Hiro Arikawa - The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Satoru was her sister’s and brother-in-law’s child. If he had no relatives, that would be one thing, but since there was a relative who had the financial resources to take him in, she would be shirking her duty if she put him into foster care, so she insisted, in spite of the resistance.

The funeral ended, the estate was settled and, soon afterwards, Noriko adopted Satoru. She told him:

‘You’re going to find out eventually, so I’m going to go ahead and tell you now. Satoru, you are not related by blood to your father or your mother.’

Reality is reality. That was her way of thinking, but when she saw the look on Satoru’s face when she told him, she realized she’d made a big mistake.

Satoru grew pale, and his face contorted in shock.

It was the same blank look he had had after his parents’ deaths. As he approached the two coffins set up in the local community centre, he’d looked as if he had lost everything he had in the world.

Even a tactless person like her knew instantly that in a matter of seconds, because of her, Satoru had lost everything all over again.

When his friends came for the wake, he cried for the first time. Afterwards, the expression on his face slowly returned to normal.

The realization that she had done something unspeakable upset her terribly.

‘Then who are my real father and mother?’ Satoru asked.

‘Your real mother and father are indeed my sister and her husband. The others are just your birth parents.’

Obviously, Satoru had done nothing wrong, but still she spoke like this, as if scolding him. She was so confused, she couldn’t control herself.

‘Your real parents are my sister and her husband; your birth parents merely gave birth to you. They were utterly irresponsible and they were going to let you die when you were a baby.’

This had been Noriko’s first big case as a judge. The couple had been quite young. It was more than a criminal case of child abandonment; it was so extreme that the birth parents had been charged with attempted murder. They’d stopped feeding the baby until he was no longer able even to cry, then had wrapped him in a black plastic bag and thrown him out on the day the rubbish was due to be collected. A neighbour had grown suspicious when he spotted the plastic bag moving and ripped it open. The couple had been walking away when the neighbour reported them.

The trial ended, and Satoru’s birth parents were given the prison terms they deserved, but there was nowhere to place Satoru. The only option left was an orphanage.

The whole case had almost been too much for Noriko. Imposing a punishment that befitted the crime – that she could do, but it did nothing to secure a future for the innocent baby.

Her sister had been the one who helped her cope with this ordeal. It was a major case, and her sister had been following it since the start.

‘People should really go through a vetting process in order to get married,’ Noriko had grumbled at the time. ‘If couples with kids were all like you and your husband, sis, then this type of crime would never happen.’

Just as she said this, she felt a cold trickle of sweat run down her back. After her sister had got married, she’d found out she wasn’t able to have children. The criticism from her husband’s family had been hurtful, and her husband had distanced himself from them, yet even so her sister remained anxious.

It was soon after this that Noriko’s sister told her that she wanted to adopt Satoru. Just before he was due to be sent to an orphanage.

‘It’s because you told me we would be good parents,’ she had said, smiling.

Satoru had been devastated by the news.

‘Your birth parents just gave birth to you, that’s all,’ Noriko had reassured him. ‘Your real parents were my sister and brother-in-law. So it was my duty to take you in.’

Noriko had said this to put Satoru’s mind at ease, but she had instantly regretted using the word ‘duty’. It sounded so stiff and formal.

‘Satoru, you don’t need to worry about a thing,’ she had added, in an attempt to make up for it.

The criticism her male relatives had of Noriko – that she needed to be more careful about what she said – was spot on. From the very beginning, she’d got it all wrong with Satoru, telling him things she never should have.

‘That’s why she can’t find a husband,’ they had said. And, she thought now, they were probably quite right. At the time, she’d had a boyfriend, but soon after she adopted Satoru they split up. Her boyfriend seemed upset that she hadn’t consulted him before making the decision.

‘Why didn’t you talk to me about this?’ he had reproached her, and she had explained that, since Satoru was her nephew, she hadn’t thought she needed to.

At that moment, the barriers had gone up, and she knew it. It seemed that, once again, she’d been incredibly insensitive.

Learning to have some insight into other people’s sensitivities was, she concluded, more difficult than mastering the law.

The cat that Satoru had owned ended up being taken in by a distant relative.

This relative – such a distant relation that Noriko didn’t feel at all close to him – had tousled Satoru’s hair and said, ‘Don’t worry. Everyone in our family loves cats, so we’ll take good care of him.’

Satoru had given him a cheerful look and nodded. Not once since the day his parents died had Satoru looked at her in that way.

Occasionally, this relative would send them a photo of the cat. But before long, these letters became few and far between, though the annual New Year’s card from them always had a photo of Hachi printed on it and a short message: Hachi’s doing well!

The family were considerate enough to let them know when Hachi died, and when Satoru went to visit the grave they welcomed him warmly.

Maybe Satoru would have been happier if they had taken him in, too – even now, the thought occurred to her sometimes. When all the other relatives had hesitated to take in this child to whom they had no blood ties, this family had said, ‘If only we had the means, we’d have liked to help out.’ They had other children already, quite a lot in those days. ‘It’s a question of money, you know,’ they’d said, smiling awkwardly.

But couldn’t they have taken Satoru, if Noriko had helped them out financially? Was taking him in herself just egotistical, all about her not wanting to give up the one thing her sister had left behind?

She had thought about all these things for the longest time.

Noriko had started to weep.

‘I think you would have been much happier if your relative in Kokura had adopted you.’

‘Why?’ Satoru blinked in surprise. ‘He’s a nice man and everything, but I’m glad you took me in, Aunt Noriko.’

Now it was her turn to ask why.

‘Well, you’re my mother’s younger sister. You’re the one who can tell me the most about my parents.’

‘But right after they died, I went and told you that awful thing—’

Satoru cut her off. ‘I was pretty shocked when I heard that, I grant you. But because you told me that, I was able to appreciate just how happy I’d been with them.’

Noriko looked dubious. Satoru laughed.

‘I never, ever thought they weren’t my real parents. That’s how much they treated me like their own child. Though my birth parents didn’t want me, another man and woman loved me that much – I mean, you don’t find such incredible love very often.’

That’s why I’m so happy . Satoru had said this to me, his face beaming, many times.

I GET IT. Having had Satoru take me in as his cat, I think I felt as lucky as he did.