16

The Worlds Exhaustion and Burdens

* The Magic Lamp The phone rang at nine-thirty at night. It rang once, then stopped, and started ringing again. This was to be Ushikawas signal.

Hello, Mr. Okada, said Ushikawas voice. Ushikawa here. Im in your neighborhood and thought I might drop by, if it would be all right with you. I know its late, but theres something I wanted to talk to you about in person. What do you say? It has to do with Ms. Kumiko, so I thought you might be interested.

I pictured Ushikawas expression at the other end of the line as I listened to him speaking. He had a self-satisfied smile on his face, lips curled and filthy teeth exposed, as if to say, I know this is an offer you cant refuse; and unfortunately, he was right.

It took him exactly ten minutes to reach my house. He wore the same clothes hed had on three days earlier. I could have been mistaken about that, but he wore the same kind of suit and shirt and necktie, all grimy and wrinkled and baggy. These disgraceful articles of clothing looked as if they had been forced to accept an unfair portion of the worlds exhaustion and burdens. If, through some kind of reincarnation, it were possible to be reborn as Ushikawas clothing, with a guarantee of rare glory in the next rebirth, I would still not want to do it.

After asking my permission, Ushikawa helped himself to a beer in the refrigerator, checking first to see that the bottle felt properly chilled before he poured the contents into a glass he found nearby. We sat at the kitchen table.

All right, then, said Ushikawa. In the interest of saving time, I will dispense with the small talk and plunge directly into the business at hand. You would like to talk with Ms. Kumiko, wouldnt you, Mr. Okada? Directly. Just the two of you. I believe that is what you have been wanting for some time now. Your first priority. Am I right?

I gave this some thought. Or I paused for a few moments, as if giving it some thought. Of course I want to talk with her if that is possible. It is not impossible, said Ushikawa softly, with a nod. But there are conditions attached ... ?

There are no conditions attached. Ushikawa took a sip of his beer. I do have a new proposition for you this evening, however. Please listen to what I have to say, and give it careful consideration. It is something quite separate from the question of whether or not you talk to Ms. Kumiko.

I looked at him without speaking.

To begin with, then, Mr. Okada, you are renting that land, and the house on it, from a certain company, are you not? The hanging house, I mean. You are paying a rather large sum for it each month. You have not an ordinary lease, however, but one with an option to buy some years hence. Correct? Your contract is not a matter of public record, of course, and so your name does not appear anywhere-which is the point of all the machinations. You are, however, the de facto owner of the property, and the rent you pay accomplishes the same thing as mortgage payments. The total sum you are to pay- lets see- including the house, comes to something in the neighborhood of eighty million yen, does it not? At this rate, you should be able to take title to the land and the building in something less than two years. That is very impressive! Very fast work! I have to congratulate you.

Ushikawa looked at me for confirmation of everything he had been saying, but I remained silent.

Please dont ask me how I know all these details. You dig hard enough, you find what you want to know-if you know how to dig. And I have a pretty good idea who is behind the dummy company. Now, that was a tough one! I had to crawl through a labyrinth for it. It was like looking for a stolen car thats been repainted and had new tires put on and the seats recovered and the serial number filed off the engine. They covered all the bases. Theyre real pros. But now I have a pretty good idea of whats going on- probably better than you do, Mr. Okada. Ill bet you dont even know who it is youre paying the money back to, right?

Thats all right. Money doesnt come with names attached.

Ushikawa laughed. Youre absolutely right, Mr. Okada. Money does not come with names attached. Very well said! Ill have to write that down. But finally, Mr. Okada, things dont always go the way you want them to. Take the boys at the tax office, for example. Theyre not very bright. They only know how to squeeze taxes out of places that have names attached. So they go out of their way to stick names on where there arent any. And not just names, but numbers too. They might as well be robots, for all the emotion thats involved in the process. But that is exactly what this capitalist society of ours is built on.... Which leads us to the conclusion that the money that you and I are now talking about does indeed have a name attached, and a very excellent name it is.

I looked at Ushikawas head as he spoke. Depending on the angle, the light produced some strange dents in his scalp.

Dont worry, he said, with a laugh. The tax man wont be coming here. And even if he did come, with this much of a labyrinth to crawl through, hed be bound to smash into something. Wham! Hed raise a huge bump on his head. And finally, its just a job for him: he doesnt want to hurt himself doing it. If he can get his money, hed rather do it the easy way than the hard way: the easier the better. As long as he gets what hes looking for, the brownie points are the same. Especially if his boss tells him to take the easy way, any ordinary person is going to choose that. I managed to find what I did because it was me doing the searching. Not to boast or anything, but Im good. I may not look it, but Im really good. I know how to avoid injury. I know how to slip down the road at night when its pitch black out.

But to tell you the truth, Mr. Okada (and I know youre one person I can really open up to), not even I know what youre doing in that place. I do know the people who visit you there are paying an arm and a leg. So you must be doing something special for them thats worth all that money. That much is as clear as counting crows on snow. But exactly what it is you do, and why youre so stuck on that particular piece of land, I have no idea. Those are the two most important points in all this, but they are the very things most hidden, like the center of a palmists signboard. That worries me.

Which is to say, thats what worries Noboru Wataya, I said. Instead of answering, Ushikawa started pulling on the matted fuzz above his ears. This is just between you and me, Mr. Okada, but I have to confess I really admire you.

No flattery intended. This may sound odd, but youre basically a really ordinary guy. Or to put it even more bluntly, theres absolutely nothing special about you. Sorry about that, but dont take it the wrong way. Its true, though, in terms of how you fit in society. Meeting you face-to-face and talking with you like this, though, Im very, very impressed with you-with how you handle yourself. I mean, look at the way youve managed to shake up a man like Dr. Wataya! Thats why Im just the carrier pigeon. A completely ordinary person couldnt pull this off.

Thats what I like about you. Im not making this up. I may be worthless scum, but I dont lie about things like that. And I dont think of you in completely objective terms, either. If theres nothing special about you in terms of how you fit in society, Im a hundred times worse. Im just an uneducated twerp from an awful background. My father was a tatami maker in Funabashi, an alcoholic, a real bastard. I used to wish hed die and leave me alone, I was such a miserable kid, and I ended up getting my wish, for better or worse. Then I went through storybook poverty. I dont have a single pleasant memory from childhood, never had a kind word from either parent. No wonder I went bad! I managed to squeak through high school, but after that it was the school of hard knocks for me. Lived on my wits, what little I had. Thats why I dont like members of the elite or official government types. All right: I hate em. Walk right into society through the front door, get a pretty wife, self-satisfied bas- tards. I like guys like you, Mr. Okada, whove done it all on their own.

Ushikawa struck a match and lit a fresh cigarette. You cant keep it up forever, though. Youre going to burn out sooner or later.

Everybody does. Its the way people are made. In terms of evolutionary history, it was only yesterday that men learned to walk around on two legs and get in trouble thinking complicated thoughts. So dont worry, youll burn out. Especially in the world that youre trying to deal with: everybody burns out. There are too many tricky things going on in it, too many ways of getting into trouble. Its a world made of tricky things. Ive been working in that world since the time of Dr. Watayas uncle, and now the Doctor has inherited it, lock, stock, and barrel. I used to do risky stuff for a living. If I had kept it up, Id be in jail now- or dead. No kidding. The Doctors uncle picked me up in the nick of time. So these little eyes of mine have seen a hell of a lot. Everybody burns out in this world: amateur, pro, it doesnt matter, they all burn out, they all get hurt, the OK guys and the not-OK guys both. Thats why everybody takes out a little insurance. Ive got some too, here at the bottom of the heap. That way, you can manage to survive if you burn out. If youre all by yourself and dont belong anywhere, you go down once and youre out. Finished.

Maybe I shouldnt say this to you, Mr. Okada, but youre ready to go down. Its a sure thing. It says so in my book, in big, black letters about two or three pages ahead: TORU OKADA READY TO FALL. Its true. Im not trying to scare you. Im a whole lot more accurate in this world than weather forecasts on TV. So all I want to tell you is this: Theres a time when things are right for pulling out.

Ushikawa closed his mouth at that point and looked at me. Then he went on: So lets stop all this feeling each other out, Mr. Okada, and get down to business.... Which brings us to the end of a very long introduction, so now I can make you the offer I came here to make.

Ushikawa put both hands on the table. Then he flicked his tongue over his lips.

So lets say Ive just told you that you ought to cut your ties with that land and pull out of the deal. But maybe you cant pull out, even if you want to. Maybe youre stuck until you pay off your loan. Ushikawa cut himself short and gave me a searching look. If moneys a problem, weve got it to give you. If you need eighty million yen, I can bring you eighty million yen in a nice, neat bundle. Thats eight thousand ten-thousand-yen bills. You can pay off whatever you owe and pocket the rest, free and clear. Then its party time! Hey, what do you say?

So then the land and building belong to Noboru Wataya? Is that the idea?

Yes, I guess it is, the way things work. I suppose there are a lot of annoying details that will have to be taken care of, though....

I gave his proposal some thought. You know, Ushikawa, I really dont get it. I dont see why Noboru Wataya is so eager to get me away from that property. What does he plan to do with it once he owns it?

Ushikawa slowly rubbed one cheek with the palm of his hand. Sorry, Mr. Okada, I dont know about things like that. As I mentioned to you at first, Im just a stupid carrier pigeon. My master tells me what to do, and I do it. And most of the jobs he gives me are unpleasant. When I used to read the story of Aladdin, Id always sympathize with the genie, the way they worked him so hard, but I never dreamed Id grow up to be like him. Its a sad story, let me tell you. But finally, everything I have said to you is a message I was sent to deliver. It comes from Dr. Wataya. The choice is up to you. So what do you say? What kind of answer should I carry back?

I said nothing.

Of course, you will need time to think. That is fine. We can give you time. I dont mean for you to decide right now, on the spot. I would like to say take all the time you want, but Im afraid we cant be that flexible. Now, let me just say this, Mr. Okada. Let me give you my own personal opinion. A nice, fat offer like this is not going to sit on the table forever. You could look away for a second, and it might be gone when you looked back. It could evaporate, like mist on a windowpane. So please give it some serious thought- in a hurry. I mean, its not a bad offer. Do you see what I mean?

Ushikawa sighed and looked at his watch. Oh, my, my, my- Ive got to be going.

Overstayed my welcome again, Im afraid. Enjoyed another beer. And as usual, I did all the talking. Sorry about that. Im not trying to make excuses, but, I dont know, when I come here I just seem to settle in. You have a comfortable house here, Mr. Okada. That must be it.

Ushikawa stood up and carried his glass and beer bottle and ashtray to the kitchen sink.

Ill be in touch with you soon, Mr. Okada. And Ill make arrangements for you to talk with Ms. Kumiko, that I promise. You can look forward to it soon.

After Ushikawa left, I opened the windows and let the accumulated cigarette smoke out.

Then I drank a glass of water. Sitting on the sofa, I cuddled the cat, Mackerel, on my lap. I imagined Ushikawa removing his disguise when he was one step beyond my door, and flying back to Noboru Wataya. It was a stupid thing to imagine.