Light and dark

[4]

AGAINST THE fairness of her complexion her well-formed eyebrows stood out strikingly, and it was her habit, almost a tic, to arch them frequently. Regretfully, her eyes were too small and her single eyelids were unappealing. But the shining pupils beneath those single lids were ink black and, for that reason, very effective. At times her eyes could be expressive to a degree that might be called overbearing. Tsuda had experienced feeling helplessly drawn in by the light that emanated from those small eyes. Not as if there weren’t also moments when abruptly and for no reason the same light repelled him.

Glancing up abruptly at his wife’s face, he beheld for an instant an eerie power resident in her eyes. It was an odd brilliancy utterly inconsonant with the sweet words that had been issuing from her lips until now. His intention to respond was impeded a little by her gaze. In that moment she smiled, exposing her beautiful teeth, and the look in her eyes vanished without a trace.

“It’s not so. I don’t care a bit about going to the theater. I was just being spoiled.”

Tsuda was silent, unable for a while longer to take his eyes off his wife.

“Why are you frowning at me that way? I’m not going to the play so please have your surgery on Sunday, won’t you? I’ll send the Okamotos a postcard or drop in and tell them we can’t come.”

“Go if you want to, they were nice enough to invite us.”

“I’d rather not — your health is more important than a play.”

Tsuda felt obliged to tell his wife in more detail about the surgery in store for him.

“This isn’t a simple matter of draining the pus out of a boil. I have to flush out my colon with a laxative before the doctor goes to work with his scalpel, and apparently there’s a danger of hemorrhaging after the incision is made so I’ll have to lie still in bed five or six days with the wound packed with gauze. But that means, on the other hand, I could postpone until Monday or Tuesday or even move the date up to tomorrow or the day after and it wouldn’t make much difference — in that sense it’s an accommodating condition.”

“It doesn’t sound so accommodating to me, having to lie in bed for a week without moving.”

His wife arched her eyebrows again. As if indifferent to this display, Tsuda, lost in thought, leaned his right elbow against the brazier between them and gazed at the lid on the iron kettle atop it. Beneath the russet bronze lid the water in the kettle was boiling loudly.

“I suppose you’ll have to take a whole week off?”

“I’m thinking I won’t pick a date until I’ve had a chance to let Yoshikawa-san know what’s happening. I could just stay home without saying anything but that wouldn’t feel right.”

“I think you should talk to him. He’s always been so kind to us.”

“If I do say something he might tell me to check in to the hospital right away.”

At the word “hospital,” his wife’s small eyes appeared suddenly to widen.

“Hospital? It’s not as if you’ll be going to a hospital.”

“It’s the same thing—”

“But you said once that Dr. Kobayashi’s place isn’t a hospital — it’s only for out-patients.”

“I suppose it’s more of a clinic, but the second floor is available for staying over.”

“Is it clean?”

Tsuda forced a smile.

“Maybe cleaner than our place—”

It was his wife’s turn to smile stiffly.