we?’
‘You have made me feel very comfortable,’ Taro agreed, despite feeling a knot pull tight in his stomach.
Tokin glanced again at his watch. ‘You’ll be thinking so even more in twenty minutes from now. I’ve sent for a special visitor. As I understand it, you are recently single. Such stress can tax a man’s strength and distract him from his work. On a job that involves a clear-headed approach to a dozen extremely beautiful young women, it could even be a recipe for disaster. Therefore, it is nothing more than shrewd business that I take the edge off whatever loneliness you might be feeling. No need to thank me. All I ask is you take advantage of the opportunities as they come. After all, that is the difference between success and failure.’
Taro bowed deeply as Tokin headed purposefully for the door.
25
‘You must be Taro.’ She was one of the most beautiful women Taro had ever seen. She had large kindly eyes, an endearing button nose and a long slim neck. She was elegantly attired in a white blouse and black skirt and wire framed glasses. She was the office worker the average businessman dreamed of marrying. The fact she was standing at Taro’s door now had everything to do with the man who had just departed. Whatever happened, Taro would not judge her. He had been bought by the same man, too.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘What’s your name?’
The woman wasn’t interested. ‘Everything I have to offer you will be some kind of lie,’ she said bluntly. ‘A few sips will taste a lot sweeter than if you gulp.’
Taro folded his arms and looked on appraisingly. ‘Well, why don’t you confide in me about one of your lies? It will help us break the ice.’
The woman was unflustered. ‘It is rude to ask a magician her secrets. In some instances the same applies to a liar like me.’
Taro grinned. ‘You seem more truthful to me than most.’
‘You can call me Mana. May I come in?’
Taro stepped back. ‘Sure. I apologise for my poor manners. I still don’t think of myself as the head of the household.’
Mana stepped out of her stylishly simple black high heels. Her knees peeked out from under her skirt. They were perfectly shaped. Mana caught Taro looking at them and smiled fleetingly, daringly. ‘That’s fine. Tokin has asked me to take on the role of girlfriend for you tonight.’ She breezed into the apartment and looked around. ‘A gentleman allows his girlfriend to be head of the household. He is courteous, gentle and considerate. He doesn’t try to rush things. He will watch the television programs and play the video games of interest to his girlfriend. And he will make comments that will impress her with their insightfulness. There is a good chance his reward will come, for if there is one thing a girlfriend must be good at, it is rewarding her man’s achievements.’
The way she said that made Taro feel it.
‘The apartment has got a nice TV,’ he said. ‘Are you hungry?’
Mana put her handbag on a chair. She delved into it and pulled out a home delivery pizza menu. ‘That was the other thing Tokin was specific about. We are to order pizza. It seems strange to me he would insist on that. Any idea why?’
Taro didn’t know what to say but he was somehow moved. He took out his cigarettes and offered her one.
‘Thanks, boyfriend,’ she said, taking a cigarette in her long, thin fingers. She let him light it and handed over the menu. ‘Order what you like. One thing I am sure of is this pizza fetish is not for my benefit.’
26
‘Could I leave for Tokyo tomorrow?’ she murmured. ‘If you’re asking me will I be missed, the answer is no. My sister and her husband will look after my parents when they retire. And produce grandchildren for them to mind. My role in life is to not shame my family. Being on the Takarazuka Music School short list was the closest I ever got to doing something more than that. Now I’m back to being a lingerie model.’
There was a sweetness in the girl’s tone of voice. Taro guessed she could really sing.
It was a pleasantly cool Friday night. They were sitting on the polished stone seats beneath the landmark Osaka Sky Building. The girl’s name was Rie. She had been halfway down the list of girls Taro had picked up from Waneta back in Tokyo more than a week earlier now. Rie was wearing a black t-shirt and pink jeans. She had a pretty face. Her front teeth may have been oversized and crooked but the only reason Taro got to see them was that she was actually opening her mouth, talking and laughing. The other contenders Taro had spoken with had been inanimate objects; apparently they only came alive on cue, and it certainly wasn’t to Taro’s cue.
But Rie had been different: a friendly disposition from the very first call he had made to her a week earlier. Two dinners at the Dotonburi area, where every night was Saturday night, and now in the gardens of the Sky Building, a renowned dating spot, he was ready to close the deal.
‘I’m the youngest in my family too,’ he said. ‘I know what you mean.’
‘But you are in charge of security staff for an exclusive night spot in Ginza,’ she said. ‘You have done very well for yourself.’
‘It was not easy at the beginning. I was lucky to find an employer willing to take a chance on new talent.’ Taro felt himself starting to choke on what he was saying. He turned away, made it look like he was interested in what all the other couples were doing in their own little spots in the dimly lit gardens. Mostly they were just talking. Some hand holding and leg touching was the closest thing he could see to physical affection. With the racy women Taro had been associating with in Tokyo, he had almost forgotten the conservative nature of the majority. It wasn’t helping him swallow down the lump all the lie telling had formed in his throat. Perhaps the only way to get rid of it was to tell some even bigger ones. He turned back to Rie.
‘Tokin has authorised me to offer a reward to a suitable applicant who is willing to relocate to Tokyo on short notice.’
Rie’s attention was piqued. ‘What kind of reward?’
‘A Louis Vuitton handbag of your choice. Tokin stipulated that it should only be on condition you are able to take the evening train to Tokyo. But don’t worry, the morning train will do.’
‘And if I go to Tokyo but don’t like it there?’
‘You can take the next train back again. It’s an opportunity for you. That’s all. A possible direction. Come check it out. A beautiful girl like you will have others, if this is not what you want. But it won’t take much to see if this is a job that could be of interest. Just a short train ride to Tokyo. And Tokin is a very friendly man. I’m sure you’ll like him.’
Taro was surprised with himself; he rarely spoke so much. But the reaction was pleasantly positive.
Rie smiled broadly with those crooked teeth. ‘Okay, I’ll try it out. See you tomorrow. At Shin Osaka Station?’
‘That’s right.’
An awkward silence followed. Business was completed and neither of them had another thing to talk about; Taro also got the feeling that neither of them had another place to go.
‘It’s your last night in Osaka then,’ he said. ‘How about I buy you a drink?’
Rie nodded without hesitation. ‘Do you play pool?’
‘I can point the stick in the right direction.’
‘That’s good. Playing pool helps me relax when I can’t sleep.’
‘You mean it relaxes you so you can sleep?’
‘No, that’s not what I said.’
‘Well, how do you know you won’t be able to sleep tonight?’
‘I’ve had a dream since I was a little girl and I’ve lost it, and just to prove it I’m taking a train tomorrow. I don’t quite know how the choice became so easy.’
‘To go to Tokyo?’
‘Yes. To go to Tokyo to be a hostess in a bar. Such girls don’t join Takarazuka, do they?’
‘I wouldn’t worry about it. Only old ladies like the Takarazuka Review these days. Tomorrow at the station I’ll give you a really nice bag. That’ll make you feel alright.’
Rie went quiet, making it impos
sible for Taro to know if he had said the right thing or not. He figured it must have been tough growing up with a dream. Life set up for failure from the outset.
He stood up and realised for the first time how hunched over was her posture. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go play some pool.’
27
Taro woke up late the next day and spent an hour with the New Otani Hotel’s buffet breakfast. It didn’t give him long to get his bags together for the eleven o’clock checkout. After a week there, however, he figured he deserved some grace.
His thoughts rarely strayed from the long session at the Balabushka pool room and did not regret that he completed it by trying to coax Rie into his taxi. He had been impressed with how smoothly and good humouredly she had turned him down. Such skill would hold her in good stead in the long Ginza nights to come.
Taro didn’t rush through cleaning his teeth. He wanted them to be whiter. Finally he was ready. He left his bags in the care of the courteous reception staff and then set out in search for another kind of bag: Louis Vuitton, and he did so just as carefully as a fashion conscious young girl looking for the perfect accessory for her collection. Taro, however, was not only fussing over which bag he liked best but also which shop he could best steal it from. A shop with lax security on the fourth floor of a crowded shopping mall was one candidate and a street level shop with earnest looking security guards and plenty of room to run on the streets outside was another.
Weeds in the Jungle Page 14