Miscellany (cont’d)
A Scar on the Forehead
Okiku’s first scream alarmed neighbouring caves. Noticing this, Shinsuke was already in a panic—as soon as he attacked Maple he escaped through the back door and ran away into the cloud and haze without looking back. Even the bento he had Takiji keep for him did not bother him anymore; Shinsuke kept walking until he reached Cranbrook on the third day, and then crossed the border to finally escape to Spokane.
As a result, Okiku never received justice for her injury. Shinsuke was not even brought to the court and Okiku could do nothing but simply accept it. The core members of the pimp meeting in Fernie, which I mentioned earlier, included Old Kishida in Blairmore and Nagata. In addition, one of the attendees also let Shinsuke borrow his dagger.
Segawa is Okiku’s brother by blood and lives in Yanai in Yamaguchi Prefecture. This man was carrying a prostitute with him, who is his wife’s sister. Apparently, she had a child with a Chinese and sold this child at fifty dollars to a Chinese laundry store in Fernie. How terrible. How could she sell the child she bore to Chinese? She cannot possibly be a human. Commonsense does not give us an answer. She is a thing, a disgrace to human beings.
On the night Okiku was injured, a Japanese man, who could not have even dreamt of the incident, sneaked into her house only to be caught by heaven’s net and pulled to the police. He ended up eating smelly bread for the following six months. Foolish disaster.
Chatarō’s prostitute Memmy was living off Yatarō Shimizu until the end of her pregnancy. When her time came, she gave birth to a girl. However, she decided that the baby was a burden and nothing more than an obstacle. Hearing from someone that there is a Chinese in Cranbrook who wants to buy a child, she was delighted and travelled to Cranbrook with Takiji Kawano. However, the Chinese saw the child and told her that he was not going to take the child even if he was paid. Apparently, he did not like the child’s red hair. No wig for a child; they simply wasted their train fees and returned. Another silly story.