The woman came across the stepping stones to the stone that members of
the family stood on when they removed their shoes, and standing there she
peered rudely at Yuko’s wool and squeezed it in her hand. Then, without
commenting on the wool, she turned to face the garden.
“You’ve really got a nice garden, don’t you? I wish I were rich enough to
settle down in a house like this.”
“I can’t buy anything, but you’re welcome to put the baby down and rest
a little if you’d like.”
“You don’t mind? ’ The woman set her bag down in the hall and, without
hesitating at all, took the baby from her back.
“You had everything so neatly arranged—perhaps I shouldn’t have said
anything,” Yuko said.
She could smell the diaper.
“It can be real hard finding a place to nurse a baby when you’re trudging
around like this all day.”
“She’s adorable. How old is she?” Yuko looked down at the baby from
her chair.
“Eleven months. People talk about how ‘A child of one’s own is never a
burden,’ right? Well, when you’re carrying a kid around on your back all
day it gets to be pretty heavy luggage. ’
The young woman lifted the bottom of her sweater, pushed her
undershirt to one side, and placed her breast in the baby’s mouth. Her
breast was extremely full and faintly tinged with blue. The milk seemed to
be coming out quickly, for the baby sometimes choked. White milk
dribbled down from the corner of its mouth. Yuko drew closer to it and
wiped its lips with her finger. She was enchanted by the way the baby’s
throat moved each time it sucked—she found it adorable—and thus thought
