‘Well …’‘You go straight home. For your father’s sake. This is the day he had his tea ceremony every year. I could hardly sit still, thinking about it.’Kikuji said nothing.‘The tea cottage … Hello? … I was cleaning the tea cottage, and all of a sudden I wanted to do some cooking.’‘Where are you calling from?’‘Your house. I’m at your house. I’m sorry – I should have said so.’Kikuji was startled.‘I just couldn’t sit still. I thought I’d feel better if you would let me clean the cottage. I should have telephoned first, I know, but you would have been sure to refuse me.’Kikuji had not used the tea cottage since his father’s death.In the months before she died, his mother had gone out to sit in the cottage from time to time. She did not put embers in the hearth, however, but carried hot water with her. Kikuji would wait uneasily for her to come back. It troubled him to imagine what she might be thinking, alone in the stillness.He had sometimes wanted to look in on her, but to the end he had kept his distance.Chikako rather than his mother had taken care of the cottage while his father was alive.
