Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori

Author:Kyoko Mori
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466876743
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)

10

THE GOLDEN CARP

(August 1974)

Her father was sitting in a black swivel chair at his desk. Yuki went into the study and stood behind him. He turned to her, holding out a white envelope by one corner.

“I was asked to give this to you,” he said.

The envelope had her name on the front without an address. On the back, Yuki found her aunt Aya’s name written in ink. Her heart beat a little faster. She had not seen Aya since her father’s wedding. She waited for her father to dismiss her so she could go and read the letter, but he said nothing. He was frowning. His fingers kept tapping the arm of his chair.

“Is there anything else?” she asked him.

“Are you going to read the letter?”

“When I’m alone.”

Her father sighed. “As you wish,” he said.

She was about to turn around, to leave, when he added, “Your aunt put that letter inside her letter to me and sent it to my office.”

Yuki nodded. Though she wrote to her aunt and her grandparents once a month, she never received letters from them. The only letter she had gotten from her mother’s family in the last five years was a wedding invitation, two years ago, from her youngest uncle, Saburo. Her father had handed it to her at dinner, already opened. “Send him a telegram to congratulate him,” he said. “Tell him you’re sorry you can’t attend. I’ll give you the money.” “No, thank you,” Yuki said. “I’d rather write to him.” Her stepmother put down her rice bowl. She said, “Be sure to show the letter to your father before you send it.” “No,” Yuki said. “I don’t show my letters to anyone.” Her stepmother got up and walked out of the kitchen then. She went to the living room and slammed the door. Her father waited a few minutes and followed her. Yuki went upstairs without finishing her dinner. He must have apologized to her stepmother, but he didn’t insist on seeing Yuki’s letter. He never mentioned it. Opening the invitation, Yuki concluded, was more her stepmother’s idea than his.

“You don’t have to read the letter in front of me or show it to me,” he was saying now.

“Of course not,” Yuki said. “Aunt Aya sealed the envelop and put my name on it because she meant it only for me.”

“That’s right,” her father said. “But you don’t have to be so angry about it.”

Yuki said nothing.

“You should be happy,” her father continued, “because your aunt is getting married and I’m letting you attend the wedding.”

Yuki stood still, trying not to show her surprise.

Her father grasped the chair arms with both hands. “I know you blame me for not letting you go to your uncle’s wedding,” he said.

She shrugged. She had nothing to say.

“But I don’t owe your uncle a favor. Your aunt Aya is different. She took care of you for a year. I’m obligated to her because of that. I have to let you go to her wedding so our debts can be even and I won’t owe her anymore.

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