“You keep saying odd, but things do happen accidentally in life. Maybe not in your—”
“But I’m not thinking it’s odd anymore. Everything has a reason, and once you hear it, it makes sense.”
Tsuda was on the verge of saying That’s why I’m here myself, to learn the reason. But Kiyoko, who appeared unconcerned with the past, asked an honest question.
“Are you convalescing?”
In just a few words, Tsuda described the course of his illness. Kiyoko spoke.
“How fortunate for you, Yoshio-san, that you can arrange to be away from the company at a time like that. If only Seki could be so lucky; he slaves away from morning to night.”
“Seki-kun gets carried away, so it can’t be helped.”
“That isn’t kind. And it isn’t true!”
“I didn’t mean carried away in a bad way. I meant he’s industrious.”
“Always the smooth talker!”
At that moment footsteps could be heard hastening up the stairs; about to say something, Tsuda thought better of it and decided to observe in silence. The maid who peeked into the room was different from the one before.
“The guests from Yokohama told me to ask Madam if she would like to come for a walk to the falls with them around noon.”
“Certainly.”
Registering Kiyoko’s reply, the maid stood up, glanced at Tsuda, and asked, “Won’t you come along?”
“Thank you. By the way, is it lunchtime?”
“It is—I’ll be bringing lunch right away.”
“Time flies.”
Tsuda forced himself to stand.
“Kiyoko-san—” He had intended to address her as Mrs. Seki, but the words had somehow eluded him. “—how long will you be staying?”
“I have no plans. I could receive a telegram from home and have to leave today.”
Tsuda was surprised.
“Could that happen?”
“There’s no telling—”
Kiyoko smiled. On the way back to his room, Tsuda attempted alone with himself to explain the meaning of her smile.
UNFINISHED
WEATHERHEAD BOOKS ON ASIA WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Literature
David Der-wei Wang, Editor
Ye Zhaoyan, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, translated by Michael Berry (2003)
Oda Makato, The Breaking Jewel, translated by Donald Keene (2003)
Han Shaogong, A Dictionary of Maqiao, translated by Julia Lovell (2003)
Takahashi Takako, Lonely Woman, translated by Maryellen Toman Mori (2004)
Chen Ran, A Private Life, translated by John Howard-Gibbon (2004)
Eileen Chang, Written on Water, translated by Andrew F. Jones (2004)
Writing Women in Modern China: The Revolutionary Years, 1936–1976, edited by Amy D. Dooling (2005)
Han Bangqing, The Sing-song Girls of Shanghai, first translated by Eileen Chang, revised and edited by Eva Hung (2005)
Loud Sparrows: Contemporary Chinese Short-Shorts, translated and edited by Aili Mu, Julie Chiu, and Howard Goldblatt (2006)
Hiratsuka Raichō, In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun, translated by Teruko Craig (2006)
Zhu Wen, I Love Dollars and Other Stories of China, translated by Julia Lovell (2007)
Kim Sowŏl, Azaleas: A Book of Poems, translated by David McCann (2007)
Wang Anyi, The Song of Everlasting Sorrow: A Novel of Shanghai, translated by Michael Berry with Susan Chan Egan (2008)
Ch’oe Yun, There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories by Ch’oe Yun, translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton (2008)
Inoue Yasushi, The Blue Wolf: A Novel of the Life of Chinggis Khan, translated by Joshua A. Fogel (2009)
Anonymous, Courtesans and Opium: Romantic Illusions of the Fool of Yangzhou, translated by Patrick Hanan (2009)
Cao Naiqian, There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night, translated by John Balcom (2009)
Park Wan-suh, Who Ate Up All the Shinga? An Autobiographical Novel, translated by Yu Young-nan and Stephen J. Epstein (2009)
Yi T’aejun, Eastern Sentiments, translated by Janet Poole (2009)
Hwang Sunwŏn, Lost Souls: Stories, translated by Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton (2009)
Kim Sŏk-pŏm, The Curious Tale of Mandogi’s Ghost, translated by Cindy Textor (2010)
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama, edited by Xiaomei Chen (2011)
Qian Zhongshu, Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts: Stories and Essays, edited by Christopher G. Rea, translated by Dennis T. Hu, Nathan K. Mao, Yiran Mao, Christopher G. Rea, and Philip F. Williams (2011)
Dung Kai-cheung, Atlas: The Archaeology of an Imaginary City, translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall (2012)
O Chŏnghŭi, River of Fire and Other Stories, translated by Bruce Fulton and Ju-Chan Fulton (2012)
Endō Shūsaku, Kiku’s Prayer: A Novel, translated by Van Gessel (2013)
Li Rui, Trees Without Wind: A Novel, translated by John Balcom (2013)
Abe Kōbō, The Frontier Within: Essays by Abe Kōbō, edited, translated, and with an introduction by Richard F. Calichman (2013)
Zhu Wen, The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan: More Stories of China, translated by Julia Lovell (2013)
The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama, Abridged Edition, edited by Xiaomei Chen (2013)
History, Society, and Culture
Carol Gluck, Editor
Takeuchi Yoshimi, What Is Modernity? Writings of Takeuchi Yoshimi, edited and translated, with an introduction, by Richard F. Calichman (2005)
Contemporary Japanese Thought, edited and translated by Richard F. Calichman (2005)
Overcoming Modernity, edited and translated by Richard F. Calichman (2008)
Natsume Sōseki, Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings, edited and translated by Michael Bourdaghs, Atsuko Ueda, and Joseph A. Murphy (2009)
Kojin Karatani, History and Repetition, edited by Seiji M. Lippit (2012)
The Birth of Chinese Feminism: Essential Texts in Transnational Theory, edited by Lydia H. Liu, Rebecca E. Karl, and Dorothy Ko (2013)
Light and Darkness Page 49