Summer，Fireworks，and My Corpse by Otsuichi & Christopher Barzak

Author:Otsuichi & Christopher Barzak [Otsuichi & Barzak, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shueisha English Edition
Published: 2016-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

*

Ken walked in the front door. His mother was lying on the floor of the living room watching TV.

“Mother, you’ve been saving all that string, haven’t you? Where do you keep it?”

“The string? What on earth do you need string for?”

“That string on the light in our bedroom broke. I need a new one, so where is it?”

His mother, somewhat irritated at the disturbance, stood up and walked into the storage room. After a short time she returned, holding a round metal cookie tin with the word Tyrolean written in cursive lettering across the top. In the Tachibana household, the cookie tins of that brand were well known as Mother’s sewing boxes. One time, Midori brought over a box of Tyroleans, and Yayoi took one look at it and said dejectedly, “What, another sewing box?”

“Here, you can pick one of these,” said Mrs. Tachibana, proudly displaying the tin. “Just leave the box here when you’re done. See, I told you these would come in handy one day.”

“Yeah, one day in how many years? That’s some ratio.”

Ken’s mother, appalled, said flatly, “You’re still in fifth grade, right? And you’ve already learned ratios?”

“Well, I’d better take this up to our room. If I chose one without Yayoi, she’d get mad at me.”

Without waiting for a reply, Ken took the tin and started walking back to his room. Judging from its weight, there must have been quite a lot of string inside. He opened it and took out a handful of the sturdy string, used at stores to bundle up purchases, that had been sitting unused for years. As he walked, he idly played with the string in his hand, and thought.

With all this string, I should be able to lift Satsuki up somehow . . .

He would move me the next day. That would give him plenty of time to test out his rig.

Ken’s grandmother and grandfather waved at him from their room. He stopped and asked what they wanted.

“Ken,” said his grandfather, “the fireworks are tonight, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe we should go.” He turned to his wife. “Don’t you think, dear?”

That seemed to be all they wanted to ask of him, so Ken said, “Yeah, you should both come. It’ll be fun,” and headed for his room.

Behind him, Ken heard them talking.

“That’s right,” his grandmother said. “It’s tonight, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. We’ll check on it in the morning.”

“Okay, dear.”

“It’s always right around the fireworks show when they turn on the water. It’ll take a while for it to reach our fields though.”

Ken pondered the new dilemma as he walked into his room. It seemed like he wouldn’t be able to relax and enjoy the fireworks this year.

Our time together was almost over. Just one more night.

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