Chapter 52: S#9. Midnight Vegetable Train (1)

S#9.

To the left of Ellen Strode’s house lived a young Japanese woman named Reiko Ishikawa, a medium.

Even her walk seemed to emanate a mystical aura, and she always carried crystals or tarot cards, fitting her profession.

It felt as though she could read minds just by making eye contact, though I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination.

Having someone as beautiful as Reiko read your mind might actually be considered a reward.

On the right side of Ellen’s house, lived an elderly couple.

They often bickered and always wore sour expressions, suggesting they didn’t get along well.

However, their constant arguments weren’t the main issue.

The real problem was their dementia.

Whenever I mowed the lawn, the grandmother would rush out and fiercely beat me with a broom, mistaking me for a bear that had come down from the forest.

She couldn’t distinguish between a bear and a human.

The grandfather’s condition was even worse; he would occasionally run away from home, screaming and wandering through the village in nothing but a diaper, resembling a zombie.

Both were distressingly senile.

Two months ago, without saying goodbye, the elderly couple left, leaving their house empty.

The demented elders had been a nuisance so their absence, far from feeling lonely, was actually very welcome.

Now that I no longer had to worry about being mistaken for a bear and being beaten with a broom, I felt a huge relief.

However, the vacancy didn’t last long.

Recently, new neighbors moved in—two young women, though I hadn’t yet introduced myself.

“Summer. Would you like to go over with Nancy today and say hello?”

Ellen asked.

“Sure.”

Ellen handed something over.

“Take this with you too.”

It was a freshly baked pie, which, oddly enough, had a strange fishy smell.

Upon closer inspection, fish heads were protruding from it.

I was horrified.

“Fish in a pie…! What kind of food is this, Ellen…?”

“It’s a traditional British sardine pie. I’ve baked it well, so they’ll like it~.”

Gifting such a bizarre dish felt like a declaration of war.

I thought no one would eat such a pie, but I refrained from saying anything to avoid hurting Ellen’s feelings.

Holding the British pie, Nancy and I headed to the house on the right. We stood at the front door and pressed the doorbell.

Ding-dong.

Moments later, the door opened and a young woman appeared.

She was in her early twenties, with calm beige hair, and her face was elegant, resembling the refined beauty of a noblewoman.

Oddly, she was dressed in a white lab coat, typically worn by a doctor, and her hair was tied in what might be called a side tail.

Most notably, her eyes were closed.

“…Who is it?” she asked.

“Ah, we’re from next door. We haven’t had a chance to introduce ourselves yet…”

“You’re the neighbor,” she acknowledged, still with her eyes closed as she extended her hand in a completely wrong direction, turned 15 degrees away.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Zelda Hyper.”

Her name reminded me of a certain famous princess.

Nancy carefully corrected Zelda’s misdirected hand and shook it.

“My name is Nancy Strode. This is Summer.”

“Oh. Is there someone with you?”

Zelda asked.

“She’s right here beside me,” I said.

“I’m sorry,” Zelda apologized and reached out, groping the air.

I took her small hand in mine and shook it.

“Hello, my name is Summer.”

“Zelda Hyper… Oh, what a strong hand you have?”

Zelda remarked with a slight smile.

“As you can see, I am blind,” she introduced herself.

It was a shocking introduction.

Nancy and I were taken aback.

Our new neighbor being visually impaired was an unexpected revelation.

Just then, someone else approached from behind Zelda Hyper.

It was a young woman, with the same hair color and side tail as Zelda, and she wore the same white coat.

Moreover, she bore the beauty of a noble young lady, not just resembling Zelda but identical to her.

She was Zelda’s clone.

The only difference was that, unlike Zelda, her eyes were open.

The woman glanced at me and shrank back as if frightened.

“This is my sister, Hilda Hyper,”

Zelda announced, hearing her sister’s footsteps.

They were identical twins.

Hilda, looking just like her sister Zelda, glanced at me nervously before taking Zelda’s hand.

She then quickly wrote something on the palm of Zelda’s hand with her fingers.

Zelda chuckled and wrote something back on Hilda’s palm.

Was it a form of hand communication?

“My sister felt uneasy seeing Summer, so I reassured her. It’s a pity I can’t see what Summer looks like,” Zelda laughed.

“But why communicate by hand…?”

Zelda gently touched Hilda’s shoulder.

“My sister is deaf.”

—
Raei  Translations
—

Zelda Hyper & Hilda Hyper.

Zelda was visually impaired, and her sister Hilda was hearing impaired.

Zelda couldn’t see her sister, and Hilda couldn’t hear hers.

Neither voice nor sign language could serve as a means of communication between them.

However, the sisters found their own way to interact.

I found their interaction beautiful, yet it tugged at my heartstrings.

“Please come in.”

Zelda invited us in for coffee, suggesting we have a drink before leaving.

Though the house was a bit cluttered since they had just moved in, it was very clean.

When we gave them Ellen’s fish pie, the twins were delighted.

“It smells delicious… Is it a fish dish?”

“It’s a fish pie made by my mother. I hope it suits your taste.”

“We’ll enjoy it!”

Fortunately, Zelda was blind.

If she had seen the appearance of the pie, she certainly wouldn’t have been able to say ‘We’ll enjoy it!’.

In fact, Hilda turned pale at the sight of the pie, looking at it as if it were some bizarre creature.

Following Hilda’s lead, we sat down at the dining table.

I noticed another difference between the twins besides their eyes: their side tails.

Zelda had her hair tied to the right, and Hilda had hers to the left.

Suddenly, Zelda asked us.

“Summer, Nancy. What is your relationship?”

“I’m just living in the garage attached to Nancy’s hou…”

“We’re getting to know each other!”

Nancy cut me off and answered.

“Getting to know each other”—a phrase prone to misunderstanding.

Hearing Nancy’s words, Zelda wrote a few letters on Hilda’s palm, and then Hilda looked alternately at Nancy and me with wide eyes.

I wonder what her sister had explained to her.

“We are pharmacists. We run ‘Hyper Pharmacy’ on 3rd Street,” Zelda said.

Running a pharmacy at such a young age was impressive.

But I wondered how a visually impaired and a hearing-impaired person could be pharmacists.

Curious, but feeling it might be rude, I refrained from asking.

Various stories were exchanged at the table.

Zelda showed interest in learning that Nancy was a college student majoring in anthropology.

Listening to the conversation, Zelda was quite knowledgeable and surprisingly eloquent, not what you’d expect from someone with her aristocratic appearance.

Nancy quickly became friends with her.

“Come to our place next Friday. It’s a special day!” Nancy told the twins.

A special day? I leaned in slightly and asked.

“What’s special about that day, Nancy?”

“Summer…”

Nancy’s expression hardened.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten my birthday…?”

It felt like a cold blade had struck my heart.

Realizing my oversight, I stammered.

“Ha… Haha, what do you take me for, Nancy…? How could I forget your birthday?”

I had forgotten.

Nancy’s birthday was next week. It was an emergency.

I had received a fine axe for my birthday.

Likewise, I needed to prepare a gift for Nancy’s birthday.

There was one problem: I had no money for a gift.

A stunningly beautiful and wealthy widow, Ellen, had offered me a substantial sum to give her a full-body massage, but I had politely declined.

After all, I was willing to do massages for free.

Now, I regretted that decision.

I should have accepted when I had the chance…

Amid my confusion, the conversation shifted to professions.

Nancy seemed curious about how the Hyper sisters managed their work as pharmacists, but she didn’t ask directly.

“Come to think of it, Summer, you’ve worked in a hospital before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but only for a short period.”

Hive Hospital.

I had sent patients to hell rather than their hometowns.

Recalling that time gave me a headache.

As I grimaced, Hilda glanced at me sideways.

She still seemed wary.

After all, with a face that could easily be mistaken for that of an escaped convict or a bank robber, I couldn’t blame her.

While eyeing me, Hilda wrote something on her sister’s palm.

Zelda, suppressing a smile, nodded and then addressed me.

“Mr. Summer.”

“Yes?”

“Would you be interested in doing some part-time work?”

“Part-time work…”

Was it a job at the pharmacy?

Given my traumatic experience at Hive Hospital, I wanted to avoid medical facilities.

“No, it’s not the pharmacy. It’s food delivery.”

“Food delivery?”

“We handle vegetables and meat.”

Vegetables and meat delivery?

It seemed like an unusual job for Zelda and Hilda.

“It’s a side business we sisters run.”

“…”

“But we need help. The ingredients are a bit too heavy for just the two of us to handle. Given our disabilities, there are some challenges…”

They implied they needed a sturdy employee like me.

“Where is the work location? At a supermarket?”

“No.”

Zelda said.

“It’s at the subway.”

—