Summertime of the Dead Read Online Free PDF Page B

the sound of his footsteps fading away.

3
    Five days of boredom. It could have been worse. It could have been six. Six would have driven me crazy. Don’t get me wrong – Nikko’s a nice place. The countryside’s beautiful, the people are pleasant, and there are some great temples. But five days with Grandmother was as much as I could take. She complained about everything, and I mean everything. There were too many tourists at the temples, she didn’t like the weather, and she didn’t like the hotel that we were staying at. She even complained about the trees. Who complains about trees?
    I was glad she kept to her usual habit of going to bed at ten, but then I’d end up wandering around the town by myself. And while Nikko was nice, itwasn’t exactly exciting. There were no game shops or pachinko parlours, and there’s no nightlife to speak of, not even for a fourteen-year-old boy. I mean, I don’t play pachinko and I don’t like computer games that much. But it would have been nice if they’d been there.
    I did have a conversation, in English, with a black American woman staying in the same hotel, but even that was boring. How old are you? What do you want to do when you leave school? How do you like living in Japan? How do I like living in Japan! How would I know? I’ve never been anywhere else. I think she only talked to me because she was unhappy. It must have been something to do with her husband. At breakfast they rarely spoke, and when they did it looked like it pained them.
    â€˜She should never have married him,’ said Grandmother, who never misses a thing.
    I had another conversation with a monk one night when I was out walking. He was sweeping up the leaves in a temple courtyard and I sort of gave him a hand. He was old and funny and he kept talking about baseball. He was baseball mad. And he knew everything there was to know about the New York Yankees. That’s the thing about monks. You thinkthey’re all about Buddhism and meditation, but they like normal things as well.
    One night I was really missing the twins. And Nikko was only a couple of hours from Tokyo. I was thinking of jumping on a train and going home, and coming back in the morning. But if Grandmother found out, there’d be hell to pay. But on the fifth day it didn’t matter. ‘Pack your bags,’ she said. ‘We’re going home.’ I pretended to be disappointed and I thanked her for the nice vacation. But I couldn’t pack my things fast enough.
    We took the fast train back to Tokyo and then we took a cab to the house. Yoshe came out to greet us and I gave her a hand with the bags, but I didn’t have to. She’s a well-built woman who’s done judo since she was a girl because her father wanted a boy, and she was as strong as an ox. She’s been with us for years. How she could put up with Grandmother for so long I don’t know, but I was glad that she did. I like Yoshe a lot. She has a good heart and a kind face and she’s a great cook too. Sometimes she brings her baby boy with her and he crawls around the house. I find him in the strangest places: like sitting in a basket in the bathroom, or hiding in my cupboard. I picked him up one time. He weigheda ton and he stunk of pee, but he laughed and so I liked him.
    â€˜You have a good time?’ asked Yoshe, rubbing my shoulder. I gave her a look that told her I didn’t. ‘Never mind,’ she said. ‘You’re home now.’
    I took Grandmother’s bags to her room and put them by her bed. That’s it, safe for another year, I thought. But when I came back I saw how tired she was. She sat in her high-backed chair with her eyes closed tight. I felt sorry for her then, and I was sorry she never enjoyed her vacation. And then I felt guilty because Grandmother, mean as she was, did a lot for me. I was never short of money, and if I wanted something I only had to ask. And