Copyrighted Material
casual greeting. Tsuda halted where he stood, half responding to the coquette in her and half hesitating. “What are you doing standing here?” “I was waiting—for you to come home.” “But you were staring at something.” “A sparrow. You can see the sparrow nesting under the eaves across the street.” Tsuda glanced up at the roof of the house. But there was no visible sign of anything that appeared to be a sparrow. His wife abruptly extended her hand toward him. “What?” “Your stick.” As if he had just noticed it, Tsuda handed the cane to his wife. Taking it, she slid open the lattice door at the entrance and moved aside for her husband to enter. Close behind him, she stepped up to the wooden floor from the concrete slab for shoes. When she had helped him change out of his kimono, she brought from the kitchen a soap dish wrapped in a towel as he was sitting down in front of the charcoal brazier. “Go and have a quick bath now. Once you get comfortable there you won’t feel like going out.” Tsuda had no choice but to reach out and take the towel. But he didn’t stand right away. “I might skip a bath today.” “Why? You’ll feel refreshed. And dinner will be ready as soon as you get back.” Tsuda stood up again as he was told. On his way out of the room he turned back toward his wife. “I stopped in at Kobayashi’s on the way home from work and had him take a look.” “Goodness! What did he say? By now you must be mostly better?” “I’m not—it’s worse than before.” Without giving his wife a chance to question him further, he left the room. It wasn’t until early that evening, after dinner and before he had withdrawn to his study, that the couple returned to the subject. “I can’t believe it, surgery is horrible; it scares me. Couldn’t you just ignore it as you’ve been doing?”
LIGHT AND DARK
29