My Mother’s Dresses

 

 My mother had many kinds of jobs. Giving lectures was one. She had many topics such as feminism, international corporations, aging society, and so on. She was famous. She gave lectures all over Japan. Sometimes she was on TV.

 My mother said the contents of the lectures were extremely important to a speaker. But the attire is also important. She said, “I can’t wear the same dress at the same place.”

 So she had many dresses. All of them were original-designed, hand-made-to-orders. There was no ready-made product. One of my mother’s friends was a dressmaker. I heard she worked very economically for my mother.

 My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She lost her lecture jobs. We had many dresses in our house.

 I didn’t know what to do with those dresses.

 I decided to give the dresses to someone. I started bringing them to a laundry shop because they were extremely dusty.

 I could not bring them all at once. I brought some of them every week to the laundry shop. It took about half a year.

 One day, a clerk of the laundry shop cautiously asked me, “Don’t take this wrong. But may I ask you your occupation?”

 She suspected me! Yes! I was a suspicious customer: a middle-aged man bringing many custom-made dresses for a lady every week. It must be very unnatural.

 I told the story about my mother. The clerk listened with tears in her eyes.

 My mother had a successful life. I don’t want to be successful like her. But I want just one original-designed hand-made-to-order suit.

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Morning Cat

 

 

I have spent most of my life with cats. I love all the cats. Most of them are dead now. I especially remember one cat. She was extremely smart. Her name was Usami. Sometimes the memories of her make me feel a little spooked.

One morning I woke up at a good time to go to work, but I made a mistake. I slept again on my reclining chair. I was lacking sleep.

Suddenly, I felt a strong impact on my belly. I woke up and saw Usami on my belly. Apparently, she had jumped down from the top of the bookshelf to my belly. I was surprised because she had never shown that kind of behavior before. She was a gentle cat.

I looked at the clock. I was surprised again. It was almost past the time to go to work. I hastily went to work. Thanks to Usami, I was not late, but I had forgotten to say thank you to Usami.

I wonder if it was just a coincidence or not. Did she have special powers and save me? I will never know.

I live with three cats now. All of them are ordinary cats. When I oversleep, they would also oversleep. They are useless, but I love them.

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Call from the Mafia

 

 

My wife and I have been married for ten years. We have a good relationship. We share each other’s smartphones sometimes. I have nothing to hide from her. When one of us is taking a bath, the other would answer their smartphone.

One day, while my wife was taking a bath, her smartphone rang. I tried to answer the phone, but I stopped because the smartphone displayed that the call was from the “Mafia.”

I was worried. Did my wife have a connection with an illegal organization? What should I do? I didn’t answer the call. I waited for my wife to come back from the bath. I fearfully asked her about the call.

It was nothing. The person who had tried to call my wife was one of her coworkers. His working style was like that of the Mafia. So my wife had secretly given him the nickname, and she registered “Mafia” on her smartphone instead of his name.

Some people have this nickname in our society. A friend of mine works for the Japanese government as a public servant, but he said his coworkers call him the “Mafia.” I know he is a nice person, but his working style may be a little wild.

We make phone calls every day, but we will never know our secret nicknames.

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Picture by Minoru mizuno