Strange Misfortune
Kan Kikuchi
1.
From the time the train finally left Ōfuna, Shin'ichiro's heart was filled with an increasingly intense sense of impatience. There were still five or six stations to go before the train reached Kozu, and the fact that the train had to make frequent stops at each station irritated him greatly.
In addition, he wanted to see Shizuko as soon as possible, and he wanted to treat her as much as he could, as she was thirsting for his caresses.
It was early June. The green of the mountains and forests that undulated like a tide along the train tracks had lost their boyish youthfulness, and were now looming at the train window with a sultry, oppressive quality. Here and there, however, newly planted seedlings were casting a pale, warm green light in the early summer breeze.
The second-class compartment, which would normally be full of people wishing to travel from Hakone to the hot springs of the Izu Peninsula, had not even a shadow of a passenger, partly because it was halfway between spring and summer, an inopportune time for a hot-spring cure, and because it had been raining continuously for about a week. The only thing that caught Shin'ichiro's attention from the beginning was the fact that an elderly couple who appeared to be French, with their only son, a boy aged fifteen or sixteen, were occupying a corner of the cabin. He never tired of looking at the boy's slender figure, like the limbs of a young Oga, and listened to the simple conversations he had with his father and mother. In addition to this group, there were two people who looked like office workers wearing Western clothes, and a French country girl who seemed to be traveling with her mother.
In the end, Shin'ichiro was relieved that there were no people on board, like those from the hot spring class, both men and women, wearing Oshima suits or the like, and adorning every part of their bodies with gold, platinum, and jewels. They must have irritated Shin'ichiro even more than he already was by talking loudly, scattering food, and behaving rudely.
The day of the platinum shadow was shooting deep in the sky. As the train progressed, the Sagami Sea, hidden in plain view, was stagnant, like sooty silver, tinged with a deep glow. The Amagi Mountains, which had been visible earlier, had somehow been painted grey and hidden. Around the waist of the horizon, pressing down on the Sagami Sea, dark clouds were stagnant, as if they might contain rain. It was already around four o'clock in the afternoon.
"Shizuko must be waiting for me."
The train seemed to slow down even more with each passing thought. Shin'ichiro restrained his heart, which was becoming irritated, and tried to picture in the sky the image of his young beloved wife, who was waiting for him at an inn in Yugawara. First and foremost, a blush appeared as a precursor to a smile on the cheeks, which were moistened to the colour of stone bamboo. Following this, modest lips and a gentle, elegant nose, though not high. But more than her facial features, it was the virginal shyness that appeared on her entire face, and as he recalled it, Shin'ichiro's own expression sagged, and before he knew it, a smile of caress for his wife, who was not there, was floating on his face. He shyly looked around the carriage, wondering if someone might notice. But then the boy from France came along.
"Mother!" The French on board seemed to be thinking about something in particular.
The train was roaring past the pine forests near the sea.
2.
The image of his beloved wife, leaning over the railing of the Mota-yu Inn and impatiently waiting for him, appeared and disappeared as the train wheels turned. That is how much Shin'ichiro had given his body and soul to his new wife, Shizuko.
Thinking about his wedding ceremony in the countryside just three months ago, or the days of honeymoon trips to Nara and Kyoto on his way to Tokyo, he was able to truly understand what happiness means.
The virginal shame and purity she showed him at the wedding ceremony, the total trust she had thrown in him as they lived together, the various qualities of her beauty that gradually emerged as the days went by, like buried gems. As Shin'ichiro mused about these things, he couldn't help but feel an urge to reach his destination as soon as possible and stroke the translucent chin of the freshly arrived Shizuko.
"I've only been away for a week... After only a week apart, is it true that you miss her that much that you can't stand it?" he asked himself, and Shin'ichiro couldn't help but feel embarrassed at how impatient he seemed, like a spoilt child or something.
But for Shin'ichiro, who had only been married for a few days, the short period of just a week must have seemed so long, the equivalent of three or four months. Even when Shizuko's doctor advised a trip to a hot spring to recover from an acute bout of pneumonia, Shin'ichiro couldn't help but feel anxious and lonely about leaving his wife behind for even half a day or a day. However, he had been absent from work for more than half a month because of his marriage, so he was left without any more excuses for taking leave. He had no choice but to accompany his wife and the maid to Yugawara last Sunday, and returned to Tokyo the same day.
"Judging from the letter I received this morning, she must be feeling much better now. She may even ask to come home with me tomorrow, Sunday. Maybe she is waiting at the station. No, Shizuko is not the kind of woman to be so considerate about such things. She is a woman who is waiting quietly and modestly. She must be leaning against the balustrade of the newly built second floor of the bathhouse, gazing intently at the wooden bridge spanning the Fujiki River. And every time a horse-drawn carriage or an automobile roars over the bridge planks, Shizuko's little heart must be pounding in her chest, wondering if I have arrived as well."
Shin'ichiro's various thoughts, centred on his beloved wife, were interrupted by the sharp sound of a whistle, which seemed to cut through the heavy evening clouds. He poked his head out the window and saw the deep blue sea, with its dreadfulness so characteristic of Kozu, reflecting the dark light of the evening through the pine trees in the area.
As far as the eye could see, as if at the end of autumn, the land and sea had taken on a sombre colour. But when Shin'ichiro realised that he was in Kozu, he kicked his seat and stood up, as if he had just been revived.
3.
As soon as the train pulled up to the platform, the passengers, who were not many, got off first. The train, which stopped at this station, became empty as if it had been washed away. But the station was not crowded at all. About fifty passengers were waiting at the turnstiles.
Shin'ichiro was getting ready and left the train later than anyone else in the hustle and bustle. When he left the ticket gate, he saw the train bound for Yumoto in the square in front of the station, ready to depart. However, this train was completely different from the previous Sunday's crowds, and there was still room to sit down. However, when Shin'ichiro saw the train, he immediately remembered the slow journey, with the train stopping at every station with a thud. Furthermore, if he changed trains at Odawara, there would be even more trouble ahead. It was a light railway that crawled like a centipede along the edge of a narrow cliff, with mountains on the right and the sea on the left. Thinking of this, he involuntarily stopped his feet before getting on the train. It would inevitably take three hours to get to Yugawara. After getting off at Yugawara, it would take thirty minutes to ride the horse-drawn carriage along that country road, and it would be almost ten o'clock by any chance. He imagined that ten or even twenty times the irritation he had felt on the train was waiting for him, and he simply did not have the courage to get on the train. He suddenly became emotional, as if he had encountered some completely unexpected difficulty. Just then, a large man was running after him.
"Hello, how about you come in for a ride?" he called out to him.
Looking over, he saw that the man was wearing a Fujiya Motors hat. Shin'ichiro stopped in his tracks, suddenly feeling as if he had been saved, as if he had met a rescue boat. But he did not show any such emotion on his face, as he was thinking about the deductions on his wages.
"Yeah, I'd say yes, as long as it's cheap," he replied with a great deal of composure.
"How far are you?"
"To Yugawara."
"To Yugawara, we'll come in at 15 yen. In reality, I would charge a little more, but I'm the one who recommended it."
When Shin'ichiro heard the price of 15 yen, he lost all desire to take the car. That said, he was not poor. Since he had graduated from law school the year before last and joined Mitsubishi, he had been paid a substantial salary. In addition, if his income from his property in his hometown was included, he had an income of nearly 500 yen per month. But the amount of 15 yen he had to pay to shorten his journey to Yugawara by a mere two or three hours was far too extravagant. Even if Shizuko, his beloved wife, was waiting for him.
"Well, never mind. I can just take the train," he thought to himself.
He said the opposite of what was going through his mind and tried to shake off the big man from his clothes and get on the train. But the big man persisted and would not let him go.
"Well, wait a moment. I have something to discuss with you. Actually, there is someone who wants to go to Atami, and I was wondering if you could join him and ride with him. It would be a very cheap ride. If so, all you need is seven yen."
Shin'ichiro's heart was deeply moved. He pulled back the hand that was about to reach the railing of the train steps.
"What kind of person is this customer?"
4.
The large man dressed in a suit went towards the waiting area directly across from the station to pick up the passenger who was to ride with Shin'ichiro.
As he watched the big man's figure, Shin’ichiro thought to himself, they were on a trip anyway, so sharing a ride with anyone would only be a matter of thirty or forty minutes, so he needn't worry, but he hoped that the man would be a nice, sweet companion. He thought it would be unbearable if the man was a nouveau riche man of the hot spring resort class, sitting arrogantly and smugly. He wondered if the man was a plump, corpulent man, flashing a gold ring engraved with his official seal, being led by the big man. Or perhaps it was an unexpectedly beautiful woman or something. But then he remembered that there was no way that a woman of such status would agree to sharing a ride.
Feeling a little curious, he waited for the appearance of someone who would be his temporary companion. After about three minutes of tense waiting, the negotiations finally seemed to have been concluded, and the big man emerged from the waiting area, grinning from ear to ear. In that moment, Shin'ichiro caught a glimpse of a student wearing a mortarboard cap over the big man's shoulder. He was pleased that his passenger was a student. He was especially pleased that the student was from a school he had no particular affinity with as far as his alma mater went.
"Here you are. This is the gentleman."
As he said this, the large man introduced the student to Shin'ichiro.
"I'm sorry to trouble you," Shin'ichiro greeted him cheerfully.
The student bowed, but said nothing. At first glance, Shin'ichiro could not help but be struck by the student's noble appearance. He was probably an aristocrat, or the son of a distinguished family. His refined nose and dark, clear eyes indicated an undisputed high birth. In particular, his lofty and affable appearance gave a good impression to anyone who saw this young man. Wearing a Cravennet coat and carrying a small handbag, he looked refined and elegant.
"So, I have received your permission to escort you to your lodgings in Yugawara and then turn back and go to Atami," the large man told Shin'ichiro.
"I see. That must be very inconvenient for you," Shin'ichiro said, once again greeting the student.
Soon, the two of them got into the car the big man was pointing at. Shin'ichiro sat on the left, and the student sat on the right.
"It will take forty minutes to Yugawara, and fifty minutes to Atami," the big man said. The driver's hands were on the wheel. The car carrying Shin'ichiro and the student was about to depart. As if chasing the train that had just left, a tremendous explosion was heard, and then the car sped headlong through the town of Kozu.
When Shin'ichiro thought that he would be able to visit his beloved wife in another forty minutes, the irritation and frustration he had felt on the train disappeared without a trace. Just as his body leapt with the light movement of the car, his heart leapt with light and joyful anticipation. But the young man who was Shin'ichiro's passenger had not the slightest sense of being in a car, hunched over in one corner, his prominent brows slightly furrowed, and seemed to be deep in thought. He did not even give a nod to the changing scenery outside the car window.
5.
Until they entered the town of Odawara, they sat side by side in silence. In his heart, Shin'ichiro even felt a kind of familiarity with the young man and wanted to speak to him somehow, but the young man's expression, which seemed to be trapped in a deep melancholy, did not even give Shin'ichiro the opportunity to do so. The young man's face, seen from a distance of barely a foot, seemed to grow taller and taller, but for some reason his face had taken on a pale colour, and his eyes even seemed weak and crowded together with some sort of sadness.
Shin'ichiro wanted to avoid upsetting the other person's feelings as much as possible, but from another perspective, it seemed awkward and unnatural for them to remain silent while they sat in the same car together.
"I beg your pardon, but did you come by train just now?"
Finally, Shin'ichiro finally spoke up. He asked an obvious question as a conversation for the sake of conversation.
"No, I came here the other day," the young man's answer was a little surprising.
"So you came from Tokyo, didn't you?"
"Yes. I was heading towards Miho."
When he spoke to him, the young man gave a proportionately brisk but matter-of-fact reply.
"When you say Miho, do you mean Miho no Matsubara?"
"Yes, it is. I was there for about a week, but I got tired of it."
"Are you taking care of yourself after all?"
"Well, it's not that I'm here to recuperate, but I just feel a bit sick," the young man said, his expression taking on a dark and sombre tone.
"Is it a nervous breakdown?"
"No, that's not it," the young man replied, his mouth closing weakly as he spoke, as if implying the existence of a cause that could not be easily expressed in words.
"You've been out of school for a long time, haven't you?"
"Yes, just about a month now."
"But in the humanities department, it makes no difference whether you attend or not," Shin'ichiro said, remembering that he had seen the letter "L" on the young man's lapel.
The young man, perhaps feeling a little uncomfortable at being asked to speak about so many things, tried to remain silent again, but Shin'ichiro, who had graduated from law school but had been more interested in literature and art since his youth, wanted to talk with the young man about such things as well.
"Excuse me, but where did you go to high school?" Shin'ichiro began again after a while.
"Tokyo," the young man answered without turning around.
"I'm not sure if you were the same class as me, but I don't recognise your face at all."
It was as if a certain familiarity with Shin'ichiro had suddenly welled up in the young man's heart. It was as if the special familiarity that only those who had spent their glamorous youth in the same dormitory at Koryo could feel had warmed the young man's heart.
"I see, my apologies. I graduated from high school two years ago." For the first time, the young man let out a smile. It was a lonely smile, but it was still a smile.
"Well, you just switched places with me in high school. It's no wonder you don't remember my face." As he said this, Shin'ichiro took a wallet out of his pocket and took out a business card.
"Oh, are you meeting Atsumi-san? Unfortunately, I don't have your business card with me. My name is Jun Aoki," said the young man, staring intently at Shin'ichiro's business card.
6.
After introducing themselves to each other, the two felt a familiarity with each other, as if they were two completely different people from the two before.
The young man was shy, but he seemed to have a more friendly personality than most people. To Shin'ichiro, who was just a passenger, he showed a cold side, but once he found out they were from the same school, he quickly warmed to the older student, and he seemed to have a kind and gentle nature.
"I left for Tokyo on the tenth of May and have been staying here for no particular reason for about a month now, but I never feel at ease no matter where I go," the young man said in a pleading tone.
Shin'ichiro, who was prone to sulking, thought that the young man's emotional turmoil must have been due to doubts about his outlook on life that had prevailed in his youth, or perhaps the agony of love. But he did not know how to respond.
"Why don't you just go back to Tokyo? I myself have often traveled to the sea or the mountains in search of peace due to mental unrest, but when I was alone, the loneliness of the solitude only intensified, and I could no longer bear it, so I was driven back to the city. In my opinion, the chaos and turmoil of Tokyo life is the best medicine for anything," Shin'ichiro said, thinking of his own experiences in the past.
"But my case is a little different. I just can't stand being in Tokyo. I don't have the courage to go back to Tokyo anytime soon."
The young man fell silent again. Shin'ichiro could see that the young man had suffered a serious wound somewhere in his heart, and it was painful to see.
The car had long since left Odawara and was now speeding alongside the light railway line on the high, white cliffs, the waves of the Pacific Ocean breaking at dusk.
The road was quite narrow. To the right, a mountain with layers of green leaves loomed over the traffic. On the left, the road sloped steeply, and the sea was visible directly below. Where the cliffs sloped more gently, there were orange orchards. The strong scent of tangerine blossoms, blooming white, hit the faces of the people in the car as it sped along.
"I hope we reach Atami by nightfall," Shin'ichiro broke the silence after a while.
"No, if it gets late, I'll stay overnight in Yugawara, too. It's not like I have to go to Atami."
"Then, by all means, stay in Yugawara. Since I have made your acquaintance, I hope you will take your time and enjoy your stay. Now that I have made your acquaintance, I would like to have a long talk with you."
"Are you staying here for a long time?" the young man asked.
"No, actually, I'm going to pick up my wife," replied Shin'ichiro.
"Your wife!" The young man's face looked a little lonely as he said this, and for some reason he fell silent again.
The car sped along, braving the wind. It was a fairly dangerous road, but the driver, who seemed to make the journey several times a day, seemed more at ease and unrestrained than on Tokyo's main roads, turning the steering wheel with unrestrained freedom. His bold manoeuvring even made Shin'ichiro and the other gasp at times.
"It must be a light vehicle," the young man said as if to himself. A thunderous sound, unmistakable from the roar of a car, echoed off the mountains and the sea as it drew closer and closer.
7.
The thunderous sound of the light railway train came closer and closer. As the car rounded the nose of a mountain, the pitch black body of the train came into view before their eyes. Its constant puffs of black smoke and panting appearance gave the viewer the impression of some slow-moving creature. When the driver of Shin'ichiro's car saw this outdated mode of transport, he behaved like the hare to the tortoise in the fairy tale, as if he were making fun of the other driver. He was averse to slowing down a little to make a pass. Without slowing down a bit, he tried to steer a quick pass between the light track and the cliff wall on the right, which was a clear miscalculation on his part. The track of the light train was laid close to the mountain cliff, and there was no space between the track and the rock wall to accommodate the vehicle, as the road was particularly narrow there. When the driver realised this, the train was not more than three metres away.
"Idiot! Watch out! Watch out!" The train engineer's furious abuse struck the dismayed driver in the ear. The driver was so shocked that he turned the steering wheel sharply in the opposite direction. The car narrowly avoided a collision and veered off the road to the left. Shin'ichiro was relieved. However, it was a moment he did not have time to pause. The car had dodged to the left, but the dodging was so sudden that it seemed to be on the verge of crashing down the rocky cliff on the left side of the road. To the left of the road, there was a half-mile stretch of bamboo grass, from the edge of which a cliff nearly 10 metres high angled steeply down to the sea.
The driver, who had been so calm at the first crisis, lost his cool at the second danger. He uttered meaningless words like a maniac and struggled in the driver's seat. But the driver's desperate efforts were not in vain. The car, in which the lives of the three men were entrusted, made a sudden turn and was spared from plunging into the sea. However, just as it seemed to run five yards in reaction, it struck a rock wall on the right side of the mountain.
Shin'ichiro heard a terrible sound. At the same time, he was slammed back and forth two or three times with violent force inside the small car. His eyes were dazzled. For a while, nothing existed but a stormy, chaotic consciousness.
When Shin'ichiro finally came to, he found himself in the narrow car, bent over like a prawn and slammed to one side. He finally raised himself. He absentmindedly stroked his head and chest, and when he realised that he was not hurt in the slightest, he set his still unsteady eyes to see the young man who was supposed to be beside him.
The young man's body was right there, but the upper half of his body was exposed through the half-open door.
"Hello, you! You!" Shin'ichiro called out as he tried to pull the young man into the car. At that moment, he heard a strange cry of agony. Shin'ichiro was shocked, as if he had been doused in water.
"You! You!" he called desperately. But the young man did not respond in any way. All that could be heard was a continuous, low, thumping groan.
With all his might, Shin’ichiro held the young man in his arms inside the car. Looking at him, half of his beautiful face was a creepy purple-red color. What frightened Shin'ichiro even more was the single sliver of blood trickling from the right corner of his lip to his chin. Moreover, the blood was different from the blood from his lips; it was a reddish-black blood that must have strayed from the innards.