Ｍｙ　Ｆａｔｈｅｒ！

　I was terribly surprised and ran back to Doc’s laboratory desperately. When arrived, I felt short of breath, my mouth was dried-up and my voice rattled.
“Hey. Hey. Heeeey! Do… Doc! Doooooc! Oh, my god! My… My father died! A wake is being held in my house!”
“Great Scott!”
　So I told him in a hurry the dreadful situation at my house. He was also astonished, but soon he calmed down and finally said.
“Then we must investigate in the circumstances.”
“Oh, what should we investigate?”
“Anyhow, get in the Machine.”
“Why?”
“Don’t worry. I have an idea.”
“You have an idea?”
　So I immediately got in the Machine. Soon after, the Machine began to zoom. I felt slightly warm and so forth, then, I was turned into a middle-aged man though I didn’t know why. I got out and said,
“Why did you turn me into a…”
“Well, you are thirty years old now.”
“But why?”
“Don’t worry. I've told you I have an idea.”
“Okey. I got it.”
“Well, we should prepare a pair of suits to put on at the wake.”
　So, Doc went inside the house and fetched a pair of suits. One was white and the other was red!
“Well, such colors must be out of place.” Doc said.
(Japanese are in the habit of wearing black clothing at a wake.)
“So I’m going to paint them black.”
“You mean you can paint these suits?”
“Exactly. Well, I’ve invented very special spray paint. The particles of the mist are extremely small.”
“So, it’s extremely small, so what?”
“So the particles go deeply into the fiber of the cloth and we can paint these suits as though they were ‘dyed’.”
　Saying something so difficult to understand, Doc went to a corner of the laboratory and grabbed the suits, hung them on hangers, then took out the special spray cans of ‘black’ from the drawer and began to paint the suits in black. Of course before that, he opened the window. And the suits were painted in black rapidly, then, two splendid black suits with some unevenness were ‘tailored’.
　We were just about to put on the suits, then, Doc went inside the house once again and fetched a pair of neckties and shirts. But I said I couldn’t tie a tie well. So he tied it for me very well. Then he prepared two envelopes for condolence money, a custom of Japan for a wake. And on each of them, he wrote some random names and put some money into the envelopes and said,
“Now, let’s go to your house.”
“What will you do at my house?”
“I told you clearly that we must investigate in the circumstances!”
“Oh I know that.”
“And what we need is to know the reason why your father died.”
“So what happens if we know that?”
“We’ll work out the strategy.”
“Strategy?”
“Remember, we have the Time Age Machine!”
“Oh, the Time Age Machine! But if we use it, what can we do?”
“We’ll do something. Anyhow, let’s just go to your house.”
　So we began to walk to my house wearing the black suits both of us. Then Doc asked me,
“What’s your father’s job?”
“A radio-control air crafts test pilot.”
“R.C. aircraft! That’s cool. Well, where does he work?”
“He is working at a company which makes R.C. aircraft. And these days, he seems to be developing a new auto-pilot system with the other staff.”
“He is a test pilot and developing a new auto-pilot system. That’s great!”
　While talking, we approached my house. Well, to tell the truth, I really hoped that the situation that I’d seen in front of my house was just an illusion. Nothing had been changed and I could only telling him, “I’m so sorry. It was all a misunderstanding.”
　But no such luck my father’s wake was being held. There were a pair of lanterns, the desk for reception, a crowd of people and the notice! Then Doc went through between the two lanterns into the garden and I followed him. He approached the reception desk, booked a random name, handed the envelope and said a few words to express his condolences. Then he looked back to me and made a gesture to do exactly the same way he did and so did I.
　We entered my house. But as soon as I entered, I had a strange feeling. I felt as though I was in someone else’s house. While the wake was being held in the Japanese-style room. People dressed in black were sitting on cushions, which were directly on the Japanese straw floor covering ‘tatami’.
　There was an altar and a coffin, which were both decorated with flowers in front of the people. And beyond them, was a portrait of my father! I realized that it was not a nightmare. My father had actually died in reality! But I hoped it really was just a nightmare and I’d wake up in my bed.
　Then we went in front of the altar, lit incense sticks and prayed in turn and went back and sat on the cushions like the other people dressed in black. I looked up to see people sitting facing us. From the left side was my mother, one of my uncles, my younger sister and the other ‘myself’! The sitting ‘me’ looked seventeen years old and it was quite natural. Doc had changed me to a thirty year-old man and I understood then why he’d changed me to that age since no one in front of us or anybody else in the room recognized me. Moreover, I was wearing a black suit. So it was almost impossible to know in such sad atmosphere, who I was.
　After sitting for a while, Doc talked to my mother,
“I express my heartfelt sorrow…”
　I thought that Doc was trying to investigate in the circumstances, that is, to know the reason why my father died. But my mother was only sobbing and didn’t reply, and I, a seventeen year-old ‘me’ didn’t say even a word. But after a short while, my mother suddenly said,
“I…, I hate such parties!”
　So, Doc said, “What about the party?”
　But my mother began to cry awfully and couldn’t say even a word. Then someone sitting in the back of us, who seemed to be a colleague said to Doc under his breath,
“It’s about the agreement.”
　So Doc said also under his breath, “What about the agreement?”
“Well, that is…” But he stopped speaking, feeling the atmosphere of the room. And after a while he stood up and said, “Please excuse me…” with bow and went out of the room. So we also stood up and said, “Please excuse us.” with bow and went after him.
　In the garden, Doc talked to him,
“Excuse me, sir. May I ask you some questions about the agreement for a while?” pretending as though he were a business partner. And Doc began to ask questions like a machine-gun and finally succeeded in getting the detailed information about ‘the reason why my father died’. Soon after that, we walked back to Doc’s laboratory.