“There. Why couldn’t you have said it like that before,” she said like a schoolteacher. “That package. Yes. I put it in a trunk with our winter clothes and sent it by Daitsu.”
As Daitsu were the most reliable carriers in the country, I was somewhat relieved. But would the trunk arrive before my medicine ran out?
“You shouldn’t have done that without asking me,” I said in a plaintive voice. “I’ve only got four or five tablets left.”
“If they’re so important to you, why didn’t you look after them yourself?!”
“And when will Daitsu deliver the trunk to the island?”
“They said it would take four to five days. That was four days ago, so it should be there by tomorrow.”
I’d have to make sure I didn’t have an attack before the next day.
As we arrived on the island, an old man came to meet us on the ferry landing stage. He said he was the village headman, and took us to the observation point, where I would live and work for the next eight months. Near the coast about a mile out of the village, it stood on sandy ground below a cliff. It was made of wood, measured about thirty by thirty feet, and was of course newly built. It would probably be destroyed at the end of the observation period. Though crudely fashioned, it had a large carpeted room at the back, and looked much more comfortable than I’d expected.
“Well, we should be able to make do with this,” I said.
Standing in front of the village headman, my wife said nothing.
The observation equipment had already arrived. I started unpacking and assembling it as soon as the headman had left and my wife had started cleaning. It was well into the night by the time I was finished.
My wife came on to me that night.
With the uncertainty of a new environment, she probably need ed to immerse herself in an activity that involved monotonous repetition, something that felt familiar. I shared that feeling, but of course I didn’t make love to her. I might have suffered a spasm if I had. I reminded her that I only had four or five tablets left. But she just repeated the same old complaint as always.
The next day, I carried the observation instruments to the rocky beach and set them up at six points. It took a whole day.
There was no Daitsu delivery that day.
“It hasn’t arrived!” I complained to my wife.
“It’ll probably come tomor row,” she answered with her customary indifference.
“You’ve got the receipt from Daitsu, haven’t you.”
“I wonder. Did I bring it? Look in my handbag. If it’s not there, I’ll have left it at home.” As irresponsible as ever.
I hurriedly emptied the contents of her handbag onto the table, and hunted for the receipt. I was relieved to find it there, crumpled into a ball.
But there was no Daitsu delivery the following day either. After completing my observations I went down to the ferry landing stage to check. The ferry had already left, and there was no sign that it had brought any kind of baggage. This was driving me mad. I hurried back to the observation point and picked up the telephone.
“Hello?”
“Hello, yes? What can I do for you?” said an old woman’s voice at the other end.
I’d been told that the village headman’s wife operated the telephone exchange. The village headman himself was at least seventy. So the woman on the other end must have been his wife.
I took care to speak politely. “I’m sorry to trouble you, but may I make a call to the mainland?”
“The mainland, you say? Oh! Yes, the mainland.” For some reason, she sounded quite thrilled. “Yes, of course. What number?”
Reading from the receipt slip, I repeated the number of the Daitsu City Branch to the stupid woman several times.
“Oh yes, yes, I’ve got it now,” she said in great excitement. “Please replace your receiver and wait for me to call.”
I waited in a state of mounting irritation for about fifteen minutes, until the phone finally rang.
“Hello? Yes. Well, at last we have a connection,” the old woman said cheerfully.
“Daitsu.” The girl’s voice sounded awfully distant.
“Yes, hello? My name’s Suda. I gave you a trunk to ship on the 6th, but it hasn’t arrived yet.”
“One moment. I’ll put you through to the Dispatch Office.”
Next, a young man spoke. He sounded even more distant. “Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Er, hello? We have a bad line here. Hello?”
“Hello? Yes, my name’s Suda. I gave you a trunk to ship on the 6th, but it hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Ah. Hold the line. I’ll put you through to the Duty Clerk.”
Next, a middle-aged man spoke. I repeated the same thing to him.
“Really. Well, I’ll look into it,” said the man, as if it were too much for him. He obviously had no desire to look into it at all.
“Will you look into it now, please?”
“What, now?” the man said in a sullen tone, followed by silence.
“It contains something important that’s urgently needed. Actually, it’s medicine. Without the medicine, someone could die.”
“Really. Just a minute.” He seemed to be looking, albeit reluctantly. “Er, what was the name again?”
“Suda.”
“Shudder?”
“No, Suda.”
“No shudder?”
“Er, Suda.”
“Er shudder?”
“S for Sparrow. U for Unicorn. D for Donkey. A for Ant.”
“…Eh?”
“S for Sparrow-”
“Mr Sparrow?”
“S for Sparrow. U for Unicorn-”
“Mr Uniform?”
“SUDA. The name is Suda. Suda.”
“Mr Suda?”
“Yeeessss. That’s right.”
“Oh yeah. Here it is. Item received on the 6th. One trunk, was it.”
“That’s the one. That’s the one!”
“Sent to… how do you read that?”
“Pomegranate Island.”
“Yeah, Pomegranate Island. Well, yeah, it’s already been sent.”
“…What?”
“We’ve already sent it out.”
“Hello? Hello?”
“Yeah. Hello.”
“I’m actually calling from Pomegranate Island now.”
“Really.” He wasn’t even slightly impressed.
“And it hasn’t arrived yet.”
“That’s funny. It should have done.”
“Yes.”
“It should be there by tomorrow.”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking for the last two days.”
“But it’ll arrive by tomorrow. No problem.”
“And what will you do if it doesn’t?”
“What do you want me to do?” He was laughing.
“Couldn’t you trace it for me?”
“Trace what?”
I was beginning to lose my patience. “I would like you to trace the whereabouts of my trunk.”
“Well, once we’ve sent it out, it can’t be traced.”
“Surely it can. You must know the shipment route. Could you please telephone and check.”
“Could who please telephone and check?”
I snapped, momentarily. “You, of course! No, not necessarily you. It doesn’t matter who. Could someone please look into it?”
“Well, no, actually. We’re very busy with other shipments here.”
“I’m busy too! That trunk is important to me!”
He laughed again. “And our shipments are important to us.”
“It’s a matter of life and death!”
“Really.” He thought I was exaggerating, of course.
“Hello?”
“Yeah.”
“Would you mind telling me your name.”
“Murai,” he answered grudgingly.
“Well, Mr Murai,” I said in a tone of authority, “could you please check out all the points along the route. I’ll call you back later.”
“All right then. Yeah, OK, I’ll check them out. It must be serious if it’s a matter of life and death, eh?” He suppressed a laugh.
I slammed down the receiver in great annoyance. “Jesus. How rude can they get.”