The Housekeeper and the Professor

The Professor has other interesting talents besides his mathematical abilities. For example, he is able to reverse the syllables in a sentence and repeat them backwards instantly, simply by feeling the rhythm of the words. He’s surprised to learn that not everyone can do that. He’s happy that it pleases Root and the narrator, but he doesn’t understand what makes it special or interesting to them.

The Professor is also able to find the first sign of the evening star in the afternoon sky. At first, the narrator thinks he’s imagining things. Eventually she sees that he is always right, though—wherever he points to the evening star, it eventually appears for her, as well.

Root behaves himself around the Professor, but he continues to be upset with the narrator until she gives Root a heartfelt apology for not trusting the Professor. Root accepts, but he tells her that he’ll still never forget that it happened.

While straightening the shelves in the study one day, the narrator finds a cookie tin under a pile of books. She looks inside and finds a carefully packed tin of baseball cards, all Hanshin Tigers. The cards are organized by position, with a separate section devoted to Yutaka Enatsu; his cards are in thick plastic instead of normal cellophane protectors. Farther back in the shelves, she finds a stack of old notebooks filled with numbers. The narrator can’t understand them, but she’s nevertheless fascinated by the formulas.

The narrator buys three tickets to see the Tigers play against Hiroshima, as the Tigers only play nearby twice a season. She realizes that she’s been so focused on making ends meet that Root has hardly experienced anything. She thinks that a baseball game might be interesting for the Professor, who also had never been to one.

After she buys the tickets, though, Root reminds her that the Professor probably won’t want to go because he hates crowds. Moreover, they’re not sure how to prepare him for the game since he won’t remember anything prior to the day of the game. Above all, the Tigers the Professor remembers have all retired, including his favorite, Enatsu. Even so, Root is overjoyed for the opportunity to go to a game in person.

The day of the game is bright and sunny. They wait to tell the Professor about the game until they’re within the 80-minute window. When he asks about Enatsu, they concoct a story that Enatsu pitched too recently to play that day. Root is excited to go, so the Professor also agrees to go.

The narrator, speaking from her position in the future, notes that she and Root will never be sure if the Professor enjoyed the game—there was a lot going on, and it was nerve-wracking for him. However, there are many small, enjoyable moments. For example, the Professor is fascinated by one of the girls selling drinks and insists that they order from her nearly every time she comes by. For another, the Professor talks about numbers throughout the game, rattling off statistics to the amusement of one of the people sitting near them. He is so absorbed in the numbers that he doesn’t notice that so many of the players are unfamiliar to him.

In the final inning, one of the batters hits a foul ball that nearly hits Root. The Professor leaps up to shield him, remaining in place well after the ball has settled. The Professor finally settles back into place, murmuring to himself about statistics. The Tigers ultimately win the game, though the pitcher, Nakagomi, loses his no-hitter in the final inning. 

It’s late when they return. Before the Professor falls asleep, he thanks them. Root is upset that Nakagomi blew the no-hitter, but the Professor tells him that Enatsu threw one in 1973 and won the game with a walk-off home run to boot.

As the Professor falls asleep, the narrator feels his head and realizes he has a fever. Unwilling to leave him sick and alone, she decides to stay with him. She briefly considers contacting his sister-in-law, but she decides against it due to the widow’s warnings. The narrator worries that she made a mistake in taking him to the game.

The next morning, Root leaves for school, but the Professor remains asleep. When he does wake up, the narrator tries to explain what’s happening and get him back to bed. She apologizes for the baseball game, but when he gets upset, she realizes she made a mistake by even mentioning it since he no longer remembers it. The Professor looks at the note reminding him about his memory and cries quietly. The narrator consoles him; eventually, he asks her questions about numbers again.

The narrator is afraid to take the Professor to a doctor, but after three days, his fever breaks on its own. However, after he recovers, the director of the narrator’s agency asks to speak to her. The Professor’s sister-in-law has complained about the fact that they spent the night with the Professor, so the director has decided to reassign her. The narrator pushes back, but the director tells her that it’s non-negotiable.

The narrator’s new employers are a couple who run a tax consulting service; the commute and hours are long, and the couple blurs the line between housekeeping duties and work for their business. Moreover, Root is once again on his own after school.

Leaving clients doesn’t usually bother the narrator, but it frustrates her that the Professor has no recollection of their time together. She finds herself distracted thinking about him. She hopes the widow will realize she’s the only person for that job, but she knows that plenty of other housekeepers could do a good job taking care of him.

After her dismissal, the narrator experiences a run of strange, bad luck. First, a woman robs her at a bus stop by simply walking up and demanding money; the narrator is surprised by how willingly she just handed over money to the stranger despite the absence of a threat. Later, while visiting her mother’s grave, she and Root find a dead, decomposing fawn. The day after the fawn, the narrator sees a newspaper article announcing that Root’s father had won a research prize; at first, she throws the article away, but then smoothes it out and places it in a box with the stump of Root’s umbilical cord.