Unaiko was staring straight ahead, entirely focused on her driving. Her hair, which had been dyed bright gold while she was in Tokyo playing the role of a psychic medium, had reverted to its natural jet-black color, and she wore it pulled back in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Her body language seemed to radiate seriousness and solemnity.
“It looks as if you’re already getting into character for your role as Meisuke’s mother, Unaiko,” I said. “What’s the story?”
“Yes, I’ve been consciously trying to put on some weight,” Unaiko said, nodding emphatically in a way that emphasized the new fullness of her profile. “I want to be able to project a sense of power when I recite the battle-cry chant. By the way,” she added, “Ricchan was very interested in seeing the actual route Meisuke’s mother followed on the way to the uprising, but she was afraid Akari might be coming down with a cold so she decided to stay behind at the Forest House and keep him company.”
“Ricchan really does take incredibly good care of Akari,” Asa said. “Maki speaks to him on the phone every day, and apparently he talks about Ricchan all the time. When I left for Tokyo I knew you hadn’t even begun to mend your fences with Akari, and I realized after I left that I should have arranged for someone to take care of keeping his face shaved while you were staying down here. During your past visits I’ve always done it myself, whenever the two of you weren’t on the best of terms. But I forgot to put it on my to-do list, and it wasn’t until I’d been tending to Chikashi at the hospital for a week that I started to worry. I asked Maki to check, and she told me that Akari replied, ‘Papa isn’t shaving my whiskers.’ She said she was alarmed to hear it, but even as she was picturing her brother’s face completely covered in stubble (or even a full beard) Akari went on, with his trademark slyness, ‘Ricchan’s shaving me now, and it doesn’t hurt like when Papa does it.’”
“Whenever there’s something new going on, Akari never seems to be able to come right out and talk about it, even if he wants to. So if someone can extract the information from him, indirectly, I think he always feels relieved,” I said.
“Anyhow, Ricchan stepped into a tricky situation and kindly offered her tonsorial services,” Asa said. “I mean, at that point she and Akari had barely spoken two words to each other, and it’s only natural she would have been worried about inadvertently nicking him with the razor. Ricchan’s a very brave soul, though, and it seems to have worked out fine.”
Having spoken her piece on this subject, Asa shifted into explanatory mode. “Let me fill you in on the plan for today,” she said, turning her attention to Unaiko. “First, we’ll drive to Honmachi. Then we’ll get on the highway along the Kame River, crossing the newly widened bypass — you know, the one that forced the removal of the big rock with the poem etched into it, which is now in the back garden of the Forest House. (Of course, the poetry stone wasn’t the only thing displaced as a result of the construction.) Anyhow, that will take us right into Okawara. It’s about a twenty-minute drive from here, so I’d like to use the time to talk to my brother about something having to do with his domestic situation, and I’d be grateful if you would listen, too, Unaiko.
“When Chikashi was discharged from the hospital, before I left Tokyo, we had a little party to celebrate. It was just the three of us: Chikashi, Maki, and me. The timing wasn’t ideal because Maki was dealing with the time of month that’s always the most difficult for her, emotionally — I mean, once she gets past the monthly complications she’s the sweetest person on earth, but that night she was on the warpath against you, Kogii.
“The first thing she said was, ‘When Mama went into the hospital, she was clearly prepared for the possibility that she wouldn’t make a full recovery, and she took the time to talk to me about some important matters. But what about Papa? Is he giving any thought to our future as a family? It was smart of Mama to send Akari and Papa to Shikoku together, because it was definitely a step in the right direction. But even so, now that they’re there, it doesn’t seem as though Papa has made any progress toward considering the problems at hand. Ever since she was diagnosed with cancer, Mama seems to have been giving a lot of thought to her own mortality, but Papa isn’t really thinking seriously about the end of his own life. At least that’s how it looks to me.’”
Asa paused for a moment to let these words sink in, then resumed her monologue. “Anyhow, Maki went on to say, ‘At the beginning of this year, remember when Papa said, “Whoa, I just realized I’m on the cusp of being older than Professor Musumi was when he died!”? And then he seemed to be getting a kick out of saying things like: “Maybe Maki’s depression is something I passed down to her, because I myself was on the cusp of middle age when I first began to suffer from melancholia. When I talked to Musumi Sensei about that, he said, ‘I’ve realized that I didn’t completely understand the work of certain authors — Rabelais, for one — until I read the same books again after I’d reached the same age those authors were when they passed away. So, if you can muster up a sufficient degree of interest, I’d like to ask you to read (or reread) all my books when you get to be the age I was when I died.’ And now, here I am, rereading Sensei’s books, one by one.” When I heard what Papa said, it really struck me that he didn’t seem to be giving any thought to how his death would affect Akari, or how Akari would go on living when he was gone.’ Anyhow, that’s what Maki said.
“Chikashi was the first to respond,” Asa continued. “Obviously she would never hug her daughter in front of me, even though I’m family, but she was clearly trying to comfort Maki when she said, ‘No, dear, Papa has actually given quite a bit of thought to the things you mention, and he has even invented a term for the situation with Akari. He calls it ‘the Macbeth matter,’ and the fact that he has given it a name seems to suggest he isn’t trying to avoid the issue entirely.’
“Kogii, I’m only mentioning this now to let you know how seriously Chikashi and Maki are thinking about this. I get the feeling they’re hoping you’ll take the initiative, sooner rather than later, and let them know your thoughts about what will become of Akari when you die. I simply wanted to put a bug in your ear, so to speak.”
Asa lapsed into silence. We had already driven through the residential outskirts of Honmachi, and as I gazed out the window a familiar landmark — the long sandbar on the other side of the embankment — came into view. A few moments later, Unaiko spoke up.
“What do you mean by ‘the Macbeth matter’?” she asked me.
“It’s a reference to the kind of situation implied by the lines where Lady Macbeth says, These deeds must not be thought / After these ways; so, it will make us mad. That’s all.”
My brief reply was meant to discourage further discussion, and I could sense from Unaiko’s body language that she had gotten the message. Asa gave me an exceptionally eloquent look, but she didn’t say a word. However, Unaiko wasn’t the type to slink quietly away from a conversation, and she managed to change the subject in a positive way.
“On another topic,” she said, “I’ve been watching Ricchan while she’s helping Akari with his music lessons, and it occurred to me that the work she’s doing with him has given her a whole new lease on life. Honestly, I’ve never seen Ricchan like this before. Until now I’ve always relied completely on her, and even though we haven’t always been living in the same place, when the going got tough it always cheered me up to know Ricchan would be coming back before too long — and she always did, eventually. To be perfectly frank, while I’ve admittedly been quite dependent on Ricchan in a practical sense, I always thought working with me was going to turn out to be the most important thing in her life, and I never imagined that anything else could be as exciting and fulfilling for her as our dramatic projects. But lately when I see Ricchan and Akari working on lessons and compositions together, and then when I hear their efforts transformed into music, it’s clear that those endeavors are much more important and rewarding for Ricchan than being my assistant. I’ve gotten a sense that the work she’s doing with Akari has been lifting her to an entirely new level, and I was reminded of that when I heard about what Maki had said.”