Do Not Spoil My Lucky Day!!!

A phone call woke me up at 9 am. For once, I answered a call. Interview notice. Don’t expect too much. It’s just an interview. However…

*

The Yokohama Bay Stars has come on top for the first time, according to the “Sports Nippon,” in “1,097 days.” “First in this many days” is a trite way to make a point in the Japanese baseball reporting. A baseball season lasts for only a little more than half a year. It is absurd to count by day.

*

At 8 pm, those Soka people started chanting at a funeral ceremony for one of their members. At this very moment, they are still shouting. So loud. The man sitting in front, who should be the cell leader, is using a microphone! I went down to have a look at them. A girl on the front row was crossing her legs while chanting. Are you guys supposed to be sitting on the floor? (At the Speakers’ Corner, it is banned to use any voice amplifying device.) Ahhhh, this is nightmarish. This lucky day is being completely spoiled because of them. I need a very competent exorcist.

Hilfe Brothers and My Dream Wedding Party

Row was just calm enough to watch “Cost-Travers-Ford” dial numbers. Row tries to find the person to whom this man with three names was speaking in this phone conversation (“There’s no hope) right before he transfixes his throat. Row’s last attempt leads to the voice of Anna Hilfe. They meet each other at her flat not in the way he expected they would… Row confronts Anna’s brother, Willi, to get the photographs.

*

It was a wedding party dream. For me. Hahaha!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen my wedding, real or in dream. But my bride didn’t show her face until the end of the party. And I don’t recognize any person at the party. Not a big party. No MC. No staged ceremony at all. People were simply drinking and chatting. Some of them talked to “us.” A man of mid 50’s gave me a cash gift envelop (yes, that traditional envelop wrapped around with red-and-white laces). Tell me how much it contains… Turning over it, I found “Tanaka Kakuei (田中角栄)” written with a calligraphy brush. The man seemed to come to the party for the former prime minister. My bride appeared so abruptly and I saw her face so clearly. I know her. She was my immediate boss for a time at that profit-driven English school, which went under last year. But she is married to the mustached Mr CC. Or did she divorce her hubby? Why did she appear? I know there is no point to think why. It was just a dream. (About Mr CC: He, American, was friendly to me, working at the same school. Twice he surprised me. Sitting on a platform bench, he all of a sudden asked me, “Have you been to jail before?” I was like aghast at the question. He went on, “For sexual assault.” Aghast again. That was the first time. The second occasion came a few years later, I believe. He was attending to a prospective customer, e.g. student. And Mr CC tried to, yes, assault him, yes, him, and yes, sexually!! He was sacked on the spot.)

I'm a Traveller with the Wrong Map

Row flees the grip of Dr Forester, who can make a sane soul insane, and rushes to Scotland Yard. His memory is coming back!

*

“It’s as if one had been sent on a journey with the wrong map.” (Arthur Row)

I wish I had been provided with the correct map when I was young.

Girl with Large, Clear Eyes

The Ministry of Fear: Arthur Row ensnarls himself in a murder case at a séance while trying to decipher the mysterious cake episode. Austrian refugees and charity workers, the Hilfe brothers offer help to him. He fled the murder scene and thought about suicide by jumping into Themes. There he meets an untidy bookseller who will not release him. Grumbling he goes up to a hotel room where he finds Anna Hilfe…

Now, an amnesic, Row, with a new identity, is being taken care of by… Dr Forester (!), an attendee at the séance.

*

I don’t know why, but it was 7 pm when I got out of bed. It seems I was seeing a long dream. Not a kind that torments my nerves, but it had pleasant and unpleasant scenes. I was working part time at a familiar CD shop (I worked there over 20 years ago) and everybody there was very critical of my work…

I got to know a group of a few young girls somewhere. Where, I have no idea. I and one of them became very affectionate to each other. And she, probably in her mid-20s, even came to my house to wait for me. I was putting five or six news magazines into a bag, but it was too small. I found a larger bag and was putting on socks while she was waiting. My mother around? I’m not sure. The girl and I left by riding double on bike. She was rather short with large, clear eyes. Pretty. (And I was also young.) Where to?? Going forward was not easy because of a family walking very slowly just ahead, obstructing our way.

Crossing the Shijo O-hashi (四条大橋). On the south (down) sidewalk of the bridge, there were Keihan (京阪) people who were dispensing tickets. With not enough money for the train fare in my pocket, I beseeched one of them, whose nameplate on his chest said “Aka (赤),” to let me through. I promised to come back to pay and Mr Aka nicely obliged. In the car, I found multiracial passengers.

I was on bus too. Limousine type. Not many people, but I was the only Asian. Others were Westerners. Behind the driver was a vending machine of coffee and newspapers. We disembarked once for immigration check. From there, I sent a message to my girl using a palm-size gadget. “Sorry, I’m going…” Where to??

Deadly Silence

ＰＣに微笑んでみる無言の日々