‘I have no intention of helping you.’
‘This really happened, in England: Two girls, eleven and thirteen, killed a three-year-old boy and a four-year-old boy, but the eleven-year-old was smarter and cleverer, and the older girl was just following her lead. She was acquitted, but the eleven-year-old was convicted.’
‘I don’t want to hear about it.’
‘Then, what about Lizzie Borden?’
‘Stop it. What are you getting at?’
‘That the way you yourself were raised was problematic. An endless cycle of absurd coddling and other horrible experiences, right?’
‘You yourself, why are you—’
‘Don’t be stupid. There’ll be one more good tape in the world! And, if it comes out and I get caught, the police will track down my mum for me, I’m sure of it.’
The doorbell rang.
Around dawn I became hysterical, and my crying woke HIM. It felt like the first time I had cried in my whole life. HE patted my hand gently to try and calm me down.
‘There’s nothing to worry about. Tomorrow you’ll go and get the surgery. The one to get the electrode installed in your brain. Then you can relax forever.’
I tugged as hard as I could at the end of my stocking. HE had lit the flame of my envy. Her corpse was crammed into the freezer. Eyes closed, tongue lolling out.
‘What’ll we do now?’
‘Get married.’
‘No thanks. Who wants to share this kind of memory?’
‘Under the current law, testimony from a spouse is inadmissible. So it’d be better for both of us if we got married. Like in Brighton Rock.’
How can HE be so calm? Is it because of the device?
‘Wanna do it? It’s been a long time.’
‘Do what? Oh… But the sheets might get dirty.’
I didn’t want to be in the room where we’d killed her, so we were sleeping in HIS father’s bed.
‘It’s fine.’
HE took me in HIS arms. I just lay there the whole time, worrying about the sheets.
When it was over, HE opened HIS eyes, and seemed to be seeing something else.
The boredom is gone.
Copyright
The stories here appeared in Japanese in The Covenant 
a larger collection of Izumi Suzuki’s short stories © Bunyusha 2014
Translation of ‘Women and Women’ and ‘Terminal Boredom’ © Daniel Joseph 2021
Translation of ‘You May Dream’ © David Boyd 2021
Translation of ‘Night Picnic’ © Sam Bett 2021
Translation of ‘That Old Seaside Club’ © Helen O’Horan 2021
Translation of ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ © Aiko Masubuchi 2021
Translation of ‘Forgotten’ © Polly Barton 2021
All rights reserved
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
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Verso
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Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN-13: 978-1-78873-988-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-78873-989-4 (UK EBK)
ISBN-13: 978-1-78873-990-0 (US EBK)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Suzuki, Izumi, 1949–1986, author. |; Barton, Polly (Translator), translator. |; Bett, Sam, 1986–, translator. |; Boyd, David (David G.), translator. |; Joseph, Daniel (Translator), translator. |; Masubuchi, Aiko, translator. |; O’Horan, Helen, translator.
Title: Terminal boredom: stories / Izumi Suzuki, translated by Polly Barton, Sam Bett, David Boyd, Daniel Joseph, Aiko Masubuchi, and Helen O’Horan.
Description: London; New York: Verso, 2021. |; Summary: ‘Born from the obsessive and highly idiosyncratic mind of a cult figure of the Japanese underground, these stories borrow themes and subjects familiar to readers of Philip K. Dick and fuses them with a conflicted, tortured, and intense imagination’ – Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020047575 (print) |; LCCN 2020047576 (ebook) |; ISBN 9781788739887 (paperback) |; ISBN 9781788739900 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Suzuki, Izumi, 1949–1986 – Translations into English. |; LCGFT: Short stories.
Classification: LCC PL861.U9265 A2 2021 (print) |; LCC PL861.U9265 (ebook) |; DDC 895.63/5 – dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047575
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047576
Typeset in Electra by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY