I went back and sat on the sofa, and out came hot tea. Usually, the first time I go to a house, face to face with people I barely know, I feel an immense loneliness. I saw myself reflected in the glass of the large terrace window while black gloom spread over the rain-hounded night panorama. I was tied by blood to no creature in this world. I could go anywhere, do anything. It was dizzying.
Suddenly, to see that the world was so large, the cosmos so black. The unbounded fascination of it, the unbounded loneliness…For the first time, these days, I was touching it with these hands, these eyes. I’ve been looking at the world half-blind, I thought.
“Why did you invite me here?” I asked.
“We thought you might be having a hard time,” Yuichi said, peering kindly at me. “Your grandmother was always so sweet to me, and look at this house, we have all this room. Shouldn’t you be moving?”
“Yes. Although the landlord’s been nice enough to give me extra time.”
“So why not move in with us?” he said, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
He struck just the right note, neither cold nor oppressively kind. It made me warm to him; my heart welled up to the point of tears. Just then, with the scratch of a key in the door, an incredibly beautiful woman came running in, all out of breath.
I was so stunned, I gasped. Though she didn’t seem young, she was truly beautiful. From her outfit and dramatic makeup, which really wouldn’t do for daytime, I understood that hers was night work.
Yuichi introduced me: “This is Mikage Sakurai.”
“How do you do,” she said in a slightly husky voice, still panting, with a smile. “I’m Yuichi’s mother. My name is Eriko.”
This was his mother? Dumbfounded, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Hair that rustled like silk to her shoulders; the deep sparkle of her long, narrow eyes; well-formed lips, a nose with a high, straight bridge – the whole of her gave off a marvelous light that seemed to vibrate with life force. She didn’t look human. I had never seen anyone like her.
I was staring to the point of rudeness. “How do you do,” I replied at last, smiling back at her.
Thank you very much, MilkyBlue & langknow. ^_^