The Decoration 61
“Money,” he whispered into her ear. “For God’s sake, let me have some money!”
Kanako went to her drawer and took out the thirty-three yen that she had been planning to deposit in their postal savings account. Even as she handed the sum over to her husband, she knew that she was throwing good money away on the spur of the moment, and afterwards she cursed herself for having been so spiritless.
Now as she sat in her sister’s room with a bowl of sherbet in front of her, Kanako felt the hot tears welling up in her eyes.
“Of course he didn’t come home that night,” she said. “Three yen and a few coppers—that’s all he left me with. Then a couple of days ago he told me that on his next half holiday he was planning to go to the seaside. I haven’t been away a single time all summer and I was sure that he would offer to take me along. But no, it turned out that he had arranged to go to Enoshima with some friend and that he couldn’t take me. It’s really more than I can stand. I even have to go to the cinema by myself now. And those thirty yen—I never dreamt he’d go and spend the whole lot.”
Kanako pressed a handkerchief to her eyes.
“You’re partly to blame yourself,” said her sister impatiently. “You should do things in a more clearcut way.”
As usual, they telephoned the factory and in the evening Wasao appeared at the tea-shop. He was accompanied by his brother, who was the exact image of Sōichi. It was extremely hot, but Wasao did not touch the iced coffee that was placed before him. Instead he sat there wiping his forehead and complaining of his parasitic children.
“I’m not going to try to keep you from leaving him,” he said after he had been told of Sōichi’s latest behaviour. “All the same, my girl, you were very foolish to give him such a large sum of money. I know how a woman feels in a case like that. She hands over the money before she knows what she’s doing. But that’s exactly the point I’d like to advise you about. You must be a little firmer, Kanako. You must take a strong
