Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Sugi had found it hard to ask this question in an email, so he had planned to do it when they were face to face.

‘Yeah, well… you know…’ Satoru gave a troubled smile, and when he did, he suddenly looked very old.

‘I heard the business group your company belongs to has started to lay people off.’

‘It’s not really that… There are other things involved.’

Chikako gave Sugi a stealthy wink to signal him to stop. Okay , he signalled back.

‘I was so relieved when you said you’d take Nana for me. I’ve asked quite a few people now, and taken Nana to see them, but somehow it just hasn’t worked out.’

‘There’s one thing I’d like to say upfront, Satoru,’ Chikako said, sitting up straight. ‘We’re thinking of it as temporary. We’ll take good care of Nana, of course, but if things work out for you so you can take him again, we’ll have no problem if you come back for him, any time.’

Satoru looked as though this had really struck a chord, and for a moment he pursed his lips and looked at his feet.

That face – lips pursed, trying his best to keep his feelings in check – was one both Chikako and Sugi had seen before.

Suddenly Satoru looked up and smiled.

‘Thank you. I’m sorry to be so selfish, but it really makes me happy to hear that.’

SATORU HAD BECOME a mutual friend, but Sugi had been the first one to form a bond with him.

In the spring of their first year in high school, the three of them were all in the same class.

In their new form room, students from their previous junior high tended to group together, weighing up the situation, wondering who to make friends with. Satoru wasn’t hanging out with anyone. There didn’t seem to be anyone else from the school he had just come from.

They learned later that he’d arrived from another prefecture during the spring holidays and had taken the transfer exam, which was why he didn’t know a soul.

It was during one of the periodic exams that they became friends.

Sugi had crammed all night for the exam, and his head was stuffed with mathematical equations and English vocabulary. He was on his bike, heading to school, pedalling as gently as he could, in case some unexpected jolt or vibration drove all the facts he’d memorized from his brain.

Along the road to school, he spied a face he knew. That looks like Satoru from my class, he thought, as he drew closer. Satoru had got off his bike and was standing beside a wide ditch.

The ditch was the width of a stream, an agricultural irrigation channel lined with concrete on both sides, about as deep as a child was tall. Satoru was staring down at it, a serious look on his face.

Sugi wondered what he was up to, but didn’t have much time to spare before school started. Their eyes had met, so he thought he’d just give him a nod and pass on by, but he began to feel that that would make things awkward later, so after he’d gone on a little bit, he stopped.

‘What’re you doing?’ Sugi asked.

Satoru looked over at him, as if surprised. He must have thought Sugi would just cycle by.

‘Um, I found something a little troubling, that’s all.’

Satoru pointed down at the ditch, where Sugi could now see a small dog shivering. The dog had managed to scramble on top of a tiny sandbar where gravel and dirt had piled up, and his thick white-and-brown fur was soaked and plastered to him.

‘It’s a Shih Tzu.’

Sugi knew the breed, because Chikako’s family had one. They ran a fruit orchard, loved animals, and ever since she was a young child they’d had several dogs and cats, which was something that drew customers in. And Sugi had always envied their attitude to animals.

Sugi’s family lived in company housing; his father was a middle-management company employee, and because of his mother’s allergies, the only pets she would allow were hairless ones such as goldfish or turtles. His dream had always been to have a dog, but this was never going to happen in his own house, so being with Chikako’s family at least came close.

‘He must have fallen in.’

‘I guess so,’ Satoru said, nodding. There were no steps down to the ditch that they could see.

‘He’s not the type of dog you’d expect to be a stray, so I reckon he must have wandered away from his home and got lost…’

At Chikako’s, during the day they let their dogs run free in the orchards so the customers who came to pick fruit could enjoy their company, but at night they always made sure they were brought inside the house.

‘Go on ahead. You don’t need to stick around,’ Satoru urged him, but for Sugi it was a delicate decision. If it emerged later that he’d ignored a poor little dog that had fallen into a ditch, then Chikako would be pretty upset.

‘Yeah, but I’m worried about him.’

Glancing at his watch, Sugi got off his bike. He was going to be late for school, but if he got there before first period he’d still be able to take the exam.

‘Let’s sort this out as quickly as we can.’

Satoru smiled. ‘You’re a good guy, Sugi.’

All he’d been worried about was Chikako’s reaction, and he found this praise from Satoru embarrassing.

‘If we go down there, our ankles will get soaked.’

The sandbar where the Shih Tzu was standing was too far away to leap to from either side of the ditch. The water was full of algae and grass so they couldn’t see the bottom, and they were reluctant to take their shoes off in case there were any pieces of glass.

Sugi noticed a pile of boards left on the side of the road, the remnants, perhaps, of some scaffolding. He ran over and pulled one out.

‘If we angle it down near the dog, he might be able to use it as a bridge and climb along it.’

‘Maybe.’

But even with the board right in front of it, the Shih Tzu didn’t react.

They tried calling, but the dog just stood there trembling, not taking a single step.

‘Maybe it can’t see it,’ Satoru said, a serious look on his face. ‘If you look at him closely from the side, his eyes are a bit cloudy. He might be getting cataracts.’

It was hard to tell the age of the baby-faced dog, but its coat was definitely a bit worn.

‘Amazing that the little guy made it this far!’

There was a busy motorway nearby; it was a miracle the dog hadn’t been run over. Perhaps it had fallen into the ditch because it couldn’t see properly.

‘I’m going to go down. If I use this, I won’t get wet.’ Satoru put a foot on the board they’d stretched out towards the dog.

‘Be careful, it’s dangerous.’

The board was old and weathered. It might not even hold a dog’s weight, let alone that of a high-school boy. Just as these thoughts were going through Sugi’s head, the board let out an ominous creak.

‘Whoa!’

Satoru swayed on the board, and in an instant, it had split completely in two and collapsed into the ditch. There was a loud splash and a spray of water as Satoru landed on his rear in the ankle-deep stream.

Woof woof woof. The Shih Tzu barked, and started to splash his way blindly through the water.

‘Wa-wait!’

Satoru scrambled to his feet and tried to follow him. But his splashing only scared the Shih Tzu even more, and he didn’t stop. You wouldn’t know he was old and half blind, the way the dog tore through the water.

‘I’ll run ahead and climb down! We’ll catch him. Don’t let him get away!’

Sugi hared down the road, past the fleeing Shih Tzu, and took a flying leap into the ditch.

There was an explosion of water. The Shih Tzu leapt into the air and screeched to a halt. Then he spun around and started to race back the way he had come.