A Midsummer's Equation

THREE

I don’t remember this hill being this long, Kyohei thought with a sigh, stopping to look around. The best swimming in the area was down by the station, so he’d been up and down this road a hundred times in a car, but this was his first time walking it.

The scenery hadn’t changed much in two years. A large building—a former hotel—squatted at the bottom of the hill. The roof and walls were a sooty gray, and all the paint had flaked off the large sign out front. His father liked to call it “the ruins of Hari Cove.”

“Why isn’t anyone living there anymore?” Kyohei had asked once as they were driving by.

“It used to be a fancy hotel,” his father had told him. “But people stopped coming, and they couldn’t keep it open.”

“Why’d they stop coming?”

His father shrugged. “Probably because there were better places to go.”

“What kind of better places?”

“You know, fun places. Like Disneyland, or Hawaii.”

Kyohei had never been to Hawaii, but he was a fan of Disneyland. People got jealous when you told them you were going to Disneyland. No one got jealous when you were going to Hari Cove.

Kyohei resumed his climb. He started to wonder why anyone had ever built such a big hotel in a little town like this. He wondered if it had ever really been as popular as his dad claimed.

Finally, he spotted the inn. It was only about a quarter the size of the ruins below, but it wasn’t any newer. Kyohei’s uncle, Shigehiro, had taken it over from his father fifteen years ago, but he hadn’t done any renovations in all that time. “I got a renovation idea,” Kyohei’s father had joked. “Tear the place down. No one ever comes here anyway.”

Kyohei slid open the front door and stepped inside. The air-conditioning was running full blast, and it felt good. He shouted, “Hello?”

The curtain behind the counter moved, and his aunt, Setsuko, emerged with a big smile. “Kyohei, you made it! My, but you’ve gotten so big!” she said, echoing Narumi’s greeting. Maybe they think that makes kids happy, Kyohei thought.

“Thanks for putting me up,” Kyohei said, remembering his manners.

His aunt chuckled. “Now, now, none of that. You’re family. Come right on in.”

Kyohei took off his shoes and put on a pair of the guest slippers they had lined up at the entrance. The inn may have been small, but there was a lobby, complete with a wicker bench.

“It must’ve been hot out there! I’ll get you something cool to drink. Juice? Tea? I think we have some cola.…”

“Cola!”

“Thought so,” Setsuko said, giving him another smile and disappearing behind the counter.

Kyohei dropped his backpack and sat down on the bench. His eyes started to wander around the room. There was a framed painting of the sea from what looked like the nearby coast. Next to it was a map with little illustrations showing local spots of interest, except the map was faded so badly he could barely make anything out. An old clock on the wall showed the time was two o’clock.

“Hello there, Kyohei,” came a gravelly voice, and his uncle Shigehiro appeared. “Good to see ya!”

His uncle hadn’t changed much in the last two years either. He was still plump as a Buddha, but his hair was thinner now, making him look even more like a Buddha. The only real difference was that now he was sporting a cane. “Because he got too fat for his knees to hold him up,” Kyohei’s father had said.

Kyohei stood and said hello.

“Sit down, sit down. I’ve got a mind to sit down right there with you,” Shigehiro said, sitting down across from Kyohei and chuckling. He had a big grin on his face. A happy Buddha, Kyohei thought. “So, how’re your parents?”

“Busy, like always,” Kyohei said.

“Busy’s good.”

Setsuko came out with a tray carrying a teapot and three glasses, one already filled with cola.

“Hey, no cola for me?” Shigehiro asked with a frown.

Setsuko shook her head. “It’s barley tea for you, mister. You have to watch your sugar,” she said, pouring him a glass.

Kyohei drank his cola, grateful for the cool sweetness after the long climb.

Setsuko was Kyohei’s father’s older half-sister. Setsuko’s mother had died in a car accident when she was still little. Her father later remarried and had Kyohei’s father, hence the nine-year difference in their ages.

“I saw Narumi at the station,” Kyohei said. “She said she was going someplace?”

“Eh? Where’s Narumi off to now?” Shigehiro asked his wife.

“Oh, you know,” she said, “that thing about the cove. They’re talking about digging up gold and silver and the like out there.”

“Oh, right, that,” Shigehiro said, utterly uninterested. “Sounds like a bunch of hogwash to me. Digging up gold from the ocean.”

“I wouldn’t know about these things,” Kyohei’s aunt said with a shrug. “Narumi was pretty worried that if they started working out there, the sea would get all dirty, you know.”

“Well, she’s right to worry about that,” Shigehiro said, a bit more seriously. He took a long sip of his tea.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Kyohei said, opening his backpack and taking out the paper-wrapped package inside. “Mom wanted me to give you this.”

“Oh, she shouldn’t have,” Setsuko said, smiling even as she furrowed her eyebrows. She began opening the package immediately. “Look at this, tsukudani beef jerky. Oh, I’ve heard of this shop. It’s famous! She really shouldn’t have. I’ll have to call and thank her.”

Kyohei finished his cola, and his aunt immediately asked if he wanted a refill. “Yes please,” he said, and she swept his glass away. That was a nice change of pace. At home, he would’ve been told to get it himself, if they let him drink cola in the first place.

Maybe spending the rest of summer vacation in Hari Cove wouldn’t be so bad after all.