Chapter 6 5

1:18 Mary and Kaoru walked in the cold backstreet.Kaoru was sending Mary somewhere.Mary looked like a boy in her dark blue Boston Red Sox cap pulled down to the brim.That's probably why she always carried a hat with her. "You came to help me," Kaoru said, "it's the time when you can't figure out the north, south, east, and west." The two walked down the same short-cut steps as when they came. "Hey, if you have time, where would you like to go?" Kaoru suggested. "Where?" "Thirsty and want a cold beer. How about you?" "I can't drink," said Mary.

"Drink the juice. Anyway, don't you want to find a place to kill the time until the morning?" The two sat down at the bar of a small bar.There were no other customers in the bar.An old Ben Webster record was playing: My Ideal.Plays of the fifties.Instead of CDs, the shelves lined up with forty or fifty LPs from the past.Kaoru was drinking draft beer in a tall thin mug.In front of Mary stood PERIER mineral water mixed with lime juice.The aged foreman was silently shaving ice at the bar. "She's pretty!" said Mary. "The Chinese?" "Ok." "Ah. However, you can't always be so beautiful when you do that kind of thing, and you will soon be worn out, really. I have seen this a lot."

"She and I are nineteen years old." "The problem is," Kaoru said, biting a pistachio nut, "it has nothing to do with age. That kind of work is hard, and ordinary nerves can't bear it no matter what, so I need an injection, and it's over after the injection." Mary was silent. "You, college student?" "Yes. Study Chinese at the University of Foreign Studies." "University of Foreign Studies..." Kaoru said, "What do you do after graduation?" "If possible, I would like to work as an individual translator or interpreter, because it is not suitable for a company to work."

"He has a good brain!" "It's not very easy to talk about. But when I was a child, my parents kept saying that I was not good-looking, at least I had to improve my studies, otherwise I would be hopeless." Xun narrowed his eyes and looked at Mary's face: "Aren't you cute? It's not a compliment, it's true. The so-called bad looks refer to people like me." Mary made a slightly uncomfortable gesture of shrugging her shoulders: "My sister is one of a kind in a hundred, and she is eye-catching. Since she was a child, people have often compared her sisters with her siblings, but they look so different. No wonder, the comparison is indeed heaven and earth. I'm small, with small breasts, curly hair, a big mouth, and short-sighted with astigmatism."

Kaoru smiled and said, "Most people call it individuality." "But I can't think that way, because I've always been told that I don't look good, I don't look good." "So keep working hard?" "Generally. But I don't like to compete with others for grades. I'm not good at sports, I can't make friends, and sometimes I get bullied. Therefore, I couldn't go to school when I was in the third grade of elementary school." "Refused to go to school?" "I hate going to school so much that I spit out what I eat in the morning, or have diarrhea in a mess."

"That's right. My grades are terrible, but I don't hate going to school every day-if there is someone who doesn't like it, I will fight it, no matter who it is." Mary smiled faintly: "If only I could do it..." "Ah, let's not mention it, this. It's not something to show off in the world... Then, what happened next?" "There is a school in Yokohama for Chinese children. A girl who was close to me when I was a child goes to school there. Half of the classes are in Chinese, but unlike Japanese schools, it doesn't matter if the grades are not so tight. Besides, I have friends. I thought it would be okay to go there. Of course my parents objected, but because there was no other way for me to go to school..."

"So stubborn!" "Perhaps," Mary admitted. "That Chinese school, Japanese can also enter?" "Yes, no qualifications required." "But you didn't know Chinese at that time, right?" "Well, I don't know a word. But because I am still young and I have friends to help, I learned it quickly. In short, it is a very comfortable school. I have been there from junior high school to high school. But from the perspective of parents, it is not so good. It’s very interesting. They expect me to enter a world-renowned preparatory school for further education, and to work as a lawyer or doctor in the future. It can be regarded as sharing roles... Sister Snow White and a talented younger sister.”

"How beautiful is your sister?" Mary nodded and took a sip of mineral water: "I was a model in a magazine in junior high school—the kind of girly magazine for teenage girls." "Hey," Kaoru said, "it's really depressing to have such a beautiful sister on top. Not to mention, why is a girl like you wandering around in this kind of place in the middle of the night?" "like me?" "How should I put it, you can tell that she is an authentic girl at a glance." "I don't want to go home." "Argued with your family?"

Mary shook her head: "It's not like that, I just want to stay somewhere that is not my own home until dawn." "Has this kind of thing happened before?" Mary was silent. Kaoru said, "Maybe I'm nosy, but to tell you the truth, this street is not a place for a real girl to spend the night alone. Dangerous guys are wandering around. Even I, I almost ran into it a few times recently. Trouble. From the time the last tram leaves until the first train arrives, this place is different from the daytime.” Mary took the Boston Red Sox baseball cap that lay on the bar and fiddled with the brim for a moment.She was thinking about something in her head, but finally pushed it out of her head.

Mary said in a gentle but decisive tone, "Excuse me, can I say something else?" Kaoru grabbed a few nuts and put them into her mouth together. "Yes, of course. Talk about something else." Mary pulled Camel, the filter, from the pocket of her blazer and lit it with a BIG lighter. "Oh, smoking!" Kaoru said admiringly. "sometimes." "Honestly, not much." Mary blushed, but smiled unnaturally. "Can I have one?" Kaoru said. "Please." Kaoru picked up the "camel" and lit it with Mary's lighter.Sure enough, Kaoru's way of smoking was more like that.

"Have a boyfriend?" Mary shook her head slightly: "I'm not interested in boys right now." "Girls are better?" "That's not what it means. I don't know." Kaoru smokes while listening to music.The body relaxed, and fatigue began to seep faintly on the face. "Just wanted to ask," said Mary, "why is the name of the hotel 'Alpha City'?" "This—, why? I'm afraid our president chose it. The name of the love hotel can be whatever you want. Anyway, it's a place where men and women come to do it. As long as there are beds and bathrooms, it's OK. Nobody minds a name or anything, just any one. Why do you ask that?" "City Alpha, one of my favorite films. Jean-Luc Godard." "I've never heard of this." "French cinema from a long time ago, from the 1960s." "Then, maybe I got it from there. I'll ask the president next time I see you. What do you mean, Alpha City?" "The name of a fictional future city." Mary said, "a city somewhere in the Milky Way." "So, is it a science fiction movie? Like "Star Wars"?" "No, no, no special effects shots and fights or anything... It's not very well explained. It's a conceptual film. Black and white, with lots of lines, the kind of film shown in an art house." "Conceptual?" "For example, in Alpha City, people who cry and cry will be arrested and publicly executed." "why?" "Because Alpha City doesn't allow people to have deep feelings. So there is no love or anything like that, and neither conflicts nor irony. Everything is handled mathematically." Kaoru frowned: "irony?" "People look at themselves and things that belong to them objectively or reversely, and find out the elements of jokes." Kaoru thought about Mary's explanation and said, "I don't quite understand it. However, does sex exist in Alpha City?" "Fucking exists." "Fucking without love and irony?" "right." Kaoru laughed as if it was funny: "Thinking about it this way, it matches the name of this love hotel quite well." A well-dressed small middle-aged man came in, sat at one end of the bar, ordered a cocktail, and whispered to the head waiter.Looks like a regular visitor.Usual seats, usual drinks.One of the mysterious men and women who live in the late-night city. "Have you ever been a women's wrestler?" Mary asked. "Ah, for a long time. Tall and strong, got drafted in high school, won straight away, been a buffoon ever since. Hair blond, eyebrows shaved, shoulders I even stabbed a red scorpion, and it’s on TV from time to time! I also went to Hong Kong and Taiwan matches, and there’s a group like the ‘local support club’, although it’s not big. Haven’t seen women’s wrestling, have you?” "Haven't seen it yet." "It wasn't an easy business, and ended up breaking my back, and quit at twenty-nine. I'm not a cunning guy, and it's all downright pounding, and the body is broken. There's a limit to being strong. Well. I’m not born to do tricky things, maybe I’m full of professionalism, the audience cheers me up, I’ve overdone it without realizing it. Now as long as it’s raining continuously, my back will be tense and painful At that time, you can only do nothing and lie motionless." Kaoru made a loud "creak" and turned her neck. "When I was popular, I made money, and people around me praised me, but after I retired, I had almost nothing left, not even a single penny. It's nothing more than building a house for my parents in the countryside in Yamagata to be a filial piety. But later, he helped his younger brother repay his gambling debts, spent it on relatives he didn’t know very well, and invested in inexplicable projects brought by bank clerks... After the money was gone, no one came forward. This What have I been doing for more than ten years? Thinking about it this way, I was extremely frustrated at the time. Before I was thirty, my body collapsed and my savings were zero. When I was worrying about what to do in the future, the current society I met in the support club Ask me how it is to be the manager of a love hotel. I said it was the manager, and you have seen it, but half of it is actually a bodyguard." Kaoru drank the remaining beer in his glass and glanced at his watch. "Is the job over there all right?" Mary asked. "Love hotels are the most relaxing time. The tram has stopped, and almost all the guests who come in are staying overnight. It is impossible to have a decent movement until the morning. Officially, it is still working time, but drinking a glass of beer will not cause any retribution of." "Work until morning, then go home?" "I rented a house in Yoyogi, but it's the same thing when I go back, and no one is waiting, so I often sleep in the hotel lounge and go straight to work. What do you do next?" "Find somewhere to read to pass the time." "Let me tell you, if you want, you can stay with me. Today is not full, and you can stay in an empty room until morning. Although it is deserted to live in a love hotel room alone, there is no room for sleep. The problem, the bed is big enough." Mary nodded slightly, but she had made up her mind: "Thank you. But I think I can find a way." "That's good..." Kaoru said. "Takahashi practicing around here? Band practice?" "Ah, Takahashi? It's in the basement of a building over there 'squeaking' until the morning. Don't you want to take a look? It's really noisy." "No, that's not what I mean, just a random question." "Well. But that kid is definitely not bad, he has merits. He looks sloppy, but he's unexpectedly genuine in his bones. He's not that bad." "How did you meet him?" Kaoru twisted his lips and said, "There's a very interesting story in it. But instead of it coming out of my mouth, it's better to ask him directly." Kaoru paid the bar bill. "No one to blame for not going home all night?" "Let's say I'm staying at a friend's house. My parents don't think much of me, no matter what." "I must think that children have their own opinions, so it's okay to let them go." Mary said nothing about it. "However, in fact, there are times when you don't have your own opinion." Mary frowned slightly: "How can you see that?" "It's not about whether you can see or not. Nineteen years old is always like that. I have also been nineteen years old, and I understand this." Mary looked at Xun's face and wanted to say something, but felt that it was not good to say, so she changed her mind. "There is a shop called 'Skayraku' near here. Let me take you there." Kaoru said, "The manager of the shop there is my friend, entrust you to him, and let you stay until the morning. In this way How are you?" Mary nodded.After the record is turned, the needle is automatically lifted, and the needle tube returns to the arm rest.The head waiter went to the record player to change the records.Slowly, he removed the record, put it in the sleeve, took out the new record, inspected the surface under the light, put it on the turntable, pressed the start button, and the stylus dropped back into the record.A low stylus hum.Immediately, Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" (Sophisticated Lady) flowed out.Harry Carney's languid bass clarinet solo.The deliberate movements of the head waiter give this bar a unique flow of time. Mary asked the foreman, "Can only LPs be played?" "I don't like CDs," replied the foreman. "why?" "It's too chirping." "Are you a crow?" Kaoru joked. "But don't records take a lot of time?—trading around," said Mary. The foreman laughed and said, "It's the middle of the night! Anyway, there won't be any trams until the morning, so it's useless to be anxious." "This old man is awkward when he speaks," Xun said. "In the middle of the night, time flows in the middle of the night." As he spoke, the foreman struck a match and lit a cigarette, "It's useless to resist." "My uncle has a lot of records, too," said Mary. "He said that he doesn't like the sound of CDs anyway. It's almost all jazz, and he often listens to it when he goes to play. He was young and didn't understand much music, but he liked the smell of old record sleeves and the creaking movement of the needle when it fell. .” The foreman nodded silently. "It's also this uncle who told me about Jean-Luc Godard's films," Marie said to Kaoru. "Are you angry with your uncle?" Kaoru asked. "In comparison," said Mary, "a college teacher, but he always seems to be idle. He died of a heart attack three years ago." "Come again if you like, except on Sundays when they open at seven," said the head waiter. "Thank you," said Mary. Mary took the bar matches from the bar, put them in her coat pocket, and moved the high chair down.A stylus that travels along the grain of a record.Lazy and sensual Ellington's music.Music in the middle of the night. 1:18 "Skajraku" bar.Big neon sign.Bright guest seats that can be seen from the glass window.Beside a large dining table, a group of men and women who looked like college students chatted and laughed loudly.Compared with the "Deniz" just now, this place is much more lively, and the depth of the urban night in the second half of the night has not yet reached here. Mary washes her hands in the bathroom of "Skajraku".She was not wearing a hat at this time, nor was she wearing glasses.An old Pet Shop Boys hit: "Jealousy" blared from ceiling speakers on low bass.The large satchel is placed next to the sink.She washed her hands carefully with the liquid soap in the bathroom, as if to thoroughly wash off some sticky substance stuck between her fingers.From time to time, she raised her eyes to look at her face in the mirror, then turned off the water, looked at her fingers under the light, and wiped them dry with a paper towel.Then she brought her face closer to the mirror and stared at the face in the mirror with eyes that predicted what might happen, so as not to miss any small changes.However nothing happened.She leaned on the sink with her hands and closed her eyes, counted a few times, opened her eyes, and looked at her face again.Still no change. She simply smoothed the hair on her forehead with her hands, pulled up the hood of the windbreaker she was wearing under the sports jacket, then bit her lip as if to encourage herself, and nodded her head a few times.In the mirror, she also bit her lip and nodded her head a few times.She put her bag on her shoulder and walked out of the bathroom, and the door closed behind her. The camera as our point of view stopped in the bathroom for a while, and continued to introduce the scene inside.Mary was no longer there, and no one was there, except for the music that continued to stream from the ceiling speakers.Has become a Hall and Oz tune: "I can't go for that."But upon closer inspection, Mary's figure is still visible in the mirror of the sink.Mary in the mirror looked at this side from the other side, with persistent eyes, as if waiting for something to happen.However, there is no one on this side, only her image remains in the mirror of the "Skajraku" bathroom. It got a little dark all around.In the deepening darkness, "I Can't Go For It" is flowing. (Note: ① A kind of mineral water produced in France. Or translated as "French sparkling mineral water". ②French film director and representative of the New Wave film Jean-Luc Godard (Jean-Luc Godard, 1930-) filmed in 1965. ③It means "irony, cynicism". ④The name of a county in Japan, located in the northeast of Honshu. ⑤Duke Ellington, African-American jazz composer and pianist (1899-1974). )