The Phone Box at the Edge of the World by Laura Imai Messina

Author:Laura Imai Messina [Acton, Helly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction
Published: 2020-05-10T16:00:00+00:00

chapter

thirty-eight

The Title of the Picture Book Takeshi Read to Hana that Evening

Yōko Imoto, Kaze no denwa, Tōkyō: Kinnohoshi, 2014.

chapter

thirty-nine

‘BY YOURSELF?’

As she nodded, her chin brushed the collar of her coat. Yes, she was sure.

‘But by yourself? Are you really sure?’

The question played on a loop, continuously broadcast by both her father’s voice and his expressive eyebrows. They furrowed one moment then stretched out again, unsure of how to respond.

‘Come on. I’ll walk you to the door and perhaps pick the phone up for you.’

Hana was inflexible. She crouched down, releasing herself from her father’s grip.

He also squatted, bending his knees, and felt a twinge in his back. What if I get old? he asked himself. I can’t get old. Not for another twenty years at least.

He raised his eyes and at the edge of the garden he saw Yui giving Suzuki-san the usual yellow package of banana cakes. She was talking to the man, bowing her head and smiling at him, yet Takeshi was certain that her attention was on him.

In that moment he wanted nothing more than for Yui to come home with them, for her to help him bring the shopping bags into the kitchen, to tidy up the little girl’s wardrobe, for them to put up the New Year decorations together. It would be nice if they went to the temple together and prayed to the gods for a year of health and serenity. He wanted to keep her close, even when they became old and started to lose their hearing.

Oh dear, were they at that point? Could his feelings have grown that much already?

He wondered, bemused, whether Hana had noticed it too; children were so observant.

And would he ever be able to distinguish between the personal love he felt for a woman, and the plural love that encompassed his daughter?

Yui turned, pulled by the insistence of Takeshi’s gaze, which, embarrassed, he immediately averted. He slowly stroked Hana’s tangled hair.

‘OK then, let’s do it this way,’ he said to his daughter. She would go in alone and he would wait outside.

The little girl detached herself from her father and approached the phone box with small steps, the bell in the archway jingling. Takeshi held his breath. What would happen? His racing pulse made him feel like a teenager.

Takeshi joined Yui just as Suzuki-san was going back into the house and Hana had picked up the telephone. They watched as the receiver moved down from the cradle to the little girl’s ear.

‘She’s so small.’

‘Not for her age,’ Yui replied sweetly. ‘She looks perfectly average to me.’

‘I meant inside there.’

They stood unmoving on the doorstep.

He broke the silence. ‘She wanted to go in alone.’

‘Yes, I saw.’

‘You don’t need a voice to speak here, do you?’ Takeshi asked.

‘No, I suppose you don’t.’

Takeshi shifted his position and inside the cabin he saw his daughter moving her mouth, her lips opening and closing over and over again.

He was stunned, unable to grasp a clearer emotion. Were her lips just beating the air

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.