Three Days of Happiness

173
Miyagi said “I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re saying” and
turned away.
I sat in the opposite corner of the room in the same knees-up
position as her. It made Miyagi smile a little.
“You can feign ignorance, that works,” I said. “But I just want to say
thanks.”
Miyagi shook her head. “It’s all right. If I kept this job up, I’d surely
die before I paid the debt, just like my mother. Even if I were to pay
it and was free, I’m not promised a good life afterward. So I decided
it would be better to use the money this way.”
“So how much am I worth, really?”, I asked.
There was a pause.
“...Thirty yen,” Miyagi whispered.
“A three-minute phone call,” I laughed. “Sorry for using your
300,000 yen like that.”
“Indeed. I do wish you would have used it more for yourself.”
Miyagi’s wording felt angry, but her voice was gentle.
“...But I certainly understand how you feel, Mr. Kusunoki. Perhaps
the reason I gave you that 300,000 yen and the reason you
distributed it out to strangers are the same, at their core. I felt
lonely, sad, hollow, and desperate. So I went and did something
unreasonably altruistic. ...Though, thinking about it, if I hadn’t lied
about it being worth 300,000 yen and told the truth, perhaps you
wouldn’t have sold it. Then at least you would have been able to life