After the bath, the two sipped beer, and drew on their biblical joints.
Next thing they knew, their eyes were drooping. A warmth invaded them, and their face muscles relaxed. The rays of the sun shining in through the window crept slowly towards them. Kita breathed in, and suddenly the room flashed bright. He felt he was in a noonday pool of sunlight. The doctor’s eyes were unfocussed. The corners of his eyelids were deeply creased.
Whenever Kita tried to move, his nerves twanged. His limbs felt like spaghetti cooked al dente. His torso felt fine, but his legs and arms flopped carelessly about. He stretched out his hand, but it seemed to move in a slowed down skip-frame motion. His brain felt as soft and wobbly as tofu in his skull. Any sudden change in the position of his face caused his grey matter to hit the side of his skull with a shudder. His mouth was dry, and the membrane clung to his tongue and upper jaw like cling film. Even a swill of beer didn’t unstick it.
It seemed to Kita as though his whole body had been plugged with sensors that responded vividly to the slightest stimulus of sound, colour and light. Each tick of the clock beat against his temples. His arms and feet responded to this steady rhythm, so that even though he was sitting cross-legged on the bedding, he felt as if he was dancing. Each time he poured a glass of beer, he was astonished at the huge sound it made. He began to hallucinate a waterfall close by.
The doctor turned on the radio, and the room filled with the sound of a Bach unaccompanied cello suite. The deep notes reverberated in every corner of Kita’s gut. He could even hear the slight friction of the bow as it came down to bite the string before a note. Soon the melody began to insinuate itself about the little room like a cat. Then before he was aware, Kita was chasing the cat, dancing a kind of Kita-style gavotte or saraband as the air tossed him gaily about.
The doctor had smoked the same amount of Yufutsu Plain dope, but he didn’t start dancing. Instead he sat jiggling his leg in time to the dance music, watching Kita’s antics with a big grin.
“Boy, this Yufutsu Gold sure does work,” he remarked to the daughter, whose white face peered in at them from the living room.
“It doesn’t for me,” she muttered grumpily.
The doctor roared with laughter. “You smoke a lot of this stuff?” he asked.
“We’re not allowed it at school, but it grows round the house, so I can have it any time I want.”
Kita too erupted into laughter at this. “I’d love to tell the kids back in Tokyo,” he exclaimed.
“So how is it? Does it make you happy?” The doctor’s grin was frozen on his face.
“This is great medicine, doctor. You look pretty happy too. I’m happy, the dog’s happy, Mum’s happy.” Kita burst into fresh laughter at his own words.
“I’m not,” said the daughter.
“You’re pissed off with things, eh?’
“Not especially.”
“Got a boyfriend?”
“No way. This is the country.”
“What sort of things do you like?”
“Taking photos.”
“What do you photograph?”
“Scenery and people and dogs and cows and stuff.”
“Would you take one of us, for the record?”
No sooner had Kita spoken than the daughter disappeared into her room and came back with an old Nikon single-lens reflex camera. The doctor tightened up his already grinning face, and Kita beamed blissfully. Click! went the camera. This would be the last photo of him, Kita told himself.
“What’s your name?”
“Aki.”
“What do you want to do in life?”
“I want to be a stewardess.”
At this, both men burst into fresh gales of laughter. Aki tutted in annoyance. “I don’t care what really, just so long as I get out of here,” she said.
“You want to travel?”
“Sure I do.”
“Would you like to be a star?”
“I couldn’t even make a hit singing folk songs, the way I look.”
For some reason, these blunt answers of hers were absolutely hilarious.
“You ever heard of Shinobu Yoimachi?”
“Yep. She’s the one who got kidnapped, isn’t she.”
“Did they get the guy?”
“Not yet. Like, she won’t say who it was, will she. I bet she fell for him.”
“Kita.” The doctor leaned over to him. “I’ll give her a ring right now. Would you like to talk to her?”
“No thanks. That kidnapping’s long in the past now. Hey Aki, it was me who kidnapped her, you know. That’s pretty cool, eh?”
“No way,” Aki said uncertainly, checking the doctor’s expression.
The doctor couldn’t keep the grin from his face. “It’s true,” he said.
Aki still couldn’t quite believe it, but a look of amazement came over her face, and she looked at Kita with evident awe. “Why did you donate the money to the Red Cross?”
Lying there holding a pillow, Kita replied, “A guy who’s about to die isn’t going to be able to use all that money,” and he burst into fresh laughter. “How would you use thirty million yen, Aki?”
Aki lowered her eyes and thought for a moment. “I’d give half to my parents, and go to Europe with the other half,” she replied.
“Why Europe? You should go somewhere warm. How about Tokyo?”
“I’ve never been outside Hokkaido. But a friend who went to Tokyo said that Sapporo’s got more going for it. And anyway, I don’t want to go south.”
The doctor mumbled that there were a lot of suicides in Europe. She glared at him with an expression that said, so what?
“Mr Kita, are you really going to die soon?”
“I sure am. Some way that feels good.”
“Why do you look so happy?”
“There’s no point being sad about death. What I’m saying is, there can be happy deaths.”
“Have you ever tried to kill yourself before?”
“No, this is my first time. It’s so exciting.”
“How are you going do it?”
“I’m going crash the white coffin I’m driving.”
“I think you should give up the idea.”
Kita rolled about, beside himself with laughter. Aki found herself grinning too.
“Yep, you should give up the idea,” the doctor, said, nodding vigorously. “The best way is to put an electric shock through the heart. Why not use an electric socket right here and do the job? You’re feeling really good right now, after all.”
Mrs Kikui had been listening in from the kitchen. Now she put her head round the door, kitchen knife in hand, and cried fervently, “Oh please don’t do that! Don’t commit suicide in this house, I beg you!”
She looked so desperate that both men were astonished for a moment, but they were quickly overcome with laughter again.
Knife still gripped in her hand, Mrs Kikui began to lecture Kita.
“You’ve no right to go throwing away the precious life your parents gave you, young man. I don’t know what’s happened to make you like this, all I know is suicide is stupid. Look at me, stuck here in this backwoods place, long years of poverty, tired out. I shouldn’t say it in front of my daughter, but there are times I’d like to die. But then I look at the sea, and I forget about it again. You should go look at the sea, you know. Go and throw all your pains and sorrows into the sea. If you stay alive, you’ll have all sorts of joys in your life. You’ll be able to eat all sorts of wonderful food. Pain and sorrow doesn’t last. Tell me now, what’s your favourite food?”