“Oh dear. Was it Miss Mizuta?” asked Ichiko. Chiba nodded. Then he sat
down in a chair at the table on which the bottle stood, the chair in which
Takako had been sitting.
“Was she badly cut?”’
“Yeah. I’ve left her at the hospital”
Ichiko turned to face Takako.
“She helps Chiba with his work. She’s got a degree in architecture, of
course. Chiba got her the job—she’s very pretty. . . . It must be just terrible
for her. I suppose she’ll have a scar,” she said. Then she noticed the color of
Takako’s face, and was surprised.
5.
Noticing as he washed his face that a cold drizzle was falling, Hirata—
who had been sick with a cold for two or three days and was suffering from
a fever—said he would stay home from work that day, and went back to
bed.
“Use the phone next door and let them know at work” he told Takako.
“Then you can come back to bed and get some sleep if you want to.”
“I’m not really tired.”
Stepping through the Chibas’ gate, Takako saw that more sasanqua petals
had fallen, forming a line alongside the hedge—they were wet. It looked as
though there were more than just one or two days’ worth—and the Chibas
even had a maid. Takako wondered why Ichiko didn’t ask her to sweep
them up.
Ichiko seemed to be leaving—she came out wearing a raincoat, with her
daughter in her arms. She waited in the entryway while Takako used the
phone.
