Summary
As the narrow black stream of coffee fills the cup, Kei feels her body shimmer as if it were steam. She recalls her childhood, and how her father had also had a weak heart and had died when she was nine. She thought of him as trapped in a very dark box. She hadn’t understood how or why her mother always smiled afterward. Her mother says it would upset Kei’s father to look upon them appearing unhappy. The smiles allow him to smile.
Kei arrives in the future. A man is working behind the counter, polishing glasses. He is in his thirties or forties, and based on his outfit of black bowtie and white shirt, he must work there. He has a large burn scar on his forehead. She asks to see the manager; he says he supposes he is the manager. He says Nagare is in Hokkaido now. Kazu too. Kei reasons that the child must be with them too. She resigns herself to the possibility that Kazu forgot her promise, and reaches for the sugar pot to add sugar to her coffee. Just then the bell above the door sounds and the girl Kei had her photograph taken with arrives.
Kei tells the girl about the meeting, but the girl doesn’t know who she is. The girl disappears in the back, returning in Kei’s wine-red apron. She wipes the counter. Kei wonders if she is the manager’s daughter. When the phone rings, Kei nearly leaves her seat to answer it. If she had left her seat, she would have been transported violently back to the present.
The manager comes back out and answers. He brings the phone to Kei, saying it’s Nagare. The connection isn’t good, but Kei learns that there was some confusion and she has actually gone fifteen years into the future, and it is ten o’clock (mixing up three in the afternoon—15:00—with 10:00). The teenage schoolgirl is their daughter. Kei asks her name. The girl shyly answers Miki, then goes to the back room.
Fumiko enters the café wearing a red apron. Kei recognizes her, and realizes she works there now. Fumiko asks if she talked to Miki. Fumiko says Miki has wanted to meet her badly. Fumiko goes to the back and brings out Miki, telling her not to waste the moment. Kei asks Miki why she didn’t go to Hokkaido with Kazu and Nagare. Miki says that she does Kazu’s job of making the coffee for the people who sit in that seat.
The conversation ends abruptly with Miki looking at the ground and Kei not knowing what to say. She considers how the only thing she has ever been able to do for Miki is bring her into the world. She realizes there is nothing she can do to lessen her daughter’s fifteen years of unhappiness. Despite being granted her wish, she is full of despair.
Kei reaches for her coffee, which she has to drink soon. Miki walks up to her. Miki says that it’s true she has always wanted to talk with her, but now that she has the opportunity, she doesn’t know what to say. She admits that she has been sad at times, but she is “really glad for the life you gave me.” Miki shows Kei a peace sign with her fingers.
Kei cries. Miki addresses her as Mum, and thanks her for having her. Kei finally understands: Kohtake and Fumiko and Hirai hadn’t changed the present, but they had returned with changed hearts. Kei smiles at her daughter and thanks her for the honor of having her.
Kei returns from the future, her face a tearful mess. It is clear to everyone around her that they aren’t tears of sadness. Kohtake bursts into tears and Nagare sighs in relief. Kazu smiles and welcomes Kei home. The narrator comments that Kei checks into the hospital the next day. In spring, a healthy baby girl is born.
The narrator cites the magazine article saying: “At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present does not change. So it raises the question: just what is the point of that chair?” Kazu believes that people will always have the strength to overcome whatever difficulties they face. If the chair can change a person’s heart, giving them the strength they need, then it has a purpose. The novel ends with the narrator stating that Kazu will always maintain her cool expression and say, “Drink the coffee before it gets cold.”
Analysis
In the last pages of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Kei arrives in the future to discover that an unknown man is working behind the counter. In an instance of dramatic irony, the reader understands that the burn scar on the man’s forehead means he must be Goro, Fumiko’s lover. In this way, Kawaguchi subtly brings about a resolution to Fumiko’s storyline, showing that, in the end, the two get back together and help run the cafe that proved so central to their relationship.
Kei is also surprised to meet again the teenage girl who came back from the future to take a photo with her. It isn’t until Nagare phones her from Hokkaido, the most northern of Japan’s four main islands, and explains that the girl is in fact their daughter. In an instance of situational irony, the time of day and year become muddled, and Kei has arrived fifteen years in the future at ten a.m., not ten years in the future at 3 p.m. (someone or something confused 15:00—three o’clock—and 10:00).
While Kei now knows that her child will grow into the girl behind the counter, Kei worries about the quality of the girl’s life. She worries that she is being selfish in only giving the girl life but effectively abandoning her by dying young. Kei feels the pain of regret when Miki is evasive. However, Miki overcomes her shyness and thanks Kei for bringing her into the world. When Miki shows a peace sign—her mother’s preferred gesture—Kei realizes that even though she won’t be there for her daughter physically, she will be with her in spirit.
Having had this revelation, Kei’s fear of uncertainty is replaced by hope and determination. She realizes that, for herself and the other time travelers, the point is not to change the present, but to strengthen their hearts and find the courage to overcome difficulties.
The novel ends with Kazu’s reflections on the supposed futility of the cafe’s time travel. Media reporting on the magical phenomenon had dismissed it as pointless because there is nothing anyone can do to change their present. As the person who oversees the ritual, however, Kazu understands the value of people’s revelations: By going back or forward in time, people develop new perspectives on their problems. In this way, Kawaguchi leaves the reader with the message that the cafe’s time travel brings about no material changes to reality, spiritual changes, which are no less significant.
