We'll Prescribe You a Cat by Syou Ishida

Author:Syou Ishida [Ishida, Syou]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2024-09-03T00:00:00+00:00

Koyuki

3

Koyuki

Megumi Minamida stopped by the park on the corner of Rokkaku and Fuyacho streets. When she turned around, she saw her daughter, Aoba, standing on the other side of the street, gazing down at her feet. Irritation started to bubble up. She breathed out slowly and reminded herself to stay calm.

“Aoba, hurry up. You’re getting in the way of other people.”

Aoba approached her with a sullen look. For a fourth grader, she still looked quite babylike and exuded an air of sadness, so it made Megumi feel like a villain for being cold to her. But having been forced to go on this wild-goose chase, Megumi didn’t have the bandwidth to be kind. They had indeed found a hospital located at the vague address Aoba’s friend had given her, but it wasn’t the one they were looking for.

“Lize and Tomomi said it’s around here. Kiko’s mom’s friend also said they’ve been seeing Dr. Kokoro at his practice,” said Aoba.

“We were just there, and it was a different hospital, wasn’t it?” Megumi couldn’t hide the frustration in her tone even though she knew it was also her fault for not looking up the details ahead of their visit.

When Aoba got to the fourth grade, she became markedly more difficult to deal with. While it was normal for her to complain that school was boring or her studies were tough, recently she’d started exhibiting signs of depression. And a few days ago, she expressed her desire to visit Dr. Kokoro’s clinic in Nakagyō Ward.

At first, Megumi dismissed the idea of psychiatric care for elementary school students, but when she casually brought up the topic with her neighborhood mom friends, to her surprise they insisted that these days, mental health care was considered normal even for preschoolers. Megumi felt an urgent need to act. If she didn’t take Aoba to the clinic right away, she felt she would be seen as an old-fashioned, incompetent mother. She couldn’t bear to remain idle.

And so Megumi arrived at Dr. Suda Kokoro’s hospital in Nakagyō Ward, as directed by the map app on her phone. But it wasn’t a psychiatric clinic or a pediatric clinic. It wasn’t even a clinic for people.

It was an old and smallish hospital, located along a narrow path. In the entrance was a large dog lying down beside a bench. On a wall were hundreds of photographs, all featuring dogs or cats, many with their owners.

Dr. Kokoro’s hospital turned out to be an animal hospital. Megumi had reluctantly come here because she wanted to fit in with her mom friends, but she’d made a mistake by unquestioningly accepting Aoba’s information.

“Let’s go home. Mom needs to prepare dinner,” said Megumi.

“No way. I want to find Dr. Kokoro’s clinic. It’s on some street in Nakagyō Ward.” Aoba frowned.

“We passed Suda Animal Hospital. It was a vet.”

“It’s somewhere different. On the top floor of a building, with a doctor who actually listens to you. Both Lize and Tomomi have their own regular psychiatrists, and they’re told that they can call up the doctor anytime, even if there’s nothing wrong.

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