Transcription
Foreign. A cheap lodging house was located just within Shimoda on the north side.
I followed the entertainers into a second-floor room that had all the appearances of an attic. There was no ceiling, and when I sat near the windowsill facing the road, my head almost touched the roof. "To your shoulders hurt?" the woman kept asking the dancing girl.
"Do your hands hurt?" the dancing girl moved her hands, and the graceful gesture she used when playing the drum. "No, they don't. I can play. I can."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that. I have to turn around."
"Hey! That's heavy. It's heavier than you thought. Heavier than that bag of yours." The dancing girl laughed.
The entertainers heartily greeted the other people staying at the inn. Naturally, they were all entertainers and carnival people. Shimoda appeared to be a temporary roost for these birds of passage.
The dancing girl gave a copper coin to one of the innkeeper's children who came toddling into the room. When I stood up to leave, Kofiya, the dancing girl, hurried down ahead of me to the entryway and set my clogs out for me. "Please be sure to take me to a movie," she whispered, as though to herself.
A man who was likely a day laborer guided us halfway to our destination. Hikichi and I went on to an inn where he said the former district mayor was the innkeeper. We bathed, then ate a lunch of fresh fish.
"Please use this to buy some flowers for tomorrow's services." I gave Ikichi a small packet of money before he returned to his lodging house.
I had to return to Tokyo on the morning boat the next day because I had no more money with which to travel. I told Akichi that school was about to start, so I could not stay with them any longer. I ate dinner less than three hours after lunch, alone.
I crossed the bridge to the north of Shimoda and climbed the hill, Shimodafuji, to view the harbor. When I called at Koshuya on my way back, the entertainers were eating a dinner of chicken stew.
"Won't you at least have a bite with us? It's not very appetizing now that we women have put in our chopsticks, but maybe this could be the makings of a funny story." The woman took a bowl and chopsticks out of the wicker basket and asked me to go to wash them.
They pleaded with me to delay my departure at least one more day, as tomorrow would be the 49th day since the baby's death. But again, I used school as an excuse and declined their invitation.
The woman spoke again. "Well then, during winter vacation, we'll all come out to meet your boat. Just let us know what day you'll arrive. We'll be waiting. Now, don't try staying in an inn or anything. We'll meet you at the boat."
When only Shiyoko and Yuriko were in the room, I invited them to a movie. Chiyoko held her stomach, saying, "I don't feel well. I'm too weak to walk that far." She slumped down, her face pale. Yuriko stiffened and hung her head.
The dancing girl was playing with the innkeeper's children on the stairs when she heard me. She clung to the woman, begging for permission to go to a movie with me. She returned crestfallen. She set out my clogs.
"What do you mean? There's no harm in letting him take her by himself," Ikichi interjected, but the woman would not ascend. I thought it indeed strange that she would not let us go together.
As I went out the door, the dancing girl was stroking the puppy's head. The atmosphere was so restrained that I could not speak a word. The dancing girl lacked the vitality even to lift her face and look at me. I went to the movie alone.
The woman narrator read the script of the silent movie by the light of a tiny lamp. I left as soon as it ended and returned to my inn. Resting my elbows on the windowsill, I stared out into the night town for a long time. It was a dark town. I thought I might hear a faint drum sounding far away. Inexplicably, my tears fell.