They looked at me and Kise like wary animals. I recognized them all, but they were different from how I remembered. The features on their faces had spread out to the edges, and their noses were more prominent than before. Their bodies had changed too.
I would always recognize my boyfriend, Yuu, of course, but I had a lot of other cousins, and some of them already had their own children, so I felt a little disorientated whenever we met. Even though we all spent every summer here and had a lot of fun together, after a whole year of not seeing each other some distance had always opened up between us again.
The adults were embarrassing us, saying things like: “Hey, no need to get all shy because those two have gotten so pretty.” Yota and his brothers looked even more awkward and standoffish than usual.
“Hello,” I ventured. A rather self-conscious chorus of “hellooo” came back.
“Yuu’s here, too, you know.” Uncle Teruyoshi said. “He’s been asking when you were going to arrive.”
Trying hard to keep my cool I asked, “Really? Where is he now?”
“He was doing his homework just over there not long ago.”
“Maybe he’s up in the attic now? That boy likes it there.” This came from Cousin Saki, a tall woman who was much older than me. She was holding a baby. She was the eldest of Aunt Ritsuko’s three daughters, all of whom were married. Aunt Ritsuko was Dad’s eldest sister.
It was the first time I’d seen this baby. It was kind of weird how a new person that hadn’t existed last year had suddenly come into being. The little girl crouching at Saki’s feet must be Miwa, who had been a baby just last year.
I couldn’t remember all the kids who were close in age to me, let alone my cousins’ kids, and had to relearn who everyone was every year. I just followed what Mom did and bowed my head at each new person who appeared.
“Oh, is Mitsuko here?”
“Sure, she’s in the kitchen.”
“Where’s Yuu got to?” Aunt Ritsuko put in. “He’s been asking after Natsuki all morning. Maybe he couldn’t wait any longer and went off to have a nap.”
Uncle Teruyoshi laughed. “Yuu always sticks close to Natsuki, doesn’t he?”
They probably said the same thing every year, but considering we were an item now I quietly looked down, feeling embarrassed.
“It’s true, the two of them are like twins,” another aunt said.
For some reason, everyone said I didn’t look like my sister or my parents, but I did look just like Yuu.
“Oh, but you mustn’t stand out here in the hall talking. Kise, Natsuki, come inside. You must be tired!” A fat aunt I had absolutely no recollection of ever having seen before said this and clapped her hands.
“Yes, let’s go in,” Dad said, nodding.
“Go put your luggage upstairs. You can use the far room. The Yamagatas are in the other one. The Fukuokas are already up there, but they’re only staying for one more night so you don’t mind sharing, do you?”
“Fine by us, thanks,” Dad answered, taking off his shoes. I hurried after him.
In Granny’s house, everyone called the various families by the name of the place they lived in, like Yamagata or Fukuoka or Chiba, which made it hard for me to remember their real names. They must have had names, though, so why didn’t anyone use them?
“Kise, Natsuki, first go greet your ancestors,” Dad said.
We headed for the room where the family altar was kept, between the living room and the kitchen. Yuu and I always called this the altar room. There was only one corridor in Granny’s house, leading to the bathroom. All the other six rooms on the first floor including the kitchen, living room, and the two main tatami rooms were connected by sliding doors.
The altar room was a modestly sized six-mat room, about the same size as my bedroom back home in Mirai New Town in Chiba. Yota called it the ghosts’ room to frighten his little brothers, but somehow I always felt safe there, perhaps because I sensed that my ancestors were watching over me.
Mom and Dad each lit a stick of incense, and my sister and I did the same. We didn’t have an altar at home, and I’d never seen them in my friends’ houses either. The only times I’d ever smelled incense were here at Granny’s house and when we visited temples. I liked the smell.
After lighting her incense stick, my sister suddenly crouched down, her head bowed.
“Kise, is something wrong?”
“Seems she got a bit carsick on the way.”
“Oh dear. That mountain road again.”
The aunts laughed. One or two of my cousins also joined in, covering their mouths with their hands as they shook with laughter. I had more than ten cousins just on my dad’s side. I couldn’t remember all their faces. Nobody would notice if an alien slipped in among them.
“Kise, are you okay?” Mom asked as my sister suddenly brought her hand to cover her mouth.
“Dear, dear. You’ll feel better once you’ve thrown up,” an aunt said.
“I’m sorry,” Mom said, bowing her head in apology, and headed for the toilet hugging my sister close.
“Is that mountain road really all that bad?” asked another aunt. “I mean, how feeble can you get? She could always just walk up if she doesn’t like riding in the car.”
I felt sorry for my sister. She doesn’t have Piyyut like I do. “Don’t you think you should go too?” I asked Dad.
“No, she’ll be all right,” he said, but when he heard her crying he hurried off to help.
I felt better now that she had both Mom and Dad with her.
The phrase “close-knit family,” which I’d come across in a school library book and had stuck in my mind, always came back to me whenever I saw my parents and sister together. If I wasn’t here, the three of them would make a perfect unit. So I wanted them to spend time together as a close-knit family without me now and then.
Piyyut had taught me the magical power of invisibility. I didn’t actually become invisible. I just held my breath and could make myself go unnoticed. When I did this, they became a cozy family of three, all snuggled up together. I sometimes made use of the power for their sake.
“You really like Granny’s house, don’t you Natsuki?” Mom often said to me. “Kise’s like me. She likes the seaside better than the mountains.”
Mom didn’t like Granny much and wasn’t at all pleased by how excited I always got about going to Akishina. My sister always complained about coming to Granny’s and clung to Mom at home. So of course she was Mom’s favorite.