"It's a quiet place, so people talk quietly,"... "It's a quiet place, so people talk quietly," said NaokoShe made a
neat pile of fish bones at the edge of her plate and dabbed at her
mouth with a handkerchief"There's no need to raise your voice here
You don't have to convince anybody of anything, and you don't have
to attract anyone's attention
"I guess not," I said, but as I ate my meal in those quiet surroundings,
I was surprised to find myself missing the hum of peopleI wanted to
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hear laughter and people shouting for no reason and saying overblown
thingsThat was just the kind of noise I had become weary of in
recent months, but sitting here eating fish in this unnaturally quiet
room, I couldn't relaxThe dining hall had all the atmosphere of a
specialized -machine-tool trade fairPeople with a strong interest in a
specialist field came together in a specific place and exchanged
information understood only by themselves
Back
sacs hermes in the room after supper, Naoko and Reiko announced that they
would be going to the Area C communal bath and that if I didn't mind
having just a shower, I could use the one in their bathroomI would do
that, I said, and after they were gone I undressed, showered, and
washed my hairI found a Bill Evans album in the bookcase and was
listening to it while drying my hair when I realized that it was the
record I had played in Naoko's room on the night of her birthday, the
night she cried and I took her in my armsThat had been only six
months ago, but it felt like something from a much remoter past
Maybe it felt that way because I had thought about it so often - too
often, to the point where it had distorted my sense of time
The moon was so bright, I turned the lights off and stretched out on
the sofa to listen to Bill Evans' pianoStreaming in through the
window, the moonlight cast long
vintage omega watches shadows and splashed the walls with
a touch of diluted Indian inkI took a thin metal flask from my
rucksack, let my mouth fill with the brandy it contained, allowed the
warmth to move slowly down my throat to my stomach, and from
there felt it spreading to every extremityAfter a final sip, I closed the
flask and returned it to my rucksackNow the moonlight seemed to be
swaying with the music
Twenty minutes later, Naoko and Reiko came back from the bath
"Oh! It was so dark here, we thought you had packed your bags and
gone back to Tokyo!" exclaimed Reiko"I hadn't seen such a bright moon for yearsI wanted
to look at it with the lights off
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"It's lovely, though," said Naoko"Reiko, do we still have those
candles from the last power cut?"
"Probably, in a kitchen drawer
Naoko brought a large, white candle from the kitchenI lit it, dripped
a little wax into a plate, and stood it upReiko used
replica cartier tank the flame to light a
cigaretteAs the three of us sat facing the candle amid these hushed
surroundings, it began to seem as if we were the only ones left on
some far edge of the worldThe still shadows of the moonlight and the
swaying shadows of the candlelight met and melded on the white
walls of the flatNaoko and I sat next to each other on the sofa, and
Reiko settled into the rocking chair facing us
"How about some wine?" Reiko asked me
"You're allowed to drink?" I asked with some surprise
"Well, not really," said Reiko, scratching an earlobe with a hint of
embarrassment"But they pretty much let it goIf it's just wine or beer
and you don't drink too muchI've got a friend on the staff who buys
me a little now and then
"We have our drinking parties," said Naoko with a mischievous air
"That's nice," I said
Reiko took a bottle of white wine from the fridge, opened it with a
corkscrew and
deville watch brought three glassesThe wine had a clear, delicious
flavour that seemed almost homemadeWhen the record ended, Reiko
brought out a guitar from under her bed, and after tuning it with a look
of fondness for the instrument, she began to play a slow Bach fugue
She missed her fingering every now and then, but it was real Bach,
with real feeling - warm, intimate, and filled with the joy of
performance
"I started playing the guitar here," said Reiko"There are no pianos in
the rooms, of courseI'm self-taught, and I don't have guitar hands, so
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I'll never get very good, but I really love the instrumentIt's small and
simple and easy, kind of like a warm, little room
She played one more short Bach piece, something from a suiteEyes
on the candle flame, sipping wine, listening to Reiko's Bach, I felt the
tension inside me slipping awayWhen Reiko ended the Bach, Naoko
asked her to play a Beatles
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