Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

But then Satoru hesitated. ‘Yeah, but…’ He trembled.

‘We have three hours till lights-out. You know your relatives’ address, don’t you?’

It turned out to be in an apartment building not far from Kokura Station.

‘If we skip having a bath, we’ll have plenty of time. But you won’t have a cent left to buy anything afterwards.’

A round trip to Kokura would cost several thousand yen.

‘We can’t tell anyone in our group. If they knew, then they could get into trouble, too. When it’s time to go for a bath, we’ll tell them we’ll be down in a minute, and then we’ll make our getaway.’

‘I’ll go on my own. I don’t want anyone else to get mixed up in this.’

‘Come on, mate. I’m your best friend.’ And with that, Yoshimine slapped him on the back.

They hadn’t been allowed to bring any clothes other than their school uniform and pyjamas, so the choice was between those. They’d both brought jerseys to wear in bed, so they opted for those, since they wouldn’t stand out as much as school shirts and blazers.

When it came to their turn to go down to the bath, they pretended to need more time to get ready for it.

They waited three minutes, then left their room. They avoided the main entrance, because of the teacher standing guard, and headed straight to the emergency exit they had scouted out earlier. The doorknob on the fire exit had a plastic safety cover, which made it obvious if anyone used the door. If a teacher found the cover missing, there would be an immediate roll call.

‘What should we do?’ Satoru asked anxiously. ‘The teachers will check this when they make their rounds.’

‘We go up,’ Yoshimine said, yanking him over to the lifts. ‘If we rip that cover off a door on another floor, they won’t notice.’

In order to isolate the noisy students from the other guests, all their rooms were adjacent. If they ripped the cover off the knob on a floor where only regular guests were staying, it was possible it would go undetected.

The hotel rooms started on the fifth floor, and they’d heard that students on school trips were always housed on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors. When they got out at the eighth floor the hallway was so quiet they couldn’t believe how peaceful the hotel could be.

‘Okay, let’s go.’

They yanked off the safety cover, pulled open the heavy fire door and hurtled down the stairs. Exiting on the ground floor, they reached a service entrance, through which they headed, trying to look nonchalant. Suddenly, a voice called out from behind them, ‘You there!’

Startled, they turned around and saw a hotel employee.

‘Aren’t you students on a school trip?’

Oh god, Yoshimine thought. The hotel employees must have been warned to keep an eye out for escapees.

‘No, actually we’re not!’ Yoshimine shot back, starting for the door.

‘Hold it right there!’ the man shouted, heading after him.

‘Run for it!’

Yoshimine darted off, Satoru chasing after him.

‘Somebody stop those boys!’

The employee’s shouts immediately led to more obstacles being put in their way, but, running this way and that, trying to avoid all the people who were joining the pursuit, they finally came to the hotel’s main entrance.

Standing guard was the form teacher Yoshimine had met on his first day – the pretty woman who’d been so sympathetic.

‘Yoshimine-kun! Satoru-kun! What are you doing?’

Satoru thought Yoshimine might give up at this point, but when Yoshimine shouted, ‘Let’s go for it. Sod the consequences!’ he sped up with his friend. The teacher raised her arms to stop them, but they slipped past her and leapt on to the crowded pavement outside the hotel, laughing all the way.

They might as well have used the main entrance to start with.

They kept on running, to shake off any pursuers, and Satoru shouted breathlessly at his friend, ‘Listen! Tell people I went out ’cause I was dying to go out at night and have some fun.’

‘Okay.’

As they made their way down unfamiliar streets, they asked for directions, and in about twenty minutes they had arrived at Hakata Station.

They were at the window for train tickets to Kokura when they heard someone calling from behind them.

‘Hey! You boys!’ It was a PE teacher, one of the chaperones.

They were escorted back to the hotel, called into one of the rooms where the teachers were staying and firmly scolded.

‘Where on earth did you think you were going?’

They hadn’t agreed on a story beforehand and weren’t sure how to get through this. They glanced at each other, wondering who should go first.

‘Satoru-kun.’ This from the kindly teacher. ‘Maybe being on a school trip was hard on you?’

Oh, the beautiful teacher, Miss Empathy. Well just stop it, Yoshimine thought. Drop the sympathy. Don’t try to protect Satoru by bringing that up.

‘No, that’s not it,’ Satoru replied in an even voice, though his face had turned pale. ‘I just wanted to get out and have fun in the town. That’s all.’

‘Don’t lie to me. I know you’re not that kind of boy.’

Yoshimine nearly burst out laughing. What do you know about Satoru, Teacher?

Tell people I went out ’cause I was dying to go out at night and have some fun . Satoru didn’t want anyone to know he was trying to get to Kokura to see a cat.

‘Satoru, I’m sorry. I’ve had enough.’

Yoshimine looked as though he was about to give up. The teachers’ attention turned to him.

‘It’s my fault, ma’am. I was dying to eat some Nagahama ramen. And I was asking for directions at the station.

‘Thing is,’ he went on, ‘I had ramen at an outdoor stall once in Tenjin with my parents, back before they got divorced. Since we weren’t far from there, I remembered my parents and memories of those good times. Satoru just tagged along with me.’

Their circumstances were different, but both boys were no longer with their parents. That was justification enough – two lonely boys wanting to cheer each other up.

‘Yoshimine…’ Satoru was about to say something, but Yoshimine cut him off. ‘It’s okay,’ he said. He needed his friend to keep quiet if he really didn’t want the world to know about his precious cat.

The teachers remained silent and stern, but they were clearly uncertain how to proceed.

‘I understand how you feel, but rules are rules. You can’t just go off on your own during a school trip,’ said the PE teacher sourly.

They should have just bowed their heads and apologized then and there. Both of their guardians were contacted and, as an example to the rest of the students, their punishment was to sit in the hallway, in uncomfortable formal seiza style, legs tucked under them, until late in the evening.

As soon as he got home from the trip, Yoshimine asked his grandmother a favour.

‘Grandma, please , there’s something I really, really need to ask of you.’

He wanted his grandmother to call Satoru’s aunt to apologize. To apologize for getting Satoru mixed up in all this.

His grandmother knew her grandson had never been to Tenjin with his parents, but she did as requested, no questions asked.

‘I’m so sorry that Satoru-chan got yelled at because of what Daigo did.’

Satoru’s aunt seemed embarrassed. ‘I’m the one who should apologize,’ she said. ‘Yoshimine-kun wanted to abandon the idea but, apparently, Satoru dragged him along.’

So that was how Satoru had explained things at home.

‘I know you two wouldn’t break the rules without a very good reason,’ Yoshimine’s grandmother said later to him.

He felt choked.