Convenience Store Woman Read online

  “Hey, hey, not so fast. You can’t get away that easily!” the store manager yelled, amused.

  I pointed at the screen. “He needs help on the till,” I told him, and I rushed out into the shop.

  There were three customers waiting by the time I got there, and Tuan was looking flustered as he operated the till.

  “Um, what do I do with this?”

  Apparently he wasn’t sure how to process a voucher. I dealt with it quickly and told him: “This is a money-back voucher. Give them their change, okay?” Then I rushed to the other till.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting! Next customer over here, please.”

  A man who was looking a bit disgruntled at having been kept waiting came over and said irritably, “Is that guy new? I’m in a hurry.”

  “I’m so sorry!” I said and bowed my head.

  Tuan wasn’t used to working the tills yet, and Mrs. Izumi should have been keeping an eye on him. I looked around and saw she was busy putting in an order for carton drinks, apparently unaware there were so many customers waiting to pay.

  When things finally calmed down on the cash register, I noticed that the deep-fried chicken skewers for today’s promotion hadn’t been made yet so I hastily ran to get some from the back room freezer.

  The manager and Mrs. Izumi were in the back room talking about something, looking amused.

  “We were aiming for a hundred chicken skewers today, weren’t we? But there aren’t any ready for the lunchtime rush yet, and the POP ad hasn’t been put out either!” I told them.

  I’d expected them both to respond, “Oh no, that’s terrible!” But Mrs. Izumi just leaned over to me and said, “Hey, Miss Furukura, what’s all this I hear about you and Shiraha? Is it true?”

  “What? But Mrs. Izumi, the skewers—”

  “Just a moment, how long has this been going on? You’re a good match though! Come on, tell us. Which one of you made the first move? Was it Shiraha?”

  “Oh, she’s too embarrassed to let anything on … We’ll have to take her out drinking sometime. Make sure you bring Shiraha too, Furukura!”

  “But, the skewers!”

  “Stop avoiding the subject! Come on, tell us!”

  Irritated, I yelled at them: “Look, it isn’t that there’s anything between us! He’s just staying at my place now, that’s all. What’s important is that we haven’t even started preparing the chicken skewers yet!”

  “What?” Mrs. Izumi screeched. “You mean you’re living together?”

  “Seriously?” put in the manager.

  They sounded so excited I decided it was useless saying anything more and rushed over to the freezer, took out the boxes of chicken skewers, and ran with my arms full back to the cash register.

  I was shocked by their reaction. As a convenience store worker, I couldn’t believe they were putting gossip about store workers before a promotion in which chicken skewers that usually sold at 130 yen were to be put on sale at the special price of 110 yen. What on earth had happened to the pair of them?

  Tuan must have noticed how rattled I looked as I rushed in with the boxes, because he came over to help me with them.

  “Wow, a lot! You make all?” he asked in his broken Japanese.

  “That’s right. They’re on promotion. We’re aiming to sell a hundred today. Last time we managed ninety-one, so we can reach the goal! Sawaguchi from the evening shift made us a big POP ad to use today. If all the staff rally around, we can sell them. That’s what’s most important for this store right now,” I said, getting all choked up for some reason.

  “Rally?” he queried, his head on one side, unable to follow my rapid-fire Japanese.

  “Look, we have to work together to pull it off! Tuan, please, get all of these ready now!”

  “All? Oh wow!” he said, nodding, and clumsily started to prepare them.

  I ran over to the fast-food display case and began setting up the three-dimensional POP ad Sawaguchi had spent at least two hours of overtime on. It was made from cardboard and colored drawing paper and read: TODAY‘S TOP PICK! JUICY FRIED-CHICKEN SKEWERS FOR 110 YEN! TODAY ONLY!

  I got on the stepladder and hung the POP ad from the ceiling, where it looked spectacular. Sawaguchi had said as she was making it that with this to help us, we’d definitely manage to sell a hundred skewers.

  All of us store workers were pitching in to achieve our common goal, so what on earth did the manager and Mrs. Izumi think they were doing?

  “Irasshaimasé! Good morning!” I called out as a customer came into the store. “Deep-fried chicken skewers are on offer today for just a hundred and ten yen! How about it?”

  Tuan was just arranging the skewers that were done, and he raised his voice alongside mine. “Fried-chicken skewers! How about it?”

  The manager and Mrs. Izumi still hadn’t come out of the back room. I thought I could hear the faint sound of Mrs. Izumi’s laugh.

  “They’re cheap! Fried-chicken skewers! Try one!”

  Tuan might not yet be used to the work, but he alone was a valued colleague as he joined me in trying to entice the customers to buy today’s special.

  * * *

  On the way home I stopped off at the local supermarket to buy some bean sprouts, chicken, and cabbage, but when I got home Shiraha was nowhere to be seen.

  I started preparing to boil the food, thinking that maybe he’d left, when I heard a noise coming from the bathroom.

  “Oh, is that you, Shiraha?”

  I opened the bathroom door to find him sitting fully dressed in the dry bathtub watching movies on his tablet.

  “Why are you in here?”

  “I tried the closet first, but there are bugs in there, you know. There aren’t any bugs in here, so I can relax,” he answered. “Is it boiled vegetables again today?”

  “Yes, that’s right. Today I’m heat-treating bean sprouts, chicken, and cabbage.”

  “Oh, okay,” he said, without looking up. “You’re home late today, aren’t you? I’m hungry.”

  “I was about to leave when the manager and Mrs. Izumi started talking to me and wouldn’t let me go. The manager was at the store all day even though it was his day off. He was going on and on at me to bring you out drinking one evening.”

  “What? You told them about me?”

  “I’m sorry. It just slipped out. Oh, here. I brought you your belongings and your latest pay slip.”

  “Oh.” Shiraha clutched his tablet without saying anything for a while. Then: “You told them … even though I told you not to.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean any harm.”

  “You’ve gone and done it now, Furukura.”

  “What?” I looked at him, puzzled.

  “The bastards are going to do their best to drag me out so they can lecture me. But I’m not going. No way. I’m going to stay hidden here. Which means you’re next on the list for the lecture, Furukura.”

  “I am?”

  “Why are you letting an unemployed man live in your apartment? It’s okay for both husband and wife to work, but not in a casual job! Aren’t you going to get married? What about children? Get a proper job! Fulfill your role as an adult! They’re all going to be on your back now, you know.”

  “Nobody in the store has ever talked to me like that before.”

  “That’s because you’re just too far out there. A thirty-six-year-old, single convenience store worker, probably a virgin at that, zealously working every day, shouting at the top of her lungs, full of energy. Yet showing no signs of looking for a proper job. You’re a foreign object. It’s just nobody bothered to tell you because they find you too freaky. They’ve been saying it behind your back, though. And now they’ll start saying it to your face too.”

  “What?”

  “People who are considered normal enjoy putting those who aren’t on trial, you know. But if you kick me out now, they’ll judge you even more harshly, so you have no choice but to keep me around.” Shiraha gave a thin laugh. “I alw
ays did want revenge, on women who are allowed to become parasites just because they’re women. I always thought to myself that I’d be a parasite one day. That’d show them. And I’m going to be a parasite on you, Furukura, whatever it takes.”

  I didn’t have a clue what he was going on about.

  “Well anyway, what about your feed? I put it on to boil, and it should be done now.”

  “I’ll eat it here. Bring it to me, please.”

  I did as he said and put the boiled vegetables and white rice on a plate and took it into the bathroom.

  “Close the door behind you, will you?”

  I did as he said and closed the bathroom door. I sat down alone at the table for the first time in a while and started to eat.

  The sound of my chewing was extraordinarily loud. It was probably because I’d been surrounded by the sounds of the convenience store until shortly before. When I closed my eyes and pictured the store, in my mind its sounds came back to life.

  That sound flowed through me like music. Swaying to the sounds etched deep within me of the store performing, of the store operating, I stuffed the food before me into my body so that I would be fit to work again tomorrow.

  * * *

  The news about Shiraha spread through the store like wildfire. Every time I saw the manager he started pestering me with: “How’s Shiraha? When are you going to bring him out drinking with us?”

  I’d always had a lot of respect for manager #8. He was a hard worker and I’d thought of him as the perfect colleague, but now I was sick to death of him only ever talking about Shiraha whenever we met.

  Until now, we’d always had meaningful worker-manager discussions: “It’s been hot lately, so the sales of chocolate desserts are down,” or “There’s a new block of flats down the road, so we’ve been getting more customers in the evening,” or “They’re really pushing the ad campaign for that new product coming out the week after next, so we should do well with it.” Now, however, it felt like he’d downgraded me from store worker to female of the human species.

  “Miss Furukura, if there’s anything you’re worried about, I don’t mind lending an ear!” he would say. “And of course, you must come out for a drink with us next time, even if you do come alone. Although it’d be better if Shiraha came too. I’d soon talk some sense into him!”

  Even Sugawara, who’d always hated Shiraha, chimed in with: “I want to see him too! Do bring him along!”

  I’d never known before now, but apparently they all went out socializing together now and then. Even Mrs. Izumi sometimes joined them when her husband could look after the children.

  “You know, I always did want to go out with you too sometime, Miss Furukura!”

  So they were all scheming how to drag Shiraha out with them one night, to give him a good talking-to. I was beginning to understand why he wanted to hide himself away, if this was what he had to put up with when he went out.

  The manager even brought out Shiraha’s CV, which should have been disposed of when he left, and together with Mrs. Izumi started picking it apart.

  “Look here. He dropped out of university and went to technical school, and then he dropped out of that too!”

  “So his only qualification to speak of is the English Proficiency Test? And he doesn’t even have a driver’s license!”

  They were all having fun putting him down. They evidently thought he was more important than the current promotion with all rice balls on sale at a hundred yen, and the cheese frankfurters that had just arrived in the store, and the discount vouchers on all precooked dishes that we now had for handing out to customers.

  It was like there was noise interference mixed in with the sound of the store. It was a hideous cacophony—as though everyone had been playing the same score, but had suddenly pulled out random instruments and begun playing them instead.

  The scariest thing of all, though, was the newest employee, Tuan. He was rapidly absorbing the store and beginning to resemble all the other workers. That wouldn’t have mattered in the previous version of the store, but with everyone in their current weird state, it was as though he were transforming into a creature that was nothing like a store worker.

  He’d been such a hard worker, but now he stopped cooking the frankfurters and asked, “Your husband work here before, Miss Furukura?” He was now speaking with a hint of Mrs. Izumi’s drawl.

  “He’s not my husband,” I answered quickly. “And more to the point, it’s hot today, so we’ll be selling lots of cold drinks. Please be sure to restock the bottles of mineral water from the cardboard box in the walk-in refrigerator. Cartons of cold green tea will sell well too, so do keep an eye on those shelves, okay?”

  “You going to have a baby, Miss Furukura? My sister is married with three kids. They’re still small and so cute.”

  Tuan was rapidly ceasing to be a store worker. It was the same with all of them. Even though they still wore the same uniform and did the same work, I had the feeling they were less like store workers than they had been before.

  Only the customers remained unchanged and continued to need me to be a perfect store worker for them. I’d thought the rest of the staff was made up of the same cells as me, but in the current strange atmosphere a village mentality was taking over and they were fast reverting to ordinary males and females. Now only the customers still allowed me to be just a convenience store worker.

  * * *

  One Sunday, a month after I’d called her, my sister turned up to lecture Shiraha.

  She is generally a sweet, gentle person, but she was extremely tense as she demanded to come in. “I have to say something. It’s for your own good, Keiko,” she said.

  I told Shiraha he could wait outside, but he merely said, “It’s okay. I don’t mind,” apparently resolved to stay in the apartment. This was surprising, given how much he hated being raked over the coals.

  “My husband is looking after Yutaro. As well he should, from time to time,” she said as she came in the door.

  “I see. It’s a bit cramped in here, but make yourself at home.”

  It was the first time in ages I’d seen her without her son, and she looked as though she’d somehow mislaid something.

  “You didn’t have to come all the way over here. If you’d called me, I’d have gone to your apartment as usual.”

  “It’s okay. Today I wanted to take my time talking to you. I’m not disturbing you, am I?” She glanced around the room. “Oh, but what about the guy living with you? Is he out today? I hope I didn’t scare him off.”

  “What? No, he’s here.”

  “Oh! But where is he? I must say hello!” she said, jumping up.

  “Don’t worry about it. There’s really no need. Oh, but it’s about feeding time anyway.” I took some boiled potatoes and cabbage from the cooking pan and put them along with some rice into a washbasin I kept in the kitchen and took it to the bathroom.

  Shiraha was sitting on cushions he’d stuffed into the bathtub and fiddling with his smartphone. I held his feed out for him, and he took it.

  “The bathroom? Is he in the bath?”

  “Yes, it’s really cramped when we’re together in the room, so I’m keeping him in there.” My sister looked incredulous, so I explained further. “I mean, this apartment is really old, isn’t it? Shiraha says that taking a coin-pay shower is better than getting into such an old bath. He gives me small change to cover the cost of my shower and his feed. It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s convenient having him here. Everyone’s really happy for me. They’re all congratulating me. They’ve all convinced themselves my new situation is great, and they’ve stopped poking their nose into my business. So he’s useful.”

  She looked down. Maybe this time she finally got it, now that I’d explained it carefully to her.

  “Oh, by the way, I bought some custard puddings that were past their sell date. Do you want one?”

  “I never imagined it was anything like this,” she said, her voice tremblin
g.

  Surprised, I looked at her and saw she appeared to be crying.

  “What’s wrong? Oh, I’ll go get some tissues!” I said immediately, using Sugawara’s speech style. Then I stood up.

  “Will you ever be cured, Keiko …?” She looked down, not even bothering to remonstrate with me. “I simply can’t take it anymore. How can we make you normal? How much longer must I put up with this?”

  “What? You’ve been putting up with me? If that’s the case, you needn’t have gone to all the trouble of coming to see me, surely?” I told her honestly.

  She stood up, tears pouring down her face. “Keiko, won’t you come to see a counselor with me? Please? Let’s get you help. It’s the only way.”

  “I went to see one when I was little, but it didn’t do any good, did it? And I don’t even know what it is I need to be cured of.”

  “Ever since you started working at the convenience store, you’ve gotten weirder and weirder. The way you talk, the way you yell out at home as if you were still in the store, and even your facial expressions are weird. I’m begging you. Please try to be normal!” She began crying even harder.

  “So, will I be cured if I leave the convenience store? Or am I better staying working there? And should I kick Shiraha out? Or am I better with him here? Look, I’ll do whatever you say. I don’t mind either way, so please just instruct me in specific terms.”

  “I don’t know anymore …”

  She kept crying uncontrollably without responding to my request. Lost for something to do I took a custard pudding out of the refrigerator and ate it as I watched her sitting there sobbing.

  Just then there was the sound of the bathroom door opening. I turned in surprise and saw Shiraha standing there.

  “I’m so sorry. To tell you the truth, your sister and I just had a fight. I made a real embarrassing spectacle of myself, didn’t I? You must be really shocked.”

  I stared openmouthed at him. It wasn’t at all like him to be such a smooth talker.

  “The fact is that I’d connected with my ex-girlfriend on Facebook and we went out drinking together. Keiko was furious when she found out. She refused to let me sleep with her and shut me in the bathroom.”