Requiem by Shizuko Gō

Author:Shizuko Gō [Gō, Shizuko]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kodansha International
Published: 1985-04-01T17:00:00+00:00

Another spring’s grass shoots were pushing up on the embankment where the two girls were lazing. A train for Sakuragi-chō crossed overhead, then the sunny noontime tranquillity returned for a few moments. A platform announcement was heard from Yokohama Station, the loudspeaker booming, so they couldn’t make out the words. Each time a train passed on the elevated Toyoko Line the swamp surface below quivered, rippling the shadows of the bridge girders into elongating and contracting zigzags.

“When I was little,” Naomi said, “students were always coming to our house and discussing difficult subjects in Papa’s study. I loved to listen, and I’d sneak under Papa’s desk and keep very still. Afterward I’d surprise Papa by repeating something I’d half heard—like ‘Those denominations, you know.’ He’d say ‘So you were in your hidey-hole again, were you?’ and he’d grab me and squeeze the breath out of me.

“My grandmother who died,” Setsuko said, “was a very hard worker. Some factory used to dump coal cinders on that empty lot over there, and she’d be there waiting to pick them over. It was my job to collect the coke she dug out and carry it home in a little bucket. To keep from getting sooty she wore a towel over her hair, an apron, and cotton work gloves. Yes, now I remember, she made me wear all those things, too.”

“Papa and Mama,” Naomi said, “have always quarreled a lot. They’ll be listening to a record, and if Papa says ‘Ah, yes, Kreisler is unquestionably the world’s finest violinist,’ Mama will say ‘Nonsense! Huberman is by far the best!’ Then there’s a dingdong argument until they suddenly tell me to go to my room because they’re going to make up. They must have a special secret way of making up.”

“Just before I started school,” Setsuko said, “my brother and I used to catch minnows in that ditch over there. He told me they’re what people use to make dried whitebait, which is a favorite of mine, and I said I wanted some. So he arranged our catch on a flat stone in the sun, and after a bit he said ‘They’re done. Try them.’ I told Mother about it when we got home, and caused a real fuss. I was given an antidote and put straight to bed, and my brother got a dreadful scolding and no supper.”

The two girls, seventeen and fifteen at their next birthdays, were bereft of a future, and though their real lives had yet to begin they were talking like old folk lost in reminiscences. Or perhaps this was their old age, for the hour of their death was near, as they well knew.

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