Earthlings. Sayaka Murata

      “You shouldn’t spoil her so much,” Uncle Takahiro said, and Uncle Teruyoshi chimed in with a soothing voice, “Don’t be in such a hurry. The air’s fresher here, and she’ll feel better after a good sleep. Won’t you, Kise?” But Kise refused to back down, and Mom was at the end of her tether.

      “We’re going back in the morning,” she informed me, and all I could do was nod.

      Yuu and I had arranged to meet the next morning at six o’clock outside the old storehouse.

      “Where are we going?”

      “To the graves.”

      Yuu looked taken aback. “What are we going to do there?”

      “Yuu, I’ve got to go back home today. Listen, I have to ask you something. Will you marry me? Please?”

      “Marry you?” he repeated, flustered by my sudden proposal.

      “We’re not going to be able to see each other until next year. If you marry me now, Yuu, I’ll manage somehow until then. Please?”

      Seeing how desperate I was, he seemed to make up his mind. “Okay, Natsuki, let’s get married.”

      We sneaked out of the house and headed for the family graveyard in the rice fields.

      When we got there, I took Piyyut out of my shoulder bag and put him next to the offerings.

      “Piyyut will be the pastor.”

      “I wonder if the spirits will punish us for doing this?”

      “I’m sure our ancestors won’t be angry at two people who love each other getting married.”

      Since Piyyut can’t speak human, I recited the wedding vows on his behalf. “Swearing on our ancestors, we hereby marry. Yuu Sasamoto, will you take Natsuki Sasamoto as your wife and promise to love her in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live?”

      Then I added in a small voice “Promise, Yuu.”

      “Yes, I do.”

      “Good. Now Natsuki Sasamoto, will you take Yuu Sasamoto as your husband and promise to love him in sickness and in health, in happy times and sad times, as long as you live? . . . Yes, I do.”

      I took two rings I’d made out of wire from my bag.

      “Yuu, put this on my finger.”

      “Okay.” His skin was cold as he slipped the ring onto my third finger.

      “Now I’ll put on yours.” I carefully slipped the other ring onto Yuu’s white finger, taking care not to hurt him. “Now we are married.”

      “Wow. We’re man and wife!”

      “That’s right. We’re not boyfriend and girlfriend anymore. We’re a married couple. That means we’re still family even when we’re apart.”

      Yuu looked a little bashful. “Mitsuko’s a bit crazy, and when she gets angry she always says she’ll throw me out of the house. I’m really happy I’ve got a new family now.”

      “Should we make some more promises? Like we did when you agreed to be my boyfriend. Now we’re married we should do it properly this time.”

      “Okay.”

      I took out my notebook and started writing with my pink pen.

      Marriage Pledge

      We hereby pledge the following:

      1) Don’t hold hands with anyone else.

      “What about in folk dance?”

      “That’s okay. Just don’t hold hands with another girl when you’re on your own.”

      “Okay,” Yuu said, giving me an odd look.

      2) Wear your ring when you go to sleep.

      “This ring?”

      “Yes. Look, last night I put a spell on them. So even when we’re apart, we can hold hands when we’re asleep. At night, we can look at these rings and remember each other, and that way we’ll feel reassured and be able to sleep.”

      “Right.”

      “And what else? Is there anything you want to add, Yuu? Something we should pledge for our marriage?”

      Yuu thought a moment, then picked up the pink pen and wrote in small, neat letters:

      3) Survive, whatever it takes.

      “What do you mean?”

      “I want us both to stay safe so we can meet again next summer. I want us to promise that we will do whatever it takes to survive and be in good spirits when we meet up again next year.”

      “Okay.”

      We decided that Yuu would look after the piece of paper the pledge was written on. Mom and Kise often threw away my things, so I thought it would be safer with him.

      “Make sure you don’t break our pledge, okay? And definitely come back here next summer!”

      “I will.”

      We each hid our ring in a pocket and hurried back to Granny’s house. As we went in the front door we could smell the miso soup cooking for breakfast.

      “Yuu! Natsuki! You’re up early!” Granny exclaimed in surprise.

      “Yes, I was looking for flowers for my independent study project,” I said, giving the excuse I had prepared.

      “What a good girl you are!” Granny said, impressed. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she said and rushed back to the living room, where she took out some money wrapped in tissues from her bag. “This is for you, Natsuki. It’s not much, but you can buy yourself a nice toy with it.”

      “Thank you!”

      “And here’s something for you, too, Yuu.”

      During Obon, the adults always gave the kids some money in an envelope or wrapped in a tissue. We had to tell Mom how much we were given, but it was ours to keep.

      I put it carefully into my bag. I was saving up to visit Yuu in Yamagata sometime.

      “Oh, you’re up already. Good,” Mom said as she came down the stairs. “We’ll be on our way straight after breakfast. Go and get yourself ready to leave. We have to get back quickly and find a doctor for your sister. It’s a holiday, so we’ll need an emergency clinic.”

      “Okay.”

      Mom bowed to Granny. “I’m so sorry. We really did want to stay until the end of Obon.”

      “Don’t worry. Kise’s always been rather frail, hasn’t she?”

      I looked at Yuu. I wasn’t going to be able to stay until the last night of Obon. I would miss the fireworks when we saw the ancestors back on their way to the other world. Hadn’t Dad said something about a bus coming up the mountain once a day or something?

      “Mom, couldn’t I stay a bit longer and go home by bus?” I ventured timidly.

      Mom looked at me, her face tired. “Oh do shut up. Go and get ready now. You know very well that it’s impossible to calm your sister down once she starts a tantrum.”

      “But there’s—”

      “That’s enough. Don’t you start giving me trouble too!”

      “I’m sorry.”

      I shouldn’t get in the way of my “family” anymore. I was married now, after all. I had already left my family, so Dad, Mom, and my sister could finally be a close-knit threesome.

      At the thought that Yuu and I were now married, strength welled up in me. I glanced at him. He returned my look and gave a slight nod.

      Please