The Sound of the Mountain Read Free Page B

it is for a while,’ said Shingo.
    ‘Her name is Kuniko, not “it”. Didn’t you name her yourself?’
    Only Shingo, it seemed, was aware of the expression on Kikuko’s face. He did not let it worry him, however. He was much taken with the movements of the emancipated little legs.
    ‘Yes, leave her,’ said Yasuko. ‘She looks very happy. It must have been warm.’ She half tickled, half slapped the baby’s stomach and thighs. ‘Why don’t we send your mother and sister off, now, to freshen themselves up a bit?’
    ‘Shall I get towels?’ Kikuko started for the door.
    ‘We’ve brought our own,’ said Fusako. It appeared that she meant to stay for some time.
    Fusako took towels and clothes from a kerchief. The older child, Satoko, stood behind her, clinging sullenly to her. Satoko had not said a word since their arrival. Her thick black hair caught the eye.
    Shingo had seen the kerchief before, but all he remembered was that it had been in the house. He did not know when.
    Fusako had walked from the station with Kuniko on her back, Satoko tugging on one hand, the kerchief in the other. It must have been a pleasing sight, thought Shingo.
    Satoko was not an easy child to lead. She had a way of being particularly difficult when matters were already complicated enough for her mother.
    Did it trouble Yasuko, Shingo wondered, that of the two young women it was Kikuko who kept herself in good trim?
    Yasuko sat rubbing a reddish spot on the inside of the baby’s thigh. Fusako had gone to bathe. ‘I don’t know, she somehow seems more manageable than Satoko.’
    ‘She was born after things started going bad with her father,’ said Shingo. ‘It all happened after Satoko was born, and it had an effect on her.’
    ‘Would a four-year-old child understand?’
    ‘She would indeed. And it would influence her.’
    ‘I think she was born the way she is.’
    After elaborate contortions the baby turned over on its stomach, crawled off, and, catching hold of the door, stood up.
    ‘Let’s go have a walk, just the two of us,’ said Kikuko, taking the child by the hands and walking it to the next room.
    Yasuko promptly went over to the purse beside Fusako’s belongings and opened it.
    ‘And what the devil do you think you’re doing?’ Shingo kept his voice low, but he was almost quivering with annoyance. ‘Stop it. Stop it, I tell you.’
    ‘And why should I?’ Yasuko was calm.
    ‘I told you to stop. What do you think you’re up to?’ His hands were trembling.
    ‘I don’t intend to steal anything.’
    ‘It’s worse than stealing.’
    Yasuko replaced the purse. She was still sitting beside it, however. ‘And what is wrong with being interested in the affairs of your own daughter? Maybe she’s come to us without enough money to buy the children candy. I want to know how things are with her. That’s all.’
    Shingo glared at her.
    Fusako came back from the bath.
    ‘I looked inside your purse, Fusako,’ said Yasuko the moment her daughter stepped into the room, ‘and so I got a scolding from your father. If it was wrong I apologize.’
    ‘If it was wrong!’ snorted Shingo.
    This way of taking Fusako into her confidence only irritated him more.
    He asked himself whether it might be true, as Yasuko’s manner suggested, that such incidents were routine between mother and daughter. He was shaking with anger, and the fatigue of his years came flooding over him.
    Fusako looked at him. It was possible that she was less surprised at her mother’s behavior than at her father’s.
    ‘Please. Go ahead and look! Help yourself!’ she said, half flinging the words out and slapping the purse down at her mother’s knee.
    Her manner did nothing to lessen his irritation.
    Yasuko did not take up the purse.
    ‘Without any money I wouldn’t be able to run away, Aihara thought. I couldn’t run away if I didn’t have any money. So of course there’s nothing in it. Go ahead and look.’
    Kuniko, her hands still in