The spider looked taken aback by the huge prey suddenly caught in its web.
We went back to the table and started eating the locusts. I wondered whether the spider had started eating the grasshopper yet and felt a bit queasy. Still, the locusts were sweet and crispy. I shoved another one in my mouth.
As the night wore on, the house became enveloped in the noisy chirring of insects. Some of the children were snoring, but the creatures outside were a lot louder than we humans.
If you left a light on, however dim, bugs would flock to the window screens, so the rooms were kept in absolute darkness. As I normally slept with a lamp on, I felt a little scared and clutched the quilt close to me. The thought of Yuu sleeping just the other side of the sliding doors calmed me.
Nonhuman lives jostled up against the window. The presence of nonhuman creatures was stronger at night. Strangely enough, though I was a little scared, I felt as though my own feral cells were throbbing.
The next morning my sister threw a tantrum.
“I want to go home!” she screamed. “I hate it here!! I want to go back to Chiba now!!!”
Kise didn’t get on with the other kids in her school. I’d heard from Kanae, whose sister was in the same year, that she’d been dubbed Miss Neanderthal for being so hairy. I wasn’t at the same school as her, but even so I’d been asked, “Hey, you’re Miss Neanderthal’s little sister, aren’t you?”
Often I’d be ready to leave for school before Kise had even emerged from her room. More and more she ended up not going to school at all. She stayed home being comforted by Mom instead.
The summer vacation should have been a welcome break for her, but then Yota had asked an aunt why Kise had a moustache. When the other cousins heard about it they all traipsed in at breakfast to see it for themselves, and she’d flown into a rage.
“Look what happens when you tease girls, Yota. Apologize right now!” an aunt scolded him. He did, but my sister wasn’t impressed.
“Oh dear. She sometimes has fits, too, doesn’t she?” the aunt said, a worried look on her face.
Kise clung to Mom and wouldn’t let go. When she got stressed out she usually threw up. For the rest of the day, she kept complaining, “I don’t feel well. I want to go home!” And by evening, Mom gave in.
“It’s no good. I think she’s got a fever. Let’s go home.”
“I suppose we’d better if she isn’t well,” Dad agreed.
“Cousin Kise, I’m sorry. I really am,” Yota kept repeating. He was on the verge of tears, but she wasn’t having any of it.
“You shouldn’t spoil her so much,” Uncle Takahiro said, and Uncle Teruyoshi chimed in with a soothing voice, “Don’t be in such a hurry. The air’s fresher here, and she’ll feel better after a good sleep. Won’t you, Kise?” But Kise refused to back down, and Mom was at the end of her tether.
“We’re going back in the morning,” she informed me, and all I could do was nod.
Yuu and I had arranged to meet the next morning at six o’clock outside the old storehouse.
“Where are we going?”
“To the graves.”
Yuu looked taken aback. “What are we going to do there?”
“Yuu, I’ve got to go back home today. Listen, I have to ask you something. Will you marry me? Please?”
“Marry you?” he repeated, flustered by my sudden proposal.
“We’re not going to be able to see each other until next year. If you marry me now, Yuu, I’ll manage somehow until then. Please?”
Seeing how desperate I was, he seemed to make up his mind. “Okay, Natsuki, let’s get married.”
We sneaked out of the house and headed for the family graveyard in the rice fields.
When we got there, I took Piyyut out of my shoulder bag and put him next to the offerings.
“Piyyut will be the pastor.”
“I wonder if the spirits will punish us for doing this?”
“I’m sure our ancestors won’t be angry at two people who love each other getting married.”
Since Piyyut can’t speak human, I recited the wedding vows on his behalf. “Swearing on our ancestors, we hereby marry. Yuu Sasamoto, will you take Natsuki Sasamoto as your wife and promise to love her in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live?”
Then I added in a small voice “Promise, Yuu.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Good. Now Natsuki Sasamoto, will you take Yuu Sasamoto as your husband and promise to love him in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live? . . . Yes, I do.”
I took two rings I’d made out of wire from my bag.
“Yuu, put this on my finger.”
“Okay.” His skin was cold as he slipped the ring onto my third finger.
“Now I’ll put on yours.” I carefully slipped the other ring onto Yuu’s white finger, taking care not to hurt him. “Now we are married.”
“Wow. We’re man and wife!”
“That’s right. We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. We’re a married couple. That means we’re still family even when we’re apart.”
Yuu looked a little bashful. “Mitsuko’s a bit crazy, and when she gets angry she always says she’ll throw me out of the house. I’m really happy I’ve got a new family now.”
“Should we make some more promises? Like we did when you agreed to be my boyfriend. Now we’re married we should do it properly this time.”
“Okay.”
I took out my notebook and started writing with my pink pen.
Marriage Pledge
We hereby pledge the following:
1) Don’t hold hands with anyone else.
“What about in folk dance?”
“That’s okay. Just don’t hold hands with another girl when you’re on your own.”
“Okay,” Yuu said, giving me an odd look.
2) Wear your ring when you go to sleep.
“This ring?”
“Yes. Look, last night I put a spell on them. So even when we’re apart, we can hold hands when we’re asleep. At night, we can look at these rings and remember each other, and that way we’ll feel reassured and be able to sleep.”
“Right.”
“And what else? Is there anything you want to add, Yuu? Something we should pledge for our marriage?”