“What’s the matter?” asked one, peering up inquiringly into her face.
“Are you mad at us?”
The Woman in the Purple Skirt let out a sigh. “I’m so tired.”
“You’re tired?”
“Are you all right?”
“Would you like to take a break?” a little boy asked her, standing right in front of her.
And then—
She gave him a sharp tap on the shoulder. “Ha-ha! Gotcha! You’re ‘it’!” she cried with a huge smile on her face.
Auuugh! It was a trick! The children all squealed and laughed and clapped their hands. Quite the player, aren’t you? You had us completely fooled! The children gave the Woman in the Purple Skirt pats of congratulation on her shoulders and back. With every pat, clouds of dust rose into the air and wafted on the night breeze all the way over to me as I sat on the bench closest to the park’s entrance.
A few minutes later, the park was deserted. I spotted a single orange underneath the Exclusively Reserved Seat. I picked it up and sank my teeth straight into it, not even bothering to peel it. Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. Just like they’d done with the apple. I didn’t actually reach the flesh of the orange on my first bite, but I carried on guzzling, and gradually the juice started to fill up my mouth and drench my chin.
I gave myself over to chomping the orange. All that watching from a distance had left me parched.
But of course the Woman in the Purple Skirt could hardly take today off for being sore all over from too much tag. So her second day at work was just as exacting as her first, and she started her training first thing in the morning.
Every so often, I would hear Supervisor Tsukada through the door, which was left open, saying to her: “Well, this is a secret, but how about . . .” It seemed some sort of person-to-person transfer was taking place of the tips and tricks for cleaning rooms quickly without exerting too much effort. As someone who made no bones about refusing to teach anyone she considered a shirker, Supervisor Tsukada evidently thought highly of the Woman in the Purple Skirt, who hung on her every word and wrote down in her notebook even the most trivial bit of advice. At this rate, I could see her completing her training within a month. Once that happened, she would be working on her own much more, making it easier for me to get to talk to her face-to-face—certainly easier than it was now, when she was working among all these people.
Today, yet again, I managed to miss the opportunity to introduce myself.
I’d had one chance in the final few minutes before the afternoon shift. She was alone in the cafeteria, enjoying a cup of tea. Just as I was working up the courage to go up to her, the director appeared and sat down next to her—right where I was hoping to sit.
“How are you finding everything? Do you think you’ll stay?” I heard him ask her, evidently taking an interest in how the new employee was coming along.
“Yes! I am doing quite all right!” the Woman in the Purple Skirt answered with a smile.
“Ah, good. Between you and me, I was concerned that the supervisors might be bullying you.” He lowered his voice as he said this last part.
“Everybody’s being very kind,” the Woman in the Purple Skirt replied.
“Hm. I hope that’s the case. It’s a motley crew we’ve got here. Especially those supervisors. Some of them are very eccentric. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Er . . . Um. Well . . .”
“Take Tsukada-san, for example . . .”
“Er . . . Um . . .” And she gave a little giggle.
“Hamamoto-san’s pretty weird. And Tachibana-san, and Shinjo-san, Hori-san, Miyaji-san . . . Not forgetting Nakaya-san, or Okita-san. Nonomura-san . . . Every one of them is an oddball, frankly. Very fierce, all of them.”
“Fierce . . . ?” Another little giggle.
“It’s like a zoo.”
“Oh, that’s going too far. . . .” Again she emitted a giggle—slightly longer this time.
“Have you managed to remember who everyone is?”
“You mean the supervisors? Em, well, actually, no. . . .”
“I see. Well, I suppose they change every day, don’t they, except for Supervisor Tsukada. It won’t be long before you know them by name.”
“Yes.”
“But that makes me feel better. It’s not unusual for girls who can’t fit in, you know, to quit almost immediately. But you, Hino-san, you seem like you’ll be able to fit in very well. I mean, my gosh, if Supervisor Tsukada already likes you, then you’ve got to be doing something right!”
“Supervisor Tsukada is very kind.”
“She’d be pleased to hear you say that. Uh-oh. Time to get back to work.”
The director got up from his chair, went to the vending machine, bought two cans of hot coffee, and came back.
“This one’s for you.”
“Are you sure?”
“To keep your strength up for this afternoon.”
“Oh. I appreciate it, very much!”
“Ha ha. That’s the reply I want to hear! Excellent!”
The next day was my day off. But since the Woman in the Purple Skirt was going in, I too decided to go in. She boarded the same bus as the day before, and punched in at exactly the same time. I was about to follow her, almost automatically, when something suddenly occurred to me and I returned my time card to the rack.
Although I had come in, I had not the slightest intention of doing any work. More to the point, it was my day off, so I wouldn’t even have been included in the head count. In that case, then, why was I there? Well, naturally, it was to observe, from some concealed position, how hard she was working. And of course, if the right moment presented itself, I was also hoping to introduce myself.
But the moment I stepped inside the locker room, I realized I had made a catastrophic mistake.
Incredibly, I had
