Hashimoto Momosuke has come to visit, and the area around the old man’s
eyes brightened, he gave a low groan and looked in my direction, and I was
so startled by the glint in his black eyes that I gasped. The old man put his
right hand down under the quilt and with the strength in that arm raised the
upper half of his body. His white crepe obi had drifted up toward his chest.
Quickly, say your name—urged the younger old man, but I just stared at his
father. And just as something that has drifted lightly up sinks lightly down
again, the old man’s body dropped down, his right hand came slowly out
from under the quilt again, and he went back to sleep. That was it. That will
probably be our last meeting.”
I see.
“I couldn’t help crying, but then that’s a natural farewell, isn’t it? Not
like when I said goodbye to that student. . . .”
Uryu placed his knees together as a young woman would, and drawing
his eyebrows together stared at me with his black eyes.
“I wanted to go back to being natural again, so I left the troupe and
stayed on here by myself. . . . That company was different from the one I
had been an actress with during the war. The first troupe was broken up by
the defeat. I had gone back to being a man, a specialist in female roles, but
still . . .” I began to worry that it was time for the waitress to come. Like a
large white flower Uryu allowed his body to soften, and hung his head.
