Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

‘I’m really sorry it’s come to this.’

No need to explain. I’m quick on the uptake.

‘I never intended to let you go.’

Life, be it human or feline, doesn’t always work out the way you think it will.

If I had to give up living with Satoru, I’d just go back to the way I was five years ago. Back when the bone was sticking out of my leg. If we’d said goodbye and I’d gone back to life on the streets, it would not have been a big deal. I could go back to being a stray tomorrow, no problem.

I wouldn’t have lost anything. Just gained the name Nana, and the five years I’d spent with Satoru.

So don’t look so glum, chum.

Cats just quietly take whatever comes their way.

The only exception so far was the night I broke my leg and thought of Satoru.

‘Well, shall we go?’

It seemed Satoru wanted me to go with him somewhere. He opened the door of my basket and I got in without making a fuss. For the five years I’d lived with him, I’d always been a sensible cat. For instance, even when he took me to my bête noire, the vet, I didn’t make a racket.

Okay then – let’s go. As Satoru’s roommate, I had been a perfect cat, so I should be the perfect companion on this journey he seemed so intent on making.

My basket in hand, Satoru got into the silver van.

LONG TIME NO see.

So began the email.

It was from Satoru Miyawaki, a childhood friend of Kosuke’s who had moved away when he was in elementary school. He had moved around quite a bit after that, but they never completely lost touch, and even now, when they were both past thirty, they were still friends.

Sorry this is out of the blue, but would you be able to take my cat for me?

It was his precious cat, which ‘unavoidable circumstances’ were preventing him from keeping any longer, and he was now looking for someone to take care of it.

What these unavoidable circumstances were, he didn’t say.

He’d attached two photos. A cat with two spots on his forehead forming the character hachi – eight.

‘Whoa!’ Kosuke couldn’t help saying. ‘This cat looks exactly like Hachi.’

The cat in the photo looked just like the one Satoru and Kosuke had found that day so many years ago.

Kosuke scrolled to a second photo, a close-up of the cat’s tail. A hooked tail like the number seven.

Aren’t cats with hooked tails supposed to bring good fortune? thought Kosuke.

He tried to recall who had told him that. Then he sighed, realizing it had been his wife, who’d gone to live with her parents for a while. Kosuke had no clue when she’d be back.

He was beginning to get the faint sense that maybe she never would.

The ridiculous thought crossed his mind that perhaps if they’d had a cat like this, things might have been different.

With a cat hanging around the house, a cat with a hooked tail to gather in pieces of happiness, maybe they’d be able to live a simpler, more innocent life. Even without any children.

Might be good to have the cat, he was thinking. The cat in the photo was good-looking, a lot like Hachi, with the hooked tail and everything. And he hadn’t seen Satoru for a long time.

A friend asked me to take his cat for him, so what do you think? Kosuke emailed his wife, and she answered: Do whatever you like. A tad cold, he thought, but since she hadn’t replied to a single email since she’d left, it felt good to hear from her, at least.

He began to wonder if his wife, a true cat lover, might actually come home if he took in the cat. Perhaps if he told her he had adopted the animal but didn’t know how to look after it and begged her to help, perhaps she would come back solely out of sympathy for the cat.

No. Dad hates cats, so that won’t work. He caught his own knee-jerk reaction; he was worrying, as usual, about what his father might think.

This was exactly why his wife had got fed up with him. Kosuke was the one running the business now, and there was no need to worry about how his dad would feel about things. Yet still he did.

So, partly as a reaction against his dad, he threw his name – Kosuke Sawada – into the ring as a candidate willing to take in his childhood friend’s cat.

Satoru wasted no time coming over to Kosuke’s place, arriving on Kosuke’s day off the following week in his silver van, along with his beloved cat.

When he heard a car engine outside his shop, Kosuke wandered out to find Satoru pulling into the shop’s parking lot.

‘Kosuke! It’s been ages!’

Satoru took his hands off the wheel and waved out of the open driver’s-side window.

‘Just hurry up and park,’ Kosuke urged. He was excited to see Satoru. The guy hadn’t changed at all since he was a kid.

‘You should have parked at the end. It’s easier.’

There were three parking spaces for customers right in front of the shop and Satoru had pulled into the spot furthest from the entrance, where a small shed and piles of boxes made it a tight fit.

‘Ah, is that right?’ Satoru said, scratching his head as he got out of the van. ‘I didn’t want to take up a space in case a customer needed it. Well, it’s done now.’ He took the cat basket from the back seat.

‘Is that Nana?’

‘Yep. I sent you a photo so you could see how his tail is shaped like a seven. Great name, don’t you think?’

‘I don’t know if I’d call it great, exactly… You always choose kind of quirky names… Like Hachi.’

Kosuke ushered them into his living room and tried to get a good look at Nana’s face, but all Nana did was give a moody growl and turn himself around. When Kosuke peered inside the basket, all he could make out was the black hooked tail and white rear end.

‘What’s the matter, Nana? Nana-chan…?’

Satoru tried to coax Nana out, but eventually gave up.

‘Sorry about that. He must be nervous about being in a different house. Give it some time and I’m sure he’ll settle down…’

They left the basket door open and sat on the sofa together to reminisce over old times.

‘You’re driving, so alcohol’s no good. What would you like to drink? Coffee? Tea?’

Kosuke brewed two cups of coffee. Satoru took his carefully and asked, innocently enough, ‘Is your wife here today?’

Kosuke had intended to avoid the issue but, after an awkward silence, failed to come up with a plausible excuse.

‘She went back to her parents’ place.’

‘Oh…’

Satoru’s face was hard to describe. A sorry I didn’t realize that was such a sore point kind of look.

‘Is it okay for you to make a decision about the cat on your own? Won’t you two quarrel about it when she comes home?’

‘She likes cats. In fact, taking the cat might lure her back.’

‘Yeah, but not everybody likes the same type of cat.’

‘I forwarded those photos of Nana to her and asked her what she thought, and she said I should do whatever I like.’

‘That doesn’t sound like she’s on board with the idea.’

‘It’s the only time since she left that she’s answered one of my emails.’

Taking the cat might lure her back – Kosuke had said it as a joke, but he was actually hoping it might be true.

‘She’s not the type of woman to chuck out a cat. And if she never comes home, then I’ll look after it myself. Either way, I don’t see any problem.’

‘I see,’ Satoru said, backing down. Now it was Kosuke’s turn to ask the questions.