The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai

CHAPTER TWO / FIRE

During the ten days that followed the incident with the snake eggs, one ill-fated thing after anotheroccurred to intensify Mother's unhappiness and shorten her life.

I was responsible for starting a fire.

That I should have started a fire. I had never even dreamed that such a dreadful thing would happen tome. I at once endangered the lives of every. one around me and risked suffering the very seriouspunishment provided by law.

I must have been brought up so very much the "little lady" as not to have been aware of the obviousfact that carelessness leads to conflagrations. Late one night I got up to wash my hands, and as I passed bythe screen in the entrance hall, I noticed a light coming from the bathroom. I gave it a casual glance only todiscover that the glass door of the bathroom was a glowing red, and I could hear an ominous crackling. Irushed to the side door and ran outside barefoot. I could see then that the pile of firewood which had beenstacked beside the furnace was blazing furiously

I flew to the farmhouse below our garden and beat with all my might on the door. "Mr. Nakai. Fire!Fire! Please get up! There's a fire!"

Mr. Nakai had apparently already retired, but he answered from inside, "I'll come at once." While Iwas still urging him to hurry, he dashed out of his house, still in his bedclothes.

We raced back to the fire. Just as we began to draw water from the pond with some buckets, I heardMother call from the gallery next to her room. I threw down my bucket, climbed up to the gallery, andcaught Mother in my arms. She was on the point of collapse. "Mother, please don't worry. It's all right.Please go back to bed." I led her back to bed and having persuaded her to lie down, I flew back to thefire. This time I dipped water from the bath and passed it to Mr. Nakai to throw on the burning woodpile.The blaze, however, was so intense that we could not possibly have extinguished it that way.

I heard voices shouting below, "There's a fire. Fire at the villa!" Suddenly four or five farmers brokethrough the fence and rushed up to us. It took them just a few minutes to get a relay of buckets going andput out the blaze. If the fire had lasted just a little longer, the flames would have spread to the roof.

"Thank Heavens" was my first thought, but in the next instant I was aghast at the sudden realization ofwhat had caused the fire. It was only then that it occurred to me that the disaster had taken place becausethe previous night, after I removed the unburned sticks of firewood from the furnace, I had left them nextto the woodpile, thinking that they were already out. This discovery made me want to burst into tears. As Istood there rooted to the ground, I heard the girl from the house in front say in a loud voice, "Some-bodymust have been careless about the furnace. The place is gutted."

The village mayor, the policeman, and the head of the fire brigade were among those who appeared.The mayor asked, with his usual gentle smiling face, "You must have been terribly frightened. How did ithappen?"

"It was all my fault. I thought that the firewood had burned out." This was all I could say. The tearscame welling up, and I stood there incapable of speech, my eyes on the ground. The thought came to methen that the police might arrest me and drag me off like a criminal, and at the same moment I suddenlybecame aware of the shamefully disheveled appearance I made as I stood there barefoot in my nightgown. I felt utterly lost

The mayor quietly asked, in a tone of sympathy, "I understand. Is your mother all right?"

"She is resting in her room. It was a dreadful shock for her."

"Anyway," said the young policeman, trying to comfort me, "it's a good thing that the house didn't catchfire."

Just then Mr. Nakai reappeared, having changed his clothes in the meanwhile, and began to shout allout of breath, "What's all the fuss about? Just a little wood got burned. It never turned into a real fire." Hewas obviously trying to cover up my stupid mistake