by Graham Marks
I feel you
‘Your parents really not know you here, Adam?’ Aiko looked at Adam and he shook his head. ‘You should call.’
‘Yeah … maybe.’
‘What time is in London now?’
Adam checked the dual time on his watch. ‘Quarter to four in the afternoon.’
‘So you call when we get to Keiko’s, still time.’
‘Look … they know I’m away, but they don’t know I’m here in Tokyo. They think I’m staying somewhere. With a friend.’ Adam shifted in his seat, unease making his skin feel itchy … his parents thought he was away somewhere with his girlfriend. Was now the time to bring this fact out of the bag, or did he continue with the lie? Except, could you be lying if no one had asked you about what you were trying to hide? God, he was crap at the guilt thing. He was thousands of miles from anyone who knew anything about him, so why couldn’t he just blank emotional responsibilities? Just for a few days.
The mostly empty train diddle-dee-dee-diddle-dee-da’d its way towards Shinagawa, where Aiko had told him they’d have to change, and they were sitting down one end of a carriage with only three other people in it. Outside the low-rise sprawl of outer-rim Tokyo spread away either side of the train, houses packed together like boxes on supermarket shelves, tighter, if anything. It looked to Adam like some giant had put his arms round the city and gathered it even closer together, so that you’d have to walk sideways to get between buildings.
Watching Aiko as she got her phone out of her bag and texted someone – probably Ayumi, he thought – he felt like the tables had been turned and he was now kind of in the position Aiko had been back at the restaurant, withholding relevant information. She’d had friends to talk to, though, people there to help her to do the right thing; his subconscious seemed to have lumbered him with Andy-in-the-head, which was no real substitute. Andy would probably make some joke about the truth not hurting, it was just the fist smacking you in the gob that would, once you told it.
‘Look, Aiko …’ Adam, in an unconscious echo of what Aiko had done in the restaurant, took one of her hands in both of his.
‘You got girlfren, right?’
A plain statement of fact. Requiring an honest yes, or a lying no. Simple. How did she do that? Know stuff?
‘Yeah, but …’
‘I got boyfren, kind of.’
A kind-of boyfriend? What kind was that?
‘He was on way out, just not told him yet.’
‘Oh, right …’ Matter-of-fact, or what?
‘I tex him.’
‘You’re going to text him? Right, OK.’
‘I have text him, all done.’
‘When?’
‘Just now.’ Aiko squeezed Adam’s hand and smiled. Nodding.
It’d be his turn, then.
He breathed in and let it out slowly. ‘I, uh, didn’t come here to do anything but try and find Charlie, right?’ Aiko nodded. God, did he sound like he was apologising, making excuses? ‘I wasn’t at the Gaspanic to pick anyone up, just have a drink and relax a bit, before I went back to the place Charlie and Alice worked in. And like I said, I don’t remember a whole lot about last night, but I’m glad it happened. Really. Didn’t know you could get so, ah … so close to someone so fast, not had time to, you know …’ Crap, crap, crap – this was like a letter to an Agony Aunt! ‘Look, I can’t just pick up the phone and text someone, not like you just did … and this is all so, I dunno, so weird, not like part of my real life. Not a dream either, but I’m not supposed to even be here, Aiko – I’d be at college right now, if I hadn’t lost my temper …’ He stopped and looked at Aiko looking back at him, smiling. ‘And yeah … I do like have a girlfriend too.’
‘She nice? Must be pretty, right?’
‘Yeah, she is, but it’s not like being with you. Another girl, another planet. Entirely.’ Adam shook his head, trying to rationalise his feelings, put his emotions into some kind of semblance of order so he could work out how he actually felt, and then attempt to put it all into words that didn’t sound like some dumb, godawful greetings card. ‘This is like being in a kind of parallel universe, Aiko, know what I mean? There’s what I’m doing here, that basically only I know about, and then there’s my life back in England. Everyone, excepting Suzy …’ the name just slipped out, ‘… thinks that’s where I am right now. And it’s like both lives are happening at the same time.’
‘Confuse, right?’
‘100% solid.’
‘That mean yes?’
Adam nodded. Confused? That didn’t even scratch the surface of what he was going through. The thing that had happened with Alice, and what the woman at the Bar Belle had said, would be bad enough without also having to deal with working out how he felt about Suzy. It was weird how he could sit right next to Aiko, close, together, and think about someone else with this almost detached attitude. Is that what it would be like when he got back to London – would Aiko become a separate thing he could kind of observe in a disconnected way? Was that possible?
His thoughts were broken into by the feeling that the train was slowing down as it approached the next station. Aiko stood and picked up her bag from the seat next to her, the train’s brakes beginning to squeal.
‘Change here.’
Adam got up. ‘How did you know?’
‘Know what, Adam?’
‘That I had a girlfriend?’
Aiko tiptoed and kissed him. ‘Easy. You don’t look kind of boy who sit around by himself too much, OK?’
The subject of boyfriends and girlfriends seemed to have been sidelined once they’d left the train at Shinagawa and changed on to the subway, and Adam couldn’t say he was the least bit unhappy about that. He had no doubt that it would be back on the agenda before too long. Stuff like that didn’t just go away.
They came up to street level at Roppongi station, the corner diagonally opposite where Adam had been stiffed by the club tout the first night he’d arrived and come to have a look, all of two days ago. Two days, how unbelievable was that? He found it hard to get his head round so much happening in so short a time, but there was Aiko, holding his hand, to prove it had. As she guided him off through the crowds he looked to see if the same guy was still working the same corner, but there were too many people jamming the pavements. High Touch Town was in full swing.
Aiko’s scooter, a small silver Honda 125, was where she’d left it the night before, and not even chained. So wouldn’t have happened back home. She opened the top box and got an open face helmet out. Adam ran his hand over a now extremely stubbled chin.
‘Just the one helmet?’
‘Keiko has spare, should fit.’
‘Great, but what about now – you have a helmet law here, right?’
‘Sorry?’
‘You have to wear one of these,’ Adam tapped the pink Shoei Aiko was holding, ‘or the cops stop you, yeah?’
‘Sure, if they see you.’
‘If they see you?’
‘No far – I go small roads, we be fine, Adam. Trus me.’
Like he had a choice.
The ride was intense. Aiko buzzed through a criss-cross of narrow side streets, zipping over any major roads they came to and diving back into the network of smaller roads. Adam was a good pillion – he had a couple of mates with scooters and he often got lifts from them – and he started the journey leaning back against the top box, hands loosely on Aiko’s hips. But Aiko rode fast, hardly slowing for corners, making Adam hang on tight as they leant into sharp left- and right-hand bends. Not such a hardship.
It wasn’t cold, even though it was now after midnight, but the wind made Adam’s eyes water as he kept an obsessive watch for any police who might be on patrol. The sky was a dirty purple, the city glow masking out all but the brightest stars, and silhouetted against it a dark, tangled web of cables hung above their heads, an almost organic, jungle growth. As they sped down one street, from somewhere the scent of jasmine cut through the urban street perfume, and then was gone
.
Aiko, slowing for a main junction, turned her head. ‘There soon.’
‘Great.’
‘You OK?’
‘Fine.’ Adam relaxed his hold on her; sure he was fine.
‘I scare you?’
‘No!’ Aiko twisted the accelerator, the scooter leapt across the street and Adam lurched back, his hands pulled upwards over Aiko’s breasts.
She laughed, leaning back into him. ‘Want me to go long way round?’
Adam stood looking out of the window of Keiko’s tenth-floor flat in a nondescript, pale brick apartment block in a street full of similar buildings. In the tiny galley kitchen he could hear the girls, Aiko obviously bringing her friend up to speed with who he was and how he got to be there.
Behind him on a table was the carrier bag of stuff – a peace offering/gift of flowers for Keiko, which they’d forgotten to give her when they arrived, and toiletries for Adam. They’d bought it all at the 24-hour convenience store opposite where the scooter was parked.
Keiko – hair cut in a short, dramatic style, chic black satin trousers, silver and patent leather belt and a white blouse with the collar up – had greeted them at the door, curious and not shy about staring. Adam had felt a bit like an exhibit at a show. She looked the same age as Aiko, but dressed older, wore more make-up and had to be older to have a flat of her own. She was the manager of a clothes boutique where Aiko worked at the weekends; their parents were old friends and Keiko had, Aiko’d said, always been like a big sister to her.
He looked at his watch. Shit! Half past midnight – could he still phone the New Economy about his room, or would he have to wait now until the morning? Adam turned away from the window as the girls came out of the kitchen, giggling at something.
‘You OK, Adam?’
He looked at his watch again. ‘Is it too late to call the hotel?’
‘Oh, sorry – forget, do it now.’ Aiko flipped open her phone. ‘You got number?’
Adam dug the card he’d taken from the hotel out of his wallet and handed it over, watching Aiko dial as Kieko watched him. They smiled at each other.
‘Thanks for letting me stay.’
Keiko nodded a little bow. ‘Dó itashimashite.’
‘OK …’ Adam pasted a smile on and glanced away; what now? One way conversations were pretty pointless, but standing round in silence was kind of weird too …
‘Tókyó – ga suki des ka? Is good?’
‘Oh, yeah … right, um, I like Tokyo – very nice!’ He smiled for real this time, looking over at Aiko, still on the phone. Like a quite a few people he’d seen, she held her hand up so you couldn’t see her mouth when she talked, but he noticed she looked puzzled, frowning slightly. Keiko said something in Japanese as Aiko snapped the phone shut and she shrugged, shaking her head.
‘What’s wrong, Aiko?’
‘Bit not right, Adam.’
‘What? They have my booking, don’t they?’
‘Sure, sure … no that.’
‘What then?’
‘This person,’ she held up her phone, ‘say people been round for you. Couple times.’
‘To the hotel?’ Aiko nodded. ‘But no one knows I’m staying there … and I don’t know anyone in Tokyo anyway – you sure that’s what they said?’
‘Sure, they say someone not too good, either.’ Aiko chewed her lip, eyes darting from Adam to Keiko and back. ‘And they have to say a lot that you no there yet.’
Keiko spoke again, looking at Adam as she did so. The response was a lot of headshaking from Aiko, who then went and got the cellophane-wrapped flowers out of the carrier bag and gave them to Keiko.
‘What was she saying – something about those people?’
‘It was nothing …’
‘Come on, it was something about me and those people going to the hotel.’
‘OK …’ Aiko looked at her friend, then straight up at Adam. ‘She say, what do I know? Jus met you, right? Could be anybody.’
‘And what’d you say?’
‘Bullshit. Something like that.’
‘Right … OK … so, is Keiko still happy with me staying?’
Aiko fired off a sentence, to which Keiko, unwrapping the flowers, nodded impassively. ‘She fine, Adam.’
‘Just fine, or happy fine?’
Keiko went over to a built-in cupboard and took out a plain crystal vase. ‘I happy … no probrem.’
Adam, feeling slightly awkward, hoping he wasn’t trying too hard to appear like the reasonably honest, trustworthy person he thought it was fair to say he was, waved tentatively. ‘Thanks …’
It was hard, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, but he could see why Keiko mightn’t be totally delirious about him; from her point of view, who the hell was he? Adam shook his head. Why were these people asking for him at the New Economy? How did anyone know he was supposed to be staying there?
Did these mystery visitors turning up at the New Economy have anything to do with Charlie?
26
It’s a friend wholly
The spare helmet that Keiko had eventually unearthed from the back of a closet in her bedroom – the one that had belonged to some ex-boyfriend – was a tight fit, but at least now he was legal and hadn’t had to spend the entire journey back to Roppongi literally looking over his shoulder for cops.
Adam had no idea what street the Bar Belle was in – name signs, even for big main roads didn’t appear to be a priority in Tokyo – but he remembered how to get back and directed Aiko pretty much straight there, with only a couple of wrong turns. She rode past the club, its sign flashing above the doorway, and came to a halt where another couple of scooters were parked up. One was a weird contraption, like nothing he’d ever seen before, and Adam dismounted and prised off his helmet off to take a closer look. ‘What the hell’s that?’
‘Deliver noodles.’
‘In the box at the back?’
Aiko nodded. ‘Box go roun corner no like us …’ she put both hands up and leant them sharply sideways, ‘… but do like this …’ She then kept her hands vertical as she mimed them going round a bend. ‘No spill, OK?’
Adam nodded, looking at his watch again: ten to three. ‘Thanks for bringing me over … I could’ve taken the subway, you didn’t need to come. I mean, you’ve got to work tomorrow, right?’
‘Should do, but Keiko give me day off. Good luck for you, right?’
He went over to her, standing checking her hair in one of the scooter’s wing mirrors, reached out and touched her cheek. ‘Why’d you make such a big deal about coming with me tonight … think I need protection?’
‘They see you with girl, won’t think you trouble, Adam.’ She looked past him, back up towards the club. ‘People coming out now.’
Adam turned to see a handful of Japanese men in suits stagger out on to the street and wander off into what was left of the night. A few minutes later a couple of European girls came out and stood for a moment, lighting cigarettes.
‘We go, right?’ Aiko nodded towards the girls and they both started walking back up to the club’s entrance.
Adam glanced back at the scooter. ‘Hang on, you’ve left your keys in the ignition.’
‘I do this too much.’ Aiko went back and pulled the key and its cartoon character fob out from where it was hanging under the handlebars.
As they walked up to the two girls, one of whom was now on her mobile, a third came out of the club and stood a few feet away, leaning against the wall and looking at her watch. Aiko put her arm round Adam and hooked a thumb through one of his belt loops in a move he knew was meant to signal ‘we are a couple’.
‘Scuse me …’ Three pairs of eyes swivelled to look at them. ‘Hi … I just wondered if, um, like any of you worked with Alice and Charlie?’
The girl on the mobile turned her back on them and carried on muttering into her phone; her friend looked away as she spoke. ‘Who?’ Heavy accent, not English.
‘Alice Reardon an
d Charlie Grey, English girls … Charlie went missing two weeks ago. Did you know them?’
The girl dropped her cigarette and stubbed it out with the toe of her shoe. ‘No,’ she nodded at her companion, ‘new here … Natasha, we go.’ She turned on her heels and walked off, her friend following, still on the phone.
The lie was so blatant, so like the girl couldn’t give a shit whether he realised or not, that Adam was shocked, unable to say anything as a clutch of girls spilled out on to the street, like a class being let out of school, and disappeared. He looked at Aiko, making a ‘What was that all about?’ face.
‘I know Charlie and Alice.’
‘Sorry?’ Adam looked up, not realising there was anyone left outside the Bar Belle. He saw the girl who’d come down after Natasha and her friend, still leaning against the wall.
‘I go dis way.’ She pushed herself off the wall and walked away down the narrow street.
‘Come on.’ Aiko urged Adam forward. ‘She want to talk.’
It turned out Oxana, from the Ukraine, twenty-three, and at the end of a long day, wanted to drink much more than she wanted to talk. Sitting with her in a cramped, smoky bar called JoJo’s, Adam had paid for three vodkas before she decided the time was right to actually say anything to him about Charlie and Alice.
‘I saw you yesterday, talking to Miki.’ Oxana swirled ice around the tall glass as she took a deep drag of her cigarette.
Adam nodded. ‘She said Charlie didn’t leave the club with a customer, like Alice told my parents.’ He watched Oxana’s pretty-but-hard face, fine lines radiating out from the corners of her mascara and kohl-black shadowed eyes, dark roots beginning to show in her corn-yellow hair. Cool, seen-it-all-before, not giving anything away.
‘She your gáru-frendo?’ Oxana nodded at Aiko.
‘What?’
‘She say am I your girlfren.’
Adam, leaning forward with both elbows on the table, smiled to himself … there was that subject, back again like he’d known it would be. ‘Yeah … yeah, she is.’ But time to change it. ‘You speak Japanese?’
‘Hostess Japanese – uokka-tonikku o onegai shimas …’ she held up her now half-empty glass, “… subarashí ude-dokei …” She showed Adam the shiny new Rolex on her wrist. ‘What you need to know?’