“Tell me about you. Who are you? How’d you find yourself here?” “Huh? Uh, there was this black animal just now . . .” “Oh, him?” The man was pointing at a round hole in the ground covered with a metal grill. “He’s in there.” “Huh? The animal’s in there?” I craned my neck, but all I could see were long white objects in the darkness. “What are those white . . .” “They’re fangs. I know it’s cute how they curl, but they’re really sharp. They’re practically weapons.” “Fangs?” That animal had fangs? Then again, how would I know? I didn’t know anything. “What kind of animal is it?” The man shrugged again. “Beats me.” I could see the outline of his bony shoulders inside his baggy shirt. “But I know all about him. If you want to know about his behavior or personality, I could tell you anything you’d want to know. Of course, all that would be based on my personal observations.” “Personal observations?” The man broke into a grin. “This hole is our old well. The house was built over a lot of water. The bottom of the well’s been filled in with concrete, so you can’t get any water out of it now . . . But anyway, he seems to like it down there. I guess this hole is a lot like the ones he digs. When he crawls down there, he’ll go to sleep. It’s not like he’s here every night, but he’s definitely down there a few nights a week. Whenever I see him down there, I cover the thing up,” he said, kicking at the metal. A centipede crawling across the grating slipped under in a panic. “Then he’s trapped. You can’t get the lid off unless you put a finger in there and lift, but this guy’s a smart one. He can push it open with his fangs . . . If you’re wondering why I bother putting the cover on when he’s only going to get out again, I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for you. I guess I’m just hoping he’ll eventually decide to settle down and stay put. He digs his own holes, but when he finds an open one, he gets lazy and crawls inside.” I had my eye on the white objects on the other side of the metal, but they weren’t moving. They didn’t look like fangs — or any other animal part — at least not any part that belonged to the creature I’d seen out front. Whatever I was staring at, I had the feeling it had been there for a long time. The bright sunlight didn’t reach inside the hole. I tried to find the animal’s eyes, but couldn’t. Over time, even the fangs disappeared in the darkness. “Have you ever looked it up?” “Looked it up?” “You know, on the Internet. Searched for ‘black animal,’ ‘fangs’ . . .” “What for?” he asked, his head tilted to the side. “I’ve never used the Internet. I don’t have a computer. No television either. I think I get how it works, though. I’ve seen it in comics. What about you? Do you have a device like that?” I nodded. “Huh. So, what does that get you? Looking it up.” “You can learn about the animal. Its name, important facts . . .” But, as I spoke, I realized the search wouldn’t yield any results. With generic keywords like that, you’d probably get a million hits — none of which would have anything to do with this animal. But even if it did, how would I know? Beyond that, even if I managed to figure things out — what kind of animal it is, what it eats, how long it lives, how it’s evolved — what would I do with that information? I guess that wasn’t really what I wanted to know. I could smell something coming from the hole, but it didn’t smell like an animal. It smelled more like grass. Maybe it was water. Old, underground water mixed with mold, algae, and tree roots.
I stepped timidly onto the metal circle. It was almost exactly the same size as the hole by the river. Maybe it really was the animal in there. No, it had to be. I was about to ask another question when the man broke into a grin and said, “Oh, wait! Now I remember. You came into the convenience store the other day, didn’t you? There were kids all over the place, and you found yourself in a bit of a bind. I did what I could to help. Had to do something, right?” I got the feeling he was waiting for me to thank him, so I obliged. He smiled again and said, “No, no. It was my pleasure.” I could see all of his teeth. “When I saw you at the store, I had no idea you were Mune’s bride. So I take it you’re not fond of kids. More interested in animals, right? Are you scared of children? Or is it the other way around? You love them? When people are indifferent to kids, you can really see it. They’ll act the same whether they’re around kids or not. That’s how it is with the guy who works construction. He comes into the convenience store to get his lunch, but it’s like he doesn’t even see them. He just steps over them or pushes them out of the way to grab what he needs. But you — you just froze. If you act that way, kids are bound to react. They feed off that stuff. They’re not trying to be mean or anything. They’re just bored. They’re good kids. All of them. They love playing by the river. You must have gone past the spot on your way to the store . . . This place. Talk about the middle of nowhere, right? In this day and age, walking that far just to get to the store? Well, at least it’s there now. Before the store opened, the kids had to go all the way to the farmers’ co-op to get ice cream. We couldn’t read manga unless we went to the bookstore, and that’s way too far to walk. This store is a godsend! The store and the river — those are our main battlegrounds. Which probably means I’m not a real hikikomori. I like to come outside and play.”
The man barely stopped to breathe. When he did, I said, “I fell into a hole like this the other day.” He looked almost offended. “How did that happen? Where?” “Near the river. I followed the animal and fell in . . .” “You’re not very bright, are you?” He was practically spitting at me. I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea why he was suddenly so upset. “What kind of idiot falls into a hole? Wait, was there anything in there?” I shook my head. “Well, that’s a good thing. I’d never do anything like that myself. First, it’s dangerous. Second, it’s about the stupidest thing you could do. And third, you don’t belong there — it’s totally pointless. Who do you think you are? Alice in Wonderland? You thought you’d follow a white rabbit down a hole and find yourself at the start of some big adventure? Is that what you thought would happen?” He gave an exaggerated shrug. I was shocked. His shrug looked exactly like Tomiko’s. I started to think that he really might be her son — that he might be my husband’s brother. But why would they have kept this a secret from me? Didn’t we have to tick some box when we got married saying my husband was the eldest son? Didn’t we have to fill out some form like that when we made the move out here? Maybe we didn’t. Whatever the case, if he really was my husband’s brother, then he had been carefully hidden from me. It wasn’t the sort of thing that just fails to come up. It’s not like he was an estranged uncle or a distant cousin. Can you really hide your brother’s existence from your spouse? Is it even possible? And more importantly — why would anyone do it? Were they worried about the world finding out that the family had a shut-in? Or was there more to it than that? As I imagined having to confront them about it, my mind started to drift. I tried telling myself it didn’t really matter, but it absolutely did. It’s not like we were after some huge inheritance or anything, but what if things got complicated down the line? It could happen. We could lose money — or maybe something else. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if something like that happened, but it could be a real hassle. Could this man really be my brother-in-law? Why hadn’t anyone said a word about him? What was going to happen as he got older? Was he going to keep on living in a shed in the backyard? How could I ever ask my husband about any of this? So — you have an older brother? How could I say anything to his mother? So — you have another son? I was getting depressed just thinking about it. It made me feel like an idiot. How would they feel? At the very least, they should have said something when we moved in next door. It’s not like we could live here without crossing paths. He lives in a shack right next to me — well, not that I’d ever noticed it here before today. Forget the hole. This was the bigger adventure. “I don’t know.”