Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume7 Chapter6 3

Tuesday. Part 3

I was exhausted by the time I got home, probably because my normally unused faculties had been running at full capacity.

The work had built up after the initial task, and I'd now become something of a convenient messenger to the hard-to-reach boutons.

After school, I'd made the round trip between the Rose Mansion and the club rooms twice, on errands for the story telling club and the dance club, plus I'd had to stop in at the office and use the payphone to check if the flowers we'd ordered had arrived at the florist yet. Despite all this, I still had it easier than the boutons.

I was so tired that I listlessly munched on the dinner side-dishes of sauteed lotus root and burdock. In the bath, it felt like I was about to fall asleep right there and then.

"Now then."

When I got out of the bath, I wanted to climb into bed straight away, but there was still one task I had left to do.

"Yumi-chan, what on earth are you looking for?"

My mother called out dubiously upon seeing her daughter rustling through the closet.

"Well, a couple years ago, dad got really into party performances, didn't he?"

The father in question was out tonight having drinks with a client to celebrate the completion of their new building. I didn't know what time he'd be back, so I made a guess about where that stuff would be and started looking. The closet had looked like a good place to keep some small props. The truth was, I still hadn't decided what to do for the farewell party.

"Ah, you mean that class reunion trip to the hot springs?"

"Yeah."

I picked through the contents of the cardboard box we'd christened the "Junk Box," looking at each item in turn. A yoyo and a pocket-size ball-and-cup game. A procession of items, mainly promotional goods that would be forgotten about whether thrown away or not, greeted me with a cheery, "Good day," or, rather, "Good evening."

"What was it that dad did, do you know?"

"Hmm, what was it? I think it was Nankin Tamasudare or that one where you draw a face on your stomach and make it move."

Mom yawned. It was 11 o'clock at night.

"Either way, it was a comedy act, right?"

"Yeah. That's the type of person he is."

And since his blood flowed in my veins, it was only natural that I'd be put in charge of comedy.

"Oh, there's lots of magic tricks."

"Ah. Yuuki might have used those."

Mom asked, "How about these?" But Yoshino-san was already doing a magic act, so they were no good.

"Oh? What's this?"

Mom asked, pulling out a furoshiki cloth bundle and setting it on the tatami mat floor.

"You mean there's something in the closet that you don't know about, mom?"

"It happens from time to time."

When either dad, myself or my younger brother Yuuki didn't want to disturb her, and just put it in the closet ourselves, or else if it was something that made so little impression that she forgot about putting it in there.

"It's the former."

Mom smiled as she said this.

"Are you sure you're not the culprit here, Yumi-chan?"

"I have no memory of it whatsoever. Should we open it?"

"Go ahead. If someone didn't want it found, they would have put it somewhere else."

Her reasoning was solid. Our family generally considered the closet a shared space.

"Now then, what will we find?"

My heart beating with excitement, I picked at the knot with my fingers. But it was tight, like an official seal. Perhaps the person that tied this knot never intended for it to be opened, and had put a curse on it like the Egyptian pyramids.

Just as I decided I wouldn't look if it contained something like photos of naked women, the knot came undone.

What appeared inside was –

"What's this? Cassette tape, hand towel, 5 yen piece and … a sieve?"

Mom and I looked at each other.