Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume13 Chapter5 2

Up to the Meeting Place. 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."