A Story in Yokohama -29【Kasumigaseki, Tokyo, a group of buildings glittering at night.】
A Story in Yokohama【 Subtitled "Longing"】-29
That night, Yuichi invited J to his house.
“I have something to show you.”
Yuichi brought out some photos.
“Do you know who's in this picture?”
“No.”
“It's my late mother.”
“Oh, yes.”
“Well, what about this one?”
“The picture Yuichi showed J was of Junko in her younger days.”
“There's also this one. It was in the back of a drawer in my late father's desk.”
It was a picture of Junko holding a baby.
“Do you know who she is?”
“Didn't you ask your father?”
“I never saw this picture when my father was alive.”
“Who do you think it is?”
“I don't know, but there was a picture of a person who looked just like this one sitting on Mrs. Fukada's bookshelf.”
“Did you ask her?”
“I did, but she didn't give me a proper answer.”
“I see.”
“I don't know who this person is, but at least I'm not the child of the person I thought was my mother.”
“How can you be sure?”
“My father's funeral was held in Yokohama, and the cremated ashes were buried in the same grave as my mother's. But since he was the eldest son of the original family, I was requested to share the ashes with the original family temple. So, for the first time, I went to a temple in Ehime Prefecture, where my father was born.
I found my mother's name and the date of her death inscribed on a stone slab beside the large grave of the Murakami family in Ehime Prefecture, and the name Yuji inscribed in small letters next to it. That's how I knew that the child born from my father and mother had died.”
“What did the priest say?”
“He said that Yuji was his mother's child, who died soon after birth. My father bought a cemetery in Yokohama after my mother's death, but it only had my mother's name on it. However, the main family's grave had the names of both mother and son. So who the hell am I?”
“Didn't you even try to find out the facts?”
“That's where I'm weak. My father raised me as his and my mother's child and I never had any doubts. When my father died, I was shocked to find out that my parents' biological child had died, but since he had raised me as his own, I didn't dare explore the secret.
To tell the truth, I was afraid that I would find out who I was. But now that I couldn't see any future, it started to bother me. The fact that you approached me just before my graduation from high school, the fact that you've been consistently kind to me even though you're a feared man in society, and the fact that Mrs. Fukada hasn't looked at me harshly even though I betrayed her. If you know, please tell me. Who the hell am I?”
“What if I told you that you and I are brothers?”
“That's impossible. We don't even look that much alike and we have different personalities. You are fearless, but I am weak in body and will. Besides, if we were really siblings, my kind father would never leave you living alone.”
“…I suppose you're right.”
“You're not answering my question. Who am I?”
“Do you want to meet the woman in the picture?”
“What?”
“You don't want to see her?”
“I...”
“Come to the Carriage Road tonight.”
Commentary
Yuichi showed J a picture of Junko that he had found after his father's death, and asked him if he knew who she was. J tells him to come to the nightclub Carriage Road.
...To be continued...