Shall We Go to Otsu?
Chapter 8: Tomoe Makes a Small Mistake…
In which Tomoe enjoys some company but regrets her shoes.
How good it had felt to be among people again!
She had never much needed the company of people, but these last weeks in the cabin… His silence, his absence. Her invisibility. She'd not realized how dry and empty she'd become until they had emerged from their path onto the main street and been swallowed up by the current of the crowd. Children running and shrieking, shopkeepers and customers quibbling, dogs barking, carts rumbling, horses' hooves clopping… Oh! She felt like a sponge plopped into a rushing river!
She found herself smiling at everyone, and approached each merchant with tenderness and something like gratitude, simply for the fact of their meeting her eyes and speaking with her. She bought a packet of sweets, and used them to make secret moments between herself and random children, just to touch someone else's skin.
Even he seemed to have caught the gay spirit of the town, smiling at her, and agreeing to sit and eat together in public.
All the way home, as she struggled up the rocky path—next time, she would take his advice about shoes, at least—she turned these treasures over in her mind, fondling them and storing them against the future.