Thousand Cranes Read Free Page A

fell on the paper-paneled door. One noted a soft reflection from the shoulders and the long sleeves of the gay kimono. The hair seemed luminous.
    The light was really too bright for a tea cottage, but it made the girl’s youth glow. The tea napkin, as became a young girl, was red, and it impressed one less with its softness than with its freshness, as if the girl’s hand were bringing a red flower into bloom.
    And one saw a thousand cranes, small and white, start up in flight around her.
    Mrs Ota took the black Oribe in the palm of her hand. ‘The green tea against the black, like traces of green in early spring.’ But not even she mentioned that the bowl had belonged to her husband.
    Afterward there was a perfunctory inspection of the tea utensils. The girls knew little about them, and were for the most part satisfied with Chikako’s explanation.
    The water jar and the tea measure had belonged to Kikuji’s father. Neither he nor Chikako mentioned the fact.
    As Kikuji sat watching the girls leave, Mrs Ota came toward him.
    ‘I’m afraid I was very rude. I may have annoyed you, but when I saw you it seemed that the old days came before everything.’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘But see what a gentleman you’ve become.’ She looked as if she might weep. ‘Oh, yes. Your mother. I meant to go to the funeral, and then somehow couldn’t.’
    Kikuji looked uncomfortable.
    ‘Your father and then your mother. You must be very lonely.’
    ‘Yes, perhaps I am.’
    ‘You’re not leaving yet?’
    ‘Well, as a matter of fact …’
    ‘There are so many things we must talk about, sometime.’
    ‘Kikuji.’ Chikako called from the next room.
    Mrs Ota stood up regretfully. Her daughter had gone out and was waiting in the garden.
    The two of them left after nodding their farewell to Kikuji. There was a look of appeal in the girl’s eyes.
    Chikako, with a maid and two or three favorite pupils, was cleaning the other room.
    ‘And what did Mrs Ota have to say?’
    ‘Nothing in particular. Nothing at all.’
    ‘You must be careful with her. So meek and gentle – she always manages to make it look as if she could do no one the least harm. But you can never tell what she’s thinking.’
    ‘I suppose she comes to your parties often?’ Kikuji asked with a touch of sarcasm. ‘When did she begin?’
    To escape Chikako’s poison, he started into the garden.
    Chikako followed him. ‘And did you like her? A nice girl, didn’t you think?’
    ‘A very nice girl. And she would have seemed even nicer if I’d met her without the rest of you hovering around, you and Mrs Ota and Father’s ghost.’
    ‘Why should that bother you? Mrs Ota has nothing to do with the Inamura girl.’
    ‘It just seemed the wrong thing to do to the girl.’
    ‘Why? If it bothered you to have Mrs Ota here, I apologize, but you must remember that I didn’t invite her. And you’re to think of the Inamura girl separately.’
    ‘I’m afraid I have to go.’ He stopped. If he went on walking with Chikako, there was no telling when she would leave him.
    By himself again, he noted that the azaleas up the side of the mountain were in bud. He heaved a deep sigh.
    He was disgusted with himself for having let Chikako’s note lure him out; but the impression of the girl with the thousand-crane kerchief was fresh and clean.
    It was perhaps because of her that the meeting with two of his father’s women had upset him no more than it had.
    The two women were still here to talk of his father, and his mother was dead. He felt a surge of something like anger. The ugly birthmark came to him again.
    An evening breeze was rustling the new leaves. Kikuji walked slowly, hat in hand.
    From a distance he saw Mrs Ota standing in the shadow of the main gate.
    He looked for a way of avoiding her. If he climbed to the right or left, he could probably leave the temple by another exit.
    Nevertheless, he walked toward the gate. A suggestion of grimness came over his face.
    Mrs Ota saw