A Tale For The Time Being

The narrator explains that “in medieval Japan, people used to believe that earthquakes were caused by an angry catfish that lived under the islands” (197). Although the catfish is mainly known for wreaking havoc on the earth, it was also thought to have benevolent qualities, such as having the capacity to “heal the political and economic corruption in society by shaking things up” (198). The narrator goes on to state that the association between earthquakes and catfish has persisted into modern times. For instance, Ruth sees that in the Yure Kuru weather app, the warning icon for earthquakes is “a cartoon catfish with a goofy smile and two lightning bolts coming out of his head” (199). Ruth shows Oliver the app while they are eating their dinner of clam-and-oyster chowder. Oliver states that Japan is moving closer to Canada because “the release of subduction” during the earthquake “caused the landmass near the epicenter to jump about thirteen feet in our direction” (202). He also explains that the earthquake “caused the planet’s mass to shift closer to the core, which made the earth spin faster” (202), and as a result, days are slightly shorter now. Ruth is surprised to hear about these changes in time and space between her world and Nao’s.

During her summer with Jiko, Nao feels herself becoming stronger in body and mind. Jiko helps her develop her “superpower” by teaching her to sit zazen for hours at a time and encouraging her not to kill anything, even flies. Jiko also encourages her to get a lot of exercise to ward off “troublesome thoughts” (204) and help her sleep. Every day, she runs up and down the steps on the mountain after morning prayers and zazen and before breakfast. In August, it comes time for Obon, a Buddhist holiday when the spirits of the dead come to visit the living. The night before Obon, Nao can’t sleep and leaves her bed to go walk around. As she is walking around the temple, she thinks she sees her dad. When she realizes it is a ghost, she thinks that her father must have killed himself. After asking him if he recognizes her, Nao sees that the ghost is much younger than her father. She realizes that it must be the ghost of her father’s namesake, her great-uncle Haruki Yasutani #1. When she asks, he confirms that he is Haruki Yasutani, Jiko’s son. Nao doesn’t know what to say, but since she knows that her great-uncle liked French poetry, she begins to sing the refrain from a French pop song. As she is singing, he disappears.

After breakfast the next morning, Nao sneaks into Jiko’s study and goes to look at the picture of her great-uncle Haruki. As she is holding the picture frame, the frame falls apart, and Nao discovers a letter hidden inside. She puts the picture frame back together but takes the letter. Later, she reads the letter and discovers that it is the last letter Haruki wrote to his mother before he flew to his death in World War II. He writes that he is proud that he will soon die for his country and tells her he is sending her his watch and a “copy of the Shōbōgenzō, which has been my constant companion these last few months” (217). 

Ruth goes to see Benoit LeBec at his house. He asks her if she would like him to translate the French composition book, which he has learned about from Dora the postmistress. He asks her if he can keep the notebook so that he can make a complete translation for her. Ruth agrees, somewhat reluctantly. Before she leaves, Benoit points out that the composition book and the letters written in Japanese were written with the same pen and the same hand. He says to her: “I believe these were all written by your sky soldier” (224). After Ruth tells Oliver about her visit with Benoit, Oliver says that he thinks Haruki #1 may have written in French so no one in his squadron could read it.

Ruth checks her email and is frustrated that she still has not received a reply from the Stanford professor. She tells Oliver that she feels as if she is going crazy trying to track down Nao and her family. She feels as if her dreams about the nun Jiko are premonitions, and the sudden appearance of the freezer bag and the Jungle Crow seem uncanny. Oliver, who has been looking at his phone while Ruth is talking, tells her that a researcher named H. Yasudani just showed up in his newsfeed in connection with a new article “about a recent development in the construction of qubits for quantum computing” (231). Ruth is eager to investigate whether the researcher might be Nao’s father. Oliver then suggests that they go to the city of Campbell River to eat at their favorite sushi restaurant; while they are there, they can ask the Japanese couple who own the restaurant, Akira and Kimi, to translate the letters from Japanese. The next day, they go to the restaurant, and Kimi agrees to look at the letters. She writes out a translation of the letters before Ruth and Oliver leave.