I walked off the train. I walked past two narrow streets, and arrived at the restaurant where we always used to eat. I sat there eating breakfast, waiting until Tanaka finished his morning delivery and came in.

     He had never looked very cheerful, but this morning he looked even more downcast. His head was lowered and he looked as though he were deep in thought. He sat in front of me without recognizing me - - he didn't even know I was sitting there. "Mr. Tanaka!"

     When he heard me, he lifted his head with a start and said "Oh, good morning. Where did you stay last night?"

     "I stayed at the hotel I used to stay in."

     "Oh? I forgot to ask you where you were going yesterday. You're so early today," he said, stressing the words "so early." He wanted to know what I was doing here at this hour.

     "Yesterday when I returned to the hotel there was a letter from home with money in it waiting for me." I pulled the letter from my pocket as I spoke.

     "Money? What's the hurry? You don't even know when you'll find a job. You better keep that money with you."

     "No, no. I have quite a bit of money. We'll go to the post office together later, all right? In fact I came here to tell you...

     "What? You're being polite again." He looked at me with a puzzled smile.

     "No - - from that letter, I suspect that my mother is seriously ill. I've been thinking about going back to see what's happening, and I wanted to say goodbye to you first."

     He looked straight at me with a lonely look, and asked me, "Did she ask you to go home?"

     "No. She told me not to?she said that there would be no opportunities for me at home. She told me not to return to Taiwan until had succeeded in Tokyo." "If that's the case, perhaps she's not seriously ill."

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