The Sound of the Mountain Read Free Page A

the night they had had the shellfish – Shingo heard Kikuko’s voice as he had not heard it before.
    He suspected that she knew nothing of Shuichi’s mistress.
    ‘And so Father has made the apologies, with a shellfish,’ he muttered to himself.
    How was it that, although she knew nothing of the other woman, she should feel emanations come drifting toward her?
    Shingo drowsed off, and suddenly it was dawn. He went for the paper. The moon was still high. After glancing over the news he fell asleep once more.

5
    Shuichi pushed his way aboard the train and surrendered his seat to Shingo when the latter followed after.
    He then handed over the evening paper and took Shingo’s bifocals from his pocket. Shingo had a pair of his own, but he was much given to forgetting them. Shuichi was entrusted with a spare set.
    Shuichi leaned over the paper. ‘Tanizaki said today that a classmate of hers was looking for work. We do need a maid, you know. So I said we’d take her.’
    ‘Don’t you think it might be a little dangerous, having a friend of Tanizaki’s around?’
    ‘Dangerous?’
    ‘She might hear things from Tanizaki and pass them on to Kikuko.’
    ‘What would she have to pass on?’
    ‘Well, I suppose it will be good to have a maid with proper introductions.’ Shingo turned back to the paper.
    ‘Has Tanizaki been talking about me?’ asked Shuichi as they got off in Kamakura.
    ‘She hasn’t said a thing. I would have imagined that you had silenced her.’
    ‘Oh, fine. Suppose something actually were going on between me and your secretary. You’d be the joke of the office.’
    ‘Of course. But make sure, if you don’t mind, that Kikuko doesn’t find out.’
    Shuichi did not seem inclined toward secretiveness. ‘So Tanizaki has been talking.’
    ‘She knows you have a girlfriend. And so I imagine she wants to go out with you herself.’
    ‘Maybe. Half of it might be jealousy.’
    ‘Splendid.’
    ‘I’m going to break it off. I’m trying to break it off.’
    ‘I don’t understand you. Well, let me hear all about it some time.’
    ‘After I’ve broken it off.’
    ‘Don’t let Kikuko know.’
    ‘She may already know.’
    Shingo lapsed into disgruntled silence.
    It continued through dinner. He got up abruptly from the table and went to his room.
    Kikuko brought him watermelon.
    ‘You forgot the salt,’ said Yasuko, coming after her. The two sat down on the veranda. ‘Kikuko kept calling and calling. Didn’t you hear her?’
    ‘No. I did know that there was watermelon in the icebox.’
    ‘He didn’t hear you,’ said Yasuko. ‘And you called and called.’
    ‘It’s because he’s annoyed about something.’ Kikuko turned to her mother-in-law.
    Shingo was silent for a moment. ‘There’s been something wrong with my ears these last few days, I think. The other night I opened the shutter to let in a little air, and I heard the mountain rumbling. And you were snoring away.’
    Yasuko and Kikuko both looked toward the mountain.
    ‘Do mountains roar?’ asked Kikuko. ‘But you did say something once, Mother – remember? You said that just before your sister died Father heard the mountain roar.’
    Shingo was startled. He could not forgive himself for not remembering. He had heard the sound of the mountain, and why had the memory not come to him?
    Apparently Kikuko regretted having made the remark. Her beautiful shoulders were motionless.

The Wings of the Locust

1
    Fusako, the daughter, came home with her two children.
    ‘Might another be on the way?’ asked Shingo casually, although he knew that with the older girl four and the younger barely past her first birthday the spacing would not call for another quite yet.
    ‘You asked the same question just the other day.’ She laid the younger child on its back and started to unswaddle it. ‘And what about Kikuko?’
    Her question was also a casual one, but Kikuko’s face, as she looked down at the baby, was suddenly tense.
    ‘Leave it as