Chapter 5 Section five

The first summer vacation in high school is finally here.I jumped into my father's car and ran to the villa, my heart overflowing with thoughts of her.Seeing her movements in my eyes, hearing her whispers in my ears, her fragrance wafting in my nose, her slender fingers reflected in the tree shadows, her hair swaying under me, thinking of these, I can only Sitting silently in the back seat of the car watching the scenery outside the window.After arriving at the villa, we must rush to that place quickly.run.That's all I can think about. But she did not show up in the Mizura Forest. Same thing the next day.Surrounded by the heat from the grass, I waited among the branches and leaves of the mountain white bamboo.Why doesn't she come?Didn't she find her father's car parked in front of the villa?A few glossy red ants carried taro worms looming in the rotting leaves, and I could only look at them for a long time.

At dusk, the sun dipped to about the height of the canopy.Under the rays of the setting sun, the leaves of the mountain white bamboo are dyed red like a wet blanket.This is the time when mother prepares dinner.I have to get back to the villa before sunset. I stood up and took a step.But the direction of travel is not the parents' villa. ——Go back from here. —— The enigmatic words flashed through my mind, but I didn't stop.Walking out of the path and across the sandy road, I stood in front of the shop. She's at.Surrounded by small wooden objects, she is sitting cross-legged on a green chair.Seeing me, she raised her eyebrows in surprise and straightened her upper body.

"I came yesterday." She paused for a moment, then nodded slightly. "The car is parked there." This sentence makes me very sad.Although I know it's inappropriate, I still say it sarcastically: "Aren't you going for a walk?" But she completely ignored the sarcasm in my words, and said with some concern: "It's a bit troublesome." I stood in front of the store and looked into her face.I can't get rid of the feeling that something important that I usually don't leave is inadvertently stolen, and the childish words are stuck in my throat.

"It's getting dark, go back quickly." That night, I did not welcome my dawn in the bed of the villa. The next day I was still out the door at the same time as usual.remorse.sad.Unable to keep calm.I glared ahead and sprinted down the path. I didn't stop until I almost hit Mizunarabashi. At first I thought it was fog.Could it be that mist has risen from the bottom of the Mizunarara forest?But I was wrong. "this is……" Flowers of mountain white bamboo.The flower that blooms once in thirty years is blooming in front of my eyes.I quickened my pace and stepped into the luxuriant mountain white bamboo like a gallop, trembling with excitement, squatting on the ground to observe those flowers carefully.Indeed, as she said, those light green flowers are very beautiful, and they spread out like fireworks on the thin spikes. ——She will definitely come to see me today.An unfounded premonition welled up in his chest.She will definitely walk side by side with me, screaming like a girl of my age when she sees a mountain white bamboo flower for the first time, lifts up the hem of her dress, and smiles unsteadily at me.

I walked through the Mizuna forest as if I were swimming among flowers.At the end of the path, a figure flashed in the distance, but it wasn't her. is the father. My body froze as if my heart had been grabbed by a cold hand. Before I went out, my father set off with a fishing rod and a prop box.The mother said that there seemed to be a water leak under the operating table, and hoped that the father would check it, but the father completely ignored the mother's request and went out without saying a word. When I came back to my senses, I had squatted down among the mountain white bamboo flowers.Father stopped and looked around. He didn't have a fishing rod or a toolbox in his hand.Where did he put them?He seemed to be looking for someone, as if it was someone who had made an appointment to meet him again, and for some reason he still didn't show up, which made him feel weird. —The man came soon.From the right side of the path, approach slowly while keeping an eye on your feet as usual.The wind blows, and the leaf tip of the mountain white bamboo scratches across my wrist.

Father laughed, and walked towards the man with a bright laugh.I couldn't hear what he was saying, but I could tell at a glance that it wasn't the first time my father had seen that person.The man replied, and the distance between the two gradually shortened.I hold my breath among the mountain white bamboo flowers, and look across the countless flowers. ——The man pointed around the path with one hand and made a happy voice, as if talking about flowers.The father was beside the man.As if all the nerves in my body had disappeared, I felt nothing, just watching the puppet show on the green stage.The male doll hugs the waist of the female doll, and the faces of the two dolls overlap.The tall male idol pulls the waist of the female doll closer as if it is placed on top of the female doll, and twists its head as if it wants to swallow the other party.The female puppet wrapped its two snow-white arms around the neck of the male puppet.

She should know that there is an audience like me.She did it on purpose, and I didn't realize until now.She smiled slightly when I first said the name.She must have known then who I was, that I was the real son of the man she was involved with.She's just playing with me, an immature toy, from beginning to end, including now. The two separated, and she put her hand on her father's chest.Father took a few steps back and leaned his back against the trunk of Mizuna tree.I seem to be able to feel the touch of the hard bark. Her body disappeared into the flowers of the mountain white bamboo.

It was quiet.The chirping of oil cicadas and the rustling of leaves can no longer be heard.Finally, father's face twisted bitterly. She stood up.Her father said something, but she shook her head.A soft laugh.I knew it was her smiling without looking up.Father said something again, this time it seemed to be an angry growl.She shook her head again.Her long hair swayed in the shadows of the trees like a teaser. On the way back to the villa, there were tears in my eyes. Mother seems to have gone shopping, and the door of the villa is locked.Since I didn't have a spare key, I sat on the barbed porch with my knees waiting for one of them to come back.Of course, I hope that person is the mother.

Fortunately, it was the mother who came first.Armed with a paper bag from the hardware store, she came apologizing to me.It seems to be to buy tools to repair the water pipes.What my mother showed me was a long pair of pliers called water pump pliers with a C-shaped front.That clumsy and huge tool is so out of touch with the image of my mother, I couldn't help laughing.With a smile, the tears in my eyes seemed to be overflowing. Before my mother found out, I rushed to the toilet pretending to be impatient.The incandescent lamp in the toilet is particularly vivid in the tears. It rained heavily in the evening.Not long after I came back, my father who came back with a fishing rod and a toolbox stood in front of the window of the villa, staring at the rain for a long time through the thin glass.At one point he seemed to mutter something under his breath.I thought he was talking to me and raised my head, but he just kept his mouth shut, with a solemn expression, staring blankly at the night outside the window.After dinner, the voice of the radio came from my mother who was tidying up the kitchen. It seemed that today's heavy rainfall would continue into the night.

"Go back tomorrow." said my father at the dinner table.Because of the rain, the river swelled so much that fishing was no longer possible, and the surrounding land became very muddy, making it quite dangerous.There is no point in continuing to stay in the villa.This is the father's reason. Under the eaves of the villa, the sound of rain never stopped. The next morning, we drove back to Tokyo in a car covered in leaves. Her body was found on the mountain trail, and I learned about it on the TV news three nights after my return to Tokyo.The discoverer was a local newspaper reporter who wanted to collect materials from that place because of the blooming of the mountain white bamboo.According to the news, the cause of death is likely to be that the head was knocked against the trunk several times and lost consciousness, and then was abandoned there, and finally collapsed to death.

At the age of thirty, she died in a flower that blooms once every thirty years. The next day the father committed suicide.The discoverer is me.Facing the wooden work machine placed inside the counter, my father cut a big gash in his neck with a stamp knife.When I found out, my father's face was pressed against the work machine, his head with white hair mixed with his hands, and he died with his mouth wide open as if making a long howl. After the father's funeral, the police came to the house.The policeman had clear suspicions about his father because of the man's death, and he didn't hide it from his mother.From the few words I heard, the father and the man had had an "intimate relationship" long ago.It’s not clear how long it lasted, but it’s possible that the two of us met by some chance during our family holiday at the villa, and we’ve started dating since then—that’s the police’s inference.This must be the truth. "Can you provide us with the clothes your husband wore that day?" The police confiscated the father's T-shirt and jeans. After that, the police visited my house several times.But gradually, the number of times became less and less, and finally never came again.The murderer has never been identified, and it seems that the search has also been interrupted. Mother sold the villa.I persisted until I graduated from high school, and with the help of my father and brother, I inherited the store.My uncle also runs a seal shop on the street two stations away, and taught me a lot of business experience and seal cutting techniques. Uncle is very concerned about us.Not just because of the kinship, he seems to harbor guilt for what his father did. ——To be honest, I also think that my brother did it. After hearing what the police said—— As for the murder case that happened in the villa, my uncle said so. ——But this has nothing to do with you, you have nothing to do with the crimes committed by your brother—— I finally learned how to cut seal, and the shop started to make a profit. At that time, my uncle passed away suddenly due to liver disease.After that, it was only my mother and I who depended on each other, trying our best to maintain our lives.Finally, I am also getting old and start to feel the imprint of the years.And my mother is so old that her brain shrinks and she puts the sushi decorations in her mouth.