Maru had to be teasing me. I was sure of it.
"Okay, all right. I appreciate your understanding," I said with a sigh
and a shrug.
The two girls, meanwhile, appeared to have noticed me watching them,
and it seemed too late to try to act casual about it.
"Finished?" Maru asked me.
"Oh yeah. I'm going to go practice."
For the remainder of the period, I managed to regain my focus and
spent the time practicing hard.
The girls' class ended earlier, since it took them longer to get changed,
and by the time I looked at the next tennis court over, it was empty, with
only a single yellow ball on the ground.
The bell rang as silver beads of rain started pouring down, the gray sky
unable to hold back the shower any longer. The fallen droplets created a
mottled pattern on the court.
"I didn't think it would rain," Maru said as he jogged over to me.
"Come on, let's get back inside."
"Really?" I said. "The weather forecast said there was a sixty percent
chance."
I didn't want to get wet, either, and we ran side by side back to the
school building.
"I'm more than happy to bet on forty percent," Maru said. "How many
baseball players do you think there are in the world who bat four
hundred?!"
"I'm not sure that has anything to do with the weather."
Was he saying 40 percent was good enough from a baseball player's
perspective? Maybe the same numbers simply held different value for
different people. No, there was definitely something wrong with Maru's
thought process.
"Hurry, Asamura! The rain's getting worse!"
We ran inside just as it began to pour. Maru turned around and glared
at the sky.
"It isn't going to stop. I guess we'll have to work with weights inside
today…"
He bent his huge body forward and sneezed.
The schoolyard had already turned a dark brown. The heavy rain
blurred the scenery like fog. The pounding of the drops seemed like the
only sound in the world.
"It's already June," I remarked. "Time for the rainy season."
"Still, batting four hundred is batting four hundred," Maru shot back.
"You would expect a hit."
"That's ridiculous."
The clouds overhead were a dark gray, and just as Maru said, it didn't
look like it would stop anytime soon. I was glad I'd brought my umbrella.
I should be able to reach home without getting wet.
…Or so I thought at the time.
School was out, and of course, it was still raining.
I'd been right, not that I was happy about it. Predictions you don't want
to come true usually do. Murphy's Law was alive and well.
Fortunately, I was off work that day and didn't have to head out to
Shibuya Station. I figured it'd be wise to go straight home. Just as I was
moving toward the shoe lockers by the front entrance, I spotted a familiar
figure.
A girl was looking up at the rainy sky. The backdrop of gray clouds
dulled the bright color of her hair.
That's Ayase…isn't it? Don't tell me she forgot her umbrella. The
forecast had said there was a 60 percent chance of rain. I wanted to ask her
if she was another baseball fan who appreciated a .400 batting average, but
then I remembered something. She had left home before I did. She was
already out the door when I checked the weather report.
Watching her profile from a distance, I wondered what to do.
I looked left and right. The coast was clear. Everyone appeared to have
gone home early—a wise choice.
I opened my bag and pulled out the folding umbrella at the bottom. A
folding umbrella fits easily in a school bag, so it's not a hassle to carry it.
The only question was whether to bring it. Who was it who said life was a
series of choices?
I walked noisily over to Ayase so I wouldn't scare her and stopped
about three steps away. This was about the right distance. I didn't have the
nerve to tap her shoulder from behind. I mean, I was a guy, and it wouldn't
be right to touch a girl's body like that. Besides, my peaceful school days
would be ruined if she screamed.
I cleared my throat before speaking.
"Do you want to share my umbrella?"
Her shoulders shook, and she turned around, making her golden colored hair dance. It reflected the faint fluorescent light from the ceiling,
and the silver earring in her ear flashed.
She turned her blank stare on me, slowly focusing on my face. Then,
like a computer system that had safely restarted, emotion returned to her
expression.
"Huh?"
Her eyes widened in surprise. Is this so shocking? I wondered.
"Have you forgotten who I am?" I asked.
"What are you talking about, Asamura?"
"That's what I'd like to ask you."
I was getting a little nervous.
"So what do you want?" she asked. "We're still at school, and you're
talking to me."
"Oh, um, well."
She wasn't upset. I understood that much. It was more like she was
suspicious. Over the last few days, I'd learned a little about how to read
her expressions. I knew we'd decided to act like strangers at school. But it
didn't make sense to criticize me for breaking that rule. We were really
siblings, so there was no reason to feel guilty.
Ayase had the intelligence and logic to reach that rational conclusion,
and so she'd asked me what I wanted. That was a big help. If she sounded
a little short, it was probably the awkwardness from that morning. Or at
least I hoped it was.
"Did you forget your umbrella?" I asked, returning to the subject at
hand.
"Oh… Yeah, kinda."
"Batting four hundred, huh?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Confused, she glanced at the umbrella in my hand.
"We're going to the same place," I said, "so I figured we might as well
share."
I was trying to say there was no reason for her to hold back if it meant
getting wet. My message should have been clear.
She looked taken aback, or perhaps troubled.
"Oh… No. I'm meeting a friend. She said she had to stop by her
clubroom. So it's okay…"
"In that case…" I spoke rapidly and kept to the point. "You can use
this. I won't get too wet if I run home."
Before she could argue, I pushed the umbrella into her hand, put on my
shoes, and ran out into the rain.
Now I'd done it, I thought. Maybe I was meddling in her affairs.
She'd said she was waiting for a friend. Maybe she was planning to
share an umbrella with her. But would they manage to stay dry doubling
up? Girls' umbrellas tended to be small.
I kept remembering the blank look on Ayase's face when I'd forced her
to take my umbrella. It was as if she'd never dreamed that I'd do
something like that. Just seeing the look on her face had made it
worthwhile to me.
It was yet another expression of hers that I hadn't seen before.
I wondered if we'd keep revising our behavior and compromising until
we became real siblings. That was the thought occupying my mind as I ran
home.
The pelting June rain soaked through my school uniform. A cold liquid
that I knew wasn't sweat slid down my back. The rain pooled in my shoes,
causing an uncomfortable squishing sensation with every step I took.
I was relieved to finally see our tall apartment building emerge from
behind the silver curtain of rain.
I opened the self-locking door, walked past the super's office, and took
the corner elevator to the third floor. A wet splish-splash sound echoed in
the hallway as I made my way past several doors and reached home at last.
I unlocked the door, went inside, and turned on the light.
An orange glow filled the space, and I mumbled, "I'm home…"
There was no response—only silence. But that was only natural, since
Dad and Akiko weren't home yet. I should have gotten used to it a long
time ago.
For some reason, though, I'd begun to feel a little lonely when I didn't
get a reply.
I tossed my school bag on the dining table and headed straight to the
bathroom.
Twisting the faucet, I began drawing a bath. I'd let it fill for about
fifteen minutes.
During that time, I hung my uniform on a hanger and threw my wet
clothes into the washing machine. I measured the required detergent and
fabric softener and turned it on. Water poured into the drum, and it began
noisily rotating.