Chapter 19: Texts from Hokkaido

Emi called her father from the stairwell of a station, with a train grinding past below.

He answered on the first ring.

"Emi," he said. "We saw it on the hotel television. Your stepmother cried into the soup."

"Is she all right?"

"She's furious. She wants to take a flight home and shout at someone with a ladle."

"Please tell her not to."

"I did. She said she'd think about it, which in her case means yes."

Emi laughed, shakily.

Her father was quiet for a moment.

He was a quiet man, a schoolteacher who corrected papers with a green pen and cried at graduations.

"We should have told you about the wedding earlier," he said. "We should have given you more than a month."

"It's fine."

"You've been alone a lot. I know that."

"I'm not alone."

"I saw."

"You saw?"

"On the video," her father said. "There's a young woman holding a card behind our daughter."

"She looks very serious. She looks like you."

"That's me."

"I know," her father said gently. "I'm your father."

He cleared his throat.

"Emi. Whatever you're doing, you're doing it on purpose, with people you trust."

"That's all I ever wanted to see. Eat something."

"I will."

"Hotels have soup. I'll send a photo."

The call ended.

A text arrived a minute later, with a photograph of a lacquer bowl and no caption.

A second text came from a different number.

Kokone's mother had written in long hurried lines.

Emi-chan, I am sorry I did not look at the news sooner.

Tell my daughter that her noodles are waiting.

Tell her she may be a coward for one day, and then she must be brave again.

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