Almost Transparent Blue Read Free Page B

because they've got prettier butterflies than here, but me, I made a book of leaf veins, you know, and the teacher said it was real good, and because I got a prize and went all the way to Kagoshima, I still keep it in my desk drawer. I'm taking real good care of it, I really want to show it to you."
    We reached the station, Reiko threw away the poplar leaf beside the road. The roof over the platform flashed silver, and 1 put on my sunglasses. "It's already summer, really hot."
    "Huh? What?"
    "Yeah, I said it's already summer."
    "Summer's hotter." Reiko just stared at the rails.

    Drinking wine at the counter, I could hear the sound of someone crunching a Nibrole pill in one corner of the bar.
    After closing up early, Reiko had spilled about two hundred Nibrole pills out onto the table. Kazuo said he'd lifted them from a drugstore in Tachikawa. Then she said to everyone, Tonight's the party before the party!
    She got up on the counter, pulled off her stockings while dancing in time with the record music, came over to hug me and stuck her tongue, smelling of the pills, into my mouth. Finally she heaved up blackish blood and vomit and stretched out on the sofa without moving. Yoshiyama, brushing back his long hair with his hand, shaking droplets of water out of his beard, was talking with Moko. She looked over at me, sticking her tongue out and winking. Yoshiyama turned and asked me with a laugh, Hey, Ryū, it's been awhile, you got anything for me? Any hash or something? I put both elbows on the counter and let my feet, in rubber sandals, dangle from the chair. My tongue smarted from smoking too much. The sour wine stuck in my throat. Hey, don't you have any sweeter wine?
    Kei was telling Kazuo how she'd gone to Akita to work as a nude model, but he looked drowsy from the Nibrole. Drinking whiskey straight from the bottle, tossing peanuts one at a time into her mouth, she said, So there Ah was, tied up on stage, it was jes' awful, hey, Kazuo, tied up with some prickly rope—don'
    ya think that was awful? Kazuo wasn't paying any attention to her. He was peering at me through the finder of his Nikomat, which he called "more precious than life itself." Hey, ya gotta listen when people are talking. With a poke in the back, Kei tumbled Kazuo onto the floor. Hey, wow, don't mess around, he said, that's a bummer, what if you'd broke it? Kei snickered, stripped off her blouse, started cheek-dancing and tongue-kissing with whoever she bumped into.
    Maybe because of yesterday's heroin, I felt dragged out and didn't want any of the Nibrole. Moko came over. Hey, Ryū, won't you go in the can with me?
    Yoshiyama felt me up and I'm all shaky. She was wearing a red velvet dress and matching hat, and the powder smeared thickly around her eyes was red.
    Ryū, you remember when you made me in the can at that disco? Her eyes were bleary and unfocused. The tip of her tongue flicked from her lips and her voice was too sweet. Hey, you remember? You told me a big lie, said the cops had come and we had to hide, right? And got me all scrunched up in that little can—
    you've forgot?
    Oh wow, that's the first time I've heard that one, Ryū, is that the way it was?
    You're a real stud, right? Even though you've got a face like a pot, you've done stuff like that, huh? Yeah, that's the first time I've heard. Yoshiyama's voice was loud. He let the needle fall on a record. What are you talking about, Moko, stop running off at the mouth, O.K.? It's just something she made up, Yoshiyama, I answered. With a blast of sound, Mick Jagger began to sing. It was a really old song, "Time Is on My Side." Moko threw one leg over my knees and said drunkenly, I hate lying, Ryū, don't lie, that time I came four times, four times, you know. I'm not going to forget or anything.
    Reiko stood up, her face greenish pale, muttered, What time is it now, what time is it? to no one in particular, staggered to the counter, took the whiskey from Kei's hand, poured some down her