SHORTLY THEY went their separate ways.
“Travel well; I won’t be coming to see you off.”
“No? Seems like you should. Your old friend is moving to Korea, after all.”
“I wouldn’t come no matter where you’re going.”
“How hugely heartless of you. In that case I’ll drop in one more time to say good-bye before I leave.”
“I’ve had enough. You needn’t come.”
“I insist. Otherwise, I won’t feel right.”
“Suit yourself. But I won’t be there. I’m leaving on a trip tomorrow.”
“A trip? Where?”
“I have some recovering to do.”
“Recuperating in the countryside? How stylish of you!”
“I’d say latitude is making me a gift. Unlike you, I can never be thankful enough for latitude.”
“And you can never stop demonstrating to me that my advice is meaningless.”
“If we’re being honest, that sounds about right.”
“Fair enough. Wait and see which of us wins. My guess is, a little enlightenment from old Kobayashi will be easier to take than the sock in the teeth from reality you’re heading for.”
Such was their exchange as they parted. It was an expression merely of the hard feelings Tsuda had been storing up since the beginning of the evening. Now, feeling somewhat relieved, he had no room inside himself to consider Kobayashi’s final remarks. Whether he was right or wrong made little difference; Tsuda was adamantly determined, out of pride if nothing else, to be shut of the man, rid of his worldview and his tiresome theorizing. Alone at last in the streetcar, he began at once to conjure a picture of the hot springs.
The next morning was windy. The wind raked the ground aslant with flurries of rain.
“What a bother!”
Tsuda, who had arisen on schedule, looked up at the sky from the engawa and frowned. There were clouds in the sky. They moved incessantly, like wind visible to the eye.
“It could always clear up by noon.”
O-Nobu’s tone of voice suggested she was in favor of carrying on with the schedule they had agreed on.
“If you postpone for a day, that’s just a day wasted. I’d rather you went right away and came home a day sooner.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
The icy rain had not deterred them, but as Tsuda was preparing to depart, a small hitch developed. Removing a kimono for herself from a drawer in the tansu, O-Nobu placed it alongside Tsuda’s clothes atop the lacquered-paper wrapping. Tsuda noticed.
“You don’t have to see me off.”
“Why not?”
“No special reason, it will be unpleasant in this rain.”
“I don’t mind.”
There was something so innocent about O-Nobu’s remark that Tsuda couldn’t help laughing.
“I’m not objecting because I mind you coming along. I feel bad for you. The trip doesn’t even take a day; it seems silly to put you to the trouble of coming to the station. Just last night I told Kobayashi I wouldn’t see him offeven though he’s leaving for Korea.”
“Really! But there’s nothing to do at home.”
“Go out and enjoy yourself — I’d like you to.”
Eventually, with a strained smile, O-Nobu acquiesced, and Tsuda was able to hurry away by himself in a rickshaw.
Despite the crowded streets surrounding the station, it was bleakly deserted on this rainy day. Standing in the emptiness, Tsuda was gazing vacantly at the second-class ticket he had just purchased when a student approached abruptly and addressed him as if he were an old friend.
“Too bad about the weather.”
It was the youth Tsuda had met for the first time at the Yoshikawas’ the other day. This morning, from the moment he doffed his cloth cap, in contrast to his chilliness to Tsuda at the entrance to the house, he was exceedingly polite. Tsuda had no idea what this might mean.
“You’re traveling somewhere?”
“Aren’t you?”
“It happens I am, but what about it?”
The student appeared flustered.
“Unfortunately, Mrs. Yoshikawa is occupied today and asked me to bring you this.”
He held up the basket of fruit he was carrying.
“That was kind of her.”
Tsuda reached for the basket, but the student held on to it.
“I’m to carry it to your seat.”
As the train was leaving, the student bowed and Tsuda, commending himself to the Yoshikawas, settled himself deliberately in a corner of the relatively uncrowded car and thought to himself, Good thing I didn’t have O-Nobu come along after all.