Women On the Other Shore by Mitsuyo Kakuta Read Free Book Online

of the next seat back.
    "Miss Narahashif she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
    "I have to learn t h e ropes too," she said in a low voice, flashing Sayoko a peace sign.
    On Aoi's right sat an older woman with graying hair gathered at the back of her head; on her left was a baby-faced woman who wore no makeup but looked like she must be pushing forty. Neither of them said a word, and Aoi offered nothing further either. This apparently wasn't the moment for the greeting Sayoko had rehearsed last night in the bath. Only the rhythmical fwump-fwump of the wind-shield wipers cut through the silence in the car. Soon the blurry red light through the water on the glass changed to green and the van moved forward. Nakano Station receded into the distance beyond the screen of raindrops.
    A job broker picking up homeless day laborers. Sayoko recalled the image that had gone through her mind as she waited for the van to arrive, and nodded to herself that she'd had it right. The driver was the broker, and Sayoko and the others were housewives with no means of earning their own keep who found themselves adrift.
    Sayoko quickly pushed aside these self-abasing thoughts by repeating to herself emphatically that she was going to forge on, come what may.
    After about twenty minutes, the driver called out three names, and the blonde, the grayhair, and the babyface got out to follow her into an apartment building. When they were gone, Sayoko turned toward Aoi, but found her dozing with her mouth agape. She sat quietly and waited.
    Soon the driver returned and pulled the van back into traffic without a word. Another twenty minutes later, she stopped in front of a building with a white tile facade and announced, "Everybody out."

    Sayoko and a bleary-eyed Aoi got out of the van. T h e rain was about the same as before, neither lighter nor heavier. Their driver unloaded some cleaning supplies from the back and locked the car
    "Follow me," she said brusquely, and started toward the building with a bucket in each hand. She entered the code for the security door and let them inside, then led them to the elevator and pressed 5.
    Sayoko and Aoi followed shoulder to shoulder, walking in silence. Aoi widened her eyes and made a funny face each time their eyes met.
    They proceeded in single file down the well-polished fifth-floor hallway to a door marked 506. From the building's elegantly appointed exterior, Sayoko expected to find a suite of luxurious rooms, but what she saw when the woman unlocked the door and pushed it open made her want to recoil.
    "Come on in," the woman said, entering.
    Sayoko stepped nervously into what turned out to be an empty studio apartment with just one main room of approximately four meters by five. The breath of its former occupant seemed to linger faintly in the air, as if the premises had been vacated only moments before. Compared to what they had passed on the way up, the inte-rior of the apartment looked old and dated, and Sayoko's skin went cold at the astonishing filth she saw everywhere. Too many stains to count discolored the carpet, which was visibly matted with fallen hair. Strewn across the entire room were small, white, gravel-like pellets that presumably came from a cat's litter box. A heavy film of nicotine had turned the wallpaper the color of the setting sun, and a sticky substance of unknown nature and origin clung to the walls in spots as well.
    The state of the two-meter-square kitchenette was no less shocking. The exhaust vent was covered so heavily with blackened grease, Sayoko doubted its blades would respond to the switch. The gas range was likewise caked with a thick black veneer of grease and dust and baked-on food scraps across the entire top. What would 44

    it take, Sayoko wondered as her eyes roamed about the room. How long would you have to let things go for a place to get this bad?
    "Good grief!" Aoi gasped as she entered behind Sayoko.
    Sayoko stiffened, half expecting Aoi to be scolded for