by Eiko Kadono
The old lady looked around. Surprisingly, every object in the house was wearing a woolen belly band: the phone, the coffee cups, the pots, the medicine bottles, the kettle, the thermos, the tea caddy, her boots, the potted plants, her walking stick….
“Oh, yes. That one’ll work.” The woman stood up and removed the thermos’s belly band. “A magic bottle that keeps soup hot and a magic cat—same thing. Plus, this belly band is a magic belly band, too—it has polka dots on one side and stripes on the other. It’s perfect!” Her mouth wrinkled into a delighted smile as she put the band on Jiji.
The knit belly band was a mix of peach tones. The polka-dot side looked like apricot flowers in full bloom, and the striped side was like spring mist at sunrise.
“Oh, how pretty!” Kiki exclaimed. Then she said to Jiji, “It looks great against your black fur.”
But Jiji didn’t seem to care for it. He stuck his tail up straight, turned his head in a huff, and walked away.
“I’ll knit one for you, too,” the woman said somewhat apologetically. “It’s not much for a delivery, but it would help me out if you’ll accept two belly bands.”
“Yes, of course. That’s fine.” Kiki smiled with a nod.
The woman smiled, too, and said, “You won’t have to worry once you have a belly band. There’s no better, cheaper way to stay healthy. Just the other day, I recommended it to the mayor. ‘You want people to think you’re an upstanding citizen, right? Better hide your flaws with a belly band.’ And did you know that all the animals at the zoo got stomachaches from chilly tummies? I even recommended they give them belly bands! But the zookeepers are like my son—they never listen to me. Still, I don’t care what they say this year. I’m knitting a bunch and taking them over there.” The old woman had beads of sweat on her little face.
“Oh, I see.” Kiki pointed at the pretty belly band the lady had just finished knitting. “You must want me to deliver the elephant’s belly band.” It had blue and white stripes that looked like a mix of clouds and sky, and it struck her as awfully big.
“No, this is for my son. He’s a putt-putt boat captain. And he left early this morning, saying he had something very special to ship. You know the Morimo Peninsula all the way at the edge of Koriko Bay? Over there. And the precious cargo, well, it’s fancy wine in bottles so big you need both arms to carry them. And supposedly, if you don’t take extra care when transporting them, the wine will go bad all at once—ker-bam. Do flavors really make sounds like ‘ker-bam’? I’ve never heard one like that before.”
The old woman twisted her lips in thought and then continued. “Morimo Peninsula has two mountains, right? I guess that’s why they thought it would be less rocky over the water. But the sea has mountains called waves—and far more than two! I wonder if they’ll be all right.”
The old woman paused for a breath but didn’t wait for Kiki to reply before starting up again. “This is where the request for you comes in. My son’s boat is a white boat called Tete. Lately, she’s gotten old, like me, and instead of saying putt-putt, like a normal boat, she steams and says pukaaatt, pukaaaatt, like she’s yawning. And to make sure the mission goes well, I want to give my son this belly band. I told him, so he should know to look for you. Search for them along the big river. They should be easy to spot. If he would just listen to me, we wouldn’t have to go through this, but…” She shrugged with a sigh.
Kiki accepted the giant belly band but cocked her head. Just how big is this son of hers? His mom is so little….
Then the old woman said, “If my son starts complaining again, you go ahead and put the band on for him. If it’s too big, you can pinch it together; if it’s too small, you can stretch it out. Either way, it’ll be fine.”
Kiki was still a bit confused, but she smiled anyway. “Okay, understood.”
She slung the huge belly band over her shoulders like a cape and took off.
* * *
“This is so warm,” Kiki said, flying with the belly band around her. “It’s a great idea.”
Jiji mumbled, “I’ve got a respectable coat of fur. If you put wool over it, I end up a sheep cat. But you can’t say no to your elders.”
Still, the peachy colors of his small belly band were pretty, so he didn’t seem that upset.
“It looks good on you,” Kiki said.
“Maybe this can count as dressing up strangely as you suggested,” he said, reaching back to her earlier teasing.
Where the big river met the sea, there was a bay. Two large passenger ships were at the wharf, and another was being pushed in to anchor by a tugboat. Countless smaller boats sailed around the area. Wheet-wheet-wheet! Kiki heard a whistle blow some sort of signal. Out ahead and to her left, the Morimo Peninsula extended in the shape of a woman’s lips. From high up in the sky, everything seemed to be moving so slowly that Kiki grew impatient. She periodically stopped to hover and look for the boat named Tete. When she couldn’t find it in the port, she went farther out to sea. The wind began to blow stronger, whipping up from below. The number of boats fell off suddenly, so there was only a sprinkling here and there. In the distance, she saw what looked like a putt-putt boat. When she got closer, she heard the yawn-like pukaaatt, pukaaatt coming out of the smokestack along with the steam. Though the paint on the boat’s side was coming off, she could still make out the name Tete.
Kiki called down to them from the sky. “Ms. Tete! Mr. Captain! I have a delivery for you!”
The sailors on the deck, gently carrying a load of bottles, jerked their heads up.
“I’m from Kiki’s Delivery Service. May I land?”
“Sure, go ahead.” The captain poked his head out of the wheelhouse and waved. Then he abruptly lowered his voice. “But please land softly so as not to startle the cargo.”
“Oh, I thought you were transporting wine, but it’s some kind of creature?” Kiki lowered her voice and quietly touched down on the deck.
The gathering of sailors stared, startled to see a girl fly out of the sky. But Kiki was even more surprised. The only big stomach she had imagined was the captain’s, but all the sailors on the ship had perfectly round, puffy bellies, too. Looking around, Kiki said, “Captain, I have a delivery from your mother. It’s a toasty belly band.”
“What?” the captain said, exasperated. “My mother is awfully stubborn.”
The sailors exchanged glances, as if to say, There’s no stopping that old woman.
“I think this is too big for your stomach, though.” Kiki spread out the blue-and-white belly band, which looked even prettier out at sea. “You’ll be swimming in it. She said to pinch it together, but even if I did that—”
“What a thing to say! It’s not for me. This belly band goes around the boat’s smokestack—because she started saying pukaaatt, pukaaatt even though she’s a putt-putt boat. My mother thinks it started because the smokestack’s belly caught a chill. That’s why she says a belly band will solve it, but I can’t keep up with her nonsense.”
“It’s for the smokestack?” Kiki looked up blankly at the stack. Aha. In that case, the size makes sense.
The captain scowled. “Mother won’t rest until she’s warmed every belly in the world. What am I supposed to do? Take a look at this. I actually listen to what she says, and here’s what happens to me.”
The captain labored to unbutton his nearly bursting coat, and underneath it were layers and layers of belly bands. Bright colors swirled around him.
“Us too. We can hardly move.”
The sailors next to him lifted their coats to reveal their own swirling belly bands. What Kiki had thought were round bellies turned out to be belly band bellies. She leaned back and burst out laughing.
“Umm, Captain? Isn’t this…” One of the sailors spoke up nervously. “You’re the Kiki’s Delivery Service that gets buzzed about in town, right?”
“Then maybe we should make a request. Rumor has it you deliver anything. Could you carry this whole boat? There aren’t any pesky waves up in the sky.”
“Excuse me? What?” Kiki couldn’t believe her ears. “The whole boat? That’s impossible. Why would you ask me to do that?”
“It’s because of this cargo,” the captain said. “It’s fine wine, so it needs to be transported with care. We aren’t going far, so I thought it would be fine to keep the bottles on the deck, but that was a mistake. They end up banging together, which will ruin the wine’s flavor. I’ve got all my men trying to hold them steady as best they can, but it’s a tough job.”
Once he mentioned it, Kiki noticed that the bottles on the deck were rattling against each other, creating little bubbles in the wine.
“What if you let them go instead?”
“Then they’d just roll all over the place. Do you think it’d be too hard to fly with the boat?”
Kiki’s eyes roamed around the ship deck anxiously. The sign at her shop said she could deliver anything. It wouldn’t do to break that promise. But no matter how much a boat yawned pukaaatt, pukaaatt, it was still a boat. She couldn’t simply pick it up and carry it.
“Um, well, the idea is that the bottles can’t bump into each other, right?” Kiki looked back and forth between the sailors’ puffy stomachs and the bottles that were puffed up in the same way.
“Yes, yes, that’s right. It seems simple, but on a boat it’s hard.”
“Then I might have an idea. We can solve two problems at once.”
“Wh-what’s your idea?” The captain and his sailors all leaned in.
“But you’ll need to go against your mother’s advice.” Kiki eyed the captain.
“Let’s have my mother look the other way.” The captain grinned and shrugged.
“In that case,” Kiki said, raising her voice. “What if you all took off your belly bands and put them around the bottles? Then you’ll be able to move around better. Plus, the bottles won’t bang together, and the wine won’t go bad.”
“Ohhh, I see.” The captain began to take off his belly bands at once. He pulled them down around his feet, and his round stomach disappeared. The sailors weren’t about to be left out, so they began removing theirs, too. In no time, there was a mountain of multicolored belly bands on the deck, and next to it, a group of slimmed-down sailors.
They carefully dressed each bottle in a belly band. Now the bottles were lined up on the deck with multicolored belly bands. The rattling noises ceased.
“Aha!” Everyone nodded, relieved.
“Well, I’ll be going…,” Kiki began as she mounted her broom with Jiji. But then she turned and told the captain, “Oh, I almost forgot the smokestack belly band! You should follow at least some of your mom’s advice. How about putting it on?”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right,” the captain said. He seemed reluctant but also a little bit relieved. The sailors nodded in agreement. Then they all worked together to put the blue-and-white belly band around the smokestack.
“Okay, now I’ll be going.” Kiki waved and took off, then turned her broom toward the town of Koriko. Behind her she could hear the sound of the boat, and maybe it was her imagination, but she thought it sounded less like pukaaatt, pukaaatt and more like putt-putt.
The next day, Kiki saw something surprising in the newspaper. An article said the entire crew of the Tete had caught tummy chills. Below that was another item.
A liquor shop on the Morimo Peninsula has begun selling bottles of wine with beautiful woolen wraps. Both the wine’s flavor and the bottle’s looks are worthy of attention. It is a bit expensive, though.
A week went by and Jiji hadn’t taken off the belly band the old woman had given him. On the contrary, he flicked it with his tail to keep it clean. Kiki suspected it had something to do with a townsperson murmuring, “That witch’s cat is different from normal cats. He must be keeping his magic warm.”
And about another week later, Kiki received word from the old woman that her belly band was finished. When she went to pick it up, the woman gave her a belly band knit with so many colors it looked like the inside of a jar of hard candies. “You always wear black clothes,” the woman said. “So at least enjoy a bright belly band.”
But Kiki had one final request. “Ma’am, could you please teach me to knit? I want to learn different skills.”
“Yes, that’s no trouble at all.” The old woman smiled at Kiki. “What do you want to knit?”
“Something for my mom and dad—”
“Belly bands—of course! That’s a wonderful idea.”
It was New Year’s Eve in Koriko. In another four hours, the current year would be over. Every house seemed ready—all the windows were shiny clean, and an orange-colored glow spilled out onto the street from people’s homes.
Kiki’s heart ached. Back home, New Year’s Eve was always a time for her family to enjoy together. But this year it was just her and Jiji, and she couldn’t return home to celebrate her coming of age until a full year had passed.
In Kiki’s hometown, it was a New Year’s Eve tradition to eat big meatballs simmered with tomatoes. So, Kiki pulled herself together and got to work. She made meatballs as big as apples and simmered them with boiled tomatoes she had saved from the summer, remembering how her mother used to do it.
At home, everyone would eat and share their memories of the past year. When the clock struck midnight, they would hug the person next to them and say, It was a good year for both of us, wasn’t it?
“Hey, Jiji,” Kiki said, shaking salt and pepper over the pot. “This year it’s just us two, but let’s eat meatballs, and when the clock strikes midnight, let’s do the usual New Year’s greeting, okay?”
“Sure, that sounds fine. Even if the year ends like this, we’ll be all right. Depending on your perspective, it was a pretty good one.” Jiji reached out his front paws and stretched.
It’s New Year’s Eve, but something seems off, Kiki thought. She cocked her head as she tasted the sauce. The streets were noisier than usual. People seemed to be gathering outside. But now’s the time to be around the table at home, not out around town.
“Hello?” Osono opened the door to the shop and came in carrying her daughter. The baby was much bigger now and was even able to kick her legs. “Listen, can you hear it?” Osono said in a singsong voice.
Kiki looked at Osono blankly for a moment. Perplexed, she asked, “Listen? To what?”
This time it was Osono who stared blankly at Kiki. “Ah! That’s right!” She shook her head, realizing her mistake. “You don’t know how this town celebrates New Year’s, do you? I should have told you. Look, see that clock?” She pointed out the window at the hazy clock tower in the distance. “I don’t know who built it, but that tall clock over by the town hall—if you look at it, wanting to know the time, it’s usually hidden behind the clouds. And even if it isn’t, it hurts to crane your neck, so no one really looks at it much. But it does serve an important purpose once a year—on New Year’s Eve. That clock only rings on New Year’s Eve and only at midnight. It chimes twelve times—bong, bong. And then the entire town runs. We start by the clock and do a big loop around town. In other words, we kick off the new year with a running start. We’ve had this important ritual every year since the clock tower was built. And at some point, since we’re all trying to make sure we don’t miss the bells, our New Year’s greeting ended up being ‘Listen, can you hear it?’ ”
“So, that’s why the streets are so busy?” Kiki said, finally understanding.
“Yes, naturally. The early birds left their houses a long time ago and are already out mingling and waiting together.”
“In that case, is it okay for me to run, too?” Kiki asked, leaning in.
�
��Of course. But no flying!”
“I would never cheat like that.”
“My plan is to run alongside my husband with the baby on my back. You can come with us.”
As soon as Osono left, Kiki lifted her skirt and began stretching her legs and stamping her feet. Even Jiji shook his legs out one at a time, warming up.
* * *
Two hours later, the young mayor of Koriko, finished with all his work for the year, sat at his desk, stretching. After being elected at the beginning of the year, everything had gone well. And “despite being so young,” the townspeople held him in high esteem for his performance. On this night, the last of the year, he felt more enthusiastic than ever. He was determined to lead the way in the New Year’s race and prove himself as even more reliable to the townspeople.
One, two, one, two, he lifted his hands above his head; three, four, three, four, he stamped his feet. Then he opened his window, looked down at the town, and shouted the New Year’s greeting at the top of his lungs. “Listen, can you hear it?”
In that moment, he was so shocked he nearly slipped through the window. His office was on the very top of the town hall, so with the window open, he could usually hear the faint sound of the clock far above in its tower, even if it was cloudy or raining. But instead of the usual orderly ticking, it seemed to almost be yawning—tick-tock, ick-ock, pick-pock. The mayor leaned out the window and looked up at the clock in a panic. Then the clock offered a final ck-ck-ck and stopped. It was ten-thirty-six. There was only an hour and twenty-four minutes until the clock’s once-a-year job at midnight.
The mayor leaped for the phone and called the clockmaker who had cared for the tower for generations. “The clock tower clock stopped! Please come quickly—and whatever you do, don’t let the townspeople find out.”
As soon the mayor hung up the phone, he headed across the street and raced up the inside of the tower. The clock had never failed since it was built. It ensured that the New Year Race started on time every year, and it was something the townspeople could be proud of. Of all the times the clock could break down, the mayor thought, it had to be during the year I was elected….What if this ends up in the history books? What a disgrace! The young mayor couldn’t bear it.