Arriving at Tesus’s home at the top of the short hill, he went to the garage and knocked on the door. Leaves rustled in the wind above his head. He waited for Tesus to appear on the other side of the door.

  “You came so early!”

  Unexpectedly, the voice came from behind. Ivy looked back and saw Tesus standing there. Beside Tesus was a boy with dark hair, his hands shoved into his pockets.

  “This is Ivy from Wilder, who wants to meet you.”

  Tesus introduced Ivy to the boy. Ivy, not expecting to meet him outside so suddenly, was startled.

  “And this is Tabby.”

  Tesus gestured toward the boy.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  Tabby frowned and glanced at Ivy, who greeted him politely.

  “Why are you so interested in priests?”

  Ivy recoiled at his blunt speech, stunned.

  “Oh, sorry. Come inside.”

  Tesus opened the garage door and urged them to enter. Tabby plopped down on the floor as soon as he got inside.

  “What do you want to know about me?”

  “Um, well…”

  Ivy couldn’t think of what to ask. He imagined that Tabby must have been a nice, gentle child, simply because he was said to have been raised by a priest. A priest must be gentle, Ivy thought. He assumed they would have a pleasant conversation more easily.

  “What’s the priest like?”

  Ivy asked briefly.

  “I don’t get why you’re so curious about that. What’s he like? He’s just an ordinary middle-aged man.”

  Tabby gave a blunt answer, which made Ivy recoil again.

  “He lives high up on the mountain, doesn’t he? What does he do every day?”

  “Well, he cleans the backyard in the morning, writes and reads at his desk. And he spends several hours a day in the shrine, seems to pray to the souls or something.”

  ‘He doesn’t live in the shrine?’

  ‘Why would he live in the shrine? It’s a sacred place where he prays to the guardian spirits. There’s a house next to it.’

  ‘I see. And what about you? What would you do?’

  ‘Cleaning the house was my job. It was tiring because the house was so big. I was exhausted just by dusting. Once I finished, I could play around, and that was it.’

  ‘Does he do all the housework? Like cooking?’

  ‘Someone else does the cooking. An old woman named Dione. She used to do almost all the housework, but I started helping her a few years ago because she got older and started complaining about back pain. She was also slow, so the sun would set before she could finish her work.’

  Despite his blunt words, his eyes seemed somehow tender when he talked about the woman.

  ‘Didn’t you go down the mountain?’

  ‘The priest did sometimes, or rarely. If he needed to do shopping, he could call a car to take him to the town.’

  ‘A car can go up and down the mountain?’

  Tesus asked curiously.

  ‘The road has been well paved, so a car can go up and down. At the foot of the mountain, there is a town called Perm. We use the car service from the town. The driver also delivers necessities about twice a month. He’s had a long-term relationship with the priest, or so I’ve heard. He’s really old, a veteran with forty years of experience.’

  ‘Letters can be delivered too?’

  ‘Yes, they’re delivered by the driver too, from the post office in the town. There is a telephone in the house, but it can’t be used unless it’s for official duties.’

  ‘It’s unusual for an individual to have a telephone.’

  ‘Is it?’

  Tabby asked Tesus this time.

  ‘It is. A town has one phone office, and because of the expensive fees, people don’t usually use it. You can leave a personal message with the phone office if you need to.’

  “My dad has used the office phone for urgent purchases on a few occasions.”

  “Is that really how it is here? Sounds inconvenient.”

  Tabby shrugged.

  “Is Perm a big town?”

  “No, it’s a really small one. It has only the bare minimum of shops for necessities. If you want to go shopping, you have to go to Shaw. Shaw is kind of big; I was astonished by the number of people when I went there for the first time. This town is nice too, I think.”

  Ivy had heard of Shaw; it was the capital of Ymot Prefecture, if he remembered correctly.

  “Did you often go to Shaw?”

  “Not really. I’ve only been there twice—once when I was small to buy a book, and then to catch the train at Shaw station to come here. Mr. Lansberge goes there about once every few months. He goes to Perm more often, about once a month.”

  “He comes down from the mountain more often than I expected.”

  He had thought the priest stayed in the mountains his whole life.

  “Is Mr. Lansberge the priest’s name?”

  “Yes. Very long, isn’t it? Dione and I call him that. Some people in Perm call him Mr. Salo. That seems to be another name for a priest. I’m not sure, though.”

  “Does anyone besides the driver visit the house?”

  “Rarely. It’s a mountain far from the main station. It’s hard to come and go. Officials visit Mr. Lansberge once a year.”

  “Yeah, I remember now that the priest is a position ranked by the government. I suppose the government gives him an assessment regularly.”

  Tesus said, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Is that so?”

  Ivy was surprised and looked at Tesus’s face, who nodded in response. He had thought these things were mysterious to everyone, but it turned out that a boy his age knew it as if it was common knowledge. The topic had never come up among friends until Alma mentioned something about Tabby.

  “It is. Not everyone can be a priest unless they are highly talented and selected by the country. The government keeps an eye on the priests to make sure they don’t misuse public funds.”

  Tabby said with a slightly proud tone.

  “Don’t you want to be a priest?”

  Tabby sniffed at Ivy’s question.

  “Such a boring job doesn’t suit me. Mr. Lansberge always said, ‘You should go to the outside world.’”

  Ivy didn’t think Tabby was suited for the job either, somehow.

  “You say it’s boring, but I heard that priests purify evil souls, don’t they? That’s an impressive job. How do they do that?”

  “You silly, are you really studying at school?”

  Tabby said with amazement, leaning back against the desk behind him.

  Ivy blushed with shame, realizing how ignorant he was, even though he went to school and studied just like other children.

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  “That’s just a saying. What a priest actually does is bury the body of a criminal, or someone who died under unfortunate circumstances and has no relatives.”

  “A criminal?”

  The ominous sound of the word unsettled his heart.

  “Yeah, they pray for the soul not to do bad things, I heard. Don’t ask me if there’s a soul or not.”

  He had been wondering all the time if evil souls really existed and how the priest dealt with such things. He felt like he was starting to get a glimpse of it.

  “But why should someone with no relatives be prayed for too? I thought anyone would be buried in the town cemetery by the townspeople, wouldn’t they?”

  That’s what his grandmother had taught him.

  “Someone means not only those with no relatives but also those who died under unfortunate circumstances. Mr. Lansberge said that such souls could stay in this world and transform into evil ones.”

  “Then, what about the souls of people buried in the town cemetery? What will they become?”

  “I suppose every soul becomes a guardian spirits, but evil ones need special treatment.”

  Tesus said. Ivy found it comprehensible.

  “Those evil souls are brought to the shrine from all over the country? No matter how far it is? That must be troublesome.”

  “Are you thinking there’s only one shrine in the country? Of course not, silly. There are six of them, and each shrine has its own jurisdiction. The whole Lecti region belongs to the Lecti shrine, which Mr. Lansberge takes care of.”

  “Six. That means each region has a shrine. I only knew about the central shrine, other than Lecti’s.”

  “There’s a shrine in the Central City too?”

  Ivy was surprised. He didn’t know anything, really. He felt like the world around him suddenly became wider. The shrine wasn’t just something that existed; it also had an important role that the government was involved in.

  “By the way, why were you adopted by the priest?”

  “Ah, because my mother died in an accident when I was a baby.”

  Though Tabby said it plainly, Ivy felt upset with himself. He regretted asking. Tesus had said that Tabby was an orphan. The story could never have been an easy one. Tabby picked up one of the model trains scattered around the floor and fiddled with the wheel.

  “Her town was small and not wealthy. No one in the town could take care of the surviving baby, so they decided to entrust him to the priest. She didn’t have a single relative. My father was said to be a long-distance sailor and couldn’t be reached. He might have died in the middle of the sea, or he might be living peacefully somewhere else.”

  Ivy felt sorry for Tabby.

  “I’m sorry I asked.”

  “It’s okay.”

  Tabby crossed both arms behind his head, still holding the model train in his hand.

  “I don’t care about my mother. Life in the shrine was kind of fun, and I don’t remember her at all.”

  “Then, the priest is like a father to you.”

  “Nah, he doesn’t feel like a father, though.”

  Tabby grinned.

  “I didn’t feel sad living with Mr. Lansberge and Dione, and I’ve never missed my mother. Maybe because I had good people around me, like the driver and the people in Perm.”

  Seeing that Tabby didn’t seem to care, Ivy felt relieved.

  “Do you go back to the shrine every now and then? On occasions like the harvest festival or your birthday?”

  “No, he told me not to go back. Because he has completed his role, which means he raised me, and there’s no reason for him to keep me at his place anymore. I parted from him at Wilder station, and that was the last time I saw him. But we can keep in touch by mail.”

  Tabby put down the model train on the floor and let it run.

  “You can’t go back? Is that some kind of rule of the shrine?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll never become a priest, and the shrine doesn’t generally accept visitors, so I guess that’s why.”

  Tabby gave a wry grin. Ivy found it very sad that Tabby could not see the people who raised him or return to the place where he grew up.

  “That must be sad.”

  Tabby shrugged at Ivy.

  “He said I’d get used to the new life here soon. And in fact, I’ve been so busy with school and work that I don’t have much time to think about it. I suppose I won’t miss them eventually.”

  “Can I be your friend, maybe?”

  “Friend?”

  “Yeah, I’ll show you my town. My parents run a bakery, and if you come to my house, I can let you eat some chunks of unsold bread.”

  “That sounds nice.”

  Tabby smiled without any cynical expression for the first time. Ivy smiled back, looking down at the toys scattered around the floor to disguise his embarrassment, when they began to rattle. Is a big truck running on the road outside? he thought. Looking up, he held his breath to confirm. He could now feel physical vibrations. The shelves along the walls were clattering.

  “It’s an earthquake,”

  Tesus murmured in a low voice. Ivy looked around, unsure of what to do. The window glass and the flasks on the shelves were vibrating and clattering. Tesus stood up calmly and exclaimed,

  “Here, come.”

  He ushered Ivy and Tabby to shelter under the table and followed them.

  “It can protect us from falling debris.”

  Ivy shrank under the table, looking around the room. The clattering sound gradually faded and finally stopped completely.

  “It’s been a while since the last earthquake.”

  Ivy sighed with relief. The last earthquake had occurred several years ago when Ivy’s favorite glass coin bank fell off the shelf and shattered. He remembered how upset he was and how he cried.

  “It’s good that your flasks didn’t fall.”

  Ivy smiled at Tesus as he crawled out from under the table.

  “Yes. It was just a small one. This table is too small to fit three people.”

  Tesus smiled too.

  “There are many troubles when living down here—earthquakes, accidents, and many other disasters. I miss the quiet life up there.”

  Tabby complained, and they all laughed.

  “Hi, Ivy.”

  When he stopped by Alma’s house, Alma’s mother, who seemed to have been preparing dinner, appeared at the door.

  “Good evening. Is Alma home?”

  “Wait a moment, I’ll get her. Please come in.”

  “Thank you, but I’ll wait here. I just stopped by to say hello.”

  Alma’s mother smiled and disappeared into the house. As she turned around, he smelled a pleasant scent. Alma’s mother was a beautiful woman who always dressed neatly, while Ivy’s mother wore a plain shirt and an old apron and always smelled faintly of sweat from working beside the hot oven all day. Since she was so different from his mother, Ivy felt nervous whenever he saw her.

  After a while, Alma appeared.

  “You didn’t come to Tesus.”

  “You’re awful! You left me and went by yourself without me.”

  “Sorry, I waited for you for a while in the playground, but I couldn’t wait any longer.”

  “Just kidding. It’s actually me who should apologize.”

  She gave a bitter smile.

  “The thing is, Alexis said she bought a new set of paints, so we went to her house to see it. There are twenty-four colors in the set! I want one too.”

  Alma looked up at the sky and sighed, her face full of envy.

  “I’m sorry I broke our promise.”

  “It’s okay. I had fun talking with Tabby. At first, I thought he was a bit difficult, but he turned out to be really nice. We’ve become friends. You should meet him next time.”

  “That sounds great. I’m looking forward to meeting him.”

  She lifted both her heels off the ground, her toes still touching it, which is how she expresses her delight.

  “Speaking of which, we had an earthquake today, didn’t we?”

  “Really? I didn’t notice. It’s been a while since we had one.”

  “I think I felt it because I was in a quiet garage. It was a small one.”

  “Alma, how long are you going to be chatting there?”

  Lisa, Alma’s younger sister, poked her head out from the door of a room.

  “Hi Ivy, good evening.”

  “Hi Lisa.”

  “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Alma responded to Lisa and then whispered in Ivy’s ear.

  “I’ve been helping her with her homework. She’s so clueless—she doesn’t even know what a lamp is made of. We studied that at the beginning of the school year. I can’t believe it.”

  Lisa, unlike her older sister, wasn’t good at studying or sports. Alma often complained about it, but she seemed willing to take care of her sister anyway.

  “Well, I’ve got to go work on my homework now. Thanks for stopping by. Tell me more about Tabby tomorrow at school.”

  “Okay, see you then.”

  Alma waved and hurried back to her room. Ivy waved at her from behind and quietly closed the door.

  Though it had already started to get dark outside, he decided to make a side trip before going home. He left the shabby street that led to his home, entered a well-paved road, and walked along it for a while until he saw a white marble wall. The glossy wall was cast in shadow by the setting sun, and the lamps had already come on near the huge gate. This was the town’s cemetery. He wasn’t sure why he had decided to come here, but perhaps it was because he had talked about souls and death earlier that day. The hedges, which the cemetery keeper and the neighbors tended to with great care, surrounded the walls. The hedge was made of lys trees, whose leaves stayed bright green throughout the year and whose white flowers bloomed in winter. The first time he remembered coming here was for the funeral of his grandaunt.

  At a funeral, the relatives and close friends of the deceased gather at the house, dancing, singing, and reminiscing about their memories of him or her while drinking. Then, they place the body into the coffin and take it to the cemetery, passing through the streets the deceased used to walk. They stop by the homes or shops of those who were most dear to the departed. Once at the cemetery, they carry the coffin to its resting place and bury it. His grand-aunt had already been bedridden when he was born, so he barely remembered her. Her funeral was more of a fun event than a sad ceremony in his memory. He had not visited here since, except for a few occasions that he could not recall the reason for. He looked up at the gate, where a large bird symbol was carved.

  Right, he remembered—this bird flies up into the sky with a soul on its back, so grandmother had said. Grand aunt would have become a guardian spirit and would be watching over Ivy with other souls. The bird was completely unfamiliar to him: its neck was thick and short, its wings spread wide. The beak was large and twisted at the tip, and the tail was long, splitting into three directions. As he gazed at it, the bird suddenly flapped its wings. Ivy didn’t understand what he was seeing; he was amazed. The bird flew up, emerged from the symbol, and soared above his head. It circled around him a few times before flying away toward the western sea, leaving Ivy behind. At that precise moment, the setting sun in the western sky disappeared, and the sky transformed into a crystal-clear darkness, where small white stars streaked across it like large stripes. Above his head, a white moon appeared. A low, deep sound echoed from somewhere distant, and the ground vibrated. Ivy was overwhelmed by the sight as the western sky burst into orange. Rainbow-colored light sparkled and spread in all directions. The rainbow lights turned into wisps of thin beams, sliding across the sky and showering down to the ground, to the cemetery, and onto Ivy’s cheek. The shower of light was absorbed into the ground, one after another, without interruption. Ivy closed his eyes and spread his arms wide. He heard the sound of a stream—murmuring, chattering—and he thought that was the sound of the light. It was beautiful and sweet. As he absorbed the light, he felt as if he was about to remember something. Some blurry images flashed in his mind, but they faded before he could fully grasp them. In the sky, a blue moon appeared, a red star hung above the ocean, and a bird with a long, multi-colored tail soared through the air. Then, before his eyes, an immense, barren landscape of sand stretched out, while in his ears, voices screamed. A flood of images and events rushed to his mind all at once. He couldn’t put them into words, nor could he make sense of them, even in the faintest way.

  What are these? What am I seeing now?

  He struggled between feelings of comfort and unease. As a cold wind brushed against the back of his neck, he snapped back to reality. The sun had set completely, and the world was plunged into darkness. In the sky where the bird had flown, only the red star remained, shining.

  “Good evening, Ivy. Are you alone? How may I help you?”

  Turning around at the sound of the voice, he saw the cemetery keeper standing there with a lamp in his hand.

  “Oh, I’m just… I’m just taking a walk,” he mumbled. He picked up his bag from the ground, not noticing when he had dropped it.

  “It’s dark. Watch your step when you go home,” the cemetery keeper said gently, while Ivy was still wondering what he had seen.

  What was that? Had he been sleeping while standing up?

  He rushed home along the paved street, his heart pounding. It was a deep autumn night, just turning into winter.