The Chibas had a television, too. Chiba had designed a summer house in
Atami for the owner of a bicycle factory, and when he finished he was
given a woman’s bicycle and a television as a gift.
Ichiko had once seen Takahashi Keizo, a popular announcer on NHK, in
the hallway of a kabuki theater. She had greeted him by mistake, bowing.
“Why, if it isn’t Mr. Takahashi!” she had said. And Takahashi had returned
her greeting very smartly, very professionally. “Well, you always see him
on television, right?—so I figured he must be someone I knew. Afterward it
all seemed so funny. . . “
For a time, Ichiko had told this story to everyone she met. Takako had
heard her telling it, and heard her laughing, next door.
She often saw Ichiko riding by on her bicycle, wearing a pair of ski pants
that her husband had worn in his student days, with the three-year-old Yoko
strapped in behind her. lchiko had chosen the name Yoko because it fí.t her
own simple requirements for a name. The ba in Chiba and the yo in Yoko
were both written with the same character, so the four characters in the
name could be divided into two more or less similar halves. Ichiko said this
was good; she was proud that this also was true of her own name.
Ichiko had once said to Takako, “I’ve married into a family with lucky
names.”
The Chibas’ maid was a woman in her forties. She was a war-widow, a
quiet woman and good worker. She walked about sunk in silence, picking
up the things that Ichiko left scattered throughout the house. With a
husband named Chiba and a maid named Taneko, Ichiko felt sure she must
be blessed with good luck.* (*”Chiba” contains a character meaning “leaf,”
and “Taneko” contains one meaning “seed” Tr.)
Even though Ichiko was generally unconcerned with subtleties and
nuances, Takako thought she must have sensed her affection for Chiba, that
Ichiko must know she had been attracted to him since soon after she arrived
