Viv's Four Seasons

Graham Street tells a story about a couple discussing seasons.

Viv’s wife was angry with him. He had done something that had upset her but she wouldn’t tell him what it was. Try as he might to discover the source of his indiscretion, she would not tell him or even offer any clues. Instead she become all defensive and threw back words like, “If you don’t know then I am not going to tell you”.

He recalled the events of the day.

It had started off pleasant enough. The breaking of sleep into the darkened room. Crawling out of bed. Opening the Curtains and letting the light stream in. Dozy morning greetings between wife and husband.

Leaving for work and walking out into the day heading for work. He walked through the narrow streets of his Tokyo suburb on his way to the train station. It had been a little chilly, evidence still remained of an early frost. The sun had come out as he was halfway to the station. A brief feeling of warmth. A pleasant light fragrance.

At midday he had gone for a walk during his lunchbreak. The sun overhead was hot, perhaps even a little humid.

Later in the afternoon he had left the train station to walk home and had noticed the clouds blanketing the sky. It turned cold. The clouds burst, having suddenly been twisted like a soaking bathroom towel. It had rained hard. He had made it to the flat soaked, only half drowned.

He had entered the flat and shouted out the customary returning greeting word “Tadaima!”.

“O kaerinasai “ had come a reply deep from within the flat.

Later, after he had changed and dried off, she had asked “How was the weather outside?”.

“Hot, cold, wet, dry. Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn” He had replied. “Japanese seasons are extreme”.

“At least we have seasons in Japan”, she laughed. “One week of Summer and fifty one weeks of dull and grey may be the seasons in England but in Japan we have four very different seasons.”

I know that”, he said “ but I didnt expect four seasons every day in Japan”.

He had laughed before saying “The seasons of Japan are as fickle as a woman’s heart”.

If memory had served him well, there had not been a reaction to the last comment. Had this been the indiscretion? She had been bright and sunny up until that comment, then distinctly cold after he had said his stupid comment.

He decided to tempt it and gave an apology for the throw-away comment he had made on seasons and fickle hearts.

She quietly replied “That’s better.”

He had his answer! It had indeed been this comment that had been the discretion.

“That was a rather sexist thing to say.” She had reprimanded him. “Who would say such a thing?”

He agreed and left it there, not making any more comments on that matter.

He had first heard the comment many years ago. It was based on a Japanese proverb “A womans heart and the autumn sky ,Onna gokoro to aki no sora”

He did not have the heart to tell her from whome he had heard the proverb

It had been from her.