It was the ideal time of day for customers to wander in off the street, but none of the people walking by outside showed any sign of stopping. On a day this hot, popping into a nice, air-conditioned store for a bit of browsing was a natural impulse. Unfortunately, their shop was wide open, with only an old electric fan whirring away to cool the air.
“Getting air-conditioning is the least we can do — if we want any customers at all, that is,” Maki had commented the other day. She and Naoya had married last fall, so this was her first summer at the family shop-cum-residence.
“What’s the point? With an open-fronted shop like ours, air-conditioning won’t make a bit of difference,” was Suzue’s response. She was looking at Naoya as she spoke. Even when they were talking to each other, the two women barely looked at one another.
“Then we should close up the front of the store. If we got glass doors, people would be able to look in from outside, and the cold air would stay in,” said Maki, looking at Naoya.
When Naoya made the mistake of emitting even a noncommittal grunt, Suzue felt that she had to argue the point.
“Closing up the front, even with sliding glass doors, will still make it that much harder for customers to come in. Anyway, what about the things we have on display out on the street? What are we supposed do with them? Bring them all back inside and slam the doors shut behind them? Everyone will think that Yanagisawa’s gone out of business.”
“It’s like a sauna in here right now. Even the few people who’ve happily come in can’t beat a retreat fast enough. No one spends any time browsing.”
“That’s just not true. Not everyone’s in love with air-conditioning, you know. Some of the customers comment on our wind chime and how it makes them feel cooler.”
“Only old-timers would say something like that.”
“Those ‘old-timers’ are important customers for us.”
The two of them went at it hammer and tongs. Naoya was stuck in the middle, unable to take sides. All he could do was waggle his head ambiguously and groan inside. But the womenfolk wouldn’t let him off so lightly; in the end, both pressured him to express an opinion on the matter.
“Oh, golly,” mumbled Naoya, scratching his head and smiling goofily at them both. “How about you let me think about it a while? Maybe we should have dinner now?”
The two women fell silent. Dinner was eaten in an atmosphere of subdued tension. That’s the way things were in the Yanagisawa household.
Naoya wanted to improve things, but he was at a loss for ideas. He tried discussing the problem with an older colleague at work, but his colleague quickly diagnosed the situation as hopeless.
“When a wife and a mother-in-law are at loggerheads, the husband can’t expect to sort things out. That’s just naive. Here’s what you should do: Hear both women out separately; shut up, listen, and never ever contradict them — that’s just pouring oil on the flames. After you’ve heard what they each have to say, look like you agree, comment on how reasonable their point of view is, and promise to convey their opinion to the other party when the time is right. Then — this is the crucial part — never say a word about it to the other woman. Of course, they’ll hound you, ask you how it went — but you’ll just have to grin and bear it. Divert their anger toward yourself, that’s the only viable solution.”
“Doesn’t sound like much fun,” mumbled Naoya.
“Buck up,” said his colleague, smacking him on the back. “You’ve got yourself a lovely young wife. I’m sure she’s worth the hassle.”
People tended to be more jealous of him for his young wife than sympathetic about the friction between her and his mother.
Naoya had met Maki at a sleazy hostess club. She’d been working there, and he’d come in with a friend.
That night she’d been wearing a pale blue dress that showed off her tanned skin to perfection. She wasn’t classically good-looking, but she had unforgettably lovely eyes. A skilled conversationalist, she listened wide-eyed and with rapt attention to whatever Naoya had to say (which, frankly, wasn’t all that interesting). She was cheerful, her features expressive, and her laugh sounded like cascading marbles.
When it came time to leave, Naoya was already head over heels in love with her. He went back to the club by himself the next day, and the day after. His salary was by no means lavish, but since he lived in the old family home, he had no living expenses and a good amount saved for a man of his age. He believed that Maki was someone well worth squandering money on.
When the friend with whom he had first gone to the club tried to warn him off, Naoya wasn’t interested.
“You need to pull yourself together. What’s a poor salaryman like you doing falling for a professional hostess? She’s out of your league, man. You’ve got to put an end to this.”
Guessing that everyone else would probably say the same thing, he decided to keep his mouth shut and keep going to see Maki discreetly.
Rather unexpectedly, the next warning had come from Maki herself.
“You’ll run through all your savings if you keep coming here like this, Mr. Yanagisawa. You’re coming alone, so I know you can’t be charging it to your firm.”
“Don’t worry about it. I may not look like it, but I’ve got a pretty big nest egg.”
“That may be, but keep this up and you’ll be broke in no time.”
“Coming here’s the only way I get to see you, Maki-chan.”
By Naoya’s modest standards this was a bold declaration. And it worked like a charm.
“Why don’t we go on a date one weekend?” Maki said.
At first, Naoya was sure she was pulling his leg, but then she emailed, asking him to pick a day.
On their first date they went to Tokyo Disneyland. In daylight, Maki looked healthier and less childlike than in the dark of the nightclub. She confessed that at the club she pretended to be three years younger than her real age. She was actually twenty-four. To Naoya, the difference seemed hardly worth lying about, but Maki insisted that, by pretending to be younger, she got better treatment from both the customers and the club’s management.
Naoya couldn’t have cared less one way or the other. He was in heaven just being able to date her.
As their dates became more frequent, Naoya didn’t just want her to be his girlfriend, he wanted her to leave her job at the club.
“I wish you’d just quit,” he came out and said once.
Maki looked uncomfortable.
“The thing is, I can’t do any other kind of work. It’s too late for me to get an office job, and even if I did, I’d definitely earn a whole lot less. I’d never be able to make my rent.”
Naoya had been to her apartment a few times, and she was right — the average office worker would never be able to afford it.
“In that case...”
He paused, then launched into a speech he hadn’t planned on delivering. “Why don’t we get married and you can come and live with me?”
A look of surprise came over Maki’s face; then she gave a shy smile, before bursting into tears and draping her arms around his neck.
Naoya introduced Maki to his mother, Suzue, a few days later. Things went okay. Suzue displayed a certain distaste when she heard about Maki’s nightclub job, but not enough to veto the marriage. As for Maki, she didn’t seem to dislike the idea of living with his mother and helping out at the family china shop. Naoya felt sure that everything was going to be fine.
At first, everything went swimmingly, and Maki enjoyed helping out at the shop. Things, however, took a serious turn for the worse for a most unexpected reason.