kscans

Chapter 6 - A Call from an Unknown Past

The custom of not holding funerals on tomobiki days remains deeply rooted, even in the twenty-first century, even as generations change.

To begin with, the rokuyo, the six-day cycle that includes days like butsumetsu and tomobiki, was a battle calendar devised by the military strategist Zhuge Liang during China's Three Kingdoms period. It has nothing to do with Buddhism or funerals, and the original meaning of tomobiki was 'a draw.' When the characters were changed to mean 'pulling a friend,' it came to be interpreted as the deceased pulling a friend along with them, and some regions even close their crematoriums on that day.

In fact, if someone were to force a funeral on a tomobiki day and, by coincidence, one of the attendees were to die, the host and their family would surely be saddled with baseless resentment. Tsukie had a friend who got married on a day that was both butsumetsu and April Fool's Day, but it seemed that with funerals, you couldn't just do as you pleased.

After all, the guest of honor was no longer in a position to voice an opinion.

More dry ice was added to the futon where her father lay, and a day of nothing but waiting began. That day, the phone rang so incessantly she felt like she'd become a telephone operator. Old colleagues of her father who had received the news, friends from afar who couldn't attend the funeral... The words of condolence poured out, sometimes followed by endless reminiscing. Her mother handled most of the calls, but some people would say, "Are you his daughter?" and, catching Tsukie, would tell her stories of her father's younger days.

It was a strange feeling for Tsukie. She couldn't even picture the faces of the people on the phone. Depending on the caller, she didn't even know their relationship to her father, yet she had to play along, speaking nostalgically of the deceased's past. Some people just rattled off their own thoughts and hung up, but when someone said with feeling, "Your father was a good man," she felt a sense of salvation.

Even Tsukie, who was bad at socializing, could be soothed by the comfort of a stranger. She found herself wiping away tears at the receiver.

However, interspersed with these condolence calls were sales pitches delivered in an obviously and strangely cheerful tone.

Starting with caterers asking, "Have you ordered your food yet?" and continuing with Buddhist altar shops, funeral homes, and even mysterious spiritualists, a parade of people who would be trouble if you accidentally engaged them were calling after seeing the obituary in the newspaper.

Feeling it was unfair to bother her mother with such calls, Tsukie tried to answer the phone as much as possible. But by the afternoon, tired of fielding calls, she swapped with Hinako and went upstairs for a rest.

Tetsuro was in the upstairs bedroom, smoothing his hair in the mirror above the dresser where her father's hair growth tonics were lined up.

"Oh? Getting to that age, are you?"

She saw an image of her father, standing in that same spot, stroking his thinning hair. Tetsuro said he was going to ask the neighborhood association president to be the funeral committee chairman. That was apparently why he was sprucing himself up.

Tetsuro pointed with his brush to an old photograph sitting on the dresser.

"This photo is cute. You two look so close."

"Huh?"

It was the photo from her childhood that had fallen out of the album last night.

"That one... I can't really remember it clearly. I think we might have ridden a train together once, but..."

"Hmm."

Tetsuro didn't press the matter further and quickly left for the association president's house. He carried with him the box of Senshuan sweets that Tsukie had bought yesterday. Funerals in Sapporo were often managed by the neighborhood association. That might be why so many mourners from the neighborhood turned up.

Tsukie let her body, which felt as heavy as lead, sink into the sofa by the window and sighed. The soft sofa was so comfortable she felt as if she might never be able to get up again.