Summary
The narrator comments that the higurashi cicada is associated in Japanese culture with the evening and with late summer. Though not often heard in the city, a faint higurashi noise can be heard at sunset from the café. On an August evening, two weeks later, Kazu reads aloud to Nagare, Kei, and Kohtake from an email from Hirai. Hirai says that she is reduced to tears every day with everything she is learning about running the inn. However, she is happy and well, and determined to create a wonderful legacy for her sister, which involves mending her relationships with her parents. She includes a photo of herself wearing a pink kimono and standing in front of the inn, next to her parents.
The women discuss among themselves what Fumiko is doing there: she has been staring at the ghost woman’s face. Suddenly Fumiko asks Kazu about the possibility of going to the future. Kazu says of course it’s possible. The issue is that there’s no way of knowing whether the person you want to meet will also visit in the future. The chances of meeting them are very slim. Fumiko can see why the article she once read described the café’s time travel as meaningless. Kazu hides from Fumiko the fact that there’s also a rule dictating that a person can only time travel once, so Fumiko has no chance of going forward to meet Goro.
Fusagi arrives. He appears confused when greeted by name. Kohtake steps forward and explains that she is his wife, but he doesn’t recognize her. He asks for Kazu’s help in getting the stranger not to sit with him. The narrator comments that he sometimes accepts her as his wife, but other days he becomes distressed and confused. Kohtake returns to her seat at the bar, saying she’ll pick up her conversation with her husband at home. Kei comes out of the back room looking pale. Kazu suggests she rest.
The narrator comments on Kei’s bad heart, which has made it so she has to avoid strenuous activity. In school, she would routinely have to leave for periods of hospitalization. At seventeen, she was in the hospital when she saw Nagare for the first time, out the window; he was a large man wrapped head to toe in bandages. A nurse explained he’d been in a traffic accident. While crossing an intersection, Nagare had been hit by the side of a truck that had been in a crash; he was dragged until he was bloody. He got up and pulled the driver from the vehicle, and when the ambulance arrived it took him to the hospital too. Intrigued, she developed a crush on him. One day she went to meet him and the first thing she said was that he was the man she wanted to marry. He told her she’d be working in a café if she did. They dated for three years before getting married.
Kei goes to make coffee while the ghost woman stares at her for some reason. Kei drops the glass siphon coffee maker. Nagare says nothing and watches as Kazu props Kei up. Kohtake says that Kei should go to the hospital. Kei shakes her head and says she’ll go lie down. Nagare follows her to the back, asking Kazu to look after the café. The day ends with a heavy mood lingering.
The narrator comments that Kei began talking to her baby at four weeks pregnant, referring to Nagare as Papa. Her conversations were upbeat, but Kei’s condition had been worsening with the pregnancy’s progression and the development of the fetus and placenta. Lethargy and mood swings occurred, though she never complained. Two days ago, Nagare had learned from the doctor that Kei’s heart might not withstand childbirth. The doctor told Nagare that the chances of herself and the baby surviving were low, and even if she lived, her lifespan would be reduced significantly. He recommended terminating the pregnancy as soon as possible. Nagare relayed the information to Kei upon returning home. She replied, “I know.”
After closing the café for the night, Nagare sits alone folding cranes out of paper napkins. Kohtake drops by on her way home to ask about Kei. Nagare says she won’t go to the hospital. Nagare mutters that he is against her having the baby, but nothing will change her mind. Kazu and Kei come out from the back room. Kei is still pale, but seems more in control now. While Kazu prepares fresh coffee, Kei apologizes and says she will go to the hospital tomorrow. She admits that she believes once she goes in, she’ll never come back. She holds her stomach and says she knows the baby is taking everything out of her. Kohtake and Nagare realize Kei is saying that she will go ahead, even with the risk to her heart. She talks to her stomach, saying she is scared and worried that her baby will be lonely. She says she doesn’t know what to do: it is frightening to imagine not being there for her child.
The ghost woman in the dress closes her novel with a bookmark inserted between the pages. The ghost blinks at Kei, as though communicating something, and leaves for the toilet. Kei walks to the seat and stares at it. She asks Kazu to prepare coffee. Nagare asks if Kei is serious. Kei says she just wants one look into the future. Nagare urges her not to. The narrator says that Nagare worries that if she discovers the child doesn’t exist, the inner strength that has been sustaining her will be gone.
Kazu promises to make sure the child will be there if Kei tells her exactly what day she intends to visit in the future. Kei takes the seat as Kazu brings the cup and coffee pot on a silver tray. Kei says she wants to make it August 27 in ten years' time, at three in the afternoon. Kazu smiles: August 27 is Kei’s birthday, a date that’s easy to remember. Kazu reminds her to drink before the coffee gets cold and begins pouring.
Analysis
The theme of hope arises at the beginning of the novel’s fourth and final section, IV Mother and Child. Two weeks after her time-travel experience, Hirai sends an email from Sendai to let her friends at the cafe know she is happy to be working through things with her parents as she takes over Kumi’s job at the inn. In contrast to the heavily done-up, somewhat disheveled appearance Hirai had earlier in the novel, Hirai looks content in a pink kimono.
The themes of uncertainty and desperation return with Fumiko’s questions about traveling forward to the future. Although she was pleased to learn she and Goro still had a chance of being together one day, Fumiko hasn’t overcome her impatience and wishes to glimpse the future so she can know whether she should maintain hope. While it is possible to travel forward, in an instance of dramatic irony, the narrator reveals that Kazu isn’t telling Fumiko about another rule: you can only time travel once, meaning Fumiko has used up her one turn.
Kawaguchi builds further on the theme of uncertainty with the update to Kohtake and Fusagi’s storyline. Because his memory loss is sporadic, Fusagi treats her as a stranger sometimes, and other times goes along with it when she tells him she is his wife. Despite the difficulty of not knowing how their interactions will go, Kohtake has become accustomed to the situation and accepts that she has no control over it.
Uncertainty is also crucial to the central storyline of the fourth part, which concerns Kei’s need to make a life-or-death decision. Having teased the fact of her pregnancy earlier in the book, Kawaguchi reveals that Kei’s congenitally weak heart is not strong enough for her to survive childbirth. But rather than abort the child, Kei decides she would rather risk her life and go through with it. However, she can’t be certain she is making the right decision, particularly when it means she is unlikely to be there to raise the child.
In an instance of situational irony, the normally standoffish ghost vacates her seat while looking at Kei, tacitly encouraging her to time travel. Kei believes that if she knows the child is okay, her uncertainty will be assuaged, and she won’t regret sacrificing her life. Unbeknownst to her, Nagare worries that she will discover there is no child in the future, and her already overburdened heart will give up, succumbing to despair. But against Nagare’s wishes, Kazu is hopeful; she facilitates Kei’s glimpse into the future by promising to arrange it so the child is at the cafe on a specific date at a specific time.
