Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter5
Up to the Meeting Place
Part 1.
As she was putting on her shoes in the entrance, Shimako sensed someone walking towards her down the hallway and turned around.
"Ah, father. I'm heading out now."
The faint smell of incense from his kimono. The immaculately bald head that he shaved every day. Shimako loved the "Buddhist monk" appearance of her father.
"What's this? You're going out somewhere?"
"Yes."
"It doesn't look like you're going to school … "
Today she was taking a break from the Lillian's Girls Academy uniform that he always said made her look like a crow. Instead she was wearing a refreshing white dress with a deep blue floral pattern.
"I've arranged to go to a Buddhist statue exhibition with Noriko."
"Hmm, with Nijou Noriko-chan, huh."
Her father folded his arms and smiled knowingly.
"What a good junior she is, taking you to learn about Buddhist statues. Students like that must be quite rare at Lillian's Girls Academy."
"But we'll be seeing a Maria Kanon statue today."
Shimako informed him.
"… Really?"
Her father mumbled, seemingly dispirited.
"Um – "
Shimako reconsidered her answer, thinking that she may have said something wrong, but her father seemed to recover and spoke cheerfully.
"Right. Are you, perhaps, going to meet Shimura-san?"
"Takuya-kun? Yes."
Shimako nodded. They'd arranged to meet at the station plaza near the art gallery and then they'd all go and see the Buddhist statues together.
"What's up with calling him Takuya-kun? I thought he was older than you."
Her father chided her. He was completely correct in what he said, so Shimako quietly reflected on this.
"You're right. I've heard Noriko call him that and I subconsciously picked up on it. I'll be more careful in the future."
Then her father said something unusual.
"You don't have to take it so seriously. I was just teasing you, you know. If that's what you want to call him, then I don't care if you call him "Takuya-kun.""
"No, I don't particularly want to call him that."
"… Really?"
Her father mumbled in his dispirited voice.
"Well – "
Shimako thought she must have said something to ruin the mood. But no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't figure out how her father had wanted her to take that statement.
Since she couldn't figure it out, there was nothing she could do. Shimako put on the hat that she'd left on top of the shoe boxes and looked up at her father.
"I'm going to see Shimura-san, was there anything you wanted?"
"If you see him, could I trouble you to deliver a letter for me?"
Her dad said as he poked around in his kimono sleeves.
"A letter?"
"Yesterday, a printout of his home page arrived in the mail. I've written up my impressions of it. I was going to put it in the post but if you're meeting him you can hand it over directly. If you don't see him, you can put it in one of the postboxes on your way home."
The envelope she was handed already had a stamp on it but her father was probably thinking that getting it to its recipient a day earlier was better.
"Alright."
Shimako took the letter and put it in her handbag.
"Well then, I'm heading off."
"Take care."
"Okay."
She left the entrance after the rerun of the farewell.
As she walked, Shimako considered that she probably was the type of person that her dad would label as "no fun."
Her father was an interesting person. His claim to fame as a monk was that his sermons were fun and easy to understand. He'd make wagers with the temple supporters and do other things that would at first glance be considered improper for a clergyman, but it was allowable because of his personal virtue.
She was struck by a thought as she opened the lattice door. Was she really joined to him by blood?
(… I suppose we are joined though.)
With eyes downcast she stepped out into the lane, turned around and closed the lattice door.
"Oi."
The door suddenly called out to her.
"Uwaah."
Shimako surprised herself with how loudly she cried out.
"Why are you so surprised? It's just me."
On closer inspection, her father was standing on the other side of the lattice.
"You mustn't have noticed me because you were daydreaming."
"Ah, yeah."
Clutching her chest, she managed to agree. Seeing her in this state, her father seemed to be a bit happy as he said, "Must have been good."
"Um … father, was there something you wanted?"
Shimako asked, after opening the lattice door she'd just recently closed. Her father wouldn't have followed her here just to scare his daughter.
"Listen carefully, Shimako."
"Ah, yes."
Shimako put herself on guard for whatever he was about to tell her.
Her father looked grave as he informed her:
"Apparently the inbound JR line has stopped."
"…"
– That was certainly grave news.
Part 2.
The phone rang as she was debating what clothes to wear.
"Hello."
She picked up the phone still holding the white and light-blue summer sweater and light pink blouse she'd been looking at in the mirror.
"Noriko?"
"Ah, onee-sama. Good morning."
As she gave this greeting she sensed there was some kind of problem, since Shimako-san had said, "Noriko?" without any preface.
"Noriko, you were coming on the JR line, right? Did you know it's stopped?"
"What? It's stopped!?"
This was indeed an urgent telephone call. Sensing the topic of conversation, her great-aunt / landlady Sumireko-san switched on the TV in the living room. But unfortunately none of the channels were showing a ribbon of text about train line outages.
"I heard there was an accident. I'm not sure when it'll start again. I can get there on a private railway, but will you be okay?"
"Um."
Despite Shimako-san's question, Noriko was in a mild panic because she hadn't been expecting this situation and her mind had gone completely blank.
She'd been living in Sumireko-san's apartment for five months now but she'd never thought about how to get somewhere when the JR line wasn't running.
"I'm not completely sure, but I think you should be able to get a bus from in front of your station to another station on a private line."
"Ah, right."
Sumireko-san drew a map on the back of a leaflet showing the train line, along with the names of the buses that would get her to various private railway stations. There were buses leaving from the north and south entrances that led to train stations for different railroad companies. Surprisingly, there were quite a number of ways to slip into the city center. Then, just as she was feeling relieved, Sumireko-san wrote an additional comment, "But it'll take time. And it's Saturday," which left Noriko feeling dejected.
"You should be fine with any of the private railways, just get on a train headed east. If you get to a station on the Yamanote line then you can switch over there."
"Understood."
"Calm down. It can get frustrating when a bus takes longer to get somewhere then you expect, but there's no rush."
"Okay."
She'd understood everything. Noriko marveled at how well her onee-sama could read what was going through her mind.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I think I should be able to make it there at the arranged time, so I'll tell Shimura-san that you may be running late."
"Thanks."
"Well then, I'll see you."
After hanging up the phone, Noriko changed into the summer sweater and a white skirt before hurrying out of the apartment.
Sumireko-san had been watching Noriko vacillate over what to wear earlier, and she smiled and said:
"You can do it if you try."
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