Hearing the swish of kumazasa bamboo in the garden of the house next
door, Takako called out, “Ricky, Ricky!”
A brown mutt put its head through a hole in the bottom of the bamboo
fence. Takako could see from the movements of his head that the dog was
vigorously wagging his tail, but he stayed right where he was and didn’t
come through to their garden.
“Ricky, has Mr. Chiba gone out?”
Takako spoke so that Chiba would hear if he were home.
Chiba had named Ricky after the pro-wrestler Rikidosan, of course—his
nickname was “Ricky.”
“I bet Rikidosan would be angry if he found out ”Takako had once said
to Chiba.
“I doubt if he ever will. And even if he did, he’d probably just take it as a
sign of his popularity and laugh it off. There really aren’t many good names
for dogs, plus he’s a male, and he’s a guard dog, so don’t you think it’s right
for him to be named after someone strong? Though once when I was
walking in town I heard someone holler out ‘Ricky, Ricky!’ and when I
looked it was this little terrier. Well, I thought, so other people are using it,
too—trendy people”’
“It’s a nice name. It has a nice sound.”
“You must have had the same experience yourself. You hear someone
call out ‘Takako’ somewhere and you spin around... “
“Yes. There aren’t too many names for women, either”’
“Ricky’s neck, the way it’s so long ... it kind of looks like yours. At least
I think so.”
“Are you saying that this dog looks like me?’ Takako thought she might
laugh, but she didn’t. She wasn’t angry—it wasn’t that, exactly. But to
