ff its track. Satsu tugged it open, and with difficulty managed to shut it behind us. We 
were standing in a tiny tatami room with only one window, covered by a paper screen. The 
light from outdoors was enough for me to see Satsu's form, but nothing of her features. 

"Oh, Chiyo," she said, and then she reached up to scratch her face. Or at least, I thought she 
was scratching her face, for I couldn't see well. It took me a moment to understand she was 
crying. After this I could do nothing to hold back my own tears. 

"I'm so sorry, Satsu!" I told her. "It's all my fault." Somehow or other we stumbled toward 
each other in the dark until we were hugging. I found that all I could think about was how 
bony she'd grown. She stroked my hair in a way that made me think of my mother, which 
caused my eyes to well up so much I might as well have been underwater. 

"Quiet, Chiyo-chan," she whispered to me. With her face so close to mine, her breath had a 
pungent odor when she spoke. "I'll get a beating if the mistress finds out you were here. Why 
did it take you so long!" 

"Oh, Satsu, I'm so sorry! I know you came to my okiya . . ." 

"Months ago." 

"The woman you spoke with there is a monster. She wouldn't give me the message for the 
longest time." 

"I have to run away, Chiyo. I can't stay here in this place any longer." 

"I'll come with you!" 

"I have a train schedule hidden under the tatami mats upstairs. I've been stealing money 
whenever I can. I have enough to pay off Mrs. Kishino. She gets beaten whenever a girl 
escapes. She won't let me go unless I pay her first." 

"Mrs. Kishino . . . who is she?" 

"The old lady at the front door. She's going away. I don't know who will take her place. I can't 
wait any longer! This is a horrible spot. Never end up anywhere like this, Chiyo! You'd better 
go now. The mistress may be here at any moment." 

"But wait. When do we run away?" 

"Wait in the corner there, and don't say a word. I have to go upstairs." 

I did as she told me. While she was gone I heard the old woman at the front door greet a 
man, and then his heavy footsteps ascended the stairs over my head. Soon someone came 
down again hurriedly, and the door slid open. I felt panicked for a moment, but it was only 
Satsu, looking very pale. 

"Tuesday. We'll run away Tuesday late at night, five days from now. I have to go upstairs, 
Chiyo. A man has come for me." 

"But wait, Satsu. Where will we meet? What time?" 

"I don't know . . . one in the morning. But I don't know where." 


I suggested we meet near the Minamiza Theater, but Satsu thought it would be too easy for 
people to find us. We agreed to meet at a spot exactly across the river from it. 

"I have to go now," she said. 

"But, Satsu . . . what if I can't get away? Or what if we don't meet up?" 

"Just be there, Chiyo! I'll only have one chance. I've waited as long as I can. You have to go 
now before the mistress comes back. If she catches you here, I may never be able to run 
away." 

There were so many things I wanted to say to her, but she took me out into the hallway and 
wrenched the door shut behind us. I would have watched her go up the stairs, but in a 
moment the old woman from the doorway had taken me by the arm and pulled me out into 
the darkness of the street. 

I ran back from Miyagawa-cho and was relieved to find the okiya as quiet as I'd left it. I crept 
inside and knelt in the dim light of the entrance hall, dabbing the sweat from my forehead and 
neck with the sleeve of my robe and trying to catch my breath. I was just beginning to settle 
down, now that I'd succeeded in not getting caught. But then I looked at the door to the 
maids' room and saw that it stood open a bit, just wide enough to reach an arm through, and 
I felt myself go cold. No one ever left it that way. Except in hot weather it was usually closed 
all the way. Now as I watched it, I felt certain I heard a rustling sound from within. I hoped it 
was a rat; because if it wasn't a rat, it was Hatsumomo and her boyfriend again. I began to 
wish I hadn't gone to Miyagawa-cho. I wished it so hard that if such a thing had been 
possible, I think time itself would have begun to run backward just from the force of all my 
wishing. I got to my feet and crept down onto the dirt corridor, feeling dizzy from worry, and 
with my throat as dry as a patch of dusty ground. When I reached the door of the maids' 
room, I brought my eye to the crack to peer inside. I couldn't see well. Because of the damp 
weather, Yoko had lit charcoal earlier that evening in the brazier set into the floor; only a faint 
glow remained, and in that dim light, something small and pale was squirming. I almost let 
out a scream when I saw it, because I was sure it was a rat, with its head bobbing around as 
it chewed at something. To my horror I could even hear the moist, smacking sounds of its 
mouth. It seemed to be standing up on top of something, I couldn't tell what. Stretching out 
toward me were two bundles of what I thought were probably rolled-up fabric, which gave me 
the impression it had chewed its way up between them, spreading them apart as it went. It 
was eating something Yoko must have left there in the room. I was just about to shut the 
door, for I was frightened it might run out into the corridor with me, when I heard a woman's 
moan. Then suddenly from beyond where the rat was chewing, a head raised up and 
Hatsumomo was looking straight at me. I jumped back from the door. What I'd thought were 
bundles of rolled-up fabric were her legs. And the rat wasn't a rat at all. It was her boyfriend's 
pale hand protruding from his sleeve. 

"What is it?" I heard her boyfriend's voice say. "Is someone there?" 

"It's nothing," Hatsumomo whispered. 

"Someone's there." 

"No, it's no one at all," she said. "I thought I heard something, but it's no one." 

There was no question in my mind Hatsumomo had seen me. But she apparently didn't want 
her boyfriend to know. I hurried back to kneel in the hallway, feeling as shaken as if I'd 
almost been run over by a trolley. I heard groans and noises coming from the maids' room for 


some time, and then they stopped. When Hatsumomo and her boyfriend finally stepped out 
into the corridor, her boyfriend looked right at me. 

"That girl's in the front hall," he said. "She wasn't there when I came in." 

"Oh, don't pay her any attention. She was a bad girl tonight and went out of the okiya when 
she wasn't supposed to. I'll deal with her later." 

"So there was someone spying on us. Why did you lie to me?" "Koichi-san," she said, "you're 
in such a bad mood tonight!" "You aren't the least surprised to see her. You knew she was 
there 
all along." 

Hatsumomo's boyfriend came striding up to the front entrance hall and stopped to glower at 
me before stepping down into the entry-way. I kept my eyes to the floor, but I could feel 
myself blush a brilliant red. Hatsumomo rushed past me to help him with his shoes. I heard 
her speak to him as I'd never heard her speak to anyone before, in a pleading, almost 
whining voice. 

"Koichi-san, please," she said, "calm down. I don't know what's gotten into you tonight! Come 
again tomorrow . . ." 

"I don't want to see you tomorrow." 

"I hate when you make me wait so long. I'll meet you anywhere you say, on the bottom of the 
riverbed, even." 

"I don't have anywhere to meet you. My wife watches over me too much as it is." 

"Then come back here. We have the maids' room-" 

"Yes, if you like sneaking around and being spied on! Just let me go, Hatsumomo. I want to 
get home." 

"Please don't be angry with me, Koichi-san. I don't know why you get this way! Tell me you'll 
come back, even if it isn't tomorrow." 

"One day I won't come back," he said. "I've told you that all along." 

I heard the outside door roll open, and then it closed again; after a time Hatsumomo came 
back into the front entrance hall and stood peering down the corridor at nothing. Finally she 
turned to me and wiped the moisture from her eyes. 

"Well, little Chiyo," she said. "You went to visit that ugly sister of yours, didn't you?" 

"Please, Hatsumomo-san," I said. 

"And then you came back here to spy on me!" Hatsumomo said this so loudly, she woke one 
of the elderly maids, who propped herself on her elbow to look at us. Hatsumomo shouted at 
her, "Go back to sleep, you stupid old woman!" and the maid shook her head and lay back 
down again. 

"Hatsumomo-san, I'll do whatever you want me to do," I said. "I don't want to get in trouble 
with Mother." 


"Of course you'll do whatever I want you to do. That isn't even a subject for discussion! And 
you're already in trouble." 

"I had to go out to deliver your shamisen." 

"That was more than an hour ago. You went to find your sister, and you made plans to run 
away with her. Do you think I'm stupid? And then you came back here to spy on me!" 

"Please forgive me," I said. "I didn't know it was you there! I thought it was-" 

I wanted to tell her I'd thought I'd seen a rat, but I didn't think she'd take it kindly. 

She peered at me for a time and then went upstairs to her room. When she came back 
down, she was holding something in her fist. 

"You want to run away with your sister, don't you?" she said. "I think that's a fine idea. The 
sooner you're out of the okiya, the better for me. Some people think I don't have a heart, but 
it isn't true. It's touching to imagine you and that fat cow going off to try to make a living 
someplace, all alone in the world! The sooner you're out of here, the better for me. Stand up." 

I stood, though I was afraid of what she was going to do to me. Whatever she was holding in 
her fist she wanted to tuck beneath the sash of my robe; but when she stepped