But while everyone was still lying around naked, Bob’s woman Tami had come in and gotten into a bad fight with Kei, who’d tried to stop her from hitting Bob. Tami’s brother was a big gangster, and since she’d wanted to run and tell him, there was nothing I could do but bring her along here to Lilly’s place. I’d heard Lilly was a friend of hers, she’d talk her around. Until just a few minutes ago, Tami had been sitting over there on the sofa, howling, I’ll kill them! Her side had been raked by Kei’s nails.
“So don’t I always say you better not bring in punks who don’t know anything about this Yokota territory? What would you have done without me, huh? You wouldn’t have got off easy, Ryū, Tami’s brother is real bad.”
She drank a swallow from a glass of Coca-cola with a lemon slice floating in it, then passed it over to me. She brushed her hair and changed into a black negligee. Still seeming angry, she brushed her teeth and shot up on Philopon in the kitchen with the toothbrush still in her mouth.
“Aw, come off it, Lilly, I’m sorry.”
“Oh, all right, I know you’ll just go and do the same thing tomorrow… But listen, you know, the waiter at my place, a guy from Yokosuka, is asking if I want to buy some mesc. How about it, Ryū? You want to try it, don’t you?
“How much is it, for one tab?”
“I don’t know, he just said five dollars, should I buy it?”
Even Lilly’s pubic hair was dyed to match. They don’t sell stuff to dye the hair down here in Japan, she’d told me, I had to send away for it myself, got it from Denmark.
Through the hair over my eyes, I could see the ceiling light.
“Hey, Ryū, I had a dream about you,” Lilly said, placing her hand around my neck.
“The one about me riding a horse in a park? I’ve heard that one before.” I ran my tongue along Lilly’s eyebrows, which were growing out again.
“No, another one, after the one in the park. The two of us go to the ocean, you know, a real pretty seaside. There’s this big beach, wide and sandy, nobody there except you and me. We swim and play in the sand but then on the other side of the water we can see this town. Well, it’s far away, so we shouldn’t be able to see much, but we can even make out the faces of the people living there – that’s how dreams are, right? First they’re having some kind of celebration, some kind of foreign festival. But then, after a while, a war starts in that town, with artillery going boom, boom. A real war – even though it’s so far away, we can see the soldiers and the tanks.
“So the two of us, you and me, Ryū, just watch from the beach, sort of dreamy like. And you say, Hey, wow, so that’s war, and I say Yeah, right.”
“You sure have some weird dreams, Lilly.”
The bed was damp. Some feathers sticking out of the pillow pricked the back of my neck. I pulled out a little one and stroked Lilly’s thighs with it.
The room was dimly gray. Some light stole in from the kitchen. Lilly was still asleep, her little hand, with the nail polish off, resting on my chest. Her cool breath brushed my armpit. The oval mirror hanging from the ceiling reflected our nakedness.
The night before, after we’d done it, Lilly had shot up again, humming deep in her white throat.
I just keep using more, no matter what, I’ve got to cut down pretty soon or I’ll be an addict, right? she’d said, checking the amount left.
While Lilly had been rocking her body on top of mine, I’d remembered the dream she’d told me about, and also the face of a certain woman. As I’d watched the twisting of Lilly’s slim hips…
The face of a thin woman digging a hole right next to a barbed wire entanglement around a large farm. The sun was sinking. The face of a woman bent down to thrust a shovel into the earth, beside a tub full of grapes, as a young soldier threatened her with his bayonet. The face of a woman wiping away her sweat with the back of her hand, hair hanging over her face. As I’d watched Lilly panting, the woman’s face floated through my mind.
Damp air from the kitchen.
Is it raining? I wondered. The scene outside the window was smoky, milk colored. I noticed the front door was ajar. Yesterday, since we were both drunk, we must have gone to bed without closing it. A single high-heeled shoe lay on its side on the kitchen floor. The tapering heel stuck out, and the curve of firm leather over the front was as smooth as part of a woman.
Outside, in the narrow space I could see through the open door, stood Lilly’s yellow Volkswagen. Raindrops stuck to it like goose bumps, and then the heavier ones slid down slowly, insects in winter.
People passing like shadows. A mailman in a blue uniform pushing a bicycle, several school children with book bags, a tall American with a Great Dane – all passing through the narrow space.
Lilly took a deep breath and half turned her body. She gave a low moan and the light blanket that had covered her fell to the floor. Her long hair stuck to her back in an S shape. The small of her back was sweaty.
Scattered on the floor was Lilly’s underwear from the day before. Far away and rolled up small, the garments were just like little burn marks or dyed spots on the rug.
A Japanese woman with a black shoulder bag looked around the room from the doorway. Her cap bore some company insignia, the shoulders of her navy jacket were damp – I thought she must have come to read the gas or electric meter. When her eyes got used to the dim light, she noticed me, started to speak, seemed to think better of it, and stepped outside again. She glanced back once more at me, naked and smoking a cigarette, then went off toward the right, her head cocked to one side.
Through the space outside the door, now open a little wider, passed two grade-school girls, talking, gesturing, wearing red rubber boots. A black soldier in uniform ran by, leaping over the muddy spots just like a basketball player dodging a guard to shoot.
Beyond Lilly’s car, on the other side of the street, stood a small black building. Its paint was peeling in places; “U-37” was written in orange.
Against the background of that black well, I could clearly see the fine rain falling. Over the roof were heavy clouds, looking as if someone had smeared on layer after layer of gray pigment. The sky in the narrow rectangle that was visible to me was the brightest part.
Thick clouds swollen with fever. They made the air damp, made Lilly and me sweat. That’s why the crumpled sheets were clammy.
A think black line slanted across the narrow sky.
Maybe that’s an electric wire, I thought, or a tree branch, but then it rained harder and soon I couldn’t see it anymore.
The people walking in the street hurriedly put up umbrellas and began to run.
Puddles appeared on the muddy street even as I watched and widened out in a series of ripples. Played on by the rain, a big white car moved slowly along the street, almost filling it. Inside were two foreign women, one adjusting her hairnet in the mirror, and the other, the driver, watching the road so carefully that her nose was almost pressed against the windshield. Both were heavily made up; their dry skin appeared to be caked with powder.
A girl licking an ice cream bar passed, then came back and peered in. Her soft, blonde hair was plastered to her head, and she took Lilly’s bath towel off the kitchen chair and began to wipe herself dry. She licked ice cream off her finger and sneezed. When she raised her head, she noticed me. Picking up the blanket and covering myself, I waved at her. She smiled and pointed outside. Putting my finger to my lips, I signaled her to keep quiet. Looking toward Lilly, I laid my head on my hand to show she was still sleeping. So be quiet, I gestured again, my finger to my lips, and grinned at her. The girl turned toward the outside and gestured with the hand holding the ice cream. I turned my palm upward and looked up in a pantomime of noticing the rain. The girl nodded, shaking her wet hair. Then she dashed outside and came back drenched, carrying a dripping bra that looked like one of Lilly’s.