Week 4: ユージニア 🌹

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ユージニア :rose: Home Thread

Week 4

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Start Date: Nov 26
Previous Part: Week 3
Next Part: Week 5

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Start Page Page Count
Week 4 Nov 26 Chapter 4 105 31

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

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Proper Noun Readings

Previous Proper Nouns
Name Reading Notes Proof
青澤 緋紗子 あおさわ ひさこ the blind girl (ca. 12 yo at the time of the event) (Week 1)
雑賀 満喜子 さいが まきこ ch. 1 narrator (Week 2)
順二 じゅんじ ch. 3 narrator’s older brother (Week 3)
誠一 せいいち ch. 3 narrator’s older brother
ヒサ / 久代 ひさよ the blind girl from week 1
マキ ch. 3 narrator (young girl)
相澤 あいざわ doctor whose birthday is being celebrated
相澤 祐 あいざわ たすく blind girl’s younger brother, youngest son of the family
キミ ca. 15 year-old maid of the Aizawa family
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Chapter 4 stuff:

By this point the book seems to be rather heavily hinting that we should be suspicious of 緋紗子…

The stuff about the toy car was interesting – that’s an apparently minor detail that differs from the chapter 3 book extract, but I have no idea what to make of it as a difference.

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This section had a lot more lookups for me than the others so far. This narrator seems to speak a bit more flowery, I suppose.

I noticed the toy car bit too! I also had my curiosity piqued by this line:

どちらさまですか、どなたに御用ですか、と言ったら、瘦せた犬を見ませんでしたか、と、これまた調子っぱずれなことを言うのよ”

Didn’t the previous chapter have something about 緋沙子 (or her stand-in, rather) making up phrases to mean things outside the normal? I want to say it was something about bats before but 蝙蝠、こうもり、and コウモリ all turn up nothing in my ebook search :sweat_smile:

Also interesting that 雑賀 is said to have visited this person’s mom alone, without the guy she had brought in tow to help with her research. That makes 2 people she didn’t have him help with if I’m keeping up?

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It was – page 89 has 蝙蝠が来るような気がする. Not sure why your search couldn’t find it, maybe one of the kanji is a minor variant or something?

Good idea about the weird phrase: though Hisayo’s inside the house at this point and can’t make phone calls, unless the book’s about to make a detour into ghosts or time travel…

Thanks for mentioning that here’s another interviewee seen without the assistant – I had noticed that but then forgot by the time I wrote up my thoughts.

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I don’t know why, but I can follow the story line better, when 雑賀 isn’t the Narrator :sweat_smile:

There are so many tiny stuff, that made me very confused… I ought to make a list of them :joy:

Aosawa’s house with three round windows (like a ship), smell of disinfectant (always in shadow of disease) and perfect children (too perfect) remembered me the illness of Hisako, 自家中毒病. The family seemed to be hopeless and desert, so I’m afraid that the tragedy with poison might be somehow their fate… In this context, the scene of Hisako with the swing looked like as her wish for release.

I like her father of the Narrator in this chapter and the both of detectives. They are first figures in this novel who gave me a very positive and confidential impression, finally :grin:

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Oh that’s interesting! You’re interpreting it as sympathetic to Hisako, rather than pointing to her being a problem. It’s true, the household does seem uncomfortable. Maybe she was always feeling the weight of that image. Perfect children, sterile environment, music always playing, I think there was also mention of the house having fancy and unusual things? Wouldn’t be the first time a picture-perfect family had a dark underbelly :sweat_smile:

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I found it so strange that the narrator, a grown woman with two children, was afraid of Hisako. How old was Hisako at the time? I forget, but anyway she was still a child. They’re all being so fanciful in how they describe her, I’m now starting to think that she was just a normal, rather unhappy kid with health issues, and because she was coping well with her disability they all perceived her as something almost supernatural.

I wonder whether the mother being a Christian is significant. I’m not sure about the particular brand of Christianity practiced in Japan. Could she be way too strict in the children’s upbringing? Might she think there was something in the family that needed to be punished?

The narrator’s mother went to answer the phone, and therefore she should be visible through the middle round window, right? Between the prayer room and the washroom. These rooms must also be somehow significant since they were described in such detail.

Let me see if I remember the red car incident correctly. The youngest Aozawa boy found it near the kitchen door (was it inside or outside?). He cleaned it I think, then put it in his pocket to give to the owner when they claimed it. This was before the sake was delivered, if that particular story is to be believed. According to the narrator’s mother now, the car was full of dirt again, on the kitchen floor, at the time the sake was delivered. Her theory, that someone knew about the poisoned sake and wanted to prevent the tragedy, is very strange. Surely you’d do something more drastic if you knew, than just leave it to fate?

At least. He only knew (or admitted) about Hisako. It’s strange that he wouldn’t know about this person, since it seems she was one of the people Saiga saw regularly on every visit, and always seemed to remember something new after each visit.

So many kanji in this book are images, I’m sure it’s one of them. Very annoying both for lookups and for searches.

Are we sure about that though? Everyone was busy celebrating and being poisoned, and I’m sure no one would find it strange if none of the survivors reported seeing her in their immediate surroundings at that particular moment.

By the way, how do you lose your eyesight by falling off a swing? I guess she must have hurt her eyes directly? But I don’t think her eyes look damaged, or people wouldn’t think she was looking at them.

I too liked them, especially the detective with his origami. So sweet to bring one as a present when he went to tell them the news about the case being “solved”. I now wonder whether there’s something written on the other side of the paper if you unfold it…

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This phrase :joy: :skull:

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Ohhhhhh, ブランコ means swing :exploding_head:. I thought it was a mechanical bull :laughing: (my thought process was ブランコ → bucking bronco → mechanical bull). I did think it was a little weird to have one in a public park, and to imagine one descending from the sky and hovering over the ocean…

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This image made me smile… :rofl:

A well known image of a “swing” in Japan comes also from the scene of the famous anime television series “Heidi, Girl of the Alps”.
https://www.couleur-harima.com/report/doitsunomori202007/

You are right! My interpretation about Hisako could come from my interrelation between Hisako and “Clara”, but unconsciously for me… :joy:

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Finally managed to finish this chapter!

Oh yes you’re right, this is different from the previous chapter - did not fully realize it…

Yes, I noticed that as well. It’s interesting that her assistant did not even know that she visited her, and so often.

Is she, though? She was walking around outside at some point as well… I think I can’t synchronize the timelines properly yet.

Do you mean she does not know how to make phone calls, because she is blind? Or she can’t because there is only one telephone in the house?

I am pretty convinced there are dark things lurking… There’s a reason for almost everybody having been wiped out, I’m sure.

Oh, how do you know about the two children? Did I miss that bit?
I thought that her fear was maybe strongest in her childhood, and now somehow lingers on? :thinking: On the other hand, people tend to be very afraid of supernatural things, and she seems to come across as pretty much supernatural, I guess…

I thought he had found it outside in the dirt.

Turns out that concussions can cause blindness in severe cases: Vision Problems May Occur After a Concussion - and if she operated that swing with the same vigor as what we got a description for, then she must have had a pretty strong concussion, I’m sure.

Oh by the way, why did the narrator’s mother freak out so much when she saw the origami? When I read that, I thought she was planning to commit murder-suicide and was now horrified that she had survived…

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The start of chapter 3: 事件の当日、あたしは次男が生まれたばかりで、身動きが取れませんでした。長男の時は何ともなかったのに、どうしたわけか難産で、産後の肥立ちがよくなかったんです。So basically she was a grown woman who had just given birth for a second time a little before the incident. I found it strange that she had even noticed Saiga at all. I even thought she might have been a teacher, because otherwise who pays so much attention to neighbourhood kids that she knows one is quiet when the others are being rowdy? But nothing like that was mentioned.

I think you may be right. 門の敷居を跨いだ時、足が何かに触れたような気がした。I thought 門の敷居 is the house door, but maybe it’s the garden gate?

Aha! Thanks, makes sense.

That’s a good question of course, and I don’t think we’re meant to know the answer yet. The simple answer is probably that she has survivor’s guilt. But I’m sure there’s more to it. Maybe something in the origami itself reminded her of something? Like all sorts of other details that keep being mentioned, the origami seems to have more significance than just a nice habit to help quit smoking.

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You cannot imagine how much I got confused by this! :exploding_head: But it’s chapter 4 you’re referring to here…

Anyways, thank you very much for the hint! I had somehow thought that she was a teen at the time of the event, as she was helping her mother by running work-related errands for her and such.

I find it really hard to keep all those details in mind during a given chapter when I’m still struggling to understand how the chapter’s narrator fits into the overall picture… :sweat_smile:

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Oops yes, I meant part 3 of chapter 4 I suppose…

Oh, amd I’m pretty sure the errands were from when she was a child. Her mother worked for the Aozawas for a long time. Her sister liked being in that house, but the mother preferred to call the narrator because she didn’t like it and therefore wouldn’t stay more than needed.

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That’s hilarious :laughing: Now it all makes sense.

Ok that seems to fit my mental model better! Still I think the timeline of events is pretty much screwed up in my head. Maybe I should reread that chapter later…

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Happy New Year! I finished ch4, I got confused who the narrator is at the beginning of the chapter, took a while to realize who is who. I felt that this chapter took me longer to read and more words to look up, similar with ch1 (while ch2, 3 felt a bit smoother).

Ch4 time 1h45’

There is not enough evidence to show that the mother was the culprit, and yet the newspapers, rumours, gossip etc were aiming at them… then dropped them as soon as the delivery guy’s suicide was discovered. The mental burden on the entire family, I had no words :cold_sweat: When the mother burst out crying 違う when she received the crane from the inspector, I wonder if it has any deeper meaning behind, maybe she knew something but cannot tell anyone? What if the mother was suscipious of 緋紗子 (doesn’t necessarily mean this is correct) but loved the family’s 2 children, so she didn’t have the heart to mention it. But again, when a book is directing most suspicion to 1 character, maybe the author is distracting us from the real culprit. That strange phone call, the toy car. I have too many theories :laughing:
I like stories of perfect people with darkness lurking underneath so very excited to keep reading.

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