room grows darker by degrees until, in an instant, all light is lost. The sandstorm also fades. Total darkness arrives.
11
Mari and Takahashi are sitting next to each other on a park bench. The park is a small one on a narrow strip of land in the middle of the city. Set near an old public housing project, it has a playground in one corner with swings, seesaws, and a water fountain. Mercury lamps illuminate the area. Trees stretch their dark branches overhead, and below there are dense shrubberies. The trees have dropped a thick layer of dead leaves that hide much of the ground and crackle when stepped on. The park is deserted at this hour except for Mari and Takahashi. A late-autumn white moon hangs in the sky like a sharp blade. Mari has a white kitten on her knees. She is feeding it a sandwich she brought wrapped in tissue paper. The kitten is eating with gusto. Mari gently strokes its back. Several other cats watch from a short distance away.
“Back when I worked in Alphaville, I used to come here on my breaks to feed and pet the cats,” says Takahashi. “There’s no way I can keep a cat now, living alone in an apartment. I miss the feel of them sometimes.”
“You had a cat when you were living at home?” Mari asks.
“Yeah, to make up for not having any brothers or sisters.”
“You don’t like dogs?”
“I like dogs. I had a bunch of them. But finally, cats are better. As a matter of personal preference.”
“I’ve never had a cat,” says Mari. “Or a dog. My sister was allergic to the fur. She couldn’t stop sneezing.”
“I see.”
“From the time she was a kid, she had a ton of allergies—cedar pollen, ragweed, mackerel, shrimp, fresh paint, all kinds of things.”
“Fresh paint?” Takahashi says with a scowl. “Never heard of that one.”
“Well, she had it. She had strong reactions, too.”
“Like…?”
“Like, she’d get a rash, and she had trouble breathing. She’d get these bumps in her windpipe, and my parents would have to take her to the hospital.”
“Every time she walked past fresh paint?”
“Well, not every time, but it happened a lot.”
“Even a lot would be tough.”
Mari goes on petting the cat in silence.
“And how about you?” Takahashi asks.
“You mean allergies?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t have any to speak of,” Mari says. “I’ve never been sick. In our house, we had the delicate Snow White and the hardy shepherd girl.”
“One Snow White per family is plenty.”
Mari nods.
“And there’s nothing wrong with being a hardy shepherd girl. You don’t have to worry how dry the paint is every time.”
Mari looks him in the face. “It’s not that simple, you know.”
“I know,” Takahashi says. “It’s not that simple…Say, aren’t you cold out here?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Mari tears off another piece of tuna sandwich and feeds it to the kitten. The kitten hungrily gobbles it down.
Takahashi hesitates for a few moments, unsure if he should mention something, then he decides to go ahead. “You know, your sister and I once had a long, serious conversation, just the two of us.”
Mari looks at him. “When was that?”
“I don’t know, maybe April. I was going to Tower Records one evening to look for something when I bumped into her out front. I was alone, and so was she. We stood on the sidewalk making small talk, but after a while we realized we had too much to say, so we went to a café down the street. At first it was nothing much, just the usual stuff you talk about when you bump into an old classmate you haven’t seen for a while—like, whatever happened to so-and-so and stuff. But then she suggested we go some place we could have a drink, and the conversation turned pretty deep and personal. She had a lot she wanted to talk about.”
“Deep and personal?”
“Yeah.”
Mari looks at him questioningly. “Why would Eri talk to you about stuff like that? I never got the sense that you and she were particularly close.”
“No, obviously, we’re not. That time we all went to the hotel pool together was the first time I ever really talked to her. I’m not even sure she knew my full name.”
Mari goes on stroking the kitten in silence.
Takahashi continues, “But that day, she wanted somebody to talk with. Normally it would have been another girl, a good friend. But I don’t know, maybe your sister doesn’t have any girlfriends she can open up to like that. So she picked me instead. It