Chapter 5.3

Seishin finished chanting the sutras and turned back around. The people of the Ohkawa family bowed their heads. 

"Thank you very much," Ohkawa Tomio said as Kazuko brought in the tea. It was Ohkawa Gigorou who died in Yamairi's 49th day after death. Has that much time passed already? thought Seishin.

"Now it's a load off of our shoulders. Even for that old buzzard, you gotta take care of the mortuary tablet you know?"

Seishin had no particular comment. Keeping quiet he took the tea cup put out in hand. It was a desolate end of mourning attended only by family. Gigorou had children who came with their spouses, and they came with their own children but maybe it wasn't worth coming to the memorial services. Each of them had moved so far away so when you thought of that maybe it seemed obvious but he still couldn't help thinking it felt lonely.

Sotoba's unity was firm. It was firm in its consciousness of who was 'in' and at the same time that firm exclusionary principle rested upon that. Maybe that was why there was a tendency for all of those who had left the society of the village, without even a one percent exception rate, shirked the village as if they'd been dispossessed by an evil spirit on leaving. Once they moved out, the person themselves as well as those who had been around them probably had the feeling that they were now outsiders, Seishin thought. 

"Either way, this is just one part of your day. Seems the Shimizu's gots a service today too. The Junior Monk must be working hard."

"No. I am sure it is hard on the Boss as well."

You said it, Ohkawa said shaking his head. "Even just a whole ago, yeah? Our Matsu's place's daughter died. Even though she was still young."

Aa, Seishin nodded. He knew that he was talking about Kami-Sotoba's Matsumura Yasuyo.

"He himself could barely keep himself standing, his wife bein' who she is, sobbed and wailed herself about unconscious. In the end I was the one who gave the funeral. They say what comes twice comes thrice but this is one thing I don't wanna have to do a third time."

"Oh, yes."

"Since then Matsu's been taking off from work. Even though even with him here we're short on help. On top of that they've got a fresh face doing our deliveries now. Our arrangements are just falling apart in here. With all that it's been a whirlwind o' business to take care of in here. I'm tellin' ya."

That must be hard on you, Seishin replied at once. At Ohkawa's side his wife Kazuko looked to be unsettled over something. 

"Even so, there have been many funerals, haven't there? It's like, I wonder just what has happened to this village, that's what I start thinking, these days."

Seishin didn't have the proper words to respond to that with. Suspicions were on the rise. And growing stronger at that. Soon enough the dam would break and it would come flowing out. And as for what would happen when it did---.

Without knowing Seishin's thoughts, Kazuko only tilted her head. "How to put this... it feels strange. Something's wrong, but I can't put my finger on it. Just recently too, the Post Office closed down, didn't it?"

As, Seishin nodded. Was it Mitsuo who had been talking about that? He'd heard they'd moved, if he recalled. 

"It's just another strange story, don't you think?" Kazuko said, Ohkawa making a disgruntled face. 

"You're still talking about that?"

"Well it

was

strange! You can say that because you didn't see it. But, it happened right before my eyes. The more I think about it the more I think those was the face of a dead man!"

Seishin blinked. "Uhm... What was that?"

Aa, Ohkawa made a sullen face. "From the post office, yeah? Ohkawa-san died, she keeps saying, this old girl. She went to pay a get-well visit and saw his face, saying it was a dead face. There's no way that'd be the case, but."

With his last words, he turned towards Kazuko. Kazuko looked at Ohkawa resentfully. 

"Like I said, I really can't think of it any other way! And even so, that night they moved, didn't they? In the middle of the night!

I

think it's strange!"

"Pardon me but.... It was in the middle of the night?"

"That's just it!" Kazuko nodded. "They said he was sick, so I went to pay a get weill visit. When I did, his pallor alone was enough to make me think he could possibly have already been dead. But, moving to another home when someone's ill? And it was at night no less! And furthermore when I went to pay a get well visit, there wasn't a single word about them moving. In the first place, the inside of the house was the same as ever, not a single bag packed up!"

That's enough already, Ohkawa chided his wife. Kazuko looked up at Ohkawa dissatisfied. "Well I mean, isn't that just creepy? Really, I don't know what's happening in this village anymore...."