“What in the world for?” she had asked with rounded eyes when her dazed husband came home and told her he’d been fired.
Before this, he had seldom returned home until near midnight. Sometimes he was out even later and had to come all the way home by cab. But she’d gotten used to that and thought nothing of it anymore.
His explanation had always been the same: he was entertaining clients. That could hardly be every night, though, so a lot of those times he must have been entertaining just his own sweet self. As a matter of fact, she had no way of knowing where he went, or what he might be doing.
But what good would it do to make an issue of it? Since all those late nights didn’t seem to bother him, and since they didn’t seem to have any ill effects on his health, she figured she should count her blessings.
As far as his work itself was concerned, he had never had much to say, nor had she ever bothered to ask. So when he told her he’d been fired, all she could do was wonder what on earth could have happened.
“I borrowed some money,” he explained (the amount was equivalent to about six months of his salary), “and they found out about it. I was planning to pay it back, but, before I did, they found out.”
Common sense said he should have had to pay the money back even if it meant selling his house, but in this case the company had decided to forgive the debt in exchange for his immediate resignation.
How could this happen? Mrs. Aoki wondered. After working for a company for eighteen years, to suddenly get fired just like that. If only it could be a joke—a practical joke her husband was playing on her because nothing ever seemed to faze her. How happy she would be if that were all it was!
But, in fact, she had known from the instant her husband walked in the door that it could be no mere joke. The ominous cloud hovering over him had told her instantly that something serious had happened.
“There’s nothing you can do?”
“Nothing.”
“Didn’t you ask Mr. Komori to help?”
“He was the angriest.”
On the board of directors, Mr. Aoki had been closer to Komori than anyone else. Mrs. Aoki had visited his house several times and enjoyed long talks with his wife.
“Maybe I could go and apologize,” she said.
“It’s no use. Everything’s already been decided.”
She fell silent, and, after a few moments, began to weep.
Soon the initial shock passed, and she was able to regain a certain calm. But then something akin to terror came to her all over again when she thought of how easily their secure, worry-free lives had crumbled to nothing.
It could almost be called spectacular.
This is what life is like, she thought.
When she looked rationally at what had happened, she had to admit it was not at all beyond imagining. Her husband had never been a particularly conscientious worker. Nor could you call him a man of strong character. Indeed, she had seen him make time, against all obstacles, for the sake of entertainment and drink. Who could ever have guaranteed that he would not make a mistake?
Even if some of the time he had gone out on company business other than entertaining clients, there had to be limits. And on his salary, he could hardly afford to go out much at his own expense. She had been a fool to take it so casually, and to never once question what was going on.
It had probably never occurred to her husband that things could get out of hand and lead to a crisis. He had a tendency not to take things very seriously to begin with, which, no doubt, was exactly what had led him to his ruin. If he had truly intended to pay the money back, it wasn’t such a large sum that he couldn’t somehow have done it. Her husband must never really have felt in his bones what a serious business his work was.
On the other hand, in fifteen years of marriage, it had never once occurred to her that she should be worried about her husband’s ways. She could not recall ever having reminded him how important his work was, and that he must never take it lightly.
When she reflected on her marriage like this, she realized for the first time just how foolishly and carelessly they had spent the time they shared as husband and wife. And suddenly the successful man who had risen all the way to acting section head only to be fired began to look like an absentminded half-wit. Her husband might be fun-loving and a bit of a heavy drinker, but these qualities were counterbalanced by his good work—wasn’t that how she’d reassured herself? Hadn’t she described her husband to her school friends exactly that way? Now she was furious with herself for it.
How in the world could a man thrown out of a job at the age of forty rehabilitate the family name? How in the world would he balance his accounts in this life?
Her head filled with questions that made despair raise its head with every turn of her thoughts. But they were not questions she could simply push from her mind and ignore.
An amazingly large, yellow moon emerged from among the leaves of the sycamore tree in the yard. As she gazed at it, an almost inaudible sigh escaped her lips.
The children were delighted by their father’s unexpected vacation. The older boy begged to go hiking in the mountains, while the younger wanted to go on an insect-hunting excursion.
“No, your father is tired and needs to rest at home,” their mother headed them off.
Her husband smiled weakly. “That’s right. Daddy just wants to rest right now,” he said, “so please don’t ask me to take you anywhere far away this time.”
The boys reluctantly withdrew their requests. In exchange, beginning on the third evening, they dragged their father out to the new pool that had been built at the school. The high school girls’ swim team was in training camp for an upcoming meet, so normally the Aokis could not have used the pool.
To tell the truth, Mr. Aoki had no energy for stripping down to his trunks and diving into a pool. He really didn’t feel up to anything but lolling about on the tatami with his long legs and arms thrown out every which way. It was Mrs. Aoki who’d insisted he take his swimsuit and cape and get out of the house for a while.
“If all you do is lie around like that, the next thing you know you’ll get sick as well. Go swimming. It’ll help get you out of your doldrums.”
Mr. Aoki had always been fond of athletics. In his student days he had played on the volleyball team, and on Sunday mornings and such he often played catch with the boys in the street out front. During the college rugby season, he liked to take his wife and boys to see the games. And he’d started going to the beach with the boys when they were barely toddlers so he could teach them how to swim.
The first evening, when her husband and the boys had not returned by the time dinner was ready, Mrs. Aoki went to fetch them, and she found her husband quite changed from when she had watched him leave the house tagging along after the boys. Standing with folded arms, he gazed intently after the swimmers as they slowly pushed their kickboards across the pool, beating the water into foam behind them. He didn’t even notice her arrival.
Can you believe this man? she muttered inwardly, not knowing whether to feel shame or pity.
On the second evening she bought a box of chocolates as a thank-you to the coach and a treat for the swimmers. She called her husband to the fence and asked him to take it to the coach.
Her husband took the chocolates to where the coach sat at the center of the starting blocks and gave them to him with an amiable smile. The coach beamed back.
“Okay!” he boomed. “Whoever betters their record gets one of these chocolates from the Aokis. Come on! Let’s see what you can do!”
All