Читать книгу Made In Japan - S. Parks J. - Страница 22

‘I am so sorry,’ Jess exclaimed, blowing into their room at the end of the day. ‘They kept me late for another class. You okay?’

‘You went to Tsukiji market?’

Jess raised a flat hand for her to wait, for her to stop right there. It looked as though it was a rehearsed denial.

The hand pushed further as Jess read her skepticism.

‘You didn’t go?’ Hana jumped to the conclusion she preferred.

‘I …’ Jess lingered. Nobody could easily challenge a silence.

Hana toyed with her hair, weaving the braids of a plait, waiting. She was sick of listening to silent replies. She should be told. But Jess had only to walk the length of their short room for her resolve to challenge her to dissolve. But a niggling disappointment that Jess could possibly be unreliable left her feeling insecure. She was strong, she was creative, and she was forgiving. Amaterasu. ‘Are you telling the truth, Jess?’ It was so little to ask.

Jess turned emphatically and looked at her wide-eyed and innocent.

Hana was as ready to swallow this as a pill. She bound the plait and said they missed her at the memorial.

Jess vehemently kicked aside an obstruction on the floor and mumbled about school as if she were offended to have been challenged.

Why was it, Hana wondered, with a sense of injustice, that Jess singled out her walking boots for attack? ‘I won’t ask why you couldn’t get them to assign someone else to class today and come with me.’

She left it open for Jess to convince her that she had had no choice in the matter and the effort she made to persuade her was payment enough. Hana did, however, have difficulty in imagining that Jess lacked the ability to coerce them into a timetable change for a memorial service.

In the small room, the clutter, lately an object for her own complaints, made the space smaller still.

‘I don’t know why they asked us to the ceremony,’ Jess said finally ‘Still, it’s not everyday you go to a reincarnation. How was it? ’

‘Very complicated and involves forceps.’

‘Forceps?’

‘For the rebirth.’

‘I didn’t know.’ Jess shifted uncomfortably.

‘And rubber gloves.’

Jess finally got it and laughed hard and loud. When the laughter trailed off, Hana opened up.

‘I had the feeling—’ She paused, not sure if she should broach it. ‘I had the feeling that the priest recognized me.’

Jess snorted. ‘You think he knew your mother? Some random Englishwoman from decades back?’ Hana closed the subject down, though she was on the back foot that afternoon.

She regretted mentioning it.

‘It can’t be that easy,’ Jess continued. ‘How old was this priest?’

‘He was old,’ Hana replied.

‘How old? I know you want to believe it but the chances of him knowing her are miniscule.’

Hana was hurt. It was, of course, unlikely and she dismissed the idea. She slumped resignedly and stuffed the neon laces inside her boots.

Jess felt obliged to be more encouraging. She was reluctant to raise the other option but she went ahead anyway.

‘Or maybe you look like him?’

Hana knit her brows.

‘I mean your own father.’ Jess’s tone was softer now. ‘How did he die, if you don’t mind me asking?’

Hana had never known a father and so could not mind.

‘I never said he died.’