As if a Boat Glides Over the Water

Nori Nakagami

Yuri’s legs are slender and covered by white skin, which can draw people in. People could easily imagine them by her willowy calf peeking out of the hem. The men of the village, who have not slept with her, gaze at her as they feel insecure. Teru was one of them. He has not been intimate with her, but he pulled her small face and kissed her on the lips when they were playing at the masonry of terraced fields. It felt like an orange section. As he freed her lips, Yuri smiled slightly at him from the corner of her mouth. Her florid lips became wet and glossed.

Yuri lives in a house with her aunt and her children. The house is built on top of a field. Though she had just turned seventeen, she had already known some men on intimate terms. An inexperienced youth like Teru couldn’t figure out whether she had already been involved with anyone.

Yuri said her parents passed away when she was an infant. Her Aunt had raised her but rarely spoke about her parents. While her grandmother was still alive, she told Yuri about her mother’s childhood. However, her aunt often went silent as the conversation turned to Yuri’s mother as if the topic was taboo. Yuri complained that her aunt got mad easily. When Yuri returned home late at night, she was sometimes beaten with a broom. Her aunt often said to threaten Yuri by saying an ogre was coming to eat her.

In this region, surrounded by a deep forest, there are many stories about a terrifying ogre. Sobbing kids suddenly stop crying when people mention that the ogre is coming. Indeed, it was a different kind of world in the mountains. It is dark and quiet, even during the daytime. This made it easy for people to imagine supernatural animals living within—long-nosed goblins, evil river and mountain sprites, mythical water-dwelling creatures, nymphs, and dragons. If people ever made their way into the mountains, they made sure to behave discreetly in order to keep the gods calm. People would have a festival and provide offerings. The people lived with the mountain. They maintained their respect and showed courtesy. Ogres and long-nose goblins emerged from that awe of nature.

However, the rumor whispered in secret within the village for a long time is not a mythical story but a real one. There was a foreigner who lived near the bay. They had golden hair and eyes the color of the ocean. They never showed their figure usually, but sometimes were seen stealing some crops. No one knows where their village is. A couple of years ago, a girl went missing in this village. Men investigated her towards the ocean, but no one returned, including the girl. People were whispering those were the acts of the ‘others.’

Yuri was interested in the ethnic others. “I want to see golden hair and eyes the color of the ocean,” she said, beaming at Teru provocatively. It was as if she was saying I am not interested in a youngster like you, but it is fine to do things with one of the ethnic others.

The village has free-spirited nature of sexual relationships. It was not unusual for men and women to have relationships before marriage. Also, women often have a baby without marriage. Yuri said that her aunt had a lot of relationships with many lovers back then.

Yuri’s family was not wealthy, but they lent rice fields and other crops left to them by their ancestors. Yuri had a lot of free time between looking after her Aunt’s children while the aunt was sowing and doing her clearance job for the village’s mayor. Yuri’s aunt was still very young. Men who had been declared as a child’s father often visited the house with rice and vegetables. With sweat dripping from their foreheads, they did not have to work hard but could live comfortably. So, it looked like a peaceful life. Though recently Yuri had not been hiding her irritation and had started to remark, “Ah, the men of this village and this village itself is not interesting at all. I’m bored.”

Yuri revealed her honest emotions in front of Teru for some reason. When he thought he was special, it made him happy. But he also felt she thought of him as timid and that he accepted anything and everything she said. He was disappointed in himself when he realized the ‘men of the village’ included himself.

However, most of the village men are loutish and simple. They couldn’t tell amusing stories. Moreover, there is a detached struggle in life in the village. Mountains continue, and fields of rice and other crops open like stairs on a sharp slope of the beautiful land. From the dike of a terraced field, between trees of mountains, the shimmering ocean always be seen. However, that’s all they have. Teru noticed Yuri was also looking for something new but couldn’t offer anything. That day, again, Teru gave Yuri a hearing. What is even worse, there was no way but to listen.

This story began a month ago when Yuri was asked to go on an errand to the port to order fish for a celebration meal at the village mayor’s house. When Yuri was getting ready and about to leave, her aunt told her to come back home and remind her to make sure, especially that “you should not go beyond the rocky stretch.”

Walking slowly takes an hour to get down to the mountain’s port. A fisherman acquaintance of the village mayor was easily found at the harbor market. He said he would send fish to the village; that was her job. Even though her aunt told her to return home, Yuri thought she still wanted to see the deep blue ocean. Clear morning sunshine still reminded her of the harbor. Many small fishing boats are anchored.

Seaweeds floated on the water’s edge and gave off a wistful sense of ocean smell. The seabed could smell like this, she wondered. She strolled between customers who weighed and fishermen who were rivaling shouting to draw more customers in front of ocean-fresh fish from the ocean. The market is not so big but has a fizz with life because many people come to purchase fish from other places. Even though it is not so far from the village, it is not a frequent sight to visit if people do not have any errands. Hence, different from the mountains, everything was fresh for her.

Past the harbor was a sandy beach. Yuri kept walking because she saw a young fisherman at the market. The tall man had reddish brown skin and stood out. Most of all, he sent a meaningful look toward Yuri, though being stared at by the village men was nothing new for Yuri as she had gotten used to it. Unacceptable men had given her an obscene expression, but Yuri did not deal with such men. However, the fisherman’s gaze was gentle. As soon as the fisherman caught Yuri’s eyes, he turned around and started to walk. Just a little, she thought, and she followed after him. He passed the beach and headed off toward the rocky stretch.

The rocky area had small tide pools. There were many rainbow-colored small fish. Yuri walked on the rocks, careful not to fall over. Once over the remarkable huge rocks, a small beach was there. It was lined with houses. It seemed she had walked into a settlement.

Like the previous harbor, there were lots of boats laden with fish. All men pulling in the ropes vaguely resembled the fisherman – uniformly tall and long- limbed. Women collecting fish on the sand have different features from the women of Yuri’s village and the harbor. They all have long limbs and sculpted features. Above all, their skin was porcelain-white. Anyhow, all of the people’s appearance was similar. In a flash of sudden insight, Yuri remembered those people were assembling for someone. And she realized that she saw a face in deep green water reflected her face. If the vision that floated in the water was Yuri herself, they resembled her.

There was another rocky area beyond the beach. Those rocks felt smooth, like a calcareous cave. She finally caught up to the fisherman and asked, “Why do you and your people look like me?” He replied that that was his line, and then he put his arm towards her waist and undid her sash as if to make sure of her figure. While his delicate fingers touched her, her heart was filled with uncomprehending affection. The fisherman had soft skin. As Yuri’s skin met his, their skin blended seamlessly together as if it used to be one by nature. This may be love. At least, she thought so during the actions. Afterward, she fell asleep, and the moon was already out as she awoke.

She searched for him, but he wasn’t there. Only rocks lit by the moon and shining as if wet. In the moment of absentmindedness, she noticed someone. Yuri thought the fisherman had returned, so she gathered herself and looked around. Someone was standing between the rocks gazing at her. She stared back and realized the person’s figure was much more prominent than the fisherman’s. The man had long hair and a beard. They looked gold in the light of the moon. As she sat there shocked, the man disappeared back towards the rocks.

Yuri confessed to Teru that she wasn’t sure whether it was a dream or real. After the event, she couldn’t see the fisherman, and returned to the village. She had been thinking about what happened at the beach for several days. She felt an emotion that she wanted to see him again, though it was not easy to get the opportunity to return there again. That night, her aunt scolded her because she came back very late. After a short while, the village mayor came to her house. The mayor told her that there was a war around the shoreside. The army of the capital had conquered the ethnic race that had threatened this area. The war had finished, but people were still not allowed to return to the place. He told her that people have to be careful in the mountain because the ethnic others who had escaped the war were thought to be in there foraging for food. The news also reached Teru’s house. Teru combined the stories from the mayor and Yuri and spoke of the big person to Yuri, saying that it was one of the ethnic people, but Yuri disagreed. “I don’t think so because I wasn’t scared at all.” She said I concerned the fisherman more than the ethnic others, and she continued to talk.

A month had passed since she had been to the settlement by the beach. Yuri was anxious. Her period hadn’t come yet. She could be pregnant, and she felt in her bones that the father was the man from the shore. She grabbed her sandals and left the house. She felt sick in the middle of one of the terrace rice fields and had to squat down. Teru spoke to her at that time.

After he had heard the entire story from Yuri, Teru mumbled, ‘What are you going to do.’ Yuri stood up and leaned onto a rocky fence while making a sulky face. ‘We should be together. It is my child,’ Teru said. As he said, he was assuming. He had sex with Yuri many times in his head, which must have made Yuri pregnant, he thought. Moreover, I know Yuri better than anyone. However, the next moment she shoved him away, screamed, “Don’t say stupid things like this,” and ran away.

Yuri told the subsequent story at a later date. As Yuri pushed past Teru and ran away, she headed straight to the ocean. She passed the harbor and walked the beach through to the rocky area. She finally arrived at the beach where the settlement was. However, the man wasn’t there. No one was there. I was dumped, Yuri thought. She didn’t go back to the village, instead wandering to the mountain. Although she was accustomed to walking in the mountain, she was trapped on the root of a tree and fell, as she was caught lost in thought. As she got up from the ground, she wiped a tear as she thought that even the mountain god had abandoned her. Suddenly, someone appeared from behind some bushes. A big man with long faded hair and a beard said, “Are you alright? However, the voice didn’t come through from the ears but directly reached her heart, something like music.

She recognized him. She was sure the man had looked at her on the rocky area where she had met the fisherman. He slowly moved towards her and gave her something akin to medicine wrapped in a leaf. It smelled like grass. As Yuri hesitated, he put the medicine on her bleeding knee. As he did so, he mumbled words Yuri didn’t understand. However, the words shaped in her mind, and she heard go back home. She couldn’t recognize it when she saw him in the rocky area, but he seemed much older. More importantly, he had red skin, and his eyes were the color of the ocean. “Who are you?” Yuri asked. He did not reply but lowered his eyes.

When Yuri arrived home, her aunt was waiting. She pulled up her kimono and held a broom as if to beat Yuri. ‘You didn’t go to the ocean, did you?’ She asked. Yuri intentionally snorted an obstinate attitude and replied, “I went to both the ocean and the mountain, so what.” Contrary to her expectations, the aunt asked, “You didn’t go to the village by the beach, did you?” “The village beyond the rocky area?” She replied. “There was no one there.” Her aunt’s expression changed. “This is the last thing I wanted,” she said. “You did go to the village.” Yuri asked, “Why are you focused on the village by the beach?” As soon as the question was finished, Yuri felt the nausea return and put her hand over her mouth. The aunt gave her a penetrating state and asked her who she had slept with. “A man from the village by the beach, but he dumped me,” Yuri replied desperately. “What did you say?” asked the aunt with a rising voice. Yuri’s young niece was woken by the noise and started to get fussy in the next room. “So what? It will just be another baby,” Yuri said.

Yuri said, expecting to get yelled at again, but the reply from the aunt was calm. “I am not worried about having a baby. I am saying you can’t have a relationship with men of the beach”. She breathed a long sigh and then started to tell a story. The story was about the aunt’s sister, Yuri’s mother.

Her elder sister had run off with a man. At least their parents had thought so. However, her little sister knew the truth. The man was a person who the elder sister was forbidden to love.

The elder sister left but returned in about six months. In time the elder sister gave birth to a girl. The girl was Yuri. After the birth, the elder sister was faring poorly, and eventually died. However, a man from the village by the beach had come to claim Yuri. He was obviously of another ethnicity. According to the man, they were the descendants of sea people, and they came from a distant country. Her parents had refused to give Yuri to him. ‘We can’t hand Yuri over to an ethnic ‘other,’ the parents said later, but the aunt thought about it secretly. No. The one I saw was neither a different race nor a human being.

The aunt was just a little girl, and she followed her elder sister to see who her lover was. She went through a village by a beach and passed the rocky area. She made a place that looked like a cave with wet and glistening. There were menfolk who had red skin, and they had horns on their head. They were dancing. They were singing enigmatic songs. She saw the scene of the story that had been handed down for generations in her village. She was shocked and escaped. Her elder sister never returned since that night until she was pregnant with Yuri.

“How ridiculous,” Yuri laughed. ‘I don’t know about ogres, but I saw people who look like the ethnic others. If your story is true, that man could be my father.’

The aunt slapped her face. Yuri fell over on the dirty floor and felt warm blood pass between her legs.

Years have rolled by. Yuri was on a boat towards Ise. A man in his middle age said he was born and grew up in Ise. He seems to be on the way back home from his business. He was a chatterer, and he told Yuri that she must be from around here and so on as soon as she sat down. As Yuri nodded his question, the middle-aged man asked whether she knew about the story of ogre extermination. As she said she didn’t know about it, the man opened up the story though she didn’t ask. “A few years ago, there was a castle of ogres around here. It seems a shogun called Tamuramaro was sent by an emperor to cut off the head of the ogre chief, Tagamaru. You know what, a nymph emerged, and she supported him…” Yuri said, ‘uh-huh,’ and nodded indifferently. The middle-aged man fell into a dozen as he paddled out. Ogre, Yuri thought. She saw the face of Teru sitting opposite side of her. His face had something in mind to say, but Yuri held his hand as if she interrupted him.

That night she heard aunt’s story, Yuri bled and visited a village midwife. She thought of losing her baby through a miscarriage, but that was not the outcome. The midwife laughed and said Yuri just underwent menstruation. Also, she said you better find a suitable husband soon. As Yuri was relieved, the face of Teru came to mind. She went to his house and said I could be your wife, while Teru stood there open-mouthed.

The boat was gliding along the surface of the glittering ocean. No one knew where the people of the village by the beach and the fisherman Yuri had fallen in love with had gone. Even no one knew whether the people who Yuri, Yuri’s aunt, and Yuri’s mother were involved were actually ogres or the other ethnic group. Nevertheless, Teru thought it was good for us. He and Yuri, who has become his wife, left the village to move to another place. They don’t know about the coming future or what will lie ahead. Everything floats along the flow of time as if a boat glides over the water.