Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata Read Free Book Online Page A

don’t understand myself.’
    Pressing one hand to the floor, she half pushed herself up. Her legs were curled beneath her.
    Kikuji sat up.
    ‘I didn’t come here to spoil things for you and Yukiko. But it’s done.’
    ‘I haven’t decided to marry her. But the truth is that you’ve washed my whole past for me – or so it seemed when you said that.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘Kurimoto was my father’s woman too, and she’s the go-between. All the poison from the old days is concentrated in that woman. My father was lucky to have you for the last.’
    ‘You must hurry and marry Yukiko.’
    ‘That’s a question for me to decide.’
    She stared vacantly at him. The blood left her cheeks, and she pressed a hand to her forehead.
    ‘The room is spinning around.’
    She had to go home, she said. Kikuji called a cab and got in with her.
    She leaned back in one corner, her eyes closed, a thoroughly helpless figure. The last embers seemed in danger of going out.
    Kikuji did not see her into the house. As she left the cab, her cold fingers simply left his.
    At two the next morning, there was a telephone call from Fumiko.
    ‘Hello. Mr Mitani? My mother has just …’ The voice broke for an instant, then continued firmly. ‘Has just died.’
    ‘What! What happened?’
    ‘Mother is dead. She had a heart attack. She has been taking a great deal of sleeping medicine lately.’
    Kikuji did not answer.
    ‘I’m afraid I – must ask a favor, Mr Mitani.’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘If there is a doctor you know well, and if it seems possible, could you bring him here?’
    ‘A doctor? You need a doctor? I’ll have to hurry.’
    Kikuji was astonished that no doctor had yet been called. Then, suddenly, he knew.
    Mrs Ota had killed herself. The girl was asking him to help hide the fact.
    ‘I understand.’
    ‘Please.’
    She had thought carefully before calling him, he knew, and she had therefore been able to state the essentials of her business with something like formal precision.
    Kikuji sat by the telephone with his eyes closed.
    He saw the evening sun as he had seen it after the night with Mrs Ota: the evening sun through the train windows, behind the grove of the Hommonji Temple. 4
    The red sun seemed about to flow down over the branches.
    The grove stood dark against it.
    The sun flowing over the branches sank into his tired eyes, and he closed them.
    The white cranes from the Inamura girl’s kerchief flew across the evening sun, which was still in his eyes.

Figured Shino 1
    On the day after the seventh-day memorial services, Kikuji made his visit.
    It would be evening if, following his usual schedule, he stopped by on his way home from the office. He had therefore meant to leave work a little early, but the day was over before he was able to collect himself for the task.
    Fumiko came to the door.
    ‘Oh!’
    She knelt in the raised entranceway and looked up at him. Her hands were pressed to the floor, as though to steady her shoulders.
    ‘Thank you for the flowers yesterday.’
    ‘Not at all.’
    ‘I thought I wouldn’t see you.’
    ‘Oh? But people do sometimes send flowers ahead, and go themselves later.’
    ‘Even so, I didn’t expect you.’
    ‘I sent them from a florist’s very near here.’
    Fumiko nodded simply. ‘There was no name, but I knew immediately.’
    Kikuji remembered how he had stood among the flowers and thought of Mrs Ota.
    He remembered that the smell of the flowers had softened the guilt.
    And now, softly, Fumiko was receiving him.
    She had on a plain cotton dress. Except for a touch of lipstick on her dry lips, she wore no cosmetics.
    ‘I thought it would be best to stay away yesterday,’ he said.
    Fumiko turned slightly to one side, inviting him in.
    Perhaps because she was determined not to weep, she limited herself to the most ordinary greetings; but it seemed that she would weep anyway unless she moved or remained silent.
    ‘I can’t tell you how happy I was to have the flowers. But you