Golden Time

5. Golden Time

Three days deep into golden week, and my family and I were on our way to Hamamatsu, visiting the so-called “grumpy gramps”.

In the car, we’re currently not listening to music yet. As usual, one has to win in order to get their favourite radio station as a reward—winning in this case entails guessing the number I have in mind.

“Seven,” dad guessed.

“Wrong.”

“Two!” mom enthusiastically exclaimed.

“Also wrong.”

“I got it,” dad reached for the radio button. “It’s eight, no?”

“Nope.”

“Nine!”

“Mom won… again.”

She took dad’s hand and placed it back on the steering wheel, turning on her favourite station right after that play 80s music all day long.

I looked out of the window for a while, the sun had emerged from it’s twelve-hour trip across the globe—though I suppose it’s the other way around. I locked onto the sun, countless trips to Hamamatsu away from our planet, thinking back to when I, as a child, believed it was actually following our car around. Slowly bringing me to the realisation that I had little—let’s call it food for thought; I was bored.

In the trunk laid the various equipment dad and I took with us on any of our fishing trips, in case we find ourselves a fish-filled pond to ocean or anything in between to go fishing in.

Other than that, I had no idea how I would kill time in presence of my mom and hers, my dad and hers and herself as well—her being Katsumata Erika of course.

I thought back to what Keito had said a couple of times, “Don’t you think it’d be nice for your parents if the two of you got along?”

Even though we don’t talk during class, or breaks, nor during lunch excluding that one time, I’d still say that currently, we’re getting along just fine.

My eyes got watery and started to hurt from my certain-defeat staring contest against the sun. Every time I blinked, I saw a green coloured spot fading in my vision. Indicating furthermore that I was bored, I turned my head all over the place, blinking a salvo of blinks, leaving the traces of the spot to fade in my vision, until I got bored of that, too.

After the many hill-packed sceneries and a couple of tunnels in between, we arrived in Hamamatsu. Not much longer, we arrived at our destination, a single, more traditional looking house that belonged to the grumpy gramps.

I shook my legs out the moment I got out of the car. Mom was also stretching her arms out high in the air. Only dad seemed in no need of stretching after such a lengthy car ride.

“We’ll leave our stuff in the car for now, alright?”

“Mmhmm.”

The three of us stood in front of the front door, not one of us feeling like the one who should ring the doorbell. I looked at them, then realised I was standing closest to it, so might as well press it.

After a couple of seconds, Kazuo opened the door. “Good morning!” His face, volume and entire wide spread body made him look as if we had saved his life. “I’m so incredibly glad you guys made it here!” He was nearly getting emotional.

“Oi! Kazuoooo!” An old, croaky voice yelled out.

He looked behind him, his face turned from a jovial one to a face filled with terror in a matter of seconds. He mumbled, “Grumpy gramps…”

“Kazuo! Get your ass over here!”

“Grumpy gramps, huh…” All three of us murmured back.

We stood still in the entrance.

“This is our cue to turn back, no?”

Mom pushed dad from behind his back, “Let’s head inside.”

At the end of the long stretched hallway was a sliding door. Dad opened it, revealing a large living room where Katsumata and her mother were seated at a low table.

“Welcome!” Miss Katsumata said as she got up. “It didn’t take too long to get here, right? Did you find your way here alright?”

Another scream from the gramps sounded in the distance.

“I kinda wish we got lost,” dad mumbled.

Mom, standing next to him, bumped him with her elbow. “It was actually easy to find, I’m glad we could make it so early.”

My mom and hers both sat down at the low table.

“It’s nice you visited on a sunny day like this. The boys will have it good on their fishing trip later.”

“The men,” dad corrected as he patted me on the shoulder paired with a wink.

Right as the two of us sat down as well, Kazuo returned.

“All rise.” Dad and I stood up again. “Bow.” We bowed. “I’m kidding, sit down.”

Behind Kazuo walked a tiny man with grey frizzy eyebrows and similar looking beard. “Oh my, oh my. Visitors! Welcome, welcome!” Grumpy gramps smiled, not living up to his name at all. Not until Kazuo got comfortable next to us. “Kazuo! Get your ass up! We’re bringing snacks for the visitors!”

He jumped right back up, “Coming!”

Dad also stood up, “I guess I’ll give the poor lad a hand.”

“Say, should we go ahead and make some tea?” Miss Katsumata asked my mom, who seemed more than pleased to help out.

That left me and Katsumata alone in the living room, still seated at the low table. Though, just like during that one lunchbreak, I didn’t feel the need to talk or pick her brain within my own imagination. Until I heard a drizzling of raindrops on the roof.

“Rain…?” I wondered aloud.

Katsumata stood up, walked over to another sliding door, turned over her shoulder with a look that suggested I’d do the same and opened the door that apparently leads to the garden.

It was indeed—despite the pleasant sunshine a literal minute ago—raining. Only half-heartily so. Instead of returning to the low table, I sat down in the door opening, enjoying a newfound pleasure in the breeze brushing over my cheeks.

There was this strange peaceful feeling pouring over me, boosted all the more by the garden in a drizzle scene. Tiny puddles formed in which new drops created water ripples. The leaves of the thick plants dropped down every few seconds when enough water weighed them down.

Strange. This tranquillity, soothingly strange and strangely soothing. Right as I was falling in love with the mental photo my eyes had taken, the sun burst through the grey clouds again and the rain slowly stopped.

“The weather can’t make up its mind, huh…” Katsumata murmured.

I turned towards her and saw her—close—on her knees, and hanging over her hands placed below her forward-leaning shoulders—incredibly close.

“The snacks have arrived,” Kazuo announced. Right behind him walked dad and the not-as-grump-as-I-expected gramps.

Shortly after, the tea arrived as well.

* * *

For the first time, I was headed to the Sanaru Lake, here in Hamamatsu. It hadn’t rained since earlier, and we were well into the afternoon already. If everything goes as planned, we might even depart completely dry.

We went to the lake through the nearby park, Sanaruko Park, passing many joggers, cyclists, bird spotters and the average park passer-by—let’s call them life enjoyers—along the way.

“A lot of bird spotters here, no?”

“I heard there’s plenty of hawks and ospreys. Also ice-blue kingfishers here. You reckon a little one of them would go well with a mackerel?”

“Hey, Ryotarou, Kazuo is acting out of line again.”

“You were the one who taught me, remember?” I said, “Try your food at least seven times before you say it’s bad.”

“I can’t believe you’re siding with him,” he sighed.

“I’m just kidding. Though we do eat shirako, right? Who would’ve thought that was any good before they tried.”

“Hey, think the bird spotters would get angry if we air-angle one of their beloved birds and have a little taste of them at home?”

“They can’t get angry if we’re sneaky enough,” I joked.

“Ha-ha, I like how you think! Quick, Ryotarou, steal their binoculars! Though, I suppose we don’t have to try that hard, I heard that the birds here don’t fear people.”

We stopped talking as we walked past at a man standing about arm-length away from a tree to take a picture of a bush occupied by a school of birds—but I suppose you’d call that a flock.

“That’s enough yapping around you two,” dad said. “This is a good spot to fish, no?” He pointed at the low, long stretched out shore. Neatly kept, short green grass was spread over the entire visible surface, touching the lake. A little further away, a flower bed with most notably four colour variants of tulips sticking above the rest.

“Yeah good spot, let’s get started all right?”

“I have to say, we didn’t really see any other anglers here, no? Are we even allowed to fish in this lake?”

“Dunno,” Kazuo nonchalantly shrugged. “Didn’t see a sign prohibiting fishing anywhere…” He looked around, “Anyway, we’re throwing everything we catch back into the lake.”

Dad sighed. “First one to catch a marbled rockfish wins.”

Seated on the west-side shore of the sun-lit azure lake, about four meters apart from one another, we casted our bait-filled lines—aiming for a record time rockfish encounter. This lake is a brackish lake, meaning it’s saltier than regular freshwater lakes, but not as salty as seawater. Hence why this lake boasts a large variety of both saltwater and freshwater fish.

With that little trembling in my arms I usually have when I fish somewhere I’ve never fished before, I tried my hardest to keep my fishing rod still.

When my mind turned completely blank, and my focus was fully committed to fishing—and nothing but fishing—my surroundings lost colour and turned monochrome. All but the azure lake.

I’m sure the wheels of the cyclists made noise as they passed by, as do the footsteps of the joggers and the casual conversations of all the other people passing by. But I don’t hear a thing. Not until the rod tip twitched—a fish took the bait.

I can see it.

I waited for the fish to fully take the bait.

I can hear it.

A tiny splash followed the thud of the rod.

I can feel it.

My hands slightly tilted down by the fish’s firm grip.

Here it comes…

I jumped up, pulled the rod back and reeled it in. As I maintained the curve in the rod, and used my force to battle the fish, I felt its resistance increasing.

“Patience, patience, Ryotarou! Tire it out!”

The fish didn’t seem to have much of a strategy to cope with my strength, and wildly swam from side to side, still incapable of getting off my hook.

Once its energy was depleted, I had a much easier time getting it to shore. When it popped out of the water, my uncontrollable smile turned into a chuckle of defeat.

“Seabass…” I threw it back into the water.

“Tough luck,” dad said. “But you got the first catch again, huh…”

As I casted my line once more, I saw three boats rowing by with fisherman in them. Guess it’s permitted then…

Dad caught a round goby and a sand borer, as did Kazuo who also reeled in a seabass before I had my second fish on the hook. Though that second fish was a—

“Rockfish!”

“Good going little skipper! But don’t touch it with your hands, okay? Just swing it back into the water.”

I did as dad said, the fish was probably venomous.

“I’m not going to lose to you, Akio.”

“Bring it on!”

* * *

Dad and Kazou drove off again, to the store, after dropping me off at the rear side of the house. I opened the garden fence and walked up to the door leading to the living room. Right when I was about to open it, I heard Katsumata’s voice.

“Yup-yup! He’s a little reserved most of the time, but the very moment there’s something at stake—something to win—that’s when he really comes alive! Like for example… like for example during PE last week where we played dodgeball and the opponents had five… or maybe six people left on their team but on our team, we were down to our last man; Ryotarou! He didn’t really seem into it at all in the beginning, but when he had a game to win, he really gave it everything and even won!”

“Really now? I didn’t think he’d be a sportsy guy,” Miss Katsumata said.

“I know, right? Really, really mysterious, isn’t he?”

Instead of heading in, I waited for her to finish… though that took a while. It’s strange to hear her voice for such a lengthy duration, as if I’m listening to something that I’m not supposed to be listening to. I rarely hear her speak a word, and then she has these ramble sessions… it really is strange.

When a bit later, I heard my mom entering the room from inside, I sighed out of relief, finally able to head inside as well.

“Oh, Ryo-kun, you’re back!”

* * *

After we had eaten dinner, and were getting ready to go home, it started raining again. Though this time, it wasn’t a mere drizzle, but an actual rainstorm. The pouring-down on the roof sounded about tenfold it did at home, it’s not the most modern building we find ourselves in right now after all.

Opening the door to the garden, the breeze wasn’t refreshing anymore, just cold. The rain didn’t gently create water ripples in the puddles, but rather attempted building a pool in the garden.

“Sorry Kazuo, but do you mind if we wait a little until the rain has calmed down?”

He placed his hand on dad’s shoulder, “No worries, buddy. You’re free to stay as long as you like.”

The two of them sat down by the low table together with the rest of us. Well, excluding one person—

“Kazuooo! Get your ass over here!”

—grumpy gramps…

He jumped up, ran out of the living room, but returned quite shortly after. “So… grump—” he coughed, “gramps told me that you should stay the night.”

“That’s kind of you, but the rain is letting up already, no?” Dad stood up and opened the door to the garden—the rain seemed to have intensified even more right as he did so.

“I guess… we’re staying the night—” he looked at mom and me, “—no?”

Kazuo squatted down in front of me with a face yelling earnest. He swallowed heavily, then said, “Ryotarou… we only have one more spare bedroom. I’m afraid you’ll have to sleep in our tent in the garden.”

Fooled—and fooled only because of the act he put on—I said, “Don’t mind me, I’ll sleep in the car.”

I regretted taking it seriously the moment he burst out in laughter. “The car!” he laughed for a while, but turned serious again, “No, but in all seriousness, we have only one more room, so you’ll have to sleep in a futon and either share a room with your parents or with gramps…”

“In that case, I’ll share a room with gramps.”

At first, I was glad I didn’t have to share a room with my parents—or sleep in the tent. Though after heading to bed, that relief lasted for about ten minutes before grumpy gramps started snoring at ten times the maximum allowed decibels past ten o’clock.

I took my pillow and tenaciously wrapped it around my head to cover my ears, but that hardly silenced the deafening snores at all.

When half an hour went by and gramps’ snoring didn’t let up, I decided to take my futon and lay it out in the hallway. Even though the walls aren’t the thickest, it’s still better than sleeping in the same room as the sound’s source.

With my pillow, blanket and futon in hand, I saw Katsumata coming from the staircase at the other end of the hallway. Her face was lit up from underneath with the light of her phone, with her eyes fixated on it, she didn’t notice me, even as she was only a couple of steps away from me.

“…Katsumata,” I whispered.

She shrieked and turned her phone to me, revealing to her that it was just me.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh… it’s you… Shima…” Her phone was still pointed at me. “Where are you… headed?” The screen’s light faded.

“Away from the snores,” I turned around towards the living room, headed away from the gramps. “Say, would anyone mind if I sleep at the far end of the hallway?” Her footsteps followed behind me.

“…I would,” she said.

I turned around again, quite bewildered. “Really?”

She nodded. “A guest should sleep in a guest room… don’t you think?” Her eyes drifted away from mine towards the floor.

“…Yours?”

She nodded again. “It’s quite spacious, so… I don’t mind…”

“Are you sure? The hallway would work just fine for me.”

Her phone started buzzing suddenly. As she looked at the screen again she mumbled, “It’s time…”

For what? …Time for what?

The dimly phone-lit hallway, the creaking wooden floor and a Katsumata Erika acting really weird… I was feeling more earie by the second.

“Shima… can I ask you something?”