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“There was one thing, though, that I wasn’t able to find out,” Ushikawa said, a
seemingly innocent smile rising to his lips. “Do you think it was possible that Tengo
Kawana and Miss Aomame had a close personal relationship?”
The woman teacher linked her fingers together and thought about this. “That may
have been possible. But I never saw it myself, or heard about it. I find it hard to
picture any child in that class ever being really friendly with Miss Aomame. Perhaps
Tengo did reach out to her. He was a very kind, responsible sort of boy. But even
supposing it
did happen, Miss Aomame wouldn’t have opened up that easily. She was
like an oyster stuck on a rock. It can’t easily be pried open.”
The teacher stopped for a moment, and then added, “It pains me to have to put it
this way, but there was nothing I could do at the time. As I said before, I was
inexperienced and not very effective.”
“If Mr. Kawana and Miss Aomame did have a close relationship, that would have
caused quite a sensation in class, and you would have heard of it. Am I right?”
The teacher nodded. “There was intolerance on both sides.”
“It has been very helpful to be able to talk with you,” Ushikawa said, thanking her.
“I hope what I’ve said about Miss Aomame won’t become an obstacle in awarding
the grant,” the teacher said worriedly. “As the teacher in charge of the class I had
ultimate responsibility for problems like that arising in the classroom. It wasn’t the
fault of either Tengo or Miss Aomame.”
Ushikawa shook his head. “Please don’t worry about that. I’m merely checking the
background behind a work of fiction. Religious issues, as I’m sure you know, can be
very complicated. Mr. Kawana is a major talent, and I know he will
soon make a
name for himself.”
Hearing this, the teacher gave a satisfied smile. Something in her small eyes caught
the sunlight and glistened, like a glacier on the faraway face of a mountain. She is
remembering Tengo when he was a boy, Ushikawa surmised. It was twenty-some
years ago, but for her it was like yesterday.
As he waited near the main gate of the school for the bus back to Tsudanuma
Station, Ushikawa thought about his own teachers in elementary school. Did they still
remember him? Even if they did, it wouldn’t make their eyes
sparkle with a friendly
glimmer.
What he had verified was very close to his hypothesis. Tengo was the top student
in his class, and he was popular. Aomame had no friends and was ignored by
everyone. There was little possibility that the two of them would have gotten close.
They were simply too unalike. Plus, when she was in fifth grade Aomame moved out
of Ichikawa and went to another school. Any connection was severed then.
If he had to list one thing they had in common in elementary school, it would be
this: they had both unwillingly had to obey their parents. Their parents’ goals might
have been different—proselytizing and fee collection—but both Tengo and Aomame
were required to traipse all over town with their parents. In class
they were in totally
different positions, yet both of them must have been equally lonely, searching
desperately for
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