Minae Mizumura - A True Novel

“But you know, watching my mom since she became a mother-in-law has got me thinking that maybe the females of the species are all hellcats.”

His legs still up on the coffee table, he started rotating his ankles first to the left, then to the right. Before long, he was also stretching his neck muscles by pulling his head first to one side, then the other. He was never able to sit still.

“And I got to tell you, my brother’s wife is really sexy. Pretty and well stacked. And you know what else? She’s got a little sister who’s single. And she’s not bad either. Nice face, nice body.”

“Hmm …”

“Yeah, but somehow the older one is more of a fox, you know what I mean?” he added, half to himself. Just then the doorbell rang. The all-too-familiar sound made Yusuke feel for a moment as if they were back in Tokyo. Next they heard the door swing open—it wasn’t locked—and as Kubo started for the front hall, a woman wearing a bandana appeared in the living room and said hello.

“The roads were unbelievably crowded, even before we got off the highway. I suppose we should have expected that during the Bon festival.”

She held a baby in one arm and a heavy-looking grocery bag in the other.

“I told your mom that I’d be glad to stay in Tokyo to help out with Grandma at the hospital. But since this is Ken’s one and only real vacation, she suggested I’d better be out here with him. Plus, with this little one, I wouldn’t have been much use anyways,” she said, looking at her baby’s face. She then turned toward Yusuke and bowed her head in greeting.

Kubo introduced him. “This is my friend Yusuke Kato.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Her bare arms and legs were smoothly tanned, as was her midriff, showing between her tank top and cropped white pants. She looked as if she played golf or tennis every day, even in Tokyo.

Grinning, Kubo gave her the once-over.

“Putting on a little weight, Ruri? You’re beginning to look kind of stately.”

“Mind your own business.” Ruri turned away from him and put the grocery bag down on the counter.

“Here’s the stuff—you’ll find things like melons and mangos in it.”

“Thanks for bringing it over. Hey, we’ve got some iced green tea. Want some? It’s homemade, not the commercial kind.”

“Wow, Hideki, I am impressed. And—hey—you’ve kept the kitchen so clean too,” she said, looking around the room. “Ooh, and even bread from Asanoya.”

“I didn’t do any of it. This guy did. He likes to mess around in the kitchen, and he doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend. Must be gay.”

“You’re so rude. I think it’s cool. Girls go for men who know how to cook, in case you haven’t heard.”

The sister-in-law shot a smile of approval in Yusuke’s direction.

The baby, still in her arms, started to fuss.

“Yesh, yesh. Good girl, what a good girl. For a baby, she can really focus. Look how she keeps looking at you. She doesn’t let her eyes wander.”

Kubo had filled a glass with tea and held it out to her.

“Thanks,” she said, and, after taking a couple of sips, handed the glass back and announced that she had to go. Looking first at Kubo and then at Yusuke, she asked, “What are you guys doing for dinner tonight? You don’t have a car, so you can’t really go anywhere.”

“Yeah, but I’m sure Yusuke here will make us something.”

“If you want to, why don’t you join us for dinner? I called that restaurant, Ceryle, from a rest stop, and they said we could probably get two tables if we eat between five-thirty and seven. We can all sit together. If you two came, there would be how many adults? Let’s see: you two, Grandpa, Grandma, my little sister, your brother, and me, so that’s seven. And one child—oh, plus the baby,” she said, making a funny face at her. “So we’d be fine.”

Kubo hesitated for a moment and explained to Yusuke, “Ceryle is just down the hill—you remember, the French restaurant next to the property manager’s. But it’s not one of those real fancy French places.”

“Why don’t you come? It’d save you having to cook for yourselves.”

“What do you want to do?” Kubo looked at his friend as if trying to read his face.

“Either way is fine with me.”

“Are you sure?” Aware that Yusuke was not fond of going out with a crowd, Kubo was willing to let him decide.

“Sure,” Yusuke said. It didn’t much matter to him whether he was in a crowd or alone with Kubo; his thoughts were of what he’d seen and heard since the night in Oiwake. Besides, Kubo liked company.

“Let’s go, then.”

“Great,” the sister-in-law said. “We’ll come by and pick you up about five twenty-five.”

“That’s okay. It’s only a short walk.”

“But we’ll be passing by anyway.” She took the baby’s chubby hand in hers and waved it at them as she said, “Bye-bye.”

YUSUKE SPENT THE entire evening with a crowd of people.

The French restaurant was at the bottom of the winding mountain road; it took the group only three minutes to arrive in their two German cars. It was a log chalet and looked fancy enough to Yusuke. The sister-in-law’s family appeared to be regulars, since they were on easy terms with the waiter, dressed in black. Yusuke, who felt insufficiently interested in the menu to study it, simply ordered a set dinner with a main dish of sea bass à la poêle . First came an hors d’oeuvre, an homard something—a piece of lobster that he could easily have consumed in one bite, but that he cut up into smaller pieces before eating. The waiter then laid a large plate in front of him containing a sea bass fillet elegantly garnished with a mélange of red, green, and yellow vegetables. It tasted fine, but, as with every other time he’d had fish prepared in a Western way, he felt certain that a piece of salt-grilled fish, eaten simply with soy sauce and grated radish—using chopsticks—would taste better. When it came to paying, the sister-in-law’s father took care of it, hardly noticing, with his credit card. The group complained of having had to dine in such haste that they didn’t get to enjoy the wine; so they decided to have another round of drinks at the in-laws’, and Yusuke went along with them. The two-story house, including a spacious attic, was not only larger but much more lavish than Kubo’s parents’ place. It reminded Yusuke what an extravagant era the eighties had been.

With so many present, including children, the conversation meandered from the father-in-law’s high blood pressure to the older child’s having to take an entrance exam for kindergarten, and eventually to Kubo’s brother’s liver condition. Before long, though, the assembled company settled on the topic of a certain family who had a summer house in Minamihara to which they’d been invited for a party the following night. Its previous owner being unable to pay the inheritance tax, the buyer had managed to get the whole tract at a bargain price and, after tearing down the old villa, had built a sumptuous residence with a heated swimming pool in the basement. All the exterior walls, down to those of the bicycle shed, were of polished granite. Even the contractor had been surprised, saying he hadn’t worked on a project this expensive since the economic bubble burst. The new owner was the founder of a national chain of discount clothing stores.

“Even with the economy as bad as it is, there are still people making big money. That’s what fascinates me about the business world,” Kubo’s brother said to his father-in-law. He was just a corporate employee, but he seemed to have hopes of taking over his wife’s family business.

Apparently, this was the second time they had been invited to a party at the house in Minamihara. The year before, nearly a hundred people had shown up. Arranged around the heated pool were ice buckets full of Dom Pérignon. The guests had raved about it for months afterward. At a time when people were forgoing summers here, and when those who did come spent less and less, this was an unheard-of display of luxury.