The Forest Brims Over by Maru Ayase

Author:Maru Ayase [Ayase, Maru]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-05T00:00:00+00:00

4

NOWATARI TETSUYA WAS STANDING IN LINE at ten o’clock on a Wednesday morning waiting for his local supermarket, Endo, to open.

The only other customers were elderly folk garbed in dull-colored clothing and housewives clutching reusable shopping bags in one hand. Nowatari was the only man in his prime. When the automatic doors finally slid open, he followed the flow of people to the deli corner.

The Endo supermarket had a thirty-percent-off special on prepared food every Wednesday. The kitchen was the centerpiece of the supermarket, and popular items such as quiche and Nanban-style horse mackerel tended to sell out within an hour of the store opening.

Nowatari cast his eye over the mountain of individually wrapped dishes and gathered those that he had come to acquire with a practiced hand. Fried shrimp and lotus-root fish cakes, braised eggplant, ganmodoki tofu with spinach, seafood pad thai, grilled shishamo, and assorted kimchi. After picking out close to fifteen packs in total, he deliberated whether he should stock up on sake, beer, and whiskey to pair with the food as he left the deli corner. He also needed to buy milk, bread, and eggs. On top of that, he was almost out of coffee, without which he wouldn’t be able to work at all.

He was peering down the aisle when a startled voice sounded beside him: “Oh, Mr. Nowatari? Are you shopping?”

It belonged to one of the students from his creative writing course. Her name was . . . Tanibe, if he remembered correctly. Or was it Yatabe? She was a housewife in her fifties. She loved to talk, had a boisterous laugh, and was always offering up a cheerful smile. She had probably joined the creative writing course simply to make friends rather than to hone her storytelling skills. She always seemed most lively when she got together with the other housewives after class over tea and coffee in the café on the top floor of the cultural school building.

Come to think of it, she had said something once about living in the same neighborhood as him. Nowatari mechanically twisted the corners of his mouth to return her smile. “Yes. I came to buy some dishes.”

“You’ve got a lot there, don’t you?”

“I like to buy three days’ stock at a time.”

He had fallen into the habit of doing his shopping twice a week—during the special on Wednesday and the morning sale on Saturday. The Endo supermarket used seasonal vegetables in its prepared foods, and the store frequently changed its lineup, so he never grew tired of them.

It had been an everyday question, and he had given it an everyday answer.

That was why, when Yatabe’s face clouded over, he felt like he had tripped over a pebble, his heart skipping a beat.

“Oh? It must be hard all by yourself. If you need anything, do let me know. I’m always happy to talk.”

What was so hard about being alone? Not knowing how to respond, he flashed her a vague smile. After all, the woman standing before him was a paying student at his course, duly contributing five thousand yen for each lesson.

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