【 Rain-Colored Summer 6 】

Masayuki, who had just held Keiko at a love hotel, decided to tell her about Kataoka in chronological order while thinking of him.

“Kataoka-san contacted me just past noon on Saturday.”

Just past noon on Saturday, Masayuki received a call from Kataoka. Kataoka's voice, heard through the smartphone, was very weak and thin. Even when Masayuki pressed the phone to his ear and concentrated, he could barely make it out. Still, by piecing together the few words he could hear, Masayuki understood that it meant, “I'm being discharged on Monday, so come pick me up.”
Since Kataoka's car was still parked at the hospital, Masayuki decided to have Takeda drive him to the hospital so he could take care of both Kataoka and the car at once.

And so, the fateful Monday morning arrived.

Avoiding the morning commute traffic, Masayuki arrived at the hospital just before ten o'clock. As he passed through the entrance, he saw Kataoka in a wheelchair. With oxygen attached to his nose and accompanied by his wife and a care staff member, he looked at Masayuki with eyes that seemed unable to focus.
Masayuki received the car keys from the wife and moved Kataoka's sedan to the entrance. Kataoka, who seemed unable to walk on his own at all rather than just having a staggering gait, was finally able to get into the car as if being carried by the care staff.
It takes about an hour to drive from the hospital to Kataoka's apartment. In the car, Kataoka looked as if he were dozing off with vacant eyes. Although he occasionally said, “I want to drink water,” he was only able to take a tiny sip.
Watching Kataoka in the mirror, Masayuki wondered, “Is this really someone who is fit to be discharged?”

Kataoka's home was on the first floor of the apartment building. There was no wheelchair access, so Masayuki carried Kataoka into the room. Kataoka, who looked a little relieved as he sat down on his bed, said to Masayuki in a whisper.
“Thanks for your help.”
“Yeah, no problem.” Masayuki sat down next to Kataoka with a sigh.
“Sorry it's just the bottle,” the wife said as she handed Masayuki a cold bottle of tea.
“Thank you.” Masayuki thanked her and drank the tea in big gulps. As he drank, he realized he was thirstier than he had expected.

Masayuki looked around the room casually. A simple desk that Kataoka must have used was placed by the window. A laptop computer occupied more than half of the desk.
Perhaps noticing Masayuki's gaze, the wife said with a smile, “You know, he suddenly decided to start trading stocks and bought all this stuff.” Masayuki remembered Kataoka mentioning something like that before.

“Come to think of it, he did say that.”
“He intended to make a living with this. Now that he's in this condition, he won't need this anymore, will he?”

“Is this an obsession with living...” Thinking this, Masayuki looked at the computer again.
I felt like I heard a voice saying, “I haven't given up yet,” so Masayuki shifted his gaze to Kataoka. However, there was no light left in Kataoka's vacant eyes.
Masayuki had heard from Kataoka himself that he had once gained great wealth through investments. However, he never spoke about why he lost all that wealth or why he abandoned his hometown and drifted to Sendai.
Everyone has circumstances they don't want others to pry into. There are few people in this industry who don't have scars on their hearts. Knowing that, Masayuki didn't ask anything at that time. No, he couldn't ask.

Trying to pull himself together, Masayuki said after drinking about half of his tea.
“Ma'am, you should arrange for a wheelchair as soon as possible.”
“Yes, you're right. Where would be a good place to ask?”
Without interrupting the conversation, Kataoka said in a whisper.
“I've ended up like this...”
“What was that?”
Kataoka didn't answer Masayuki, who asked back, and just said “Toilet” with his vacant eyes.
“Can you stand?”
“Yeah, I'm fine.”
“Alright.”
Masayuki stood in front of Kataoka, carried him, made him walk just a few steps, and switched his position in front of the toilet seat. After his wife took off his pants and underwear, Kataoka slowly sat down on the toilet seat.
“Oh, that's right.”
Masayuki remembered that he had left Kataoka's sedan at the entrance of the apartment, so he told the wife to keep an eye on him and left the room.

When he moved the car to the parking lot behind the apartment and locked it, he heard the wife's scream, which sounded like a shriek, from Kataoka's room.
“Yoshida-san! Yoshida-san!” It was a loud call for Masayuki, heard through the open window.
“What happened?” As if waiting for Masayuki, who returned to the room out of breath, the wife's voice came from the toilet, “Over here!”
From the open toilet door, what Masayuki saw was...
Kataoka, who was sitting on the toilet seat, slumped over on his wife's shoulder.
“Yoshida-san, my husband, my husband...”
The wife's face, as she turned around, was trembling, and she looked at Masayuki with eyes that seemed to have braced for the worst.
Masayuki stood still for a few seconds, unable to grasp the situation, but then he snapped back to reality and took his smartphone out of his pocket, saying, “An ambulance!” However, his fingers were trembling and he couldn't press the numbers. With great effort, he called 119 and conveyed Kataoka's condition.

“Please, hurry, just hurry, send an ambulance!”

Impatience, indignation, helplessness, fear, wishes, prayers, sadness—emotions that felt completely surreal dominated Masayuki's heart.
“It's okay, an ambulance is already on its way. Please calm down,” the male operator's voice echoed emptily in Masayuki's ears.

The ambulance arrived in about five minutes. Masayuki and the two paramedics carried Kataoka out as if dragging him from the narrow toilet and laid him in the hallway.
Perhaps because of Kataoka's excrement, a foul odor hung around the toilet and Kataoka.

- To be continued -

Facebook publication date: 8/24 2020