It was the day after Megumi had been found that Shimizu called Toshio---by the calendar date, it would be called that same night. Toshio picked up the receiver to Shimizu's trembling voice informing him that Megumi's condition seemed off, and that he wanted an examination.
"Off? What is her condition?"
"That's..." Shimizu hesitated. "It doesn't seem like anything hurts, from the way she's acting. I don't know how to put it, but it seems like she's in a daze. According to my wife, since she was found in the mountains this morning, she's been like this the whole day."
Toshio tilted his head. "If you put it like that, I can't really say. If you don't give me something more specific...."
"That's why I'm asking if you could please come and examine her."
"I don't want you to think I'm trying to get out of making a house call." As Toshio said that, Kyouko and Takae who were seated on the sofa watching TV turned to look at him. "Anyway, if I don't ask about her condition, I won't know how to prepare either. Even if I only do the bare minimal treatment myself, if we can't say what she needs, then I can't very well bring her to the hospital, either. ---She have a fever?"
"She doesn't seem to."
"How's her appetite?"
"It seems she hasn't laid a hand on anything since this morning."
"Does it seem to hurt anywhere?"
"No. It doesn't especially seem like something in particular hurts. But, even if we talk to her she doesn't respond, like she's not even paying attention," said Shimizu, continuing with an audible gritting of his teeth. "I really think it'd be best if we brought her there for an overnight observation, but. That's---my wife is worried enough, after everything else. I'm sorry to ask, but could you please come and have a look at her?"
Toshio sighed. "I understannd. Anyway, I'll make preparations and be on my way."
As he hung up the receiver, Takae shot him a sharp eyed glance, then ostentatiously looked up to the clock on the wall. Kyouko shruged her shoulders and offered Toshio a sympathetic look, then looked away.
"A house call? At this hour!"
Toshio, too, looked to the clock. It was already past ten.
"Oh really, if they could at least think of the hour, don't you agree?"
Regardless of the hour, Shimizu was worried enough about his daughter to call him, Toshio thought, but he didn't bother to voice such a counter. In these cases, he'd already accepted that saying anything to his mother was useless. With no particular respnse, he left the living room, Takae following behind.
"Its because you're always so accessible to them. You're so easy to work in the ground. --Just who was it?"
"Shimizu-san's place," he answered heading into the hospital.
"Speaking of the Shimizu line, weren't they looking for their daughter? She was found?"
"Guess so," he said going through the hallway door. Toshio secretly referred to this hallway as the buffer zone. The door to the waiting room was an international boundary. Takae seldom set foot in the buffer zone, much less crossed into foreign lands. But, tonight Takae was in rare form, apparently in the mood to cross the border herself.
"Guess so, you say. What happened to Takami-san? He didn't come to report?"
"He didn't have to, did he?
"Well of course he had to! Didn't he come all the way here yesterday to report that a girl was missing? And with a tone as if you should be expected to search with him. After coming by like that, doesn't it only follow that he owes a report on what happened from there? In the first place, you are a member of the neighborhood watch committee. If something happens, you do need to hear about it."
"It's not like I searched with them, and it's not like anything special happened."
"It is obvious that something did happen, a young girl went missing until such an hour. Or are you saying she said nothing to her parents and stayed out over night?"
"Mom." Toshio breathed a deep sigh and turned around. You could say Takae coming all the way to the waiting room was a rare sight. But, of course it wasn't one that pleased him in the slightest. "I heard that Megumi got hurt somehow or another in the mountains and couldn't move. After that, her condition still seems bad. Shimizu-san came to me asking for me to examine her. As a doctor, I have patients. I have to get out there quickly. Save any talk like this for after I've returned."
Takae was clearly let down. "It isn't as if this is a discussion simply for my curiosity, you realize. I am asking what you think of how easily you let yourself be worked by them."
"Mother."
"Is the daughter of the Shimizu household in such a condition that you need to go out at this hour? If you just easily let yourself be dragged out of here, what if a patient who really is having a dire emergency comes while you are out?"
"If it's a dire emergency, they'd call an ambulance before me. Everyone's got the common sense for that."
"Toshio."
"Anyway, I'm off."
Toshio entered the waiting room. As expected, Takae didn't have it in her to chase him all the way into the waiting room. Takae hated the waiting room. To think the former Medical Director's Office is now in this state, she'd say. It was just so pitiful that she hated to even set foot inside.
Leaving Takae stranded at the other side of the door, Toshio sighed.
If someone wished to be revered as a director, to have a two-stone handicap up on everyone else, to affirm their power and influence, who the hell would come back to this village? If someone were really after that, there were plenty more lucrative positions than a medical director of a tiny hospital deep in the mountains out there for the taking in the world, but Takae didn't seem to grasp that.
No, not just Takae, thought Toshio has he left the hospital. Toshio's father was also a man who didn't understand as much. Toshio wasn't denying that standing and fame had their value. But, what kind of status really came with being a medical director of a hospital that was really only the size of a clinic in Sotoba of all places? In the first place it was just another term for another medic, so slapping on "-al director" was a joke. It wasn't any different than being the old man at any personal shop, he couldn't help but thing. They didn't call them directors, so why not just call him "Boss" like the proprietors of the village's shops? --Toshio had always thought as much.
Indeed, the Ozaki Hospital did once used to be the home of the one and only physician in the area. In an era when there wasn't even a doctor in the town of Mizobe, there was apparently even an inn for patients who had to travel a long way for examinations. But, that was an era long past. Patients who were in critical condition called an ambulance. If you went to the town of Mizobe, there was a General hospital with well regulated medical equipment, and even a National Hospital. If you rushed, you could make it to the University Hospital in under three hours.
The Ozakis were left behind in the small territory that was Sotoba, where the Ozakis were revered and caught up in feeling like bigwigs with their say in village governmental affairs. If that was really want someone wanted, they'd be better off transferring to an area with more of a regional advantage, expanding their hospital. This was the end result of being unable to throw away the lifestyle that came with being honored by the bunch from the cloistered little village.
He was a frog in a shallow well. That's what he thought, every time he stepped into the showy Director's Office. He was a man who believed in an influence that had long faded, who believed that all of the people around him believed and thought the same way that he did. Never mind that he was nothing more than a simple doctor anymore, the man refused to believe that he was an ordinary doctor then, and still going on refusing to accept as much now was his wife.
(What a strange story....)
That was the one way he didn't want to live. ---No matter what.
As he pulled up to the Shimizu's house, having heard the engine, the entryway door opened. The gate lamp was out, the sliding storm doors were drawn and the curtains tightly closed. At a glance, it appeared to be a house asleep.
"Doctor---Thank you." Shimizu Hiroko stepped out to meet him, seeming to cower into herself, her voice hushed low. She pulled on his hand to hurry him into the house, looked around to confirm that the neighbors didn't see that Toshio had come, then quickly---but without a sound, closed the door.
"I'm sorry about the hour."
Even inside the entryway, Shimizu kept his voice low.
"Where's Megumi-chan?"
"On the second floor."
Toshio stepped up from the entryway, straight towards the second floor, setting foot on the stairway when Shimizu stopped him.
"Uhm."
"Is there something wrong?"
"Actually," said Shimizu, looking away. "Somehow, Megumi's been acting off.... Even if we ask if something happened yesterday, we haven't been able to find out anything. She won't give any real answers, and even if you yell, I can't be sure if she can even hear or not."
As if offering a preview on how things would be on the second floor, Shimizu's voice was low. "Maybe, it isn't that she's sick,... how to put it, I've been thinknig it might be something mental, but."
Toshio knew his meaning and nodded. In other words, Shimizu had the same worry that Takae had. Something might have been done to his daughter's body. His daughter might have been suffering from a blow to her psyche. That was all the more reason to hide from nearby eyes, to avoid bringing her out to the hospital, and no doubt the reason they called Toshio out so late at night.
"For now, I'll examine her," Toshio showed a mindful smile. "We might find something out if we do a medical examination."
"Yes,.... That's right. Please." It's the first room on the second floor."
"Excuse me," TOshio said, heading up to the second floor. Shimizu and Hiyoko followed, as if holding their breath.
Megumi's room had a nameplate suiting a young girl. Looking at the name 'Megumi' written in bubbly letters, Toshio gave a light knock on the door before opening. In the room lined with stuffed animals and trinkets, Megumi was lied on the bed by the window.
"Megumi-chan," Toshio started, seeing that her eyes were open. "What's wrong. I hear you're not doing good?"
The bedside lamp was all that lit her face. 'Sorry, but I'll have to turn on the lights', Toshio said as he flipped on the lights. As the florescent light filled the room, by looking at Megumi's vacant expression, it was clear that her face was drained of color.
"You're pretty pale. ---How're you feeling?"
As Toshio knelt at her bedside, Megumi blinked as if blinded by the light. Beyond that, she showed no particular response.
"They say yuo're not eating? No appetite?"
Though Toshio spoke to her she didn't respond. As if she were half asleep, her gaze fell to Toshio but it didn't appear to be a gaze with any awareness.
Now then, Toshio monologued to himself. Is this a real case of psychological torpor, or---is it a performance?
Megumi was a frequent patient at the hospital. Her chest hurt or her stomach hurt, she'd say kicking up a fuss, when there was generally nothing found wrong with her that required any treatment. While there was objectively speaking nothing wrong with her, whether there even was subjectively to the patient herself was a frequent cause of fights between Megumi and the Shimizus, since they seemed to occur whenever something she didn't like came up at school. If there was something wrong with her from time to time, it was never enough to require treatment, yet Megumi would act all the more like she had a grave disease. Like she was hoping for it. At times like these, Toshio would affix "a very mild case of" to whatever appropriate disease, and give her vitamins or some other harmless prescription. He expected it, but was that it this time?
"Cold?" Toshio asked, as he saw Megumi was wearing summer bedclothes. Megumi blinked, but offered no particular response. He took her hand to take her pulse but there was no fever. If anything, she was cool.
"You don't have a fever. The AC might be a little strong, huh?" He said while counting her pulse. A little fast. Checking her bllod pressure, it was pretty low. He lifting up her eyelid to see the mucous membrane color. Just like her face, it seemed to have lost some of its hue.
"Open up your mouth." He lightly gently opened her jaw, and she did at least leave it open. There didn't seem to be anything especially wrong with her tonsils or the inside of her mouth, but as expected the healthy red color was lacking.
"Looks like anemia. ---Are you on your period?"
Even looking her in the eye when he asked, she didn't answer. She isn't, Hiroko answered.
"Open the front a bit."
TOshio took out his stethoscope. Megumi of course had no response, so Hiroko hurried over and undid Megumi's Pajama top. Toshio felt with the stethoscope, while at the same time examining Megumi's body. Traces of insect bites, small scratches and bruises, probably from when she fell on the mountain. He couldn't see anything that particularly seemed to be the aftereffects of anything violent. Just in case, he checked the palpitations down to her abdomen but there wasn't anything especially wrong there, and on her color-deprived white skin, he saw neither wounds nor bruises.
"She isn't on her period, you had said. Her there been abnormal bleeding or abnormal discharge?"
Toshio turned to look at Hiroko. Hiroko shook her head, seeming bewildered. "No... No, I don't think so."
"I see." Toshio smiled. "Probably Anemia. Just in case, I'll run a blood test. I'll need to take some blood."
That was what finally got a response. Indeed, it was an aggravated nod.
"Is there anywhere that hurts?"
"No..."
"Sleepy?"
"I am very, sleepy...."
"I see," Toshio nodded as he pricked her with the needle and took only the necessary amount of blood. "We won't know until we look over the text results but, I think it's probably anemia."
Toshio turned to face Shimizu.
"Anemia, is it?"
"It's pretty severe anemia. It happens a lot in young girls. ---Is Megumi-chan on a diet?"
At that, Hiroko nodded with a strained smile. "This girl, she's always on a diet, so..."
"That's probably part of it. Then there's this heat. There are times she probably just has a juice or some ice cream and doesn't have a proper meal, I'm sure. That can make anemia strike. We'll know for sure when the results come back but, well, in the mean time, I don't think you need to worry too much."
"Is that really true..."
"Beyond that, nothing looks too severe. Well, if she didn't already have it yesterday, when the anemia did strike, this heat might have gotten to her and caused cerebral anemia, or something like that." Saying that, Toshio looked into Shimizu's eyes, his words steeped in meaning. "There's nothing to worry about."
Shimizu had a sudden look of understanding. "Is that so...."
"When anemia is bad, you can feel wiped out, and the tendency towards torpor develops. You can sleep and sleep and still be sleepy. There are no bumps on her head, and it doesn't seem like she had a strong blow to her head or anything when she fell, so the reason she's spaced out is probably the anemia, too." Toshio smiled. "Anyway, I'll write a prescription for some vitamins, so please come pick them up tomorrow. Then in a week, we'll see how she is. If before then her condition changes, please bring her in."
Good grief, Shimizu let out, along with a smile that seemed slightly wry. "Honestly, this girl gets people riled up. I am sorry, for calling you out so late."
"I don't mind. Aren't we glad it was nothing?"
"Yeah. I am sorry for the trouble over nothing."
Toshio turned to look back at Megumi.
"It's not that I don't understand a maiden's heart or anything, but if you're going to diet, don't do it to an unhealthy point. Whatever else you do, not eating 'cause you want to lose weight won't work. If you don't count calories and do it in a more measured way, the only result is going to be hurting yourself."
Megumi blinked as if it were bright, then gave a small nod.
"If you do that and your body breaks down, you'll be hospitalized and have nutrients pushed on you, you know. With that you'll gain 10 kilos in no time."
"Meanie," Megumi murmured with a small voice and a smile. Toshio smiled and stood. He nodded to the obviously relieved Shimizu and Hiroko.
"Take care."