Mandarins Read Free Page B

It was still light enough that on the broad expanse of sand the footprints of the plovers were faintly visible. Yet even as the sea drew along the shore its vast arc of foam, stretching as far as the eye could reach, the entire horizon was slipping away into darkness.
    â€œWe shall take our leave then.”
    â€œ Say ō nara .”
    Having parted company with H and N-san, M and I made our wayunhurriedly back along the chilly edge of the waves. Their roar was in our ears—and then from time to time the clear tone of the evening cicadas’ 3 singing in the pine wood that lay more than three hundred meters away.
    â€œWhat do you say?” I asked M. At some point, I had fallen five or six steps behind him.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œAbout us going back to T ō ky ō too?”
    â€œHmm . . . Can’t say that would be a bad idea.”
    And then he began whistling ever so cheerily: “It’s a long way to Tipperary . . .”

AN EVENING CONVERSATION
    â€œOne can’t be too careful these days. Even Wada’s taken up with a geisha.”
    Fujii, a lawyer, drained his cup of l ă oji Å­ , and, with an exaggerated flourish, looked around at the faces of his listeners. Sitting at the table were the six of us, middle-aged men who had once lived in the same school dormitory. It was a rainy evening in June, on the second floor of the T ō t ō tei in Hibiya. I need hardly say that by the time Fujii had made this remark, his cheeks, as well as our own, were ruddy with drink.
    â€œHaving made that shocking discovery,” he continued to declaim, apparently warming to the subject, “I was struck by how times have changed.
    â€œBack in the days when Wada was studying medicine, he was a j Å« d ō champion, a ringleader in the room-and-board protests, a great admirer of Livingstone, and the sort of stoic who could go coatlessin the dead of winter. In other words, he was quite the dashing young man, was he not? The very idea that he would become acquainted with a geisha! And apparently she’s from Yanagibashi and goes by the name of Koen.”
    â€œHave you changed your drinking haunts?”
    This shot from the dark came from Iinuma, a bank branch manager.
    â€œChanged drinking haunts? Why do you ask?”
    â€œDidn’t you take him to wherever it was? Wasn’t it then that he met this geisha?”
    â€œNow let’s not jump rashly to conclusions! Who said anything about taking Wada anywhere?”
    Fujii haughtily arched his eyebrows.
    â€œIt was—let me see—what day last month? In any case, it was on a Monday or a Tuesday. I hadn’t seen Wada in some time. He suggested going to Asakusa. Now, mind you, I’m not that keen on Asakusa, but as I was with an old friend, I immediately agreed. We set out in broad daylight for Rokku . . .”
    â€œAnd you met her in the cinema?” I interrupted.
    â€œ That would have been preferable. As it happened, it was at the merry-go-round. And to make matters worse, we each wound up astride a wooden horse. Looking back, I’m struck by the absurdity of it all! I didn’t suggest it, but he was so eager . . . Riding a merry-go-round isn’t easy. Someone like you, Noguchi, with your weak stomach, should stay off altogether.”
    â€œWe’re not children. Who at our age would ride a merry-go-round?” remarked Noguchi, a university professor. He laughed scornfully, his mouth full of S ō nghu ā eggs, but Fujii continued nonchalantly, glancing occasionally at Wada, a look of triumph in his eyes.
    â€œWada sat on a white horse; mine was red. What is this ? I thought,as we began to go around in time with the band. My rump was dancing, my eyes were spinning, and it was only quite fortuitously that I did not go tumbling off. But then I saw that outside the railing there was a woman in the crowd who appeared to be a geisha. With pale skin and moist eyes, she had a