Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Sparrows huddled in rows on the power lines. Dogs cheerfully ploughed their way through snow banks in the park. Cats in the town quietly slipped into the few spots that would keep them out of the cold: sheds, garages, warm kitchens.

There were still a lot of things the two of us had never seen before.

‘My, what a cute cat. Out for a walk?’

It was a bright, clear day, and a charming old lady at the park had called out to us.

‘What’s his name?’

‘He’s called Nana. After the shape of his tail, like a seven.’

Satoru hadn’t changed. He was still the same cat-loving guy, intent on explaining the origins of my name to every passer-by.

‘He’s very well behaved, isn’t he, walking beside you like that?’ said the old lady.

‘He certainly is.’

After we’d said goodbye, Satoru picked me up, his fingers, no longer strong and broad but thinning and fragile, finding their way around my belly.

‘You are very well behaved, so I know you’ll be a good boy from now on.’

From now on? When hadn’t I been a good boy? Kind of impolite to have to make sure of that now, don’t you think?

The streets were filled with festive lights, and, as if that weren’t enough, Christmas adverts spilled out of TVs everywhere. In the evening, Satoru and Noriko ate Christmas cake, and they gave me some tuna sashimi, to which I was more than a little partial. The next morning, all their energy turned to preparing for New Year.

On New Year’s Day, they gave me some chicken breast, but after sniffing it a few times I kicked sand on top of it. There was no actual sand there, of course, so it was only air sand.

‘What’s wrong, Nana? Don’t you like it?’

Satoru looked puzzled. I would have loved to have eaten it, but it smelled funny.

‘Aunt Noriko, is this chicken the same kind you always give him?’

‘Well, given the occasion, I splashed out. I steamed some special local free-range chicken.’

‘Did you add something to it when you steamed it?’

‘I poured in a bit of sake so it wouldn’t smell so much.’

Humph. I rest my case, Noriko.

‘Sorry, but it seems like Nana can’t eat it because it smells like sake now.’

‘Really? It was only a couple of drops.’

‘Cats have an excellent sense of smell.’

‘I thought that was dogs? Six thousand times more sensitive than humans, they say.’

Noriko’s not a bad sort, but at times like this she tends to overthink things. It’s true that dogs are known for their great sense of smell, but that doesn’t mean cats don’t have a good nose. I mean, no one needs a sense of smell six thousand times better than humans to discern that sake has been sprinkled on a chicken breast.

‘Cats are way more sensitive to smell than humans as well.’

Satoru was in the kitchen, and he prepared my usual safe, high-quality chicken breast and brought it over to me on a clean plate, taking away the chicken that had had those unnecessary things done to it.

‘That sake-steamed meat, I’ll put it in my ozoni .’

Noriko let out a deep sigh.

‘Until Nana came here, I never would have imagined that a person would eat a cat’s leftovers.’

‘It happens sometimes when you have a cat. And these aren’t leftovers. He didn’t touch it, so it’s perfectly safe.’

Satoru put the meat in his bowl of ozoni soup as a topping.

‘What will people think if they hear I gave you something to eat that even a cat wouldn’t touch? Please don’t mention it to anyone.’

‘Anybody who has a cat will understand.’

Satoru and Noriko then said ‘Happy New Year’ to each other and started eating their ozoni .

‘Nana’s only been here three months, but in that time I’ve found that cats really are odd creatures.’

Ah, so that’s how you think of me, and we’re barely into the New Year? I’ll have you know, that’s the kind of rudeness I simply can’t overlook.

‘And that box…’

The cardboard box was still in the corner of the living room. Noriko had resentfully let it be known that she wanted to toss it out before the New Year.

‘A new one would be so much better…’

Sorry to tell you this, but you’re missing the point.

‘And why does he go into a box that’s clearly too small for him? It’s obvious it’s not big enough.’

Hit a sore spot, why don’t you?

‘The other day he thrust his front paw into a jewellery case.’

‘Yep, that’s the way cats are.’ Satoru nodded happily.

‘And once he tried putting his paw in a tiny box that had contained a watch.’

What can I say? It’s instinct, pure and simple. Cats are always looking for a nice cosy space that will fit just right.

So when I spy a nice square box that’s slightly open, instinct doesn’t allow me to let it go. Because maybe – just maybe – if I stick my paw inside, some device in there might make it expand? ’Course, up till now, I haven’t had any luck at all with that.

Though I do hear there’s a cat in some cold foreign country who keeps on opening doors, thinking that, eventually, one of them will lead to summer.

‘I’m sorry, but I can’t eat any more.’

Satoru laid his chopsticks down. For a moment, I saw a sad look cross Noriko’s face. She had only put one omochi in Satoru’s bowl. And he had barely touched the lavish spread of New Year’s delicacies she’d bought specially at a department store.

‘It was delicious. My mum always used to include taro root, snow peas and carrots in her ozoni . And the way you season it is like the way Mum did it, too.’

‘That’s because, for me, my sister’s cooking was the taste of home.’

‘I remember when I first came to live with you, how relieved I was to find that the food tasted like Mum’s cooking. I think that’s why I got used to living with you so quickly.’ Satoru smiled broadly. ‘I’m glad you’re the one who looked after me.’

Noriko gasped, as if surprised, and avoided his eyes. She looked down and murmured, ‘I… I wasn’t such a good guardian. If you had gone to live with someone else, maybe it would have been bet—’

‘I’m glad you’re the one who took me in,’ said Satoru, ignoring her words.

Noriko gulped again, her throat pulsing like a frog’s. Now who was it, when they first met me, who freaked out about my throat making a funny sound? Hm? That’s a pretty funny sound you’re making yourself, if you don’t mind me saying.

‘But that thing I said to you, when I first took you in.’

‘I was going to find out some day. You didn’t do anything wrong.’

‘But…’ Noriko sniffled as she continued to look down. Still gulping over and over like a frog, and in between gulps murmuring, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ over and over.

‘I shouldn’t have said that to you.’

Her voice had become husky.

WHEN NORIKO HEARD the news of her sister and brother-in-law’s deaths, she went to the funeral intent on taking Satoru in, even though she was single. Satoru was the one thing her sister would have been worried about and Noriko was determined to do whatever she could for him.

Relatives from her brother-in-law’s side of the family made a token appearance at the funeral and left without touching on the issue of what was to be done with Satoru at all.

And on her side of the family there was no one else willing to take the decision to have him. When Noriko said she would, some of them were worried, saying a woman on her own might not be able to manage. Most of them suggested putting the boy in foster care.