On Monday, as soon as Ohkawa Tomio heard Matsumura's voice on the phone he shouted. "Matsu, you punk, what the hell time do you think it is?!"
"I'm sorry." Matsumura's voice which normally sounded weak willed sounded like the hum of an insect over the phone now.
"We've gotten all kinds of orders this morning. Then it's going on noon and you still ain't shown. You gotta know Mondays're busy, but. Whadda you think I pay your salary for? If you got the time to call in, then just hurry up and come in!"
"....Uhm, about that."
Matsumura's voice was weak, and on top of that halting. This man's always like this, Ohkawa though clicking his tongue in his mind. Matsumura Yasuzou was ten years older than Ohkawa but it was a match as to who was more capable between he and his son Atsushi, Ohkawa thought. Matsumura was a coward by nature, so he just didn't have the guts to do anything wreckless without thinking trying to show off like Atsushi. That was why the only difference was that he could be at ease in trusting him with collecting payments. Other than that, his uselessness and his inability to give a firm and quick answer to anything brought out the same irritation in Ohkawa with only minor technical differences.
"If you got an excuse, say it when you get here. I ain't got the time to be having no leisurely phone chat."
Matsumura tried to get something out, but Ohkawa overtook him. He called to the young worker bringing in the beer cases in a loud voice.
"Oi, where're you parking? That ain't no place to be unloading!"
The young man making the delivery was about Atsushi's age. He turned the same resentful eyes on Ohkawa. It was a face he'd never seen before.
"Behind the storehouse. Go around the side, the side. You pack 'em up in front of the store and we can't do business. I always tell youse to drive down the alley, but. What the hells you kids' problem!"
Without answeing that, the young man gave a single sharp glare to Ohkawa returning the load to the truck.
"Uhm.... Boss, the truth is, though?"
Watching the truck back up, Ohkawa, still holding the phone, remembered that Matsumura was on the other end again.
"To hell with what the damned truth is, already. You've been sniveling since this call started, what's up with you?"
"It's, uhm.... my daughter, uhm."
That was when at last Ohkawa realized Matsumur'a svoice was mingled with tears.
"Your daughter---Yasuyo-chan, eh?"
She was in about her mid twenties? She was nothing like her father, a brisk, level headed, good girl.
"....That's, uhm, she's gone, and."
"Gone? You're tryin' to say she died?"
"This morning, she was sick, I called an ambulance, but just now, it's come to a head. ....So, that's why."
His wife Kazuko made a dubious face as she looked to Ohkawa. Receiving her questioning gaze, Ohkawa gave her a nod.
"...I don't even know.... what I'm supposed to do now." Matsumura's voice was interrupted by sobs.
"You dumbass. At times like this, what's gonna happen if at least you don't get it together? Where're you now? The hospital? Which hospital? Aa---Anyway, I'll be right there. You called the regional manager?"
Yes he though, no he thought, Matsumura couldn't give a clear response. Ohkawa once again said that, anyway, he was coming there as he hung up the phone. Kazuko could hardly wait for that, quickly opening her mouth.
"Gone, you said, who? You can't possible mean Matsumura-san's Yasuyo-chan, right?"
"It's possible enough to be true!"
Dear, Kazuko said. Atsushi had overheard while stocking the shelves and said, "What a waste" impudently, causing Ohkawa to glare at his son.
"Gotta go help him out. After all, Matsu's that kinda guy, you know." While he was speaking, possibly finished with unloading the cargo, theyoung man brought the delivery slip with him into the shop. Ohkawa carelessly signed it and took the receipt. "Anyway, probably oughtta call up the Kami-Sotoba regional manager too, huh? Matsu and his wife ain't the most reliable 'n all."
"That's true. ....I wonder if perhaps I should go too?"
"Go on. The deceased's still at the hospital so there's no rush. Before you leave the store call up the customers and say there's been a misfortune at the shop and deliveries'll be running late, yeah? The urgent ones we'll leave to Atsushi, the rest we'll push to another day."
Kazuko nodded. Her husband had a violent, short temper, but he was certainly not an unfeeling man, and while he was prone to fault finding he was equally prone to looking after those with faults. At times like this, without a doubt it'd be all right if left to her husband.
Ohkawa went to the back of the shop to look for Kami-Sotoba's regional manager's contact information. Kazuko drew the delivery memo slips towards herself and found the accounting book with the destination's phone numbers in the desk drawer. Coming from the depths of the house, perhaps told the situation by Ohkawa, her mother-in-law Namie appeared.
"Yasuyo-chan died, you say? The deaths keep coming this year, don't they."
"They do, don't they. Just a while ago," so she started when Kazuko's hand stopped. She wanted to say that Shimizu Gardening had just had a funeral but, there was something weighing on her even more than that. "....Say, Mother? Are there people who sleep with their eyes half open, do you suppose?"
"There probably are, aren't there? I've head about them."
They must, Kazuko said to herself.
"What is it? Why do you ask?"
To Nami's question Kazuko found herself frowning. "Yesterday, I went to Ohsawa-san's place, from the post office. Somewhere or another I hear Ohsawa-san seemed to be sick, so I thought I'd make a get well visit and see how he was. It wasn't anything special, his wife had been saying but when she opened the sliding door in the living room, I saw him sleeping through the gap."
The bedroom had a window and was brighter than even the living room. Ohawa was lying down facing the living room, so she had a good look at his face. His eyes were half lidded and unblinking, his body unmoving. His complexion was deathly pale, looking somehow flaccid, a strange sensation as if he had keeled over with old age.
"He looked like he had died."
Impossible, Namie said with a frown. "That just couldn't be, could it?"
"That's what I thought, but. Still, his face looked like that of a corpse! I couldn't very well say 'he's dead, isn't he?' to his wife but while I asked if it wasn't very bad, his wife said that it wasn't anything serious, that he was sleeping well."
"Then, that's it isn't it? If his wife said so."
That's true, Kazuko murmured. She saw Ohkawa off as he barreled out, tended to a few odd tasks, asked Namie to watch the store, then Kazuko prepared herself. It couldn't be helped; Atsushi couldn't be left in charge of the store while they were out. At that time, her reliable daughter and second son were at school.
She trotted out of the shop towards Kami-Sotoba. On the way she passed by the front of the psot office. For some reason, Kazuko's feet stopped, looking up to the second story that was the residence.
(...That was the face of a dead man.)
No matter what she couldn't shake that impression. As Kazuko thought to go into the post office, she realized the shutter door was still drawn down. Bewildered that there wasn't even a sign, Kazuko looked around. Her eyes met with Kumi from the Gotouda Clothing Shop across the street. Before she could enter the shop, Kumi came out herself.
"Say, what's going on, here?"
Kazuko pointed to the post office and Kumi tilted her head. Kumi's aged face seemed colored with surprise.
"About that, they've moved, don't you know. The Ohsawa-sans."
That can't be, Kazuko murmured. "That shouldn't be. Just last night I'd met with them."
"It was last night. In the middle of the night just past two, I suppose? A truck stopped out front, it was so loud I was woken up. When I got up, they were carrying their luggage out, it was a real surprise."
"That's---but, the husband was sick!"
Kumi gave a serious nod. "The moving company staff had to carry him into the carT He was wrapped all up in a blanket. I hurried out and caught the missus to ask what on earth was happening but she just said 'we have to move, so' and with just that and not neighborly word, she rode off in the truck!"
"My.... that's!"
"Nagata-san and the family weren't even contacted, it seems like. This morning he came to go to work as usual and lingered in front of the shutter. Why, I never new Ohsawa-san was the type of person to do something this outrageous!"
Me neither, Kazuko nodded. Ohsawa's half-lidded sleeping face (...a face that appeared dead) flashed before her eyes. A fluttering of fear bubbled up in her stomach. What could it have been, that unknown, terrible feeling?