A Midsummer's Equation

FIVE

The Green Rock Inn had a few private dining rooms on the first floor, where guests came for their meals. Kyohei was supposed to eat dinner with Narumi’s family in the little room next to the kitchen, but when six o’clock rolled around he snuck out to take a peek at the dining rooms where their new guest, Yukawa, would be eating.

The sliding doors to the first dining room on the hall were open, and a serving cart had been left in the hallway outside. Aunt Setsuko would be in the middle of serving dinner.

Kyohei peeked inside. Yukawa was sitting alone in the middle of a room big enough for ten, watching as Aunt Setsuko arranged dishes on the tray in front of him.

“So places in town are open pretty late, then?” he was saying.

“Well, late for the countryside, maybe. But that only means ten or ten thirty. I’d be happy to show you,” his aunt was telling him.

“I’d appreciate that. You go out drinking often?”

“Oh no, I certainly wouldn’t say ‘often.’ It’s much more of a ‘rarely,’ if that.”

“That’s a shame,” Yukawa said, suddenly looking toward Kyohei. Their eyes met, and Kyohei jumped and shrank back away from the door, out of sight.

“Is something wrong?” he heard his aunt ask.

“No, nothing. This looks delicious,” Yukawa said as Kyohei snuck away, treading as lightly as possible on the floorboards.

He had his own dinner soon afterward. His aunt and uncle had pulled out all the stops for their guest, and the table was loaded with sashimi and all kinds of homemade dishes.

“Eat up,” his uncle said, pushing a plate of sashimi toward Kyohei. “We can’t send you back home skinny, or we’ll never hear the end of it.” He laughed, his belly sticking out like a giant, quivering watermelon.

“And thanks for snagging a customer for us,” his aunt said. “That was unexpected!”

“All I did was show him the map,” Kyohei explained. “He was the one who wrote down the number and everything.”

“Well, you did just the right thing. He must’ve figured that any hotel good enough for you was good enough for him.”

Kyohei shrugged, pretty sure that had nothing to do with it.

Close to seven, Narumi stood from the table, saying she had a Save the Cove meeting and wouldn’t be back until late. Kyohei left to go back to his room. There was a TV show he wanted to watch.

He’d just reached the elevator when the doors opened and an older man with short hair stepped out. He looked like he’d just been in the bath. He was still wearing his robe, and his face had a ruddy sheen to it. The man looked at Kyohei a little curiously, then walked off in the direction of the dining rooms.

Kyohei took the elevator to the second floor and walked down the hall to his room. He’d been given a room big enough for four. His aunt was worried that he’d feel lonely in such a big room all by himself, but Kyohei wasn’t a little kid anymore, and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. He spent some time stretching out on the tatami mats, enjoying the space, then reached for the remote control.

After about an hour, he got up and took a look out the window. He knew the ocean was in the distance, but it was too dark to see anything but the spot between the inn and the road where the floodlights by the front door lit a circle of pavement.

He’d been standing there for a while when he heard the sound of the front door opening. Two people walked out: Yukawa, and his aunt. He wondered where they were going at this time of night. He didn’t see his uncle anywhere.

The phone in his room began to ring. Startled, he hurriedly picked up the receiver.

“Yeah?”

“Kyohei? It’s Uncle Shigehiro. Were you asleep?”

“Nope. I was watching television.”

“Right, well, how about you and me set off some fireworks? I’ve got some left over from last summer.”

“What? Now? Yeah, okay!”

“Good, come on downstairs.”

“Be right there.”

His uncle was waiting for him in the lobby. He had a bucket and a sizable cardboard box at his feet.

“Since everyone’s decided to head out, I figure now’s our chance to have a little fun for ourselves,” his uncle said.

Kyohei looked inside the cardboard box, his eyes going wide. It was an impressive collection. There were fistfuls of sparklers, and even some bigger fireworks, the kind you stuck in the ground and shot up into the sky before they went off.

“No time to waste! You mind getting the box?” Uncle Shigehiro asked, picking up the bucket and beginning to walk with his cane. Kyohei lifted the cardboard box in both hands and followed after his uncle.