The Boy in the Earth by Fuminori Nakamura

Author:Fuminori Nakamura
Language: eng, spa
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Crime Fiction
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2017-02-25T01:06:48+00:00

7

I got a call from the hospital saying that Sayuko had been injured, so I hailed a taxi. I tried to imagine how she could have ended up drunk in a club and have fallen down the stairs when she’d originally gone out to pick up some things at the store, but I knew that it was entirely plausible. For a heavy drinker like her, it was difficult to stop. When she had asked me why she shouldn’t keep drinking, why she should lead a reasonable life, I hadn’t been able to give her a good reason.

Visiting hours were over, but I gave Sayuko’s name and was allowed into her hospital room. She was in the bed closest to the door in a six-person room divided by curtains. Sayuko’s right shoulder and right leg were in slings, and when she saw me, she let go of the magazine she was reading. “Are you all right?” I asked, but I could tell that, in more ways than one, she was not.

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologize. You’re lucky you got off light, aren’t you?”

Although I had seen her without makeup countless times, I was surprised by her pale, dispirited expression. Her hair was a mess, and her body reeked of alcohol. I had never seen her so weakened, so unresisting. I averted my gaze and would have liked to smoke a cigarette, but I remembered there was no smoking in the hospital. Blankly, she watched my every move.

“If I had gone head-first, I probably would have died, but it’s like I was unconsciously protecting myself. Like an idiot.”

“Stop that,” I said.

She hung her head, her shoulders seeming to tremble from strain. Her breathing was unsteady. My throat tightened with increasing pressure, as if her distress were contagious.

“I was so scared. This was the second time I fell down the stairs . . . When I was pregnant, I was pushed down the stairs . . . The baby’s father got angry about something stupid—he was the one who did it. When I fell this time, I had a flashback.”

She exhaled deeply.

“In the ambulance, I found out that the baby and I were both okay. I wasn’t too far along yet, but the doctor told me it was a miracle. But the baby was stillborn anyway . . . Poor thing. It was saved by a miracle, only to die in the end . . . You know, how could someone use that much force against something that’s so weak? I don’t think I’ll ever forget the feeling of his hands on my back. That’s what was so scary—it seemed like it was happening all over again.”

Her head still hung down, she didn’t look up.

“When someone uses force, they always use it against someone who is weaker than they are,” I said. “They know they’ll win, which is why they do it. It’s cowardly.”

“. . . I guess so. I’m sorry. Always talking about myself.”

“Hm? Oh . . . It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.

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