平日の朝6時半。
毎日、きっちり旦那が起きる。
誰に言われたわけでもないのに、三女の弁当をいそいそと作っている。
この姿を、5年前の自分が見たらひっくり返るんじゃないか。
当時の旦那は、ネコで言えば“自力で毛づくろいできない”レベルのダメっぷり。
靴下すら履かせてもらう気満々の、全自動受け身型・昭和の残り香だった。
それが原因で、奥さんがついにブチギレ。
あれはたしか5年前。大喧嘩の末、半年近く、家庭内ミュート状態が続いた。
その間、旦那はなぜか黙って行動に出た。
朝起きて、当時高校生だった長女と次女の弁当を作り、風呂掃除をし、掃除機をかける。
誰に頼まれたわけでもないのに、ひたすら、もくもく、もくもく、もくもく。
ネコですら途中で飽きるくらい、黙々とやっていた。
信用というのは、簡単に積めず、すぐ崩れるものらしい。
旦那もそれが骨身に染みたのだろう。
今や、島の静かな朝に、三女のためにタマゴを焼き、ウインナーを転がす姿は、
まるで“家事スキルで改心した人”の教材ビデオのよう。
今日もせっせとキッチンに立ちながら、ぽつりとつぶやいた。
「あー、あの時やってたのが生きた…」
うん、まあ、そうにゃ。
でもワシとしては、当時の“風呂掃除に感情を込める男”もけっこう見ものだったぞ。
人間ってやつは、失ってから気づき、黙って行動し、
だんだん、弁当がうまくなる生き物なんだにゃ。
ワシはというと、弁当には興味がないので、
夢の中でカルカンを待つとする。
🐾 Morning Monk Mode
They Move When I Meow — So Convenient
6:30 a.m. on a weekday.
Every morning, without fail, my human rises from bed.
No alarm. No nagging. Just… voluntarily making the bento box for his youngest daughter.
Honestly, if his five-years-ago self could see this, he’d faint into his own unwashed laundry.
Back then, my human was—how shall I put this?—a cat who couldn’t even groom himself.
A relic of the Showa era, waiting for someone to put his socks on for him.
Absolutely passive. Fully automatic. A domestic potato.
And then it happened.
About five years ago, after one too many lazy mornings, his wife finally snapped.
A full-on domestic cold war ensued—nearly six months of total communication blackout.
Oddly enough, that’s when my human started… moving.
He began rising early, making bento for the older two daughters (then in high school),
cleaning the bath, vacuuming the floors.
No one asked. No one praised.
Just him, quietly, silently… monking his way through the mornings.
Even I, a seasoned nap expert, got bored just watching him scrub tiles with dramatic intensity.
Trust, it seems, is fragile.
Hard to build, easy to smash.
And my human? He learned it the hard way.
Now, here we are on this quiet island.
Each morning, I watch him roll sausages, fry eggs, and assemble sandwiches like some domestic redemption arc in progress.
Today, while flipping a piece of tamagoyaki, he muttered:
“Man… all that silent effort finally paid off.”
Sure, buddy.
But for the record, I was actually kind of impressed by your “emotional bathtub-scrubbing phase.”
Humans are funny creatures.
They mess up, go quiet, act out penance…
and somewhere along the way, they just get better at lunch.
As for me?
Bento means nothing.
I’ll be over here dreaming of Kal Kan 18+ Edition,
until the bowl rattles and duty calls.
