Where the Dead Pause, and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey (84 page)

The public bath was traditional: one left one’s shoes in a locker by the entrance, then went into the women’s changing room to disrobe and to bathe. It was the first bath Sut
had had for a week. When she was done, she dressed and then went back out to the entrance of the spa to exchange her slippers for the shoes she had put in the locker. It was still winter, and Sut
had been wearing a pair of stylish black booties. As she slipped her foot into the shoe, she felt something strange: something was inside the shoe. She pulled out her foot and then inspected the boot. Inside was a round, white flower.

Sut
took the flower and held it in her hand. It was in perfect
condition and had not been squashed, which ruled out the possibility that she had spent the day walking around with a flower in her shoe and hadn’t noticed. The locker door had been shut tight with a key—only Sut
had had the key. How, then, did a flower get into her shoe? It was a puzzle, and though certainly strange, it was not at all the most pressing matter on her mind. After showing the flower to her friend, Sut
eventually threw it away in a garbage bin and went on her way.

About a week later, Sut
received the call she had been dreading. Her father’s body had been found. No one knew why he had been swallowed by the tsunami; all of his coworkers had made it to dry land. Perhaps, someone postulated, he had tried to help someone stranded in their home? Whatever the reason, Sut
returned to Kesennuma for her father’s funeral.

The body was returned to the family in a casket. Sut
and her mother and sister spent a fitful night of sleep, with both Sut
’s mother and sister claiming to have received visitations from their father. Hearing this, Sut
felt a little bit left out; she alone had not been visited by her father’s ghost.

Family members arrived at the house. Soon Sut
’s father would be transported to the crematorium, the ash collected and the bones picked off of the metal gurney, and then the remains would be buried. Before all this, everyone was to see his face one more time. Sut
’s grandfather offered to go first. He lifted the upper lid of the casket, so just the face of the body was visible. Then it was Sut
’s turn.