru. "Well, there's these kids in school, who laugh at me. And they say that manga are just lies, that there aren't any monsters and ghosts." Then she leaned toward Shigeru. "Have you ever really seen a spirit?"

Shigeru looked at her and said, "Not really." Aiko's shoulders dropped. Then he said, "But I have certainly felt their presence. When I was in the war, in the jungle, one time we kept trying different paths and each time we ran into a wall. Finally we gave up. Later I looked it up. That was Nurikabe, a great wall who gets in the way and blocks people. He's in Japan, too." Aiko said, "Really?" Shigeru nodded. "There's another one that I've met many times. In the dark, at night, you'll hear things falling. But when you go and look, there's nothing there. That's tengu pushing things over. They love to do that." (Tengu are mischievous gremlins with long noses.)

Aiko said, "But they're not real, are they?" Shigeru said, "For a long time, people have looked at what scares them, and given them names and talked about how they act. What I do is make those easy to understand and remember." He shook his head. "There's so much that we can't see, but it's still there." Fumie nodded. Shigeru said, "So are monsters or spirits..."

There was a loud ka-bam somewhere outside the window in the dark. They all jumped. Then Yoshiko huddled beside Fumie, and Aiko grabbed Shigeru. Shigeru said, "See! That was the tengu pushing something over." Aiko looked up at Shigeru and said, "That was scary. I don't think I can go to the bathroom tonight." Shigeru grinned down at her. "So, you do believe there's something out there?"

After a moment, Aiko nodded. Then she started to laugh. Everyone chuckled.

The episode ended with bits from next week. A soldier with a rifle falling into water. Other war scenes. Fireworks. Fukuzawa, the publisher. Shigeru drawing. And Shigeru telling Fumie, "This is what really happened."

<to be continued>

Comments

[dialyn.livejournal.com]

I think what I like about this series is that not everything goes smoothly, they struggle with finances and with each other, not always communicating well, not always understanding each other, but trying to do the right thing. It's so very normal...wouldn't seem as if it would be very interesting but yet it is. Well, at least your summaries are. :)