ONE-SANDAL MAN
the next day
I’m sitting at the kitchen table
with Yūsuke, my tutor
a college student
from the university
where my dad teaches
Yūsuke who lived in New York
so he can explain things
to me in English
when I’m lost in Japanese
which is
like
all the time
we’re going over readings
for kanji
such as ken—権—right, authority
which has five different readings
and 242 compounds
too many of which
Yūsuke seems to find
endlessly fascinating
and most of which
I do not
but thankfully
only eight of which
I have to memorize
for a test at school
this week
when the phone rings
I can tell Mom’s talking with
someone she doesn’t know well
with her voice high-pitched and polite
stumbling over formal Japanese
but then
she brings the phone over to me
excuse me
she says to Yūsuke
then to me
it seems a policeman
wants to talk to you
I recognize the voice, Nakazato-san
the officer from the police box
we talked to the old man he says
who has Parkinson’s disease, by the way
that’s why his speech is difficult to understand
anyway, he gave a description
of the man on the motorbike
he did? I say
yes the officer says
and we found two people
who’d seen a man
with one sandal
riding a motorbike—
they gave us details of the bike
and from the descriptions
we narrowed down possibilities
asked more questions
and found the man
who set the fire
you did? I say
who?
but the officer won’t say
and adds something I don’t quite get
to explain why he can’t say
then he says
you know
Takemura-san tried to tell others
about the sandal—
his daughter
the neighbors
the boy you were with
but no one listened to him
only you and your sister
truly listened
the officer thanks me
and reminds me
to thank Cora, too
I go upstairs
to find Cora
and she’s got her stuffed animals
doing a sports festival
all over our room
the oval track
made with a circle of blocks
animals picnicking on handkerchiefs
other animals propping up paper score sheets
for the white team and the red team
but instead of yelling at her
like I usually do
when she does this to our room
I tell her what the officer said
sugoi! she says wow!
we helped solve a crime!
downstairs I ask my mother and Yūsuke
what’s Parkinson’s disease?
and Yūsuke starts jabbing at
his electronic dictionary
as my mother brings her laptop
and a medical dictionary
and we spend the rest
of my tutoring session
on words like
neurological
symptom
tremor
balance
and Yūsuke thinks
it’s a perfect opportunity
for me to study compounds
using the kanji
for brain—nō—脳
um, no!
that night Cora and I
whisper back and forth
in our bunks
who? we want to know
who would set fire
to a fish-shop owner’s house?
Cora puts on her headlamp
and we make a list:
a vegetarian
a fish (Cora says this)
another fish-shop owner
a robber
the fish-shop owner if he wanted a new house
someone who got food poisoning from the shop
then Cora says I bet it was that woman
who? I say
the one on the wanted posters at the police box
and I laugh—I’m sure she doesn’t live around here!
well, she could—how do you know?
we run out of ideas
and soon Cora is asleep
but I lie awake
listening to the rin rin rin
of the bell cricket
that Yūsuke gave me
and that we moved
to the balcony
because it’s so loud
I lie there trying to picture
a man in garden sandals
setting fire to a house
in broad daylight
and I think
that was
crazy obvious
like
did he hope
to be caught?