Moving Day
“What…?”
I stood there at a complete loss, frozen in an awkward half-crouch, while the Mother Superior urged me to take the bag and go inside already.
I had always known that the offerings, after covering the cathedral’s upkeep, went to places that needed a helping hand. Was it really all right to just hand something like this over to a private individual?
“Ah.”
The thought that I had misunderstood made my face flush slightly. Of course she was only lending it to me. She must have set it aside temporarily from the incoming offerings under her own discretion as Mother Superior.
I couldn’t have been more grateful. In that case, I simply must not disappoint her.
With a thankful heart I gathered up the bag and shut the back door behind me.
“Thank you so much. Could you tell me the deadline—when I should repay this?”
“You don’t have to repay it.”
The concise answer left me flustered all over again.
“But, Sister… how can I just… Ah, perhaps… um, that I’m someone who needs a helping hand… well, I do need one, but…”
Things were tight right now, sure, but I wasn’t exactly an underprivileged neighbor… was I?
Watching me flounder, Sister Eloise allowed herself a rare, brief smile.
“If the group home weren’t under reconstruction, this money would originally have been used for Luca.”
“……”
That… was true, wasn’t it? The group home ran on offerings and donations.
“Naturally I never intended to dump every responsibility on you from the start.”
Please don’t lie…
“But for nearly two months you never once called me, and you took such good care of the child. That was why I decided it was all right to give you this money. If I’d handed it over from the beginning, a person might have changed, after all.”
I stood quietly for a moment, letting it all sink in, then smiled faintly. Warmth spread through me as if I had just drunk a cup of hot chocolate.
“Even if someone had, you would have marched over with a shotgun, wouldn’t you, Sister?”
She laughed at my joke and added one more line.
“You think I would have gone myself? I would have sent the children who would lead them to the Lord.”
“……”
How much of that was a joke, exactly?
I saw her off until her car disappeared from sight, then did my best not to glance around suspiciously as I pushed the stroller into the house as naturally as I could.
Riding the elevator up, I felt the considerable weight of the bag slung over my shoulder.
“……”
A flood of emotions washed over me.
I had no idea how much was inside, but the sheer relief of knowing I wouldn’t have to worry about money for the time being was enormous. It felt as if a heavy weight that had been pressing on my chest had finally been lifted.
And whatever the amount, it should at least be enough for me to use the full length of my parental leave without rushing back to work right away, shouldn’t it?
From the brief glimpse earlier, the bills were a jumbled mix of coins, small notes, and large ones, as if someone had upended a collection box and shaken it out completely…
I shook my head vigorously to drive away the strange image that had just flashed through my mind, hurried inside, locked the door securely, and drew the living-room curtains.
After putting Luca down for a nap, I settled on the floor with a faintly trembling heart and unzipped the bag.
“……”
Even though that wasn’t the case at all, it somehow felt as if I had just robbed a big-box store.
I laughed hollowly and began sorting the money.
I would have bet anything that Sister Eloise had never counted it. Even if I had asked her how much was in there, she would simply have answered that she didn’t know.
She might even have said, The Lord always provides enough.
The next day.
When I opened my eyes in the morning I simply lay still for a while.
Good heavens. Once a person no longer has anything to worry about, body and mind become this light.
I smiled faintly, rested a hand on my chest that felt as soft and weightless as cotton candy, then got up, checked on the still-sleeping baby, and looked at the weather.
The day was perfect.
I had already separated the money I would keep at home from the money I would deposit at the bank, so after stopping by the bank it would be nice to drop by the new house and measure the rooms. The final payment could be made on move-in day; I already had the keys, so it was possible.
After gauging the time for a moment, I sent a text to Greg.
I called Greg over to the new house.
“What the hell is this place?”
Greg’s eyes went round as he looked around the empty house.
“I signed a lease. Moving in on the fourteenth.”
“……”
Greg stared at me without a word.
We both knew each other’s salary situation perfectly well, and he also knew I was an orphan with no one to rely on.
“I’m not a crazy person. I did do a crazy thing, though.”
When I squared my shoulders and said it with confidence, Greg spoke carefully.
“…At least you recognize it was crazy, so that’s a relief. Man, I’m too scared to even ask how much this place costs.”
“Seventeen-fifty a month including utilities.”
“You crazy bastard!”
We moved to a café.
Taking a big bite of the sickly-sweet walnut pie, Greg stared at me the way people stare at monkeys in a zoo.
“Stop staring like that. You’ll wear my face out.”
“…You look like you’ve completely lost your mind. You seriously have no plan right now.”
“…I’ve got a rough one. Roughly.”
“Mind explaining? I’d like to learn so I can live somewhere like that too.”
“Mmm… sorry, but you probably couldn’t.”
Greg set his fork down with a sharp clink.
“If even you can pull it off, I’ll cheer for you! What are you actually going to do?”
I fudged an answer.
“Well, I can hold out for a few months at least. The landlord felt bad about kicking me out and gave me some compensation. I’m planning to find a way within that time.”
Fortunately Greg seemed to buy it.
“And if you don’t come up with a brilliant idea in those few months?”
“…I’ll find one. Still, I’d rather hear other people’s opinions than worry alone, so I called you.”
“Man, seriously… you’ve got a kid now…”
His voice trailed off, then he suddenly sat up straighter as if something had clicked.
“No, wait. It’s because you’ve got a kid that this happened. That soft little fluffball has completely bewitched you.”
Greg looked me up and down as if seeing me for the first time.
“…And isn’t that a designer brand? The ones that go for four hundred bucks a piece, with the logo right there—isn’t that it?”
He pointed at my cardigan with an incredulous look.
“Four hundred? Wow, that’s actually expensive.”
My soulless reply made Greg’s expression turn strange.
“…You. Don’t tell me.”
“Huh? Don’t tell you what?”
“Did some rich older lady suddenly appear in your life?”
“It’s nothing like that.”
After a few more pointless jokes we settled into more realistic brainstorming.
“Getting a roommate is probably the most realistic option.”
His head must have been spinning quite a bit already; Greg ordered a second coffee from the barista as he spoke.
“It’s not like I never considered it.”
If it were just me, fine, but living with a complete stranger while I had a baby made me a little wary.
And the fact that, under the influence of my buff, I could whip things up in a flash might look pretty bizarre to someone else—that was another reason.
“Because of the kid, right?”
“Yeah. And… this and that. People who live in that neighborhood probably have a completely different lifestyle. It might get awkward.”
“True enough. The kind who throw home parties whenever they feel like networking or whatever. That’s why Rachel’s always…”
“Rachel? You mean Manager Rachel?”
Why was her name coming up here?
“Ah—no… cough!”
The flustered guy gulped down his freshly poured hot coffee and immediately spat it back out.
“…Don’t tell me you’re the one who got a rich older lady.”
“……”
“And your boss at that…?”
When I asked in disbelief, Greg gave an embarrassed laugh.
No way, for real?
“Hey, your eyes are going to pop out. …Yeah, well. That’s how it happened.”
How? Getting called in and chewed out for not working hard enough used to be a regular part of his day.
Rachel had already been a capable manager in her early thirties when we joined the company.
And someone like her… well, love knows no borders, but still…
My thoughts must have been written all over my face without me saying a word, because Greg simply sipped his coffee again in silence.
After a short pause we both spoke at the same time.
“Well, congratulations anyway. If you’d had a girlfriend last Christmas…”
“I know Rachel and I don’t match… huh?”
He clearly hadn’t expected congratulations; Greg’s eyes went round.
“…If you’d had a girlfriend, you’d have been singing that song, and now you’ll be happy starting from the new year. I was a little surprised, but it’s not that big a deal.”
I continued.
“And humanly speaking, you’re a really decent guy.”
Ever since I brought Luca home from the group home, he had quietly helped me out here and there.
“You seem lighthearted but you’re never frivolous. When a coworker needs help, you just step in without making a fuss.”
“…Okay, okay, stop.”
Greg shuddered as if goosebumps were rising all over him.
“But still, that’s pretty impressive. No signs at all for so long, and then suddenly?”
“Ah, well… at the end of the year I went out with some friends…”
He had run into Manager Rachel by chance at a club, they’d drunk together, and one thing led to another.
“…And yet you still ended up dating. Man, when it’s meant to be, anything works, I guess.”
I tossed out a joke, trying hard to hide how dumbfounded I felt.
“I know it’s ridiculous. Rachel thought so too… but still.”
Greg smiled brightly and went on.
“When you meet outside work, you stop seeing the social status and just see the person. These days when we hang out it’s actually pretty fun.”
“Hmm…”
I held my tongue. I couldn’t help worrying that it might be nothing more than a temporary fling—alcohol, the year-end mood, the novelty of seeing a familiar face in a new light.
But they weren’t kids; they would figure it out themselves. It wasn’t my place to meddle.
“Well then. It’s been a little under two months, so things should still be in full bloom.”
When I asked with a smile, he grinned goofily again and said it was great.
Suddenly he felt a little annoying. While I was glaring at him with mild disapproval, Greg suddenly opened his phone and checked the calendar.
“Come to think of it, moving day is a Saturday. It’s going to be tough moving with the baby. I’ll come help.”
Of course. Good people end up with girlfriends.
Stay happy for a long, long time, my friend.
At last, moving day arrived.
My first proper move in my entire life turned out to be harder than expected.
On top of that, it wasn’t a full packing service, so even though I had started early I still ended up packing until three in the morning.
After checking and re-checking that nothing had been forgotten, I sat down for what felt like a ten-minute nap—only to be jolted awake by the six-o’clock alarm.
The baby woke up with me.
“Waaaaah!”
“Oh no, sorry, sorry…”
I was still soothing the baby who had been startled by the blaring alarm when the phone rang again.
“Hello?”
I answered without even checking the caller ID because I was busy calming the baby. It was Greg.
“I’m here. There wasn’t a single car out this early so I got here way too fast. I parked in the lot—should I wait down here?”
“No, it’s cold. Come up and wait with some coffee.”
“Uh, but I think the moving truck is pulling in right now?”
Why is everyone like this today? I said the move was at seven!
I exchanged quick greetings with the lively movers who had shown up first thing in the morning, and even though it was a bit early the move began in earnest.
“But you’ve got way more stuff than before, right? Last time I never saw it because it was all in the rooms?”
Even if there seemed to be a lot of furniture, emptying a one-bedroom apartment didn’t take all that long.
I took one last look around the place. With the belongings gone, the apartment looked even smaller and darker.
…Still, thank you.
But now it was time.
“Bye-bye! Luca, let’s say bye-bye. House, bye-bye!”
There was no way a baby who had barely started babbling would actually say “bye-bye,” but I still took his little hand and waved it toward the house.
Even though the noisy move must have stressed him out, the baby beamed back at me with a bright smile.
Now let’s go to our new home together!