Under the jumbled mess of books, she found his driver’s license. She put it back in its place on the bookcase. As always, he smiled out at her.
“…Yuki and Ame are beginning to go their own ways…”
More than anyone in the world, Hana wanted her children to grow into adults, and she had tried to do everything she could so they would be able to choose their own paths in life. Still…
“This is what I wanted, so why do I feel so anxious…?”
He gave her no answer.
“Tell me…why.”
She asked over and over, but he only smiled back at her.
4
The downpour was relentless, pelting onto the houses, the fields, the meadows, and the mountain.
This was the seventh summer since Hana and the children had moved to the country.
Record-breaking rains had fallen in their area quite a few times this year. Even in a normal year, the region received abundant rain. The air over the Sea of Japan would become heavy with humidity and flow in, collide with the mountains, and empty its load. In winter, it turned to snow that built up until spring, then streamed down as snowmelt that watered the fields. In summer, the mountains protected the area from typhoons. The grain swelled heavy on the stalks, making it one of Japan’s top rice-growing regions. The topography was ideal for it.
But once every great while, there was just a bit too much moisture from the sea. If this happened in winter, the result was heavy snow that turned the region into an inland island completely buried in white. If it happened in summer, the clouds of the rainy season wouldn’t merely pass through but would hover above them, turning the weather unpredictable. The sun would disappear, and the crops would stop growing.
And that wasn’t all. The soil in the region was heavy, poorly drained clay, which suited it well to growing rice. Government policies intended to rein in the overproduction of rice had led many families to convert their paddies to dryland fields, however, and those didn’t hold the rain like countless green retention ponds. Now, when the torrential rains came, the drainage canals swelled with water and spilled over, drowning the crops and creating a poor harvest for the year.
Hana’s vegetable fields, too, had once been paddies, and she suffered the same fate as the local farmers that year. Her spring vegetables were essentially wiped out, forcing her to buy vegetables at the supermarket. Prices soared, and money became tight for the family.
The downpours caused landslides as well, sending mud and rocks racing down the hillsides. Although the local government had drawn up maps of risky areas, predicting where landslides would actually occur was extremely difficult. When fields were buried in mud, the damage was far worse than a mere year of poor harvests. This happened to more than a few households this time. During the brief intervals of sun, the neighbors helped one another dig out of the mud.
“We could hear the tree roots snapping last night.”
“We’re just lucky it didn’t get the house and the fields.”
“The banks collapsed on the fields that used to be paddies. It’s a real mess out there.”
Mr. Doi and Mr. Horita looked at each other and sighed. They would have to reinforce the banks of the fields that were still at risk with wooden stakes and stones, then dam up some of the swollen waterways to divert their flow.
Human neighborhoods were not the only ones affected by the rains.
Deep in the mountains, several massive mudslides had occurred. Ame walked through the woods many times to carefully observe the damage.
Scores of trees lay tossed about on the ground, as if some ferocious beast had raged down the mountain. Underground streams poured like waterfalls from the raw scars carved into the slopes by powerful landslides. The soft layer of rotted leaves covering the ground had been washed clean away. Many of the beautiful little worlds Ame had discovered were now turned to wastelands by the merciless onslaught.
He came across the corpses of many wild animals. Each time he discovered one, he buried it, but the quantity was overwhelming, the bodies never ending. He could hardly wrap his head around the amount of damage the torrential rains had inflicted on the plants and animals living on the mountain, nor imagine how many years would pass before it fully recovered.
Between a pair of toppled trees, he found the body of a dead chick that had fallen from its nest.
“—”
He stood gazing at it for a long time. In his mind, he saw himself in the little corpse.
Hana’s eyes were fixed on the entryway of the house.
Recently, Ame had been coming home late, and he spoke very little. Every time he returned, she was startled anew. His face had a strength and keenness far beyond his years. He even seemed to grow taller day by day.
The old-fashioned house was dark and gloomy in the late afternoon drizzle while Hana sat quietly mending the fraying edges of a stuffed wolf, thinking back on the days when the children were more innocent. Neither of them had been able to sleep without their stuffed wolf, which she had patched countless times. Finally, though, they had set their toys aside, and now they lay forgotten at the back of their desks.
These days, a leaden anxiousness lurked constantly in the depths of Hana’s heart. It had started the day of Yuki and Ame’s great fight two years earlier. Before that, she had honestly wished for them to grow up and become independent, but now it was the opposite. She was always wondering when she would be set aside like their stuffed wolves, spent and no longer useful.
She shifted her gaze back toward the entryway.
“…Ame!” She leaped up.
Ame was drenched as he stepped into the house, his eyes sharp as ever.
“Where have you been?”
Hana had raced to the entryway, but she jumped back as she brushed Ame’s shoulder. His skin was cold as ice.
“Wait a minute. I’ll run a bath for you.”
As she headed toward the bathroom, Ame’s low voice stopped her. His gaze remained fixed on the floor. “It’s Teacher… He’s hurt his leg and can’t walk. I think he’s going to die soon.”
“—”
“Someone has to take over everything he’s been doing.”
The words were not meant for Hana. He was talking to himself, giving voice to what he already knew.
Hana felt as if her anxiety would crush her. Unable to stand it any longer, she suddenly turned sternly toward him.
“…Ame! I forbid you from going to the mountain anymore!”
She grabbed his shoulder and shook him roughly, trying to make him listen. But her words didn’t seem to reach him. No matter how much she shook him, her only answer was the water dripping from his hair. All the same, she insisted even more.
“Do you understand? You’re only ten! You’re a child! A wolf may be grown up by age twelve, but you—”
She couldn’t finish her own sentence.
He was a wolf. He had grown up far faster than a human.
The rain pounded down ever harder outside, and the sound of the drops hitting the ground filled the entryway. Hana pressed her hands together in supplication.
“…I’m begging you. Don’t go up the mountain anymore. As your mother, I’m begging you.”
“—”
Finally, he returned to his senses and looked up at her.
Bright sunlight shone into the gym from the west. School had just let out.
The boys were playing a rowdy game of two-on-two basketball. Souhei dribbled the ball back and forth between his hands, stealing every chance for a shot.
Yuki stared absently at them from a corner of the gym. She had started sixth grade that spring, and she was nearly as tall as Hana. Her figure had changed, too, and even she could tell that her childhood was drawing to a close. Hana had made her a new dress to fit this next stage of her life. The dark blue fabric and simple cut may have been a tad too grown-up for Yuki, but they showed off her long arms and legs beautifully.
Souhei still had the ball as he switched hands behind hi
s back, feinted, and slipped past the defense. He was obviously controlling the game, and his face brimmed with confidence. Now that his voice was changing, his words came out low and hoarse.
Yuki listlessly shifted her gaze toward the ground. There was a reason for her mood—a few minutes earlier, she had happened to hear some other girls talking.
“That reminds me, did you hear the news?” one of them said.
“What news?”
“I overheard my parents talking about it…”
“And?”
“Souhei’s mom is getting married.”
“What? You’re kidding!”
“Why?”
“Prob’ly ’cause she’s so pretty.”
“So Souhei’s gonna have a new dad.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“Well, maybe.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard he doesn’t know yet.”
“No way!!”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t tell anyone, okay? It’s a secret.”
A secret, they said. Why would his mother keep something so important from him? She seemed so strict. What was really going on with her? Yuki couldn’t even begin to guess. More than anything, she wondered why people who had nothing to do with the situation—herself included—would know about it before Souhei. What the heck was so secret about it?
Bang!
The sound snapped Yuki out of her reverie. The basketball net was swinging. Souhei had made his shot and was grinning excitedly.
Yuki couldn’t stand it anymore. She put on her backpack and hurried out of the gym.
The midnight shadows of gently swaying trees moved across the bedroom.
Ame sat up in bed. He rose slowly and silently slipped under the mosquito net. As he quietly pulled the sliding door to the bedroom shut behind him, he abruptly stopped and looked back into the room.
Hana was sleeping inside the mosquito net with the book she had been reading on her pillow. Ame gazed at the scene for a moment, then continued on to the entryway and noiselessly opened the door. Moonlight illuminated his feet where he stood rooted to the ground. He did not leave the house, but neither did he go back inside. He just stood still.
“—”
He didn’t know how much time passed, but the sky began to grow lighter. Finally, he sat down and looked up. The silhouettes of the trees rocked in a gentle wind.
Night gave way to dawn.
Several hours later, the morning radio broadcast echoed faintly in the empty entryway.
“…A high-pressure system is expected to bring mostly clear skies throughout the prefecture today, but as the front advances toward the Sea of Japan, weather conditions will likely change through the evening and night.”
Yuki ran into the entryway, ready for school. “It’s so muggy!” she complained as she sat down, fanning her legs with the hem of her blue dress, and put on her shoes.
“Yuki.”
“Huh?”
She looked up to find Ame standing over her. Ever since their fight, the two had kept their distance and stayed out of each other’s business. They didn’t talk unless they had a special reason to. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along, more that each sibling respected the other’s position and gave them the space to live.
Today, though, Ame took the initiative to speak to Yuki.
“Stay home today.”
“Huh?”
“Stay here with Mom.”
Yuki stood up and looked at Ame. “Why?”
Just as Ame started to answer, Hana poked her head into the entryway.
“You’ll miss the bus, guys!”
“Okay, Mom.”
Yuki turned toward Hana with a smile, then looked back to Ame.
“Stay with her,” she whispered to him as she headed out, her backpack swaying lightly.
“—”
Ame watched her go, then looked up at the sky. A damp wind was blowing around the house.
“—Ame.”
Hana gazed worriedly at his back.
“—”
He didn’t answer, his face still upturned.
“—Ame!” she yelled.
He whirled around with a start. “—”
She eyed him severely, but a moment later, she softened her gaze.
“…Let’s go inside.”
A threatening wind blew across the verdant July stalks of rice.
Swallows brushed the leaves as they flew low over the paddies. Inside the classroom, the curtains ballooned as clouds blotted out the sunshine. Yuki, sensitive to the slightest change in weather, glanced outside. Layers of dark clouds towered on the horizon. She could feel the approaching storm.
At the same moment, the plants in Hana’s backyard were swaying in the wind.
The radio, which she’d left on all day, blared its warnings.
“…The front that stalled over the Sea of Japan is now moving south, and as a result, atmospheric pressure over the prefecture has rapidly become unstable. Local showers of extremely heavy rain and lightning are expected. On the plains, hourly rainfall may exceed seventy millimeters per hour, and in the foothills, it is expected to exceed one hundred millimeters per hour.”
Hana suddenly remembered she had hung laundry out to dry. She stopped making lunch and hurried out to the backyard to pull the flapping clothes and towels off the line. Ame took her place in the kitchen and watched her through the window as the raspy voice on the radio continued its announcements.
“…The weather station has issued a prefecture-wide flood and heavy-rain warning. Residents are advised to prepare for landslides, flooding of rivers and houses, and other damage. The following warnings were issued at eleven AM. The northwestern part of the prefecture can expect heavy rain, thunder and lightning, and flooding. The southwestern part…”
The wind was picking up. With Ame’s help, Hana started preparing for the storm. He carried in the storm shutters from the barn and passed them to his mother, who slid them one after the next onto the curtain rails on the sliding doors lining the porch.
The herbs in the front garden waved madly. As he walked back to the barn, Ame stopped and looked slowly up at the sky.
“Ahh!!” Just then, a gust of wind had knocked Hana off balance.
“—”
Ame stared at her frail figure tottering on the porch.
Splish, splash, splosh…!
Raindrops spotted the asphalt.
Pattapattapattapa…!!
They fell noisily onto lotus leaves, gathering quickly into larger pools at the centers.
Fssssshhhhhhh…!!!
In an instant, the sprinkle was a downpour. On the far side of the floodgate, a single crane took flight, belatedly fleeing the storm as dark rain clouds blanketed every corner of the sky.
The nervous students sat under the sickly fluorescent lights.
With each gust of wind, the wooden school building creaked.
Mr. Tanabe returned to the sixth-grade classroom and briskly erased the words study hall from the blackboard.
“We’re expecting heavy rains, so afternoon classes have been canceled.”
“Yay! Yippee!” The students burst into a flurry of excitement.
Mr. Tanabe scrambled to regain control. “We are currently contacting your mothers and fathers to come pick you up. We’ll all head to the gym to wait for them. Please sit with the other children from your neighborhood.”
A wave of students from all grade levels carrying backpacks surged into the hallways. Unlike the tense teachers, the excited crowd of children heading for the gym smiled with the happy thrill of a break in the routine.
Souhei sat alone in the classroom, as if he’d been forgotten.
“—”
He stared silently out the window from his desk.
The hard rain drummed on Hana’s house, and rainwater poured off the roof like waterfalls. The front garden was already mottled with pools. The trees shivered noisily.
&nbs
p; With all the doors and storm shutters closed, the inside of the house was as dark as night, even though it was just after noon. Hana sat in the main room silently folding laundry under the feeble glow of the light bulb, and Ame sat quietly in his chair at the dining table. Neither one said a word.
Ever since the day he had come home soaking wet, Hana had feared he would wander off again, constantly praying he would stay by her side. As if silently complying with her wish, he had not left the house since then. Instead, he stayed within his mother’s sight, staring out the window from morning till night.
This situation did not put Hana at ease, as she realized he was sacrificing the world he had found for the sake of her wishes. Nevertheless, she couldn’t stop wishing for it. She was being pulled apart by the conflicting emotions, which was why she had remained silent for so long.
Crk-BOOOOM!!!
The clap of thunder shook the house.
“—!”
Hana gave a start, then huddled lower. A second later, the lights went out and plunged the main room into darkness. The only remaining light came from the kitchen window.
“…Think it’s a blackout?”
Hana looked up timidly toward the ceiling, then stood and felt her way toward the breaker. A pile of freshly folded towels toppled over under her foot.
Ame’s shadow remained in the room alone, staring at a corner of the table. The light from the window glinted in his eyes.
Thunder rolled in the distance, like a signal that led Ame to slowly raise his head. The sharpness in his eyes spoke of a decision made over many days.
His quiet voice broke the silence in the room.
“…I have to go.”
In the terraced paddies, rice plants danced in the fierce wind and rain.
Water from the irrigation canals spilled over the asphalt of the agricultural road, and the netting Hana had stretched over her vegetable beds to keep insects off tore and flapped in the wind. The columnar silhouette of a steel transmission tower stood stark against the fast-moving rain clouds in wind so strong it warped the high-voltage lines.
Wolf Children: Ame & Yuki Page 11