[Short Story] Cherry Tomato Soup

My aunt, who is my mother's older sister, was a near-taboo subject in our house, and I had to interact with her behind my family's (specifically, my parents') backs.

My family described my aunt as a free spirit.
That was the word always used whenever the topic of my 'aunt' came up—though it was rare—whether by my mother, who was her younger sister, my grandmother, who was her mother, or my father, who was her brother-in-law.

The aunt I knew seemed far too burdened by life to be called a free spirit.

She was childlike, remembered small details well, and would always end up deeply worrying later that she had talked too much about whatever she had said.
Sometimes, I would receive long, apologetic-sounding emails at strange times about things I had completely forgotten. More often than not, these were things that had long since passed, and as I looked at those long emails, I would have to dig through my memory to figure out what on earth she was talking about.

Each time that happened, I would have to send a reply just as long, telling her not to worry about it, or give her a call.

She was that kind of person, but even so, why was my aunt a taboo subject?
I grew up without anyone in my family ever telling me anything.

Whenever I brought up my aunt, my family would pretend not to hear me or would scold me impulsively; as a child who had been told nothing, I only ever faced unreasonable treatment, and now, I actually liked my aunt much more than my family.

Then, my aunt suddenly died.
It was early last spring.

Everything regarding the funeral and the grave for my aunt, who had been ostracized by our family, was handled by Nazuna-kun, who had been her boyfriend for a long time and had married her just before she died. Not a single thing was discussed with my family.

In any case, when someone dies, it seems the spouse has the strongest say in what to do with them. That's what Nazuna-kun said.
I think that's probably why he married my aunt. Nazuna-kun is much younger than my aunt, closer in age to me than to her.

Nazuna-kun is a nickname; his real name is different, but both my aunt and I called him Nazuna-kun.
I don't know at all how the two of them met or when they started dating. There is a lot I don't know.

My aunt appeared in my dream today.

My aunt was wearing something like an orange monk's robe embroidered with shimmering thread that looked like something a high-ranking priest might wear, standing in what looked like a kitchen with a serious expression, and was diligently cutting something on a very impressive, thick cutting board.

'What are you doing, Kana-chan?'
I said to my aunt. I called my aunt Kana-chan.

'I'm thinking of making soup for Nazuna-kun,' my aunt said.
As she said it, she was slowly cutting something long, thin, and green, like a scallion.
'I can't seem to cut it well.'
'Shall I do it?'

My aunt turned back to me with a look of genuine surprise.

'Oh, I never even thought of that.'
'Thought of what?'
'That if you can't do something yourself, you can just rely on someone else.'
'I'm not someone else. I'm your niece.'
'That's right.'

When my aunt said that, she laughed heartily. It was a laugh that seemed more relaxed than the aunt I knew when she was alive.

'Then, could I ask you to? Could you make it? You can just ask Nazuna-kun for the recipe.'

When I snapped my eyes open, I was back in my own bed in my room, and my aunt in her beautiful robe was nowhere to be found.

I feel like my aunt's voice is still lingering in my ears.

I was suddenly struck by a deep sense of my aunt's absence, and I cried for a while as I watched the pale blue light of early morning—far too early to be awake—seeping through the curtains. This was the first time I had cried because my aunt had died.

In any case, I have to make the soup.

That's what I thought after I had finished crying. I have to ask Nazuna-kun and make the soup.

Nazuna-kun is still living alone in the house where he and my aunt lived. It's a rented house, but I heard before that the owner of the house is a relative of Nazuna-kun. That's why they were able to rent it so cheaply.

I had assumed that Nazuna-kun also had bad family relations and was all alone in the world, and that my aunt and Nazuna-kun were just the two of them together, so I was actually surprised when I heard that he had his own family and relatives to deal with.

Nazuna-kun, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, looked like he had shrunk by a size.

'So, what kind of soup are you going to make?'

He spoke in a sleepy tone to me, who had rushed to tell him about the dream I had the moment we met at the entrance. My story about the dream of my aunt was accepted quite easily.

"I think you probably have to ask Nazuna-kun about that, too."
Nazuna-kun tilted his head, yawning as he headed toward the kitchen.
"I can't really think of anything in particular. I do think Kanako-san was someone who cooked, though. She wasn't the type to have any special attachment to soups or those kinds of gentle things."
"What did she usually have a lot of?"
"Stir-fries, I guess. She always made them spicy. She'd put Japanese pepper or chili peppers in everything. Oh, and she used star anise, too."
"I'd never eaten that, now that I think about it."
"Come over and eat sometime. I'll make it for you whenever."

I was so moved by Nazuna-kun's words, as he seemed to have naturally inherited my aunt's repertoire as his own, that I almost cried, but I felt uncomfortable crying in front of a boy close to my age, so I strained my eyes and held back the tears.

"Isn't it something Nazuna-kun wants to eat right now?"
It was a complete guess, but Nazuna-kun suddenly looked up and said, "Is that it?"

"Come to think of it, about the day before yesterday, some cherry tomatoes I won in a sweepstakes arrived, and when I opened the box, there were about four bags in there."
"A sweepstakes?"
"I think it's probably one Kanako-san entered a while ago. Kanako-san loved those things, like the ones where you apply with receipts from drugstores, or convenience store lotteries. And she had such good luck with lotteries. I'm not like that at all, but Kanako-san would always win the good prizes."

Nazuna-kun was smiling, as if he were proud of my aunt's luck with lotteries.

When I opened the refrigerator, four bags of cherry tomatoes, which seemed to be the fruits of my aunt's lottery luck, were lined up inside.
They were glossier and more sparkling than anything I had ever seen.

"Do you want to take a bag home?"
"No, it's for Kana-chan and Nazuna-kun. You should eat them."
"When I received them, I kind of felt like making soup. I didn't do it because it was a hassle. I put them in the fridge and just forgot about them."
A sense of weariness seeped into the words, "because it was a hassle."
I thought again that this person had lost his partner. I had assumed their marriage was just for seeing my aunt off as she died, or in other words, to keep my family from interfering, but maybe it wasn't just that.

"You stir-fry garlic and onions really well in olive oil, stir-fry the cherry tomatoes cut into quarters until the skins peel off and they get mushy, and then simmer it in consommé. Then, you sprinkle basil on top."

Nazuna-kun said it fluently. As if he were reading a recipe that was floating in the air.

"Huh, sounds delicious. Is it a soup you like?"
"No, not at all. I've never even made it. I just thought of it when I received the cherry tomatoes that arrived. Anyone could think of it, so if you looked it up, there might be a recipe, but I don't know of one. But it's foolproof, right? The structure is simple."

Garlic, onion, tomato, olive oil, and basil.
It certainly is foolproof.

"It feels like Italian food."
"Yeah, I guess so."
"But Kana-chan was cutting green onions or something. And she was having trouble because she wanted to make soup but couldn't cut them well."
"If she's talking about this soup I just mentioned, the ingredients are wrong. Green onions, of all things."
Laughing with a chuckle, as if to be intentionally mean, Nazuna-kun said, "If Kanako-san says so, I guess I'll make it."

The sparkling cherry tomatoes, which looked like some kind of brand-name product, hadn't budged even after being left in the refrigerator for three days.

"Well then, first, please start by cutting the garlic."
Nazuna-kun placed the garlic in my hand.
"Should I mince it? Or more like garlic chips?"
"Either is fine. Garlic is for fragrance, not the main event."
I had been entrusted with how to cut it by the head chef. I cut the hard part of the garlic with a knife while it was still in its skin, and when I lifted the garlic body, the skin peeled off cleanly. Then, I cut the peeled garlic in half lengthwise and removed the core.
I love the moment I remove the core of the garlic. It has a complex way of growing, and the feeling when you pull out the part that's hard to remove is very satisfying.

"Hey, stop grinning while you're removing the garlic core."
Nazuna-kun said, looking at me with disgust.

"Doesn't it feel good?"
"No, I kind of get it, but still."

I thinly slice the garlic once the core is removed. Then, I cut the thin slices at a right angle to make strips. It's one step away from mincing, but I wonder if this is okay. When I use garlic myself, I only cut it up to this point.

I show the garlic to Nazuna-kun. Nazuna-kun said, "That should be fine."

Since I cut two cloves of garlic, next I thinly slice the onion. I cut it in half with the skin on, then cut off the root and peel the skin with that momentum.

"Wait, ah, is that how you peel it?"
Nazuna-kun chimes in, sounding surprised.
"I used to peel it by hand while it was whole, but I realized the other day that this way is faster."
After the onion, I also cut the glossy, sparkling cherry tomatoes into quarters.
Cut, cut, cut, cut, the sound of the knife hitting the cutting board bounces rhythmically.

"Kana-chan was using a really nice cutting board, though she couldn't cut the green onions."
"That's nice, that's definitely Aomori Hiba wood. I was the one who said I wanted it first, so that's unfair."
Nazuna-kun said enviously while stir-frying the garlic and onions I had cut.

The garlic and onions smell good. I stir-fry them well. I stir-fry them until they are on the verge of burning. I add the cherry tomatoes and stir-fry them. The sweet smell of tomatoes rises. I add the consommé base and water, and put a lid on the pot.

Nazuna-kun and I stood side by side in the kitchen, like well-trained dog siblings, waiting for the soup to boil.

"Let's have Kana-chan win an Aomori Hiba cutting board for us, too," I said.
"It might really arrive, since I don't know what Kanako-san was entering."
"So, well, just eat this soup and try to stay alive until the Aomori Hiba arrives."

Nazuna-kun burst out laughing.
"Until the Aomori Hiba arrives, huh."
"I think so, anyway. By that time, I think Kana-chan will appear in my dreams again and make the next dish."
Nazuna-kun went silent, so I went silent too. We waited in silence for the soup to boil.
Not yet. It hasn't boiled yet. Even so, the smell of the delicious soup is already starting to drift through the kitchen.

*I borrowed the photos from Minna no Photo Gallery.