This didn't surprise Kensuke very much. Aso often dropped by like this, leaving a lady in his car. But never for longer than half an hour. More often than not, he'd drop in and leave soon afterwards because he'd left so-and-so down in the car. That night, however, Aso had kept the woman waiting in the car for well over an hour. As far as Kensuke knew, this was the longest he'd ever dared to.
'I'm so sorry,' Kensuke apologized to the woman on behalf of his thoughtless friend. He wanted her to know that if he'd noticed earlier, she'd never have been left alone so long. 'Aso never mentioned you were waiting down here,' he said.
Staring at the dashboard, she simply shook her head as if embarrassed.
'Why don't you come up and join us?'
Although he was unsure how Aso would react, Kensuke thought it better to invite the woman into his home. She nodded and got out of the car. As she introduced herself, she spoke with a lisp:
'I'm Yukari Nakazawa.'
As they walked along the passage and rode in the elevator, Kensuke could not stop looking at the woman, this Yukari Nakazawa. Aso had introduced Kensuke to many girlfriends in the past, but Yukari was quite different from all the others. First and foremost, she wasn't glamorous. Her petite body was well proportioned but she had only average looks, and she walked with downcast eyes in this terribly morose way. The red bag she carried under her arm looked so infantile that it would have made a schoolgirl blush. Her cheap-looking clothes had clearly been picked from a mail-order catalog. Yet her skirt revealed legs that were gorgeously slender, tapering down to firm and compact ankles. Kensuke found it difficult not to stare at her bare legs. Her entire appeal converged on her legs.
Aso was obviously not pleased when Kensuke returned to the apartment with Yukari. Peeved, he insisted that they were leaving right away. Kensuke appeased him, going out of his way to lighten up the mood and urging them both to stay and have a little more to drink. The situation became increasingly clear to Kensuke as the three of them talked together. Aso had wanted to avoid introducing Yukari to him. There was little denying that she did not compare with his past girlfriends. That must've been it. Aso indeed went haywire, perhaps feeling defensive, and began insulting Yukari.
This woman has had no education to speak of, pal. She didn't even make it through high school.'
'I knew she wouldn't be able to join our conversation. She's so stupid, everything goes straight over her head.'
'As if that's not bad enough, she's up to here in some weirdo religious cult!'
'I can't show her around in public, can I?'
No matter how badly Aso trashed her, Yukari would only lower the corners of her mouth and look desolate, but show no hint of anger. She'd wait for hours on end in an illegally parked car if she were told to stay put. Women who would offer submissive loyalty in return for numbing brutality were an increasingly rare phenomenon. Kensuke could not for the life of him understand why Aso went out with Yukari. Surely there was absolutely no reason to be with her if he intended only to revile the poor girl. Yukari, too, could surely find someone more compatible than Aso.
It soon became clear that it was not to be the kind of pleasant chat among three friends that he had expected. The more Aso drank, the more vicious the abuse he heaped on Yukari. Unable to endure the torment any longer, Kensuke announced that the party had to end. He was doing the unthinkable; he was asking Aso to leave.
Kensuke walked them down to the car. Aso was already showing signs of being too drunk, so Kensuke sat him in the passenger seat. Yukari could drive. But Aso insisted that he was driving, and demanded a can of coffee. Kensuke ran to a nearby automatic vending machine and brought back cans of chilled coffee. He first handed a can to Yukari, who responded by taking a card from her bag and offering it to Kensuke.
'Please don't hesitate to drop by whenever you're in the neighbourhood.'
This did not escape Aso's attention.
'You stupid bitch!' he snarled, striking her hand aside and sending her calling card flying. Aso then grabbed her wrists and twisted her arms behind her back, forcing her head down. 'He happens to be a good friend of mine. Don't you lure him anywhere nasty, get it?'
Yukari gave a small cry of pain and slumped onto the hood of the car. Aso did not move to help her up, but jumped into the driver's seat and started the engine. Adjusting her dress, Yukari went round the front of the car and got into the passenger seat.
'I'll be seeing you.'
Aso directed a cheery smile at Kensuke alone, whereupon he drove off.
As soon as the car was out of sight, Kensuke began to scan the road for the card that Yukari had tried to give him. He soon found it among some shrubs in the garden. He read what was on the card in the light of a street lamp. Under the name of a religious organization that he'd never heard of, Kensuke read the name Yukari Nakazawa followed by an address and telephone number. It was not clear whether the address and telephone number were those of the religious group or those of Yukari. Kensuke put the card in his pocket and returned to his apartment. All through the night, he somehow couldn't still a feeling of excitement.
3
That proved to be Kensuke's sole encounter with Yukari Nakazawa. Yet, she became a phantom that was to dwell in Kensuke's heart. It was all Aso's fault. If Aso had never said it, Kensuke would have been spared the incredibly persistent image.
It was the end of August, almost two months after the day he'd first met Yukari. Aso called at the same time of day as he had then, but came alone this time - Kensuke made a point of confirming this before Aso could get past the doorway.
'Did you come alone?'
Aso nodded with a grave air. 'Can I come in?' he asked meekly.
Kensuke got the impression that Aso had come because there was something pressing he wanted to talk about. Now that he thought about it, perhaps Aso had also come to talk about the same thing his last visit. Kensuke's thoughts turned to that evening two months ago, and, in hindsight, it seemed likely that Yukari's appearance had caused Aso to suddenly turn surly not because he had been seen with a woman who fell somewhat short of his standard of feminine beauty, but because her presence prevented him from saying what he had on his mind.
But this night, as it turned out, Aso hadn't come to say anything in particular, speaking instead as fancy dictated, reminiscing with Kensuke about their childhood days.
After an hour of this, Aso suddenly announced, 'I'm off,' and got up to leave.
'You can't be in that much of a rush. Stay a little longer,' urged Kensuke.
Aso responded with a smile of derision, directed at himself. There's no end to memories like that, eh? You're the only one I can talk to about those days. Great times. The good old days.'
As he spoke, the look in Aso's eyes became distant, whereupon they plunged into another brief spell of reminiscing. That summer they spent together in Karuizawa… There was, of course, that time when they'd gotten lost in the mountains while walking along the unused tracks of the Kusatsu-Karuizawa line (it had linked the two towns until 1960), that time they'd resigned themselves to never returning to civilization alive. It was an experience they'd already rehashed numerous times since. They'd wandered off the track in the growing dusk, and there'd been nothing to do but spend the night outdoors. Kensuke, overcome with anxiety, could only moan and groan; Aso tried to give him courage by assuring him that if they just waited for morning and looked for the tracks, they'd be all right. It had been a night spent in fearful trembling. But looking back on the experience now, it had also been a night packed with excitement and rich in unspoken significance. Their friendship had deepened due to precisely that shared experience.
Aso's tone was different that evening. It was the first time Kensuke ever saw him wallowing so stubbornly, so sentimentally, in childhood memories. Possibly noticing the growing confusion on Kensuke's face, Aso suddenly snapped back to his usual self, brought an end to the reminiscing, and signalled his departure with an uplifted hand.
'I must be off.
'
It was only down in the car park, about to see him off, that Kensuke got round to asking, 'How's Yukari getting on?' He was asking this not so much to ascertain her well-being as to find out whether Aso was still seeing her.
'How should I know? I dumped the bitch.'
The answer only confirmed what Kensuke had expected. That kind of relationship could never have lasted long. Not only was Yukari obviously not Aso's type; not even she could tolerate such brutality for long.
'I'm sorry to hear it.'
The impression of Yukari remained vivid in Kensuke's mind. For some reason, she fascinated him.
'Want to know where I dumped her?' called Aso as he unlocked the door of his BMW and climbed into the driver's seat.
'You mean there's a place you dumped her?' replied Kensuke in surprise.
After all, 'dumped' simply meant 'broke up with'. No one used the word to mean tossing a woman in some sort of trash bin. Of course not.
'I found the perfect place. Want to know where?'
Aso's look became provocative. It was a pretty sick joke, but Kensuke decided to play along for a little while longer.
'Where was it you dumped her?'
'Battery No. 6.'
Battery No. 6… the uninhabited island out in Tokyo Bay. In the wake of the arrival, in Tokyo Bay, of Commodore Perry's 'Black Ships', Japan's feudal regime had created the islands to house gun batteries for protection against foreign attack. The only ones now remaining were Batteries No. 3 and 6. A breakwater now connected Battery No. 3 with Odaiba (Battery) Seaside Park, and only Battery No. 6 was still an island in the true sense of the word.
Kensuke laughed. Battery No. 6 was not far from a large refuse disposal site, and what was more, the island, which had been constructed to house a gun battery, had never once been used as such. It thus seemed the perfect place for dumping a girlfriend who'd outlived her usefulness. Kensuke couldn't help admiring Aso's sophisticated sense of humour. His jokes were good, very good.
'It's hot out there. Climb in,' Aso said, apparently not having yet had his fill of conversation. Kensuke got in and closed the door, and Aso turned on the air-conditioning and began his story. It was a detailed account of why he'd dumped Yukari, on Battery No. 6…
Yukari was pregnant with his child. But the cult she belonged to forbade abortion. She had pressed Aso to marry her - a common enough scenario. Cult or no, this was the kind of story that Kensuke often heard from Aso.
'Is that why you dumped her?' intervened Kensuke, nudging Aso to get to the end sooner than later. If Aso was left to recount the story at his own pace, the whole joke would begin to sound too real.
'The stupid bitch showed me this picture.'
Aso opened the glove compartment and took out a piece of paper folded into four. It bore a colour illustration. Kensuke stared at the juvenile thing. It showed green trees growing luxuriantly under a sun painted in gold. Under the trees sprawled grown men and women surrounded by children at play. Dogs, cats, and even lions strutted contentedly among the trees. A closer look at the picture revealed that this earthly paradise was surrounded by the sea. Perhaps it was in the tropics; the trees were laden with coconuts. Kensuke guessed the author at once.
'Yukari drew this?'
'Yeah, this is apparently what you get when the stuff she believes in is put on paper. Peace, tranquillity, no disease or old age, just life eternal. What do you make of it?'
Yukari was not much of a talker, and Kensuke could see how it must have been much easier for her to express her cherished ideal of paradise on earth as a picture rather than in words.
Kensuke just stared at the picture without answering Aso's question. After all, it wasn't the kind of question you could answer on the spot.
'Why don't we build our own paradise?' His hands clasped to his chest, Aso trilled grotesquely, mimicking Yukari. Then, dramatically jerking his face closer to Kensuke: 'Nothing pissed me off worse in all my twenty-three years. That idiot just doesn't have a clue about how utterly miserable her notion of living on and on for all eternity is.'
Kensuke sided with Yukari. 'You're being too harsh. We're all different in how we look at things.'
'Don't call me harsh! She tried to force her idealistic crap on me.'
'So you went and dumped her on Battery No. 6, right?'
'Right. Banished her to a desert island, I did. I think I made the punishment fit the crime. If she wants to build a paradise, then she can damn well build it herself.'
'But that island is off limits, isn't it?'
'Took a rubber dinghy over there in the middle of the night.'
Yukari didn't know that Battery No. 6 was legally closed to the general public and so had no qualms at all about their nocturnal adventure. They took the dinghy in the car, but it mostly fell to Yukari to inflate and to row the thing to their destination. Yukari would have followed Aso to the end of the earth without the slightest suspicion. Once they had landed on the battery island, Aso used chloroform to knock her out, leaving her unconscious while he made his getaway. The way he described abandoning Yukari on Battery No. 6, he made it all sound so simple.
Kensuke remained unconvinced. After all, a mere three hundred yards separated Battery No. 6 from the Marine Park. It was not too far a distance to swim. Even if you couldn't swim, many pleasure boats cruised by the island. All you had to do was stand on an embankment and shout to make yourself heard. Surely, he pointed out to Aso, Battery No. 6 was as easy to get off as it was to get to.
'No problem, I took all her clothes.'
'You mean you left her there naked?'
'Look, I know her pretty well. She'd rather die than be seen naked in public. She's that sort of woman.'
Kensuke was left speechless. He didn't know the whole story between Aso and Yukari, but he did know that they were in a relationship, and Aso must have felt something for her during that time. He didn't feel it was right, even as a joke, for Aso to be saying that he'd stripped someone naked and left her for dead. Whether or not Aso was telling the truth, describing such an act to a third party was brutal enough.
The atmosphere was oppressive and Kensuke remained silent. Glancing furtively sideways, he noticed that Aso seemed to be on the verge of saying something but swallowing the words each time.
I'd better be off then,' he said. He shifted from Park to Drive mode and lowered his hand to disengage the hand brake.
It was as Kensuke opened the car door that he put his final question to Aso. 'When did you do it? When did you leave Yukari there?'
'It must have been around the time of the Obon festival.
The city was deserted, everyone gone home to the country.'
Obon, when the ancestors returned… That made it about ten days ago.
Kensuke got out of the car and went round towards the driver's seat. Aso had the car window open, and his arm was dangling outside, his hand tapping the side of the car. He thrust this hand out in Kensuke's direction.
'So long,' he said.
He'd extended his hand for a handclasp, and Kensuke took it reflexively. It felt cold to the touch. Cold, but clammy with perspiration. It was the first time Kensuke had ever shaken hands with Aso.
'Be seeing you,' Kensuke said, and Aso nodded firmly, twice, before driving off in his BMW.
As he followed the car with his gaze, Kensuke was sure of one thing. There had indeed been a purpose to this visit, and so with the previous. Aso had come to say goodbye. The tone of his 'So long…' and the cold feel of his hand came back to Kensuke. As his friend's BMW approached the intersection, the brake lights went on. Without signalling, the car turned left and disappeared out of sight.
4
For some time afterwards, Kensuke was troubled by a recurring fantasy. A naked young woman lurking in the deep recesses of some uninhabited island was arousing him mercilessly. Kensuke did not have a girlfriend at the time.
He often dreamed of frolicking in the woods. The flesh-coloured trunks of trees resembling crape myrt
le sprouted up like sinuous tendrils from the earth, none of them adorned with a single leaf. As Kensuke walked among them, his legs got entangled in the curling branches and he'd sink deep down into the ground. No analysis was necessary to see that the smooth tree trunks symbolized Yukari's legs. Another recurring dream Kensuke had featured snakes writhing across the ground and transforming themselves into Yukari's legs. In the wilderness and in places that were clearly some island, Yukari metamorphosed into various plants and creatures and lived on.
Kensuke couldn't find out if the story was true by asking Aso. Even if Aso said, 'I was lying,' the story wouldn't just go away. The possibility that Aso's confessing it was a lie was the real lie would remain forever.
Kensuke tried dialling the number on the calling card that Yukari had given him, and got neither her parents' home nor her apartment, but rather, a sort of dormitory where the members of her religious cult lived. Kensuke told the feeble voiced woman who took the phone that he wanted to speak to Yukari.
'She's not here,' the woman said, and that was all she said.
Kensuke had expected Yukari to come to the phone without much of a to-do, so this stole his tongue. After a pause, he managed to ask, 'Where may I find her?'
The woman replied simply, 'I don't know.'
'How long has Yukari been away?'
'I haven't seen her face the last couple of weeks.'
When Kensuke asked her for Yukari's parents' number, she merely responded with a question of her own: 'Ms Nakazawa has a home?' The way she said it made Yukari seem like a vagabond with no family.
'So she doesn't have one?' Kensuke pressed.
'I wouldn't know,' the woman responded unceremoniously.
Kensuke couldn't tell whether Yukari did in fact have no home or whether the commune had simply been given no information. He put the phone down. All he had been able to confirm was that Yukari had not been back to the dormitory for about two weeks now. The awful thing was that Aso's story was beginning to show signs of plausibility.