He didn’t know why, but the scene played out vividly inside his head. Natsuko would arrive much like Mai had, magically set down by the cemetery’s front gate, not sure how she got there or why. But then she’d look up dreamily and see, there among the gravestones, her husband and daughter.
Mai would be sitting on one of the marble plinths, swinging her feet and playing with the toys he had collected. Beside her, he’d be working hard, scrubbing or raking or weeding. He had to get past this first gravestone before he moved on to the next. His wife would notice that while he’d only been gone three days, he’d lost some weight and gotten a little bit of a tan. He looked stronger, even handsome maybe. She’d then note that father and daughter were talking animatedly and laughing, and while she wo
