Hearing the rain through the open windows, Yoshiko stepped into her sandals and hopped off of the back deck into the yard, where she pulled tenugui and underwear off of the laundry line and threw the basket back into the house. The sky went dark. In the distance, you could hear the growl of thunder. It was only May, too early for the rainy season to begin.

Luckily, the laundry didn’t get that wet. They could hang it in the living room. Taking a breath, she stepped inside and closed the doors onto the deck. The gust of air that followed her kicked at her floppy ponytail. All those gray hairs made her appear a little older than she was, but she let it go, no interest in dyeing it or cutting it short. She had almost no wrinkles and her posture was superb. She was used to hearing she could look ten years younger, easily, if she only dyed her hair, but at this point, what was looking any younger going to do for her?

“Masa, come on, help with the laundry. Can’t you hear the rain?”

Masaoka was sitting in the next room at a beat-up tea table, reading the newspaper, chin propped in his palm. His salt-and-pepper hair was cut into a squarish flattop, something you don’t see much anymore. With that tenugui tied around his neck, he struck the figure of a working man from way back when. He had put on a little weight, mostly around the belly. Hunched over like that, he looked almost like a Shiba Inu, sitting like a good boy.

“Sorry. Blame my granny ears.”

Always ready with a comeback. In a soft voice at odds with his appearance, Masa pushed his black-rimmed glasses down onto his nose and looked at Yoshiko.

“You’re a lost cause,” said Yoshiko.

Masa had grown softer all around over the years; his voice and body, but most of all his personality, had gone through an incredible transformation. Barely any trace remained of what had been a prickly demeanor, so high-strung as to make him unapproachable. Things had changed. In the old days he had never joked around, but lately it had gotten to the point where he was making lame puns all the time and even humming to himself. If anyone from their past could see Masa now, thei