Chapter 4 – Persuading Mother Enami
Volume 2
“Why are you sleeping there?”
I said it. I ended up saying it. I felt that I had to ask at least once, even though I would withdraw it as soon as I saw any sign of trouble.
“What do you mean?”
“This is a small place, and I don’t think it’s an appropriate place to sleep. If you’re not feeling well, I think you’d be better off somewhere more relaxing…”
Essentially, this space is just a space set aside for pulling up a chair. You can’t even tell she was there unless you look over the table, and more importantly, it’s not very hygienic. Considering the fact that there was garbage piled up all around here, it was a small space surrounded by a wall of garbage.
Not much air from the air conditioner could reach here. What on earth was she doing here?
Unlike what I had imagined, Mother Enami’s mood was not dampened.
“That’s not the case. Everyone feels at home in different places. It’s just that this is the optimal place for me.”
“Optimal..”
“That’s right. I like it here.”
As her health improved, her tone of voice became clearer. Her hair was shaggy, but she looked young for the mother of a high school girl.
“Were you staying here before the fever started?”
“It’s not like I moved here because I got a fever or anything.”
“For how long? for years…?”
Finally, there was a change in Mother Enami. I saw it several times, the stopping of time. I must not go any further.
“No, it’s nothing.”
It’s like a switch being turned on and off. Once the switch is turned on, something strange happens, but if you press it again, it returns to normal. It seems that the switch is in the past after all. Just knowing that is enough for me.
“Isn’t cleaning a nuisance?”
If it was only garbage, Mother Enami would not complain. It seems that some of the trash that had been stored until yesterday had already been collected, and she did not particularly resist.
“‘Why? It wasn’t a nuisance. We’re better off without garbage.”
“Yes, that’s true. Sorry for asking a strange question.”
The things we’ve thrown away so far have been recognized as garbage. If that’s the case, it means that the broken furniture was not considered garbage. If someone throws away something that is not garbage without permission, it may be natural to be angry.
This person has her own rules. It doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with that.
A person’s perception is not absolute. Every human being perceives a world that is different from reality, just as we use words to lump together things that are made up of small molecules.
We must not just deny it.
“But how did you end up hoarding so much?”
“Because I didn’t throw it away.”
“Why?”
“Because there was no point in throwing it away. There’s always garbage. Besides, if she really wanted to throw it away, that girl would have done something about it.”
For better or worse, she wasn’t interested in throwing it away or keeping it.
“But if you keep the trash around for a long time, it will smell and bugs will come out. In fact, some of the garbage was covered with insects.”
“That’s right”
“But, the reason it didn’t reach the worst level was that Enami-san took care of it from time to time?”
“Well, yes, she did come here from time to time. I’m not sure if she wanted to talk to me or not, but she would leave immediately. She was the one who gave me my food also.”
“I see. Didn’t you want to do something about it?”
“I told you before, didn’t I? Garbage comes out. No matter what you do, it always comes out. Even if you throw it away, it accumulates. What’s the point in throwing it away?”
Gradually, I couldn’t understand what Mother Enami was saying.
“When you live, you consume something. When we consume something, something we don’t need comes out. People call it garbage. There is a lot of garbage generated every day. No matter how much you throw away, you will never get rid of all the garbage. Then, you don’t need to do it anyway. Because it doesn’t matter. You don’t pay attention to the unimportant things in your daily life, do you? Every time you take a step, do you think about whether or not ants are living underneath? You’d go crazy if you had to pay attention to that. That’s why people divide their lives into two categories: things they do care about and things they don’t care about. Isn’t this the same thing?”
“That’s right, isn’t it? So, for Enami-san’s mother, it didn’t really matter, did it?”
“That’s right.”
Even if there was a strange smell or an insect, she recognized that it was not important enough to pay attention to. Even if one didn’t care about stepping on an ant, they would if it was a larger creature. A normal human being would want to avoid them, but for those who can’t think of a good enough reason to go to the trouble of avoiding them, it might be judged as futile.
There are people in the world who live in garbage houses. They accumulate so much trash that their yards are overflowing with it, and they get complaints from their neighbors. The people who are interviewed on TV say the opposite. They say that there is nothing that they don’t need.
So, this person is different from those people. Maybe this person was not interested in the current reality.
TN: Double chapters today as well.. This sure takes me back.
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Impatient MTL Reader 
Now that’s some f*cked up ideology for not cleaning grabage..
Anyway thanx for the chapter
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Not really, she’s just saying she doesn’t care. She probably suffered some trauma and is suffering from a severe lack of motivation
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