Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Sugi knew exactly where he meant, but couldn’t understand why Satoru would want to go there, instead of to Hakata, which was much larger.

‘I have some distant relatives there,’ Satoru explained. ‘They took in our cat when we couldn’t have him any more. I haven’t been to see him at all since then.’

I see, Sugi thought. It’s not Kokura he wants to visit, but a cat.

‘Why couldn’t you keep it?’

He asked this casually, but Satoru gave a troubled smile. He seemed unsure how to respond, and Sugi was just thinking that maybe he should change the subject when a shadow loomed over them.

‘I heard, I heard.’ Laughing her usual audacious laugh, it was Chikako.

‘Man, you’re always sticking your nose into things, aren’t you?’ Sugi teased her.

‘Shut it,’ she shot back. ‘I know exactly how you feel – wanting to visit your beloved cat. I’ll pitch in and help!’

‘Do you know where I can get work?’ Satoru asked.

‘And where you can begin this very weekend!’ Chikako answered.

‘Really? If there’s a job that good, then tell me about it, too.’ Sugi had been starting to think about finding a summer job himself.

‘Having a part-time job during term time is prohibited, but there is an exception: “This shall not apply to helping out with a family business.” And if it’s helping with a classmate’s family business, if you apply, you can get permission to work just at the weekends. They consider it part of social studies.’

In short, she was telling Satoru he could work in her family’s orchard.

‘The pay isn’t much, but I’ll ask them to pay you weekly, so if you start work now, you should be able to go on your trip at the beginning of August.’

Satoru stood up, so excited he nearly kicked over his chair.

The crop was ready to harvest and a lot of customers were coming to pick fruit in their orchard. Sugi joined them to work there on Sundays, except during exam time. The hourly wages were even less than working in a small supermarket, but by the time the school closing ceremony was over, Satoru had been able to put away about 20,000 yen.

‘What are you going to use your money for, Shu-chan?’ Chikako asked.

‘I haven’t thought about it.’

Which wasn’t exactly true. ‘Hey, do you want to go and see a film?’ he said, trying to make it sound as if he’d just come up with the idea.

‘Your treat?’ As he expected, she leapt at the idea.

‘Okay. I mean, you did get me the job and all.’

‘Great! Maybe I’ll sponge a meal off you as well.’

Only just managing not to physically jump for joy, smiling, Sugi said, ‘Okay, okay.’

‘Great. You weren’t joking, were you? Don’t you dare change your mind later on!’

Chikako, totally thrilled that Sugi would be footing the bill, certainly wasn’t viewing this as a date. But for now that was okay.

There was no need to rush things.

On the first day of the last week of July, Satoru failed to show up for work.

It wasn’t like him – he was always so conscientious – and he hadn’t even been in touch to explain his absence. Sugi wondered what was up.

Satoru turned up an hour late.

‘I’m very sorry I’m late,’ he said, his face pale and stiff.

‘If you don’t feel well, you should take some time off,’ Chikako’s father said, but Satoru insisted he was fine.

At lunchtime, Chikako’s parents told the three of them to come back to the house. Satoru was looking paler than ever.

‘What’s wrong? Has something happened?’ they asked. But again, he obstinately insisted it was nothing, and wouldn’t say any more.

Chikako, silently watching, spoke up. ‘Has something happened to your old cat?’

Satoru’s lips tightened. He dropped his head and screwed up his eyes. Finally he allowed the tears to flow.

‘He was hit by a car,’ he muttered, his voice broken, and then he couldn’t say anything more. It seemed he’d just got the news that morning.

‘You were really fond of that cat, weren’t you?’ Chikako said, putting her arm around his shoulders, to which Satoru murmured back, ‘He was family.’

Why had he been forced to give him away? When Sugi had asked him earlier, he hadn’t responded. If the cat had been regarded as part of the family, it was even more puzzling.

If he was this grief-stricken at the news, he shouldn’t have given the cat away in the first place, thought Sugi, somewhat uncharitably. Perhaps he was a bit jealous of the other two and their shared love of cats.

‘He was the cat we had back when my parents were still alive,’ said Satoru, which put Sugi in his place. God was punishing him, he figured, for having entertained a nasty thought about his poor friend.

‘…And you hoped to be in time to see him.’ Chikako’s kind words were so full of warmth.

Why am I such a low, mean person, when all I want is to be the kind of man Chikako won’t be ashamed of? thought Sugi.

He hadn’t realized that Satoru’s parents were dead.

But even if I had known, I would never have been as sympathetic as Chikako.

‘What are you going to do about the job? Will you carry on?’ asked Sugi.

Beside him, Chikako gave him a Really? Now? type of look.

‘There’s no point in going to Kokura now,’ Satoru said, and gave a faint smile.

Chikako interrupted him. ‘You really should go. Save up your money and go over there to say goodbye.’

Satoru blinked in surprise.

‘You have to mourn your cat properly, or you won’t get over it. Don’t just sit here fretting about being too late. Go there and mourn him. Tell him you’re sorry you didn’t make it in time, that you wanted to see him.’

Sugi knew very well how deeply these words resonated with Satoru, because even he, who’d thought those mean things, was starting to tear up.

Satoru smiled, and decided to get back to work.

Towards the end of the summer holidays, Satoru set off on his trip.

When he came back again, he looked like he’d put the past to rest.

He’d brought back some souvenirs for Sugi and Chikako. For Sugi, some Hakata ramen he’d asked for, and for Chikako, for some reason, he brought back some blotting paper and a hand mirror he’d bought in Kyoto.

‘Wow! This paper is Yojiya!’

Apparently, it was some famous cosmetics brand, and Chikako was ecstatic. A friend of hers called her over and she gave a hurried ‘Thank you!’ and rushed off.

‘So you stopped in Kyoto, too?’ Sugi asked, and Satoru nodded.

‘I was on an elementary-school trip to Kyoto when my parents were killed in a car accident. My mother had asked me to buy Yojiya blotting paper as a present for her. I looked all over but never managed to find it. A friend later managed to find some and bought it for me, but I never bought it myself.’

‘What about the hand mirror?’

‘I just thought that I’d like to buy that for Chikako.’

It hurt to hear all this.

Chikako should be the one to hear this. But Sugi didn’t want her to.

He began to wish it had been somebody else who’d run into Satoru the day they rescued the Shih Tzu.

He didn’t tell Chikako what Satoru had told him about Kyoto. He suppressed his guilty conscience by convincing himself that, if Satoru really wanted her to know, he’d tell her himself.

Now, he was constantly worried that he was losing his advantage of being Chikako’s childhood friend.

She was always calling Satoru by his last name, Miyawaki, while she always called Sugi ‘Shu-chan’.

Some time passed before he saw any significance in this.

If Chikako had known Satoru’s feelings, she would, no doubt, have been drawn to him.

Unlike himself, shamefully struggling to be the kind of man Chikako could be proud of, Satoru was already there.