Читать книгу Earthlings - Sayaka Murata - Страница 6

CHAPTER 1

Deep in the mountains of Akishina where Granny and Grandpa live, fragments of night linger even at midday.

As we wound our way up steep hairpin bends, I gazed out the window at the swaying trees, at the undersides of the leaves so swollen they looked as though they would burst. That was where the pitch-black darkness was. I always felt an urge to reach out to that blackness, the color of outer space.

Next to me, Mom was rubbing my sister’s back.

“Are you okay, Kise? These mountain roads are so steep, no wonder you’re feeling carsick.”

Dad gripped the steering wheel, saying nothing. He was driving slowly to keep the car as steady as he possibly could, glancing anxiously at Kise in the rearview mirror.

I was eleven and in year five of elementary school. I could take care of myself. Looking out of the window at the fragments of the universe was the best way to avoid getting carsick. I’d worked that out when I was eight and hadn’t been sick on this road since. My sister was two years older than me, but she was still just a child and wouldn’t survive the journey without Mom’s help.

As we drove up and up around endless bends, ears popping, I felt like I was gradually moving toward the sky. Granny’s house is high up, close to the universe.

I hugged my backpack to me. Inside it was my origami magic wand and my magical transformation mirror. At the very top of the backpack was my best friend, Piyyut, who gave me these magical objects. Piyyut can’t speak human since the evil forces put a spell on him, but he’s looking after me so I won’t get carsick.

I hadn’t told my family, but I was a magician, a real one with actual magical powers. I’d met Piyyut in the supermarket by the station when I was six and had just started elementary school. He was right on the edge of the soft toy display and looked as though he was about to be thrown out. I bought him with the money I’d received at New Year’s. Piyyut was the one who’d given me my magical objects and powers. He was from Planet Popinpobopia. The Magic Police had found out that Earth was facing a crisis and had sent him on a mission to save our planet. Since then I’d been using the powers he’d given me to protect the Earth.

The only other person who knew my secret was my cousin Yuu. I was dying to see him again. I hadn’t heard his voice for a whole year. We only ever got to see each other in the summer when our extended family gathered for the annual Obon festival.

I was wearing my favorite T-shirt, the indigo-blue one with stars on it. I’d bought it with my New Year’s money and put it in the closet, still with the price tag on, keeping it especially for today.

“Hold on tight,” Dad said quietly as we approached a particularly sharp bend. The car lurched as we went around it. My sister grunted and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Open the window to let in some fresh air,” Mom said, and instantly Dad opened the front window on my side. A warm breeze caressed my cheeks, and the car filled with the smell of leaves.

“Kise? Are you okay?” Mom sounded like she was about to cry.

Dad turned off the air-conditioning. “Only one more bend,” he said.

I instinctively clutched the front of my T-shirt. I could just make out the slight swellings beneath my bra. They hadn’t been there last year. Had I changed a lot since then? Yuu was the same age as me. What would he think?

We would soon reach Granny’s house. My boyfriend was waiting for me there. My skin grew hot at the thought, and I leaned forward into the breeze.

Cousin Yuu was my boyfriend.

When had I started to feel this way about him? Even before we got together, I’d always been drawn to him. We’d been inseparable during the Obon vacation every summer, and even after Obon was over and Yuu went home to Yamagata and I went back to Chiba, his presence never faded within me. In my memory the traces he left grew stronger and stronger, and by the time I was really longing for him it was summer again.

We were nine years old, in year three of elementary school, when we first formally promised ourselves to each other. Our uncles had dammed the shallow river by the rice fields with stones to make a knee-deep pool where we cousins could splash about in our bathing suits.

“Ouch!” I cried as I lost my footing and fell on my butt.

“Careful, Natsuki. The river flows fastest in the middle,” Yuu said, his face serious as he helped me up.

I’d learned that in school, but I hadn’t made the connection with this little river. “I’ve had enough of water,” I said. “I’m going to play somewhere else.”

I climbed onto the riverbank, picked up the small shoulder bag I’d placed carefully on a rock, and put on my beach sandals. Without waiting, I went up the steps to the road and, still in my bathing suit, headed for the house. The bag felt alive, warmed by the sun’s rays. As I walked alongside the rice fields, I heard footsteps and knew Yuu was following me.

“Natsuki, wait for me!”

“Leave me alone!” I snapped.

Yuu reached out, picked some small leaves, and popped them into his mouth.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Yuu, you can’t eat that! You’ll get a stomachache.”

“Don’t worry. It’s edible. It’s called sour dock. Uncle Teruyoshi told me.”

He held some out to me. I took them and hesitantly put them in my mouth.

“Ugh, it’s so sour!”

“Yeah, it is a bit, but it’s good.”

“Where did you find it?”

“There’s lots growing around here.”

We walked around the slope behind the house gathering sour dock leaves, then sat down next to each other to eat them.

My bathing suit was wet and uncomfortable, but I liked the taste of the leaves. Now that my mood had improved, I said, “Since you showed me something you like, to say thank you I’ll let you in on a secret.”

“What secret?”

“Well, actually I’m a magician. I have a transformation mirror and a magic wand.”

“What sort of magic can you do?”

“All kinds! The best spell helps you defeat enemies.”

“Enemies?”

“I mean, maybe ordinary people can’t see them, but there are lots of enemies all around us. Bad magic, monsters, that sort of thing. I’m always doing battle with them to protect the Earth.”

I took Piyyut out of my bag. He looked like a white hedgehog plush toy, but actually he was an emissary sent by the Magic Police on Planet Popinpobopia. Piyyut had given me the magic wand and mirror to help me use my magical powers, I explained.

“Wow, Natsuki, that’s amazing!” Yuu said, his face serious. “It’s thanks to you protecting the Earth that we’re living in peace.”

“Right.”

“Hey. What sort of place is that Planet Popinpo—what’s it called again?”

“Popinpobopia. I don’t know really. Piyyut said it was secret.”

“Oh.”

I thought it was weird that Yuu seemed more interested in the alien planet than my magical powers, and I looked at him closely. “Why do you ask?”

“Um . . . well, don’t tell anyone else, but I have a secret too. I’m an alien.”

“What?!” I exclaimed, taken aback.

“Mitsuko is always saying so,” he went on with a serious tone. “You’re an alien, she says. You were abandoned by a spaceship, and I took you in.”

“Wow, really?”

Mitsuko was Yuu’s mom. She was Dad’s little sister, and so I called her Aunt Mitsuko. She was really pretty. She was shy and quiet, just like Yuu. I couldn’t imagine she would lie or joke about something like this.

“You know what else? In my drawer there’s a stone that I don’t remember having picked up anywhere. It’s black, flat, smooth, and a really weird shape. So I think it must have come from the same place I’m from.”

“Wow. So I’m a magician, and you’re an alien!”

“Well, I don’t have any proof. Not like you, Natsuki.”

“But I’m sure it’s true. Maybe you’re actually from Planet Popinpobopia. Wouldn’t that be amazing? You might be from the same planet as Piyyut!” I said excitedly, leaning forward.

“I wonder. If so, I want to go back home someday.”

I was so shocked I almost dropped my mirror. “What?”

“Every time I come here for Obon, I’m always secretly looking for the spaceship that will come and take me home. But I’ve never found it. I wonder if Piyyut can arrange for it to come and get me?”

“No way, Piyyut can’t do that sort of thing!” I felt like crying. I couldn’t bear the thought of Yuu not being around. “Yuu, are you going to go away sometime?”

“Probably. I think it would be better for Mitsuko if I did, anyway. After all I’m just an alien that she took in, not her real son.”

I burst into tears.

“Natsuki, don’t cry,” he said and rubbed my back, trying to console me.

“But I like you. I don’t want you to go away.”

“But they’ll come to get me sometime or other I think. I’ve been waiting for the spaceship for ages.”

Yuu’s words made me cry even harder.

“I’m sorry, Natsuki. But while I’m still here on Earth, I’ll do anything for you. I feel calm when I’m here at Granny’s house. I think it’s because it’s closer to space, so it’s nearer to home for me, but it’s also because you’re here too.”

“Really? Then I want you to be my boyfriend until you go back to your own planet.”

Yuu nodded. “Sure.”

“Really? You mean it?”

“Yes. I really like you, too, Natsuki.”

We hooked pinkies and made three promises.

1. Yuu won’t tell anyone that I’m a magician.

2. I won’t tell anyone that Yuu’s an alien from outer space.

3. We won’t fall in love with anyone else, even after ­summer’s over. We’ll definitely meet up here again next summer.

Just then I heard footsteps. Hastily I hid Piyyut and the mirror inside my bag. It was Uncle Teruyoshi.

“So this is where you got to! I thought you’d been washed away by the river.”

Uncle Teruyoshi was always cheerful and played a lot with us children.

“Sorry,” we apologized.

He smiled and stroked our heads. “Oh, you got some sour dock! Do you like it, Natsuki? It’s quite sour but tasty.”

“Yes, I do like it.”

“You do? That means you’re a real mountain woman now, then! All right, come along. Granny’s looking for you because she’s cut up some peaches.”

“Okay.”

We headed back to the house together.

I could still feel where my pinky had hooked Yuu’s. I ran to the front door, hoping no one would notice I was blushing. Yuu, too, was walking fast and looking down at his feet.

Ever since then, Yuu has been my boyfriend. The magician would be the girlfriend of the alien, at least until he traveled back to his home planet.

Granny’s house opened onto a huge hallway, which was easily as big as my bedroom at home. I always felt a bit lost going inside.

“We’re here!” Mom called loudly. Dad, as usual, remained silent.

It smelled of fruit, a mix of peaches and grapes, along with a faint animal odor. The neighbors kept cows, but they were some distance away, so maybe the animal smell in this house came from us humans.

“Oh, come on in! It’s hot today, isn’t it?”

The shoji slid open, and an older woman, probably an aunt, came out into the hall. I thought I remembered having seen her before, but I wasn’t sure. We only came here once a year for Obon, and I had trouble telling the various adults apart.

“Kise, Natsuki, you’ve gotten so big!”

“Oh, you brought gifts. You really shouldn’t have! Sorry you went to all that trouble.”

“You remember Natsuko? She’s done her back in and can’t come this year.”

As Mom greeted the gaggle of vaguely familiar middle-aged ladies one by one, they all started chatting excitedly. This was going to take ages I thought, sighing quietly. The ladies had now gotten down on their hands and knees and were bowing to each other. Dad stood vacantly in the entrance.

Granny and Grandpa appeared from the living room, supported by a middle-aged man. Granny bowed to Mom and said, “Thank you for coming all this way.”

Grandpa smiled at me and said, “Misako, you’ve gotten so big!”

“Come on, Grandpa,” an aunt said, patting him on the back. “This is Natsuki!”

“You took a long time,” Uncle Teruyoshi said cheerfully to Dad as he came out. “Did you run into traffic?”

Uncle Teruyoshi always spent a lot of time with us kids, so I knew him really well. He called out over his shoulder, “Hey you guys! Kise and Natsuki are here!”

Three boys came hesitantly out. These three were Uncle Teruyoshi’s sons, my cousins. They were always getting up to mischief, and every year they got told off by the adults. The oldest, Yota, was two years younger than me.

They looked at me and Kise like wary animals. I recognized them all, but they were different from how I remembered. The features on their faces had spread out to the edges, and their noses were more prominent than before. Their bodies had changed too.

I would always recognize my boyfriend, Yuu, of course, but I had a lot of other cousins, and some of them already had their own children, so I felt a little disorientated whenever we met. Even though we all spent every summer here and had a lot of fun together, after a whole year of not seeing each other some distance had always opened up between us again.

The adults were embarrassing us, saying things like: “Hey, no need to get all shy because those two have gotten so pretty.” Yota and his brothers looked even more awkward and standoffish than usual.

“Hello,” I ventured. A rather self-conscious chorus of “hellooo” came back.

“Yuu’s here, too, you know.” Uncle Teruyoshi said. “He’s been asking when you were going to arrive.”

Trying hard to keep my cool I asked, “Really? Where is he now?”

“He was doing his homework just over there not long ago.”

“Maybe he’s up in the attic now? That boy likes it there.” This came from Cousin Saki, a tall woman who was much older than me. She was holding a baby. She was the eldest of Aunt Ritsuko’s three daughters, all of whom were married. Aunt Ritsuko was Dad’s eldest sister.

It was the first time I’d seen this baby. It was kind of weird how a new person that hadn’t existed last year had suddenly come into being. The little girl crouching at Saki’s feet must be Miwa, who had been a baby just last year.

I couldn’t remember all the kids who were close in age to me, let alone my cousins’ kids, and had to relearn who everyone was every year. I just followed what Mom did and bowed my head at each new person who appeared.

“Oh, is Mitsuko here?”

“Sure, she’s in the kitchen.”

“Where’s Yuu got to?” Aunt Ritsuko put in. “He’s been asking after Natsuki all morning. Maybe he couldn’t wait any longer and went off to have a nap.”

Uncle Teruyoshi laughed. “Yuu always sticks close to Natsuki, doesn’t he?”

They probably said the same thing every year, but considering we were an item now I quietly looked down, feeling embarrassed.

“It’s true, the two of them are like twins,” another aunt said.

For some reason, everyone said I didn’t look like my sister or my parents, but I did look just like Yuu.

“Oh, but you mustn’t stand out here in the hall talking. Kise, Natsuki, come inside. You must be tired!” A fat aunt I had absolutely no recollection of ever having seen before said this and clapped her hands.

“Yes, let’s go in,” Dad said, nodding.

“Go put your luggage upstairs. You can use the far room. The Yamagatas are in the other one. The Fukuokas are already up there, but they’re only staying for one more night so you don’t mind sharing, do you?”

“Fine by us, thanks,” Dad answered, taking off his shoes. I hurried after him.

In Granny’s house, everyone called the various families by the name of the place they lived in, like Yamagata or Fukuoka or Chiba, which made it hard for me to remember their real names. They must have had names, though, so why didn’t anyone use them?

“Kise, Natsuki, first go greet your ancestors,” Dad said.

We headed for the room where the family altar was kept, between the living room and the kitchen. Yuu and I always called this the altar room. There was only one corridor in Granny’s house, leading to the bathroom. All the other six rooms on the first floor including the kitchen, living room, and the two main tatami rooms were connected by sliding doors.

The altar room was a modestly sized six-mat room, about the same size as my bedroom back home in Mirai New Town in Chiba. Yota called it the ghosts’ room to frighten his little brothers, but somehow I always felt safe there, perhaps because I sensed that my ancestors were watching over me.

Mom and Dad each lit a stick of incense, and my sister and I did the same. We didn’t have an altar at home, and I’d never seen them in my friends’ houses either. The only times I’d ever smelled incense were here at Granny’s house and when we visited temples. I liked the smell.

After lighting her incense stick, my sister suddenly crouched down, her head bowed.

“Kise, is something wrong?”

“Seems she got a bit carsick on the way.”

“Oh dear. That mountain road again.”

The aunts laughed. One or two of my cousins also joined in, covering their mouths with their hands as they shook with laughter. I had more than ten cousins just on my dad’s side. I couldn’t remember all their faces. Nobody would notice if an alien slipped in among them.

“Kise, are you okay?” Mom asked as my sister suddenly brought her hand to cover her mouth.

“Dear, dear. You’ll feel better once you’ve thrown up,” an aunt said.

“I’m sorry,” Mom said, bowing her head in apology, and headed for the toilet hugging my sister close.

“Is that mountain road really all that bad?” asked another aunt. “I mean, how feeble can you get? She could always just walk up if she doesn’t like riding in the car.”

I felt sorry for my sister. She doesn’t have Piyyut like I do. “Don’t you think you should go too?” I asked Dad.

“No, she’ll be all right,” he said, but when he heard her crying he hurried off to help.

I felt better now that she had both Mom and Dad with her.

The phrase “close-knit family,” which I’d come across in a school library book and had stuck in my mind, always came back to me whenever I saw my parents and sister together. If I wasn’t here, the three of them would make a perfect unit. So I wanted them to spend time together as a close-knit family without me now and then.

Piyyut had taught me the magical power of invisibility. I didn’t actually become invisible. I just held my breath and could make myself go unnoticed. When I did this, they became a cozy family of three, all snuggled up together. I sometimes made use of the power for their sake.

“You really like Granny’s house, don’t you Natsuki?” Mom often said to me. “Kise’s like me. She likes the seaside better than the mountains.”

Mom didn’t like Granny much and wasn’t at all pleased by how excited I always got about going to Akish­ina. My sister always complained about coming to Granny’s and clung to Mom at home. So of course she was Mom’s favorite.

I picked up my things and headed for the stairs. I felt nervous at the thought that Yuu was up there.

“Are you okay on your own, Natsuki?”

“Sure,” I said, hoisting my backpack onto my back as I went up.

The stairs in Granny’s house were much steeper than the ones in our house in Chiba. They were practically a ladder, and you had to use your hands to climb them. I always felt like a cat when I went up them.

“Take care!” I heard someone say, an aunt or maybe a cousin. “I will!” I answered without turning around.

Upstairs there was a strong smell of tatami and dust. I went through to the far room and put down my things.

Uncle Teruyoshi told me that long ago this used to be the room where they kept silkworms. Apparently there used to be lots of bamboo baskets packed with eggs, which hatched into larvae that grew rapidly and spread throughout the second floor. By the time they spun their cocoons the whole house was full of them.

I’d seen pictures of silkworms in school library books. As an adult, the worm transformed into a big, white moth, much prettier than any butterfly I’d seen. I’d heard that silk thread was harvested from the worms, but I’d never gotten around to asking how they got the thread and what happened to the silkworms afterward. How magical it must have been to have all those pure-white wings fluttering around the house! It was like something out of a fairy tale, and I loved this room where the baby silkworms had been laid out in rows.

As I slid open the door to leave, I heard the floor creak faintly.

Someone else was up here.

I moved toward the room that everyone called the attic, although it was still on the same level as the rest of the second floor, and slid open the door into the large, pitch-black space. This is where Granny stored all the old toys Dad and my uncles and aunts once played with, along with a large number of books that someone or other had collected. We children always came here to look for treasure.

“Yuu?” I called into the darkness.

Our feet got really dirty when we went into the attic, so we were always being told to make sure to wear the sandals we use to go out onto the veranda, but I was too impatient to fetch them. I just took off my socks before stepping into the darkness.

“Yuu, are you there?”

I headed for a small point of light emanating from a tiny lamp, the only light in the dark room even at midday. There was a rustling, and I almost screamed.

“Who’s that?” came a small voice.

“Yuu! It’s Natsuki!”

A small white figure appeared indistinctly from the depths.

“Natsuki! Finally!” Yuu was standing there in the faint glow.

I ran over to him. “Yuu! I missed you!”

“Shhh!” he said, hastily putting a hand over my mouth. “We’ll be in trouble if Granny or Yota hear us.”

“Yeah, true. Our love’s still a secret, isn’t it?”

Yuu looked at me shyly. He hadn’t changed at all in the past year. Maybe it was because he was an alien that he didn’t grow. But even in the dark, I could tell it was him from his light brown eyes and thin neck.

“At last we’re together again!”

“It’s been a whole year, hasn’t it, Natsuki. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you too. Uncle Teruyoshi told me you’d be coming today, so I got up early to wait for you. But he said you’d be late.”

“Is that why you’re up here playing on your own?”

“Yeah. I got bored.”

Yuu hadn’t just stopped growing, I had the feeling that he’d even shrunk. Cousin Yota had filled out since last year, but Yuu’s neck and wrists looked like they’d gotten even skinnier. Maybe it was just because I’d grown, but he looked so fragile that I couldn’t help feeling worried.

I grabbed the edges of his white T-shirt and felt the faint warmth of his body as my fingertips brushed his skin. Maybe it was because he was an alien that his body temperature was low. His hands felt cool as they connected with mine.

“Yuu, are you going to be here for the whole of Obon this year?” I asked, gripping his hands as hard as I could.

Yuu nodded. “Yeah, I will. Mitsuko took a long vacation this year, so she said we could stay.”

“Great!”

Yuu called his mom Mitsuko instead of Mom. Apparently she’d told him to. Aunt Mitsuko had divorced three years ago, and since then she’d depended on Yuu as though he were her husband. He said he had to kiss her cheek every night before going to bed, so I’d gotten him to promise to reserve the proper kiss for me.

“What about you, Natsuki?”

“I’ll be here all through Obon too!”

“Great! Uncle Teruyoshi bought some big rockets for the fireworks this year. He said we’ll let them off on the last night.”

“I’m looking forward to the sparklers too!” I said excitedly.

Yuu gave a little smile.

“Will you go looking for the spaceship again this year?”

“Sure, if there’s time.”

“But you won’t go away with the aliens straight away, will you?”

Yuu shook his head. “I won’t, I promise. Even if I find it, I’d never leave without saying goodbye to you, Natsuki.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I’d pestered Yuu to take me with him in the spaceship, but he’d said he couldn’t. He promised to come back for me sometime, though. He was sweet but strong-willed.

I had the feeling he might disappear at any moment. I wanted to become an alien, too, and I felt jealous of him having somewhere to go home to.

“Yota said he was secretly going to open up the well, without the grown-ups knowing.”

“The old well that’s been closed up forever? I want to see it!”

“Sure, let’s go see it together. And Uncle Teruyoshi said he’d take us to go watch fireflies once it gets dark.”

“Brilliant!”

Yuu took everything seriously, and whenever he saw something strange he wanted to know all about it. Uncle Teruyoshi loved telling us about this house and the village, and he ended up spending more time with Yuu than anyone else.

“Yuu! Natsuki! Come downstairs and have some of this cold watermelon,” an aunt called.

“Let’s go.”

Yuu and I left the attic still holding hands.

“Afterward let’s go play together, Natsuki.”

“Yes, let’s.”

I nodded, feeling myself blush. I was so happy to be with my boyfriend again.

Dad was one of six siblings, and the extended family gathering for Obon was always madness. We couldn’t all fit in the living room at once, so the sliding doors between the two large tatami rooms at the end of the house had been removed, and a long, low table was set up with cushions on the floor for our meals.

The house was full of bugs, but nobody made a big deal of it. Back home in Chiba even a small fly would cause panic, but Mom and my sister never made a fuss about the insects in Granny’s house. The boys would eagerly run around killing them with a flyswatter, but even so there were still always flies and grasshoppers and bugs I’d never seen before crawling around the room.

All the girls old enough to help went to the kitchen to make dinner. Even my sister was quietly peeling potatoes.

I was put in charge of dishing up the rice. There were two rice cookers sitting side by side. I filled bowl after bowl as six-year-old Ami, the daughter of one of my cousins, put them onto a tray and carried them through to the long table in the tatami room, helped by Cousin Mari.

“First lot of rice coming up! Make way, please!”

Cousin Mari slid open the kitchen door, and she and Ami went past the family altar to where the uncles were sitting around one end of the table waiting.

“Stop daydreaming and get that rice served!” Mom yelled at me from where she stood tending the pans on the stove.

“Oh, come now, Natsuki’s doing a great job,” Granny said, glancing over at me as she cut slices of a stinky seaweed jelly that I hated.

“That child is hopeless. She can’t do anything properly. I get tired just watching her. It gets on my nerves. Yuri, on the other hand, is doing so well, though. She’s already in junior high, isn’t she?”

I was used to Mom saying I was hopeless. And she was right, I really was a dead loss. The rice I dished up just lay flat in the bowl instead of being nicely mounded.

“Look how messy that is! Just let Yuri take over. Such a clumsy child.” Mom sighed.

“That’s not true! She’s doing very well!” an aunt said, flattering me.

I carried on serving the rice as best I could, hoping nobody else would call me a loser.

“That red bowl is Uncle Teruyoshi’s, so be sure to give him lots, okay?” my aunt told me. I piled on as much as the bowl would hold.

“It’s already dark,” someone said. “Not long now before we have to go welcome the ancestors.”

“They’ll soon be lighting the bonfire to guide them to us.”

I thought I’d better hurry up and quickly reached for the next bowl.

“Hey, we’re going to light the fire now!” Uncle Teruyoshi called from the front door.

“Oh, it’s time! Natsuki, we’ll deal with this. Off you go, now!”

“Okay!” I said, handing my aunt the rice scoop as I stood up.

I could hear insects chirring outside. Darkness had fallen, and the world beyond the kitchen window was now the color of outer space.

All of us children followed Uncle Teruyoshi. At the river he would light the fire to welcome the spirits of our ancestors on their annual visit home for the Obon festival.

Yuu was carrying an unlit paper lantern, and I had a flashlight.

The Akishina mountains were in darkness. The river we’d been splashing around in last summer was now so black it felt as though it would swallow us up. As Uncle Teruyoshi set fire to a bundle of straw on the riverbank, our faces glowed orange in its light. We did as Uncle told us and faced the flames.

“Dear Ancestors, please use this fire to guide you to us,” Uncle Teruyoshi said.

“Dear Ancestors, please use this fire to guide you to us!” we all shouted in unison.

As we stared at the burning straw, Uncle Teruyoshi said, “Right then, they must be here by now. Light the lantern, Yota.”

When he said they were here, little Ami let out a strangled shriek.

“You mustn’t shout,” Uncle told her. “You’ll startle them.”

I gulped.

The flame was gently transferred from the straw to the lantern. Yota picked it up and staggered slightly as he cautiously carried it to the house, obeying Uncle Teruyoshi’s warning not to let the fire go out.

“Uncle, are the ancestors inside that fire?” I asked Uncle Teruyoshi.

He nodded. “That’s right. The fire guided them to us.”

As Yota carried the lantern onto the veranda and into the tatami room, the aunts came out to greet us.

“Careful now . . .”

“Make sure it doesn’t go out!”

At their urging, Yota proceeded through to the end of the room where an altar had been set up specially for Obon.

Uncle Teruyoshi lit a candle from the flame in the lantern. On the altar were a cucumber and an eggplant, each with four legs made from disposable chopsticks. These represented the horse to bring the ancestral spirits quickly back home and the cow to slow their return to the other world, making them stay longer in the living world. Ami and Yuri had made them that afternoon, knowing the ancestors were on their way.

“There we are,” he said. “The spirits of our ancestors are now here around the flame. Natsuki, when the candle burns down, be sure to replace it, okay? Make sure the flame doesn’t go out. Otherwise the ancestors won’t have anything to guide them, and they’ll be in trouble.”

“Okay,” I said.

I looked at the table and saw that Dad and my uncles had taken their seats and were already drinking sake, while the women rushed around preparing food and serving it up.

My sister and I sat with the other children. On the table in front of us were large serving dishes of edible wild greens and stewed vegetables.

“I want a hamburger!” Yota said loudly, and Uncle Teruyoshi slapped him on the head.

A grasshopper hopped past a plate of soy-simmered locusts on the table.

“Yota, get rid of that.”

Yota deftly caught the grasshopper in both hands and went to put it outside.

“Don’t be silly! If you open the screen, lots of bugs will come in.”

“Okay, I’ll go feed it to a spider, then,” I said, standing up and taking the live grasshopper from Yota. I took it to the kitchen and gently stuck it on a cobweb. It offered no fierce resistance, just fluttered its wings slightly and became tangled in the spider’s silk.

“What a treat for the spider,” said Yuu behind me.

“I wonder if it can eat something this big?”

The spider looked taken aback by the huge prey suddenly caught in its web.

We went back to the table and started eating the locusts. I wondered whether the spider had started eating the grasshopper yet and felt a bit queasy. Still, the locusts were sweet and crispy. I shoved another one in my mouth.

As the night wore on, the house became enveloped in the noisy chirring of insects. Some of the children were snoring, but the creatures outside were a lot louder than we humans.

If you left a light on, however dim, bugs would flock to the window screens, so the rooms were kept in absolute darkness. As I normally slept with a lamp on, I felt a little scared and clutched the quilt close to me. The thought of Yuu sleeping just the other side of the sliding doors calmed me.

Nonhuman lives jostled up against the window. The presence of nonhuman creatures was stronger at night. Strangely enough, though I was a little scared, I felt as though my own feral cells were throbbing.

The next morning my sister threw a tantrum.

“I want to go home!” she screamed. “I hate it here!! I want to go back to Chiba now!!!”

Kise didn’t get on with the other kids in her school. I’d heard from Kanae, whose sister was in the same year, that she’d been dubbed Miss Neanderthal for being so hairy. I wasn’t at the same school as her, but even so I’d been asked, “Hey, you’re Miss Neanderthal’s little sister, aren’t you?”

Often I’d be ready to leave for school before Kise had even emerged from her room. More and more she ended up not going to school at all. She stayed home being comforted by Mom instead.

The summer vacation should have been a welcome break for her, but then Yota had asked an aunt why Kise had a moustache. When the other cousins heard about it they all traipsed in at breakfast to see it for themselves, and she’d flown into a rage.

“Look what happens when you tease girls, Yota. Apologize right now!” an aunt scolded him. He did, but my sister wasn’t impressed.

“Oh dear. She sometimes has fits, too, doesn’t she?” the aunt said, a worried look on her face.

Kise clung to Mom and wouldn’t let go. When she got stressed out she usually threw up. For the rest of the day, she kept complaining, “I don’t feel well. I want to go home!” And by evening, Mom gave in.

“It’s no good. I think she’s got a fever. Let’s go home.”

“I suppose we’d better if she isn’t well,” Dad agreed.

“Cousin Kise, I’m sorry. I really am,” Yota kept repeating. He was on the verge of tears, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“You shouldn’t spoil her so much,” Uncle Takahiro said, and Uncle Teruyoshi chimed in with a soothing voice, “Don’t be in such a hurry. The air’s fresher here, and she’ll feel better after a good sleep. Won’t you, Kise?” But Kise refused to back down, and Mom was at the end of her tether.

“We’re going back in the morning,” she informed me, and all I could do was nod.

Yuu and I had arranged to meet the next morning at six o’clock outside the old storehouse.

“Where are we going?”

“To the graves.”

Yuu looked taken aback. “What are we going to do there?”

“Yuu, I’ve got to go back home today. Listen, I have to ask you something. Will you marry me? Please?”

“Marry you?” he repeated, flustered by my sudden proposal.

“We’re not going to be able to see each other until next year. If you marry me now, Yuu, I’ll manage somehow until then. Please?”

Seeing how desperate I was, he seemed to make up his mind. “Okay, Natsuki, let’s get married.”

We sneaked out of the house and headed for the family graveyard in the rice fields.

When we got there, I took Piyyut out of my shoulder bag and put him next to the offerings.

“Piyyut will be the pastor.”

“I wonder if the spirits will punish us for doing this?”

“I’m sure our ancestors won’t be angry at two people who love each other getting married.”

Since Piyyut can’t speak human, I recited the wedding vows on his behalf. “Swearing on our ancestors, we hereby marry. Yuu Sasamoto, will you take Natsuki Sasamoto as your wife and promise to love her in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live?”

Then I added in a small voice “Promise, Yuu.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good. Now Natsuki Sasamoto, will you take Yuu Sasamoto as your husband and promise to love him in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live? . . . Yes, I do.”

I took two rings I’d made out of wire from my bag.

“Yuu, put this on my finger.”

“Okay.” His skin was cold as he slipped the ring onto my third finger.

“Now I’ll put on yours.” I carefully slipped the other ring onto Yuu’s white finger, taking care not to hurt him. “Now we are married.”

“Wow. We’re man and wife!”

“That’s right. We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. We’re a married couple. That means we’re still family even when we’re apart.”

Yuu looked a little bashful. “Mitsuko’s a bit crazy, and when she gets angry she always says she’ll throw me out of the house. I’m really happy I’ve got a new family now.”

“Should we make some more promises? Like we did when you agreed to be my boyfriend. Now we’re married we should do it properly this time.”

“Okay.”

I took out my notebook and started writing with my pink pen.

Marriage Pledge

We hereby pledge the following:

1) Don’t hold hands with anyone else.

“What about in folk dance?”

“That’s okay. Just don’t hold hands with another girl when you’re on your own.”

“Okay,” Yuu said, giving me an odd look.

2) Wear your ring when you go to sleep.

“This ring?”

“Yes. Look, last night I put a spell on them. So even when we’re apart, we can hold hands when we’re asleep. At night, we can look at these rings and remember each other, and that way we’ll feel reassured and be able to sleep.”

“Right.”

“And what else? Is there anything you want to add, Yuu? Something we should pledge for our marriage?”

Yuu thought a moment, then picked up the pink pen and wrote in small, neat letters:

3) Survive, whatever it takes.

“What do you mean?”

“I want us both to stay safe so we can meet again next summer. I want us to promise that we will do whatever it takes to survive and be in good spirits when we meet up again next year.”

“Okay.”

We decided that Yuu would look after the piece of paper the pledge was written on. Mom and Kise often threw away my things, so I thought it would be safer with him.

“Make sure you don’t break our pledge, okay? And definitely come back here next summer!”

“I will.”

We each hid our ring in a pocket and hurried back to Granny’s house. As we went in the front door we could smell the miso soup cooking for breakfast.

“Yuu! Natsuki! You’re up early!” Granny exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, I was looking for flowers for my independent study project,” I said, giving the excuse I had prepared.

“What a good girl you are!” Granny said, impressed. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said and rushed back to the living room, where she took out some money wrapped in tissues from her bag. “This is for you, Natsuki. It’s not much, but you can buy yourself a nice toy with it.”

“Thank you!”

“And here’s something for you, too, Yuu.”

During Obon, the adults always gave the kids some money in an envelope or wrapped in a tissue. We had to tell Mom how much we were given, but it was ours to keep.

I put it carefully into my bag. I was saving up to visit Yuu in Yamagata sometime.

“Oh, you’re up already. Good,” Mom said as she came down the stairs. “We’ll be on our way straight after breakfast. Go and get yourself ready to leave. We have to get back quickly and find a doctor for your sister. It’s a holiday, so we’ll need an emergency clinic.”

“Okay.”

Mom bowed to Granny. “I’m so sorry. We really did want to stay until the end of Obon.”

“Don’t worry. Kise’s always been rather frail, hasn’t she?”

I looked at Yuu. I wasn’t going to be able to stay until the last night of Obon. I would miss the fireworks when we saw the ancestors back on their way to the other world. Hadn’t Dad said something about a bus coming up the mountain once a day or something?

“Mom, couldn’t I stay a bit longer and go home by bus?” I ventured timidly.

Mom looked at me, her face tired. “Oh do shut up. Go and get ready now. You know very well that it’s impossible to calm your sister down once she starts a tantrum.”

“But there’s—”

“That’s enough. Don’t you start giving me trouble too!”

“I’m sorry.”

I shouldn’t get in the way of my “family” anymore. I was married now, after all. I had already left my family, so Dad, Mom, and my sister could finally be a close-knit threesome.

At the thought that Yuu and I were now married, strength welled up in me. I glanced at him. He returned my look and gave a slight nod.

Please let us definitely meet up again safely next year, I thought, mustering all my magical powers to make the wish come true.

Floorboards creaking here and there signaled that morning had fully arrived in the house. In the pale sky visible from the veranda there was no trace of the color of outer space.

The car was filled with the smell of melted rubber.

“Open the window and let in some fresh air,” Mom said, rubbing my sister’s back.

I was in the front passenger seat, gazing out the window at the increasingly flat and populated landscape.

Dad had not uttered a word for miles. Mom was desperately trying to soothe my sister.

“Family” is hard work I thought. I gripped the ring in my pocket.

I closed my eyes and conjured up Yuu. Now in the darkness behind my eyelids there were some glimmers of light, like stars. Maybe this was a new magical power, letting me see into outer space where Yuu’s home, Planet Popinpobopia, was located.

If he ever found the spaceship, I would get him to take me with him. Now that we were married, I would be going home as his bride. Of course I would take Piyyut with me too.

With my eyes closed, drifting in space, it felt as though the spaceship from Planet Popinpobopia really was close by.

I was immersed in my love for Yuu and my magical powers. As long as I was here in this space, I was safe and nobody could destroy our happiness.