ABSTRACT
Oshina woke up the next morning just as the faint light of dawn began shining through the cracks in the rain doors. She tried to raise her head from the pillow, but it throbbed too severely with pain. The sound of the chickens clucking noisily and flapping their wings up in the roost overhead grated on her ears. Otsugi was still sound asleep. When the cracks in the doors grew bright with light, like eyelids fully opened, the chickens began to squawk shrilly. Oshina had wanted to let Otsugi sleep late that morning, but when the chickens began their rumpus Otsugi suddenly awoke and looked around as if bewildered. Then she saw that her mother still lay beneath her bedding on the floor beside her.
