『The returned Bridge』

１　Let's me dance!

"Won't you dance with me?"
"Ah! with me?"
"Yes. Is it good? "
"I can't dance."
"I lead you. Is it all right?"
The live band of the dance hall gave the blues, and two persons went into the circle of the people who were dancing.
"I am not dancing well."
"You have stepped in the rhythm little by little."
"Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick"
"It is so. You don't care even if you step on my foot."
"Slow, slow, Quick, Quick"
“Quarter turn”
"You can do it."
"Ah. Yes."
Music changed into the rhythm of the jitterbug.
"It is difficult for me."
"You can do it because you have the feeling of the rhythm."
“You can be done.”
"I dance for the first time today, don’t I?"
Her palm is a little being stained with the sweat.
A live band took a rest.
“ Thank you.
“From now, I will try to practice dancing in the dance classroom, too.”
Her friends who got tired of the dance came to her.
“We got tired. Tomoko, let's come back.“
“Tomoko, we will come back any more,”
"Ok"
“It appreciates your having me teach various dances.”
“Ok, you will become good”
"Goodbye"
“Goodbye”
“The feel of the hand that it was being touched till now was left. Then, it was good if he listened as much as a name. That regret grazed its mind.
He was Hiroshi Akutagawa, the office worker in the engineering company and 48 years old. The dance which had been continued from the school days received the private lessons of the teacher of the dance in the neighborhood. A basis could be done, because he was made to give the quarter turn alone many times without dancing with the woman and because a horse leg had been practiced with Cuban rumba toward the wall many times. Because the new way of dancing came out these days, he thought whether a little classical way of dancing was being done. However, a dance was sometimes told to the hostess of the club. It was sometimes said that they wanted to dance with her teacher. He decided that a cheek dance wasn't done as long as there was no woman's request because he thought that a dance was a gentleman's taste.

2 I meet you by chance.

Overtime work didn't have that day, he came back early. He thought that a son was intended to be made to memorize the taste of the tofu boiled in water. There is a tofu maker by the side of the bridge of Ume. The sign of "tofu store" was put up in front of the maker.
He went to buy smooth fine-grained tofu there.
“Good afternoon.”
“Give me three smooth fine-grained tofu, and one sheet atsuage that tofu was fried.”
The master with the hair of the crew cut wore the apron that "tofu maker" was written. He said,
“Ok, do you make the tofu boiled in water tonight?”
“Because the atsuage has just been flown now, it has only to put the ruins of a fire with gas a little.”
“Ｉ will do tofu boiled in water with the son as a company was over early today, won’t L”
“When soy sauce is poured and eaten, burned atsuage is just suitable for the Japanese sake.”
“You lose a wife, and your life is difficult for you.”
“I have already gotten accustomed. It is only done suitably for my life.”
He brought up the only son who was nineteen years old by himself since a wife was lost with her cancer five years ago.The wife of tofu maker came out, she took care of him. She said,
“Tofu boiled in water isn't boiled up very much. It is good when it eats with the soy sauce stock and the ginger. A Welsh onion, a pasania mushroom and a spring chrysanthemum are good.”
Then, he went for the nearby vegetable store to buy vegetables and seasoning.Because a previous visitor came and she was talking to the salesclerk, he went into the back, and put vegetables in the basket.
"Ah, good afternoon"
"Oh"
“I thank you the other day. Do you live near here?”
"Ah, yes, I do."
He was called by the woman who danced a dance the other day.
“I try to go to the dance classroom frequently since the other day.I am happy every day.”
He thought whether she was watching him miserably, he withered. He only said "Ha,ha", and two people parted.
“Mr. Akutagawa, do you dance?”
"Ah, I kike to dance"
The salesclerk saw doubtfully whether he was doing something that he wasn't suitable for the age.When he left a store, a woman's back could be seen more in the point. But he turned a foot to the house in the opposite direction.
Vegetables were cut suitably, a stock and soy sauce were put in water, and he put tofu in which vegetables boiled up a little. The sake of 360 ml was warmed, and he flowed into the sake bottle of the Kutaniyaki.Sake was put in the sake cup, and he drank it with eating the Atsuage.A son brought daily dishes besides the refrigerator, and he was eating tofu boiled in water.

3　In the dance classroom

Teacher Takako of the dance classroom spoke with eliminating the flared skirt of light pink backward.
“Mr. Akutagawa. You will be said a woman is surely escorted at the next dance party.
Is it all right?"
As for the men of the dance friend, they were nodding with having confidence with being all right. Women saw him with the face that they had partners.
"Oh, somehow"
Though company colleague and subordinate's face was appearing, he thought they would be refused.He lived gloomily for one month somehow. Then, he didn't search for the partner's woman, either. If he went to the party meeting place, he thought that there would be a woman who didn't have partner. If a partner was not in the dance party, he was decided to be thought that he had only to pull it up, because urgent business was decided to be done.

4　Dance Party

The foot was set in the dance party. The men of the classroom friends have escorted all the women. Women seemed to come with the boy friend again, and an excess of one person didn't seem that be, either. Though students except for my classroom came, they seemed to decide a partner respectively. He had an attitude to call even on the cellular phone. At that time he thought that he came back because urgent business could be done in the company.
“Excuse me.”
When he turned around, he was spoken from the woman whom his partner was last month.
“I go to the dance classroom frequently since someday. Because I am a beginner, anyone takes no notice. Won't you teach me a dance? “
“Yes. Good”
He met her in a voice which sounded hollow.
The eye of Ms. Tomoko Naoki was big in the round face, and she was active and a smart woman. She dyed hair in the chestnut brown, and she was looked like before and after thirty years old. Today, she put on her flared skirt of the dress of light red, and put on the dancing shoes of the same color, and her body was small.
He had the smell of the soft perfume from her nape.
“Slow, Slow, Quick, Quick. Posture is right. Around the pit of the stomach is pushed properly. The power of the shoulder is removed.”
When the performance of the live band was within several songs,“Mr.Akutagawa dances with the beautiful woman.”
He came to feel their eyes of the friends.
"A turn is small, without leaving a body. You dance beautifully. A breast is strained."
He spoke with the low voice.
As for the woman, a dance became good in a short time.After a dance party ended, he parted from the classroom company, and he was in the nearby tea room with Ms. Tomoko Naoki.It seemed that she had faint make-up in the face that was a little stained with the sweat.A voice was bounding.
"Thank you today. You were practical, it was very easy to know, it had me teach you."
"It is a lesson to try to dance with the various people, too."
"Won't you teach me the dance from this as well?"
“Yes. It is good.”
He had a little unexpected mind. Though he answered as interest lost a little，it couldn't be hidden that he always wanted to teach her. But he couldn't tell whether he intended to participate in today's party after all.　

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　～to be continued～

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