An Irrational Special Solution 9

9.Emptiness or Truth
This Christmas, as always, I went to work during the day and worked at the Ginza store at night. I was no longer allowed to sit at the customers' tables at the store. I had been standing alone at the waiting table for about a week now. Ritsuko thought that if Yamamoto, a customer at Yayoi, had not told him in advance that this would happen when he was about to leave the store or retire, he would have been depressed. For the past month, Ritsuko went around thanking the people who had taken care of him. He had almost finished thanking his customers, but he had not received a reply from Miyamoto. The rule was that he was only to reply once on the day that Miyamoto emailed him. Since Miyamoto was hospitalized, he had not sent any songs even once. So last week, Ritsuko sent him this song.
When I went out to Tagonoura, snow was falling on the white peaks of Mt. Fuji (Miyamoto-san, can you see Mt. Fuji from your hospital room? Mt. Fuji is beautiful with snow piled up.)
There was no reply from Miyamoto.
Just the other day, I went to see the kimono dresser from the kimono rental store that I always use on the days I wear a kimono to work. At first, I thought the hunchbacked old woman dresser might be a mean person. At first, she calmly dressed Ritsu in kimonos that had strange stains or old, worn-out kimonos. No matter how strange the combinations seemed to her, Ritsu was grateful and tried to wear them. Since I had no knowledge of this, I didn't realize how strange it was at first, but one day, after asking her several times, she said to Ritsu: "Hey, you don't just go along with it. Don't you have something to say, like they're all so plain, or that this color of obi doesn't go with this kimono, or that you don't want to wear something so worn out?" Her rounded back as she folded the kimono stopped suddenly and turned around. "Yes. I have nothing to say. The seniors at the store sometimes say I'm weird, but the customers say it's interesting. I don't mind being plain, and let's do some taboo things too. Let me be the guinea pig."

Ritsu answered in a cheerful voice, and the kimono dresser muttered, seeing her excited expression.

"You're a weird girl."

After that, the colors and patterns of the kimono she chose changed. For the past month or two, she had Ritsu choose from two or three obi. Every time,

"Why did you choose that obi?"

The kimono dresser asked. Every time she heard such deliberate and harsh words, Ritsu couldn't help but feel as if she was being told to "improve her sense." Yesterday, when I thanked the old woman who was the kimono dresser for all she had done,

"What? You came to thank me because you're quitting? Right. You're a weird girl."

Then she continued,

"You look good in (kimonos with) big patterns. Take care," she said, and quickly closed the door.

"It looked good on you. Try wearing the kimono again." That's what Ritsuko heard. She bowed deeply to the closed door.
Yesterday, she went to see the bar owner on the floor below the shop. She quickly went to the hair salon and changed clothes, and slipped out before the changing room got too crowded. She went down one flight of stairs to the back door and knocked twice on the back door of the bar. Whenever she had to leave through the back door, she would borrow the bar owner's jacket to disguise herself and leave, and she would knock on this door every day.
"Master."
"Oh, it's Ritchan. Come in."
A man in his 50s who loses his eyes when he laughs showed up. The bar owner seemed to be cleaning the carpet.
"The day has finally come when I quit this job. Thank you for all your help."
Ritsuko stood on the inside of the counter, where there was no carpet, and bowed deeply.
"Yes. Good for you, Ricchan. Congratulations."
"I've had the porridge you made with the rice balls for dinner many times. I think I came here every time I had a stomach ulcer. It was probably better than medicine. You took care of me a lot. Thank you."
"Thank you too. Thank you for always coming with your customers. When you come, you always act like a staff member, which is a big help since I'm running this place alone. I'm getting lonely."
Ritsu realized that she was crying without even realizing it. She quickly wiped away her tears and put on a cheerful smile.
"Take care, master."
"Yeah. You too, Ricchan."
The master stroked Ritsu's head.
When the store where she worked started business, Ritsu looked at her cell phone while waiting for her turn, which didn't come again today. She opened her schedule manager. She selected the event in the column for January 6th of the new year. She saw the words "New job starts here." Ritsu remembered the events that had happened at the office that afternoon.
During her lunch break that day, Natsuko was making a phone call with a piece of paper with a number she didn't recognize written on it. The piece of paper fell when Natsuko was transferring the contents of her desk at the office into her bag. As she picked it up, she muttered, "Oh." It was a small piece of paper with a phone number that seemed to be Emma's part-time job, which Natsuko had written down when she had mistaken Emma's cell phone and gone to work. A man's voice was heard during the fourth ring.
"Who?"
"Hello. I'm Kondo, a friend of Emma's. You're from Emma's workplace, right? Sorry to bother you so suddenly."
"What?"
The man on the other end seemed to be in a bad mood and answered very brusquely.
"Emma wants to quit her job, but why hasn't she been able to quit for months?"
"Huh?"
After a few seconds of silence, the man's voice suddenly seemed to brighten up.
"You can quit. I wasn't told anything. I didn't know she wanted to quit her job."
"Oh, really?"
Natsuko had seen Emma talking on the phone about wanting to quit her job. She probably called this number. And yet she doesn't know? Natsuko thought that couldn't be the case.
"Anyway, why don't you come work for us?"
"Me?"
For some reason, Natsuko suddenly thought that the reason Emma wanted to quit might not just be because she was leaving Japan.
"Have you heard about the job from Emma?"
"I only heard a little bit. It's data entry, right? How much is the hourly rate?"
Now that I think about it, what is data entry? Natsuko asked herself while talking on the phone.
"Data entry. That's right. 2000 yen during the day, 2500 yen at night. Which do you want?"
She had doubts and felt something was wrong, but she thought it was a blessing for Natsuko, who would be unemployed in a few days.
"Late night, please. I'd be happy to start from the new year."
"So, when can you start?"
"How about January 6th?"
"Sure. Come at midnight with your resume. Ask Emma about the location."
"Yes. Thank you."
"Also, tell Emma that I can quit at the end of this month. Tell her she can come and pick up her things any time."
"Yes."
"Okay."
The phone immediately hung up with a click. I added one more appointment to the January 6th column on my phone's schedule screen. Then I called Emma. The voice of joy I heard when I told her I could quit at the end of this month turned into a slightly sigh of dejection a second later.
"Could it be that Natsuko took over for me?"
"Replacement?"
Natsuko had a bad feeling about something. She answered cheerfully to Emma's sad voice on the phone. "Yes. Substitute. But I'm going to be unemployed soon, so I'm grateful. Don't worry, Emma. I chose it. My lunch break is almost over, so see you."
"Sorry, Natsuko. See you tonight."
"See you."
Even after hanging up the phone, Emma's "sorry" and "substitute" bothered me.

Even while sitting in the waiting area of ​​the shop, Emma's "sorry" and "substitute" came to mind. And the sight of Natsuko alone in the waiting area let all the customers in the shop know that Ritsuko was going to quit the shop soon. No one spoke to Ritsuko anymore.

After work that day, Natsuko headed to Shinbashi Station to go to Emma's house. In the station restroom, she removed a dozen or so hairpins from her curls. As she removed them, she thought to herself that tomorrow she would go to her regular hairdresser to thank him for all he had done for her. Ritsuko had no regrets about her job at the Ginza shop. It was also very refreshing.

Continued in Volume 2