Кэйго Хигасино - A Midsummer’s Equation

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.

It was a little before nine when Narumi, Sawamura, and the others left the meeting hall. “How about a drink?” Sawamura offered. Two of the younger members immediately agreed.

“How about you?” he asked Narumi.

“For a little while, sure.”

They said good-bye at the station to the people who had to leave right away, then headed to the usual bar, the one that stayed open the latest.

They had just reached the door when Narumi spotted her mother standing next to the seawall, staring out toward the dark ocean. She called out, and Setsuko turned as if she had just been woken from a dream. Her lips curled in a vague smile, and she walked across the road toward them.

“Good evening,” she said to Sawamura and the others before turning to Narumi. “You finish your meeting?”

“Yeah, but what are you doing out here, Mom?”

Setsuko nodded in the direction of the bar. “Oh, I brought one of our guests down. You know, Mr. Yukawa.”

“Let me guess, you joined him for a drink or two?”

“Just a wee bit,” she said, holding up her thumb and index finger a little way apart.

“Again? Mom, you know you’re not supposed to drive after you have a drink.”

“Mr. Yukawa’s going to take a taxi home, and it was just a little.”

“Even after just a little, Mom. The law’s the law.”

Ever since her father hurt his knee he’d stopped drinking, but her mother had always been overly fond of alcohol. Even if she didn’t come down to the bar, a whiskey before bed was her nightly routine.

Narumi sighed. “So that’s why you’re out here, trying to clear your head?”

“Something like that,” Setsuko replied, a bit mysteriously. “You need to watch how much you drink, too, young lady.”

“I’m hardly a young lady, and you’re not one to talk, Mom,” Narumi said with a smile.

“Then I’ll stop now while I’m ahead. I suppose I’ll walk home. Have a nice evening,” she said to Sawamura and the others.

“Wait, I’ll give you a lift,” Sawamura said, looking toward Narumi. “I came here in the pickup from the store, and I’m parked right by the station,” he explained. “I was wondering what to do with it anyway. This way I can take your mom back and leave it at home so I don’t have to worry about drinking too much.”

“Oh, you don’t need to go out of your way for me,” Setsuko said, waving her hand.

“It’s no trouble at all. And I can’t have you walking up mountains in the dark.”

“Are you sure? Well, thank you.”

“No need to thank me,” Sawamura said. Then, to Narumi, “I’ll be right back.”

“Right, thanks.”

After seeing Sawamura and her mom off, Narumi went into the bar with the other two from the meeting. Her eyes darted quickly over the place. Yukawa was sitting at a corner table, reading a magazine.

“Isn’t that the physicist from earlier today?” one of the two — a girl still in college — whispered in Narumi’s ear.

“Yeah, I think it is,” the guy agreed.

Narumi told them that Yukawa was staying at her family’s inn, and they nodded, making the connection. The three of them sat at a table across the room from Yukawa, who was still absorbed in his magazine.

They drank beers and chatted for about half an hour, at which point Narumi excused herself and walked over toward Yukawa’s table, announcing herself with a “Good evening.”

Yukawa looked up from his magazine and blinked. “Oh. Hi,” he said, unsurprised to see her. He must’ve noticed us earlier , Narumi thought.

“I heard you shared a drink with my mom?”

“I believe we had a round, yes. I hope that’s not a problem?”

“No, not at all. Actually, I was wondering if I could join you for a moment.” She pointed to the chair across the table.

“I don’t mind, but what about your friends?”

“They’ll be fine.” Narumi glanced at the two, deep in some conversation, punctuated by occasional laughter. She leaned closer to Yukawa and said more quietly, “I was kind of a third wheel anyway.”

“I understand.”

Narumi called over the bartender and ordered herself a shochu on the rocks.

“Your mother tells me you were at the hearing today.”

“Yes, you remember the man who asked about DESMEC’s plans to protect deep-sea organisms? I was with his group.”

“I see,” Yukawa said, nodding. “Then please apologize to him on my behalf for butting in on the conversation.”

“You can tell him yourself. He should be here any moment. But I don’t think there’s any need to apologize. It sounded like a very honest opinion.”

“Too honest, I’d say. I just can’t abide people making vague, illogical statements.”

The bartender brought Narumi’s drink. Yukawa raised his and they clinked their glasses together in a toast.

“From what your mother was saying, you’re quite the activist.”

“I wouldn’t put it that way. I just think I’m doing what I should be doing.”

“And what you should be doing is opposing undersea resource development?”

“I’m not against development per se. But I want to protect the environment, particularly the ocean.”

Yukawa rattled his ice in his glass and took a slow drink of his shochu. “What exactly does it mean to protect the ocean? Is the ocean such a fragile thing that it requires our protection?”

“It wasn’t, but we’ve made it fragile. In the name of science, and progress.”

“Science?” Yukawa set down his glass. “You sure you want to go there?”

“The ocean is the source of all life. Over millions of years it’s given birth to all kinds of species. But did you know that in just the last thirty years, the ocean has lost more than thirty percent of those species? Coral reefs are a prime example,” she said, the words spilling out with practiced ease. She’d been saying the same thing in a lot of places recently.

“And this is somehow science’s fault?”

“Scientists are the one who conducted that hydrogen bomb testing over the Pacific.”

Yukawa lifted up his glass, but before he drank, he looked up at Narumi. “It sounds like you’ve decided that this plan to develop the hydrothermal ore deposits off your shores is another example of us scientists making the same mistake we’ve made in the past. In other words, destroying the seabed without concern for the resulting devastation of the environment.”