The River Kami Asked Before Taking My Hand novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: Akari's Mother
Akari's mother arrived on the Saturday bus with four bags and a cooler.
She was a small, brisk woman in a quilted coat, with the same chin-length black hair as her daughter and a pair of glasses on a chain.
She got down in the snow at the end of the road and looked at the village.
"It's very far," she said.
"It's an hour from the city."
"It's very far from my idea of an hour." She kissed Akari's cheek hard and thrust two bags at her. "You are thin. You've been ill. The girl at the shop said so."
"Sayo."
"I like her. She told me everything."
"Everything?"
"She told me you have a girlfriend and that it is the river." Her mother's mouth twitched. "She said it so fast I thought she was selling me insurance."
Akari felt her face go scarlet.
"Mother."
"I have not said anything."
"You're about to."
"I'm about to meet your aunt's house," her mother said, "and anyone in it. Show me."
They walked the ten minutes in silence.
At the stone gate Akari's heart began to bang.
Nagi was standing on the veranda in the white robe with her hair neatly braided down one shoulder, which she had never done before.
She had put out three cups.
They were not steaming.
They were exactly warm.
"Is that her?" her mother said under her breath.
"Yes."
"She's very tall."
"Yes."
"She looks nervous."
"She is," Akari said. "She's been nervous since Wednesday. She practised bowing."
Her mother set down her bags, walked up the path, and stopped at the foot of the veranda steps.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Nagi came to the edge of the boards and bowed from the waist, deeply, with her braid swinging.
"I am Nagi," she said. "I am glad to meet the person who made Akari."
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