Greetings, everyone. I would like to thank you all for gathering here on this stormy night.
This is the St. Mary’s Academy for Girls Literature Club’s last regular meeting of the semester. As president of our club, I, Sayuri Sumikawa, would like to begin with some opening remarks. Please feel free to sip on the welcome drinks I’ve just handed out as you listen.
Our club is small, with less than ten members to its name, but it looks like everyone is present tonight. While it may be too dark to make out your faces, I can still see that each chair is filled.
Despite the circumstances, thank you all for coming.
✦ ✦ ✦
If this is your first time at the mystery stew, some of you may be confused as to why the literary salon is so dark today. Or, perhaps, some of you have already heard bits and pieces about this from the older members and were excited to come here today. When it’s dark you can’t see what you usually can, and it almost feels like you are in another world.
We gather around this oval black marble table. Normally, the black crystal Baccarat chandelier would be shining above us, but today that light has been dimmed to its lowest setting. I will turn it off completely when our meeting begins. Then, the only light left will be this candle I hold in my hands.
Our literary salon is on the first floor of the annex, and is exclusive to us. It has lavender-colored carpets and wallpaper, and French windows decorated with flowing black velvet curtains. There is an antique cabinet with clawed feet, and a Gobelins-woven sofa. This annex is a remodeled Gothic-style convent that was originally connected to the main school building, so our sophisticated décor matches perfectly. Who was it that jumped for joy, saying that the salon was “just like an Anna Sui boutique” when she was first invited here?
Ah, but our salon doesn’t just look elegant; we also have an entire wall filled with shelves of the most exceptional books. Since this is an all-girls missionary school, the academic library has countless books on Catholicism and scholastic topics. So we have deliberately collected books and documents from various genres that you wouldn’t typically find elsewhere at school. Kind of like a small private library. But this library alone is a great asset to our club.
Then there are the sound-proof walls and windows that silence the commotion from the courtyard and allow our members to immerse themselves in their reading and writing activities in peace. We read and discuss books together, research authors and make presentations about them, read our original stories aloud to one another, chat about literature in general, and conduct all other literary activities imaginable without interruption.
We owe the creation of this unbelievably perfect salon completely thanks to the father of our former club president, Itsumi Shiraishi. Two years before the convent was remodeled and annexed into the school—and right after Itsumi entered high school—Mr. Shiraishi made a generous donation and built this salon. It’s in a lovely southeast corner on the first floor and has the best access to sunlight. Of course, you all know that Mr. Shiraishi is the school chairman, right?
To me, this salon is irreplaceable. I’m sure that you all feel the same way. You feel calmer here than in any of the classrooms. This is where you can concentrate on books that you can’t read at home, where you finish the stories that you’re stuck on. In the cold seasons, we sprawl out on the sofa in front of the fireplace, nursing hot chocolate and critiquing each other’s stories, and in the summer, we quench our thirst with homemade lemonade while debating literary theories. Yes, this is surely our private castle in the sky.
The salon has a different feel with the lights dimmed this low. Isn’t it grand? Against the candle’s soft flame, only the chandelier, the set of wall lights, and your silhouettes stand out, granting this room a mystical and solemn ambience.
Normally, there would be a Wedgwood tea set, freshly baked scones, and sweet-smelling jams resting on this table. But, tonight, all of those things have been put away. Did you notice something on the marble table that doesn’t quite fit in?
That’s right. A pot. A shiny, amber-colored, copper pot. It’s from Mauviel, the French brand, you know.
We have a first-year student and an international student with us today, so I’d like to give a more detailed explanation about the proceedings. Tonight, we are having a so-called “mystery stew.” Indeed, as you might have expected, we will put strange things into a pot and then eat them in total darkness. Many girls—especially the girls at our school—may not be familiar with this kind of thing. Nevertheless, it is a Literature Club tradition to meet around the mystery stew, once every term, before vacation.
What?
How did these mystery stew meetings start?
Well…Our club has a long history, so there are numerous theories as to the stew’s origin. One is that some club members tried it for fun and it just kind of stuck, and another is that the members were tired of only eating luxury foods and were curious to try something grotesque—but the one that has me most convinced, the one that I believe, is that they did it to sharpen their senses.
Don’t you feel your five senses growing stronger in the dark?
Take away the everyday light that surrounds you, try resuming your normal activities, and you’ll find that even the most ordinary of movements feel unusual. Do not rely on sight alone—an extremely important concept for aspiring literati, don’t you think? That’s why I like this theory best.
Take the cocktail you are drinking right now, for example. Don’t you feel strange drinking it in the dark? Is the cocktail red or is it blue? Is there something floating in it? Is it sweet or is it bitter? Is it thick or is it smooth? It takes a lot of courage to put something in your mouth when you don’t know what it is, doesn’t it? Ah, but do not fret. The rules say that our cocktails must only contain ingredients fit for drinking. I mean, this is a meeting just for girls, after all; we want something tasty to drink. But if this were the pot with the mystery items in it…wouldn’t you be terrified to bring it to your mouth?
How will your sense of smell, taste, sound, and touch react when you’ve lost your sense of sight? Refine, betray, and release your five senses. This is what I understand to be the goal of our meeting tonight.