Single Sickness and Other Stories by Masuda Mizuko

Dream Bug

145 Dream Bug The warm weather continued unabated. Coaxed out of his boarding house room by the bright blue sky, Hideo set off for Asakusa. His January second term finals were over, and the university had shut down completely for entrance exam preparations. This break was Hideo's last opportunity to really relax and take things easy. As soon as the new academic session began in April, he would have to start cramming for the company employment tests. Until now he hadn't had a moment to catch his breath. It wasn't just that his exams came right after the New Year's holidays , he felt like he'd been rushing nonstop for months on end. At long last it was calm again, like the stillness after waves recede. Hideo was headed for Uncle Katsuzo's coffee shop on the edge of the old Asakusa district. After Katsuzo died last fall, the shop was locked up just as it was, and Hideo, entrusted with the key by his father, was supposed to "keep an eye on things." He'd been curious enough at first that in November he made several trips, but the shop was far away and getting there involved several train and bus transfers. Once he'd stopped going, it was hard to start up again, and during the entire month of December he managed to go only once, just before returning home for New Year's. Today's visit in late January would be his first since coming back to Tokyo. It wasn't as if there was anything he actually had to do at the shop. As soon as he set off, Hideo found himself thinking of the woman. He couldn't think of Katsuzo without the hazy image of the woman's face popping into mind, and he realized that for a 146 ~ Dream Bug long time he'd been repressing his desire to see the shop. Although he'd only caught one fleeting glimpse of her, the woman seemed to be lodged permanently in a forlorn corner of his memory, like something that had accidentally been left behind. Over New Year's, a bigger crowd of relatives than usual had gathered at Hideo's family home. Not surprisingly, the main topic of conversation had been Uncle Katsuzo. All the brothers and sisters in the large extended family had something to say, squabbling among themselves over what they remembered of the dead man. All except Hideo's father, the eldest of the siblings, who stood by himself observing these proceedings in grim-faced silence. The sour look on his father's face wasn't new, however. He'd been looking like that for some time, for many months before Katsuzo died. The past year had been a disaster for the farm. Hideo's family had farmed for generations, and although it was no longer the sole source of income, they continued to tend rice paddies, vegetable fields, and fruit orchards. But last year's perverse weather conditions—dry, blistering heat in the spring, an extremely short summer, and then a cold, wet autumn— meant the vegetables didn't grow and the fruit was small and sour. Most of what little they managed to harvest could not be sold. Who could blame Hideo's father for being in a foul mood. Hideo had stayed in Tokyo that summer working at a parttime job. It was better than looking at his father's glum face day after day. But the weather in Tokyo wasn't normal either. By mid-July, when the rainy season would normally be over, it still hadn't rained a drop to speak of. Then, once the Weather Bureau officially pronounced the end of the "rainy season," like DREAM BUG ~ 147 a bad joke it suddenly began pouring for days on end, forcing the meteorologists to hastily revise their forecasts. August was so cold and rainy people shivered in their short-sleeved clothing, and when it was time for classes to start again, Hideo felt there hadn't been a real summer at all. Autumn brought typhoon season. Everyday there were torrential downpours. The day Hideo's father learned of Uncle Katsuzo's death and had to rush to Tokyo, it had been raining cats and dogs. Memories of Katsuzo seemed to be influenced by the endless depressing rain. "As a youngster, Katsuzo was always in a daze, like he...