The mouse, I’ve been sure for years, limps home from the site of the burning ferris wheel with a brand-new, airtight plan for killing the cat.
This excerpt is from De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period, a short story included in Nine Stories (written by J. D. Salinger)
-1-
I salute in front of the white desk that belongs to Suito Kusanagi. Her room, located on the second floor of an office building, faces a runway. With the window shades closed, I cannot see outside the room at the time. On the wall, framed pictures and documents are arranged neatly. I guess they are probably the proofs of her achievements, many of which are decorated with conspicuous silver stars and gold leaves. Come to think of it, this room would suit only those who have a hobby of displaying such evidences of the past, or those who do not hesitate to perform this kind of ritual. As a result, I think that I cannot possibly serve in this type of occupation. Or, those who require her to proudly show off the trophies to them might be secretly spying her from somewhere. I do not have the way of knowing whether it is true or not. I vaguely imagine such things. Beside that, I can barely understand, judging from the smell of cigarettes, that this boss is a smoker. I have decided to conclude that it is a good start at that point since I have made it my habit not to put any trust in a non-smoking boss. I would at least need this level of challenge to contend with every day.
“Yuichi Kannami.” She stands up, and hands me a sheet of paper. She is trying to make her voice carry the cool, calm, and collected tone by intelligently controlling the pronunciation of the words. Contrarily, it sounds attractive with its stoic characteristics like those of a cactus. “Here is the letter of appointment. The first command will come in the morning. Enter the stand-by mode.”
“Roger.”
I give up on observing her, and quickly browses the document. At the bottom of the typed template sentences, I find numbers which has just been written a moment ago. It is the password for me. In a moment, I memorize that.
“How is Tokino doing?” Kusanagi asks, while turning over the page in a notebook on the desk.
“Tokino? Who?” I ask her back with my back straightened.
Kusanagi slowly looks up, and raises her hand up to her glasses even more slowly. Her expression is hardly changed, but the moment of silence obviously indicates her state of being shocked. More correctly, it is a startled reaction with a bit of exasperation.
“I mean Tokino, your roommate,” says Kusanagi.
“Oh, he was sleeping in the bed.” I answer.
“Is he still sleeping even now?”
“Now that I am in this room, there is no way for me to know his current situation. I can at least tell you that, he was sleeping when I woke up and got out of the room.”
“Why did you not wake him up?”
“There is no reason for me to wake him up.”
“Why?” She raises her chin and squints, which gives me the impression that she is finally getting angry. Even so, the change is very subtle. She always has the facial expression that is looking angry to start with.
“Let me correct my statement. At the time, I did not have the reason to wake him up. However, even though I am only speculating ..., I recognize that there is now a reason. So, I will just go back to the room to wake him up, if necessary.”
While standing straight behind the desk, Kusanagi is glaring at me.
“I am ready to accept the command that you are about to issue to me.” I add.
“Didn’t anyone tell you to team up with Tokino?”
“No. However, even if I was told to do so, I would not have waken him up. After all, I did not even know that the name of the person in my room was Tokino, even this morning. Things would have been the same anyway. I mean, he is my ...”
“Okay, okay.” Kusanagi interrupts my explanation. She nods slightly without showing any expression, and takes a glance at her wristwatch. “Come back here in 10 minutes. Okay, done. Leave this room.”
“Got it.” I salute, and get out of the room.
I read my wristwatch to make sure. Shall I get back to my room? (The living quarter is located in the adjacent building.) Or, will I smoke in a lounge room on the first floor? While thinking about what to do next, I am climbing down the stairway.
I hear the door opening behind me, and I see Suito Kusanagi running down the stairs. I make way for her on the landing of the stairway. Kusanagi passes by me without looking at me, pushes the glass door in the lobby, and gets out of the building. She is walking with her back straightened up. It is as if a pair of drawing compasses are walking.
I enter the lounge and light a cigarette. Since I can see the courtyard through the huge windows, I am not taking a seat, and see Kusanagi walking toward the billet. At the moment, I notice that she is wearing a short skirt. I am thinking that it is looking like a nostalgic scenery, for some reason.
In the lounge, several sets of yellowed vinyl sofas and low tables are placed. At the innermost part of the room by a window, a man is spreading open a newspaper. The hair is unusually gray, and he is wearing a pair of small glasses. He moves only his eyes to glance at me, and then looks down at the newspaper again. He puts his hand on the back of his head to touch his disheveled hair, and frowns. I wait for him to say something for a short while, for he appears to be ready to say something. But he does not lift his head while keeping himself silent. I walk to an ashtray and pretend to drop cigarette ash on it. I have just lit the cigarette, and I do not have to do that. I am just making the move to create a chance to start the conversation with him.
“I am Kannami, and I have just been assigned to this base since yesterday.” I say so, because I am thinking that greeting him would not cause me to suffer from any loss. Every time I think about this kind of thing, I feel that I have managed to live for an unexpectedly long time.
“Hello.” The man raises his head. “Ms. Kusanagi seems to have been getting angry, though.”
“Umm ... Yeah ...” I look outside the windows. But, she is nowhere to be seen anymore. Due to the reflection of the glasses, I cannot see the interior of the billet. “I think she was angry because Mr. Tokino did not wake up earlier.”
“Oh ...” The man is showing a disappointed look. “That is all, eh?”
“Even if I come here, um ..., no one would give me explanations, right?”
“What explanations?” He asks me while looking at the newspaper that is spread open on the table.
“I mean, for example, about what kind of people are here ... about what missions they are engaged in ... Various things like that ...”
“Wanna know such things?”
“Are you a pilot?” I ask. I am treating this as a slight joke, because it is obvious, judging from his clothes.
“I’m Yudagawa.” He raises his head and says so. He shows a momentary, fake smile like a camera flash. “It has been three years since I came here. You, umm ..., say the name again?”
“Kannami.”
“Okay, Kannami.” Yudagawa nods. He inserts his hand into a pocket and takes out a cigarette and a lighter. “Ah, got it. I have heard of you.”
“How many pilots work here?” I ask him another question because I do not want to talk about whatever he has heard about me.
“As of late, the number of pilots that are assigned here on a regular basis is four.”
“Including me?”
“Right ...”
“Recently?”
“Yeah, recently.”
“Only four?”
“Yeah, only four.” Holding the lit cigarette in his hand, Yudagawa exhales a thin streak of smoke. “Including the beauteous Ms. Kusanagi, the number of those who can fly is five.”
“But this is a relatively huge base, right?” I look outside the windows, but runways cannot be seen from the lounge because they are located on the opposite side of the building. In front of me is the two-story billet. On the left are a part of a hangar and a factory. On the right are a gate, and a warehouse. Beyond a steel fence, there is a plain meadow across the street, along with a bank of a river with an iron bridge of a railway line and a black forest in the distance. Such things remain stationary outside the windows. Nothing moves. There seems to be no wind today. It may rain in the afternoon.
With a cigarette in his mouth, Yudagawa resumes reading the newspaper in silence. He is probably implying the end of exchanging necessary information.
There is nothing else to do but to get closer to the windows and look outside. After a while, Kusanagi gets out of the billet. While throwing out her chest and walking tall, she comes straight back through the courtyard. I read my wristwatch. Not even five minutes have passed yet. As my cigarette gets shorter, I put it away by stubbing it out against the edge of the ashtray. I feel like smoking another cigarette. But, I recognize that this is the proof of my feeling tense. I take a deep breath only with the air (with no smoke). I am saving another cigarette this time around.
Tokino appears in the courtyard, and is walking toward the office building. He has just changed his clothes. His shirt is not buttoned. I walk to the lobby right when he has just entered this office building.
“Good morning.” I greet to Tokino.
“Morning.” He replies with his face frowning painfully.