He thought it was a shame, but there was no point dwelling on things one couldn’t control.
‘…Well, I guess I’ll be off then.’ Kiyoshi bowed to Kazu and Nagare, and turned to leave the cafe.
‘Kiyoshi, wait,’ Nagare called out to him. ‘Please give that present to your wife.’
Kiyoshi looked confused for a moment as he pondered Nagare’s words.
‘But if Kazu cannot pour the coffee, how would that be possible?’
‘It’s possible…’
‘I’m sorry, what do you mean?’
Over the last year, Kiyoshi had become well versed in the rules for returning to the past. One of the things he had learned was that only the women of the Tokita family were able to pour the coffee for returning to the past.
‘Wait just a minute,’ said Nagare as he disappeared into the back room.
When Kiyoshi looked at Kazu in puzzlement, she said calmly, ‘I’m not the only woman in the Tokita family…’
How could there possibly be another woman at this cafe that I have never met?
As Kiyoshi was trying to work out who it could be, he heard Nagare in the back room. ‘Come on, hurry up!’
Then he heard a second voice.
‘Finally, moi’s turn has arrived!’
It was a young girl’s voice, speaking in a rather peculiar tone.
‘…Ooh,’ said Kiyoshi as he recognized it.
‘Thank you for waiting, monsieur!’ Miki said in an unexpectedly loud voice as she entered the cafe. Kiyoshi had assumed that only grown-up women could serve the coffee.
‘Is it you, monsieur, who wants to return to the past?’
‘Miki, please, speak proper Japanese,’ said Nagare, aghast at her attitude. But Miki tsk-tsked him with a wave of her finger.
‘That is not possible, moi is not Japanese,’ she retorted.
Nagare gave an exaggerated frown as if he had been expecting such a response. ‘Oh, what a shame! It is a rule of the cafe that the person who pours the coffee must be Japanese.’
‘Only kidding! I’m Japanese!’ she exclaimed, flip-flopping shamelessly.
With a sigh of exasperation Nagare said, ‘Yes, yes. We all know that. Hurry up and get ready.’
He motioned with his hand for her to go to the kitchen.
‘OK,’ Miki replied enthusiastically and hurried off.
While this exchange was taking place, Kazu appeared completely detached, standing quietly as if she wasn’t even present in the room.
‘Kazu, help her please,’ Nagare called out.
‘Yes, sure,’ Kazu said. She excused herself from Kiyoshi with a bow and silently vanished into the kitchen.
After watching her go, Nagare turned to Kiyoshi.
‘Er, I’m sorry…’ he said as a way of apologizing for Miki’s messing around when Kiyoshi wanted to return to the past to meet his dead wife. But Kiyoshi hadn’t been bothered by it, at all. He had found the exchange between Miki and Nagare amusing, heart-warming even. Besides, he was just happy to learn that he could return to the past. His heart raced in anticipation.
Kiyoshi looked at the vacant chair.
‘It never even occurred to me that Miki would pour my coffee,’ he said.
‘Last week she turned seven,’ Nagare replied, looking towards the kitchen.
‘Oh, now that you mention it…’ Kiyoshi said, suddenly recalling.
The pourer of the coffee not only had to be a woman of the Tokita family, she also had to be at least seven years of age. Kazu had once told him this. At the time, he hadn’t considered it especially important information and had forgotten it.
Kiyoshi again looked to the chair that would take him back in time and began walking towards it, as if it was pulling him.
I’m going back to the past.
The thought made his chest feel hot. He looked at Nagare.
‘Go ahead and sit down…’ Nagare urged.
Kiyoshi drew a deep breath and slowly edged his way between the table and the chair. His heart raced even faster.
He sat down in the chair and pulled out the gift that he had just stowed in his portfolio.
‘Kiyoshi,’ Nagare called as he walked towards him, one eye still on the kitchen.
‘Yes, what is it?’ Kiyoshi asked, lifting his head up.
Nagare stooped down low and whispered with his hand up against Kiyoshi’s ear as if telling secret information.
‘About Miki, it will be her first time pouring the coffee. I think you can expect her to be a bit over the top. She will probably lecture you on all the rules. I’m sorry about that, but do you think you could just go along with it?’
Kiyoshi understood perfectly what Nagare, as a father, was asking. ‘Yes, of course.’ He smiled.
A moment later, Miki returned from the kitchen and approached them, taking little steps. She was not dressed in the bow tie and sommelier’s apron that Kazu wore when she poured the coffee. Instead, she was wearing her favourite cherry-blossom-pink dress with a wine-red apron over it. The apron, which had been her mother Kei’s, fitted her well thanks to Nagare’s tailoring.
Miki held the tray bearing the silver kettle and white coffee cup unsteadily, her jerky walk making the cup rattle on the saucer.
Kazu stood at the kitchen entrance, watching over her.
When Miki reached Kiyoshi’s side, Nagare spoke.
‘Miki,’ he began, ‘from now on, you will take Kazu’s place in serving coffee to the customers who sit in this chair. Are you willing to do this?’
He spoke with a reverent tone.
Finally, this day had arrived.
His innocent little girl was going to take on a special role. Judging by his serious expression, he felt like a father giving away the bride at a wedding. Miki, however, was taking no notice of what he might be thinking. She was putting all her concentration in not letting the cup and kettle on the tray fall.
‘Uh? What?’ she replied impatiently. She neither understood Nagare’s sentiment, nor grasped the importance of the task at hand.
Observing that she was struggling with all her might to do the job of pouring the coffee, Nagare realized that she was still a child – a thought that made him happy.
‘It’s OK. Nothing…’ he said with a little sigh. ‘Keep at it, you’re doing fine,’ he muttered, his eyes showing a hint of a smile.
Miki, however, had no time for his comments.
‘Do you know the rules?’ She had turned to Kiyoshi and begun the explanation. Kiyoshi glanced over to Nagare questioningly and Nagare gave a small silent nod. Kiyoshi turned back to Miki.
‘Could you explain them to me? I’ll take the cup and tray if you like,’ he replied kindly.
She nodded deeply and then gave him the tray. Holding only the silver kettle, she began to explain the rules.
As Kiyoshi was already familiar with the rules, Miki’s explanation was over in just two or three minutes.
She forgot to explain the rule that you cannot get up off the chair, and there were other places where she didn’t explain everything fully, but Nagare let it go. He knows the rules, so it will be fine, he thought.
Miki seemed pleased with how she had explained the rules, as she turned to Nagare with a proud smile and expelled a ‘humph’ of triumph through her nose.
‘Splendid,’ Nagare said immediately but added, ‘but don’t keep Kiyoshi waiting!’
‘OK!’ Miki replied happily and turned back to Kiyoshi. ‘Shall we continue?’
Up until now, when Kazu had poured the coffee, these words had carried with them a serious air, so much so that the temperature of the cafe seemed to drop a little.