House of the Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata

Author:Yasunari Kawabata
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780900608018
Publisher: Quadriga P.
Published: 1969-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

5

The new year came, the wild sea was of dead winter. On land there was little wind.

“It was good of you to come on such a cold night.” At the house of the sleeping beauties, the woman opened the door.

“That’s why I’ve come,” said old Eguchi. “To die on a night like this, with a young girl’s skin to warm him—that would be paradise for an old man.”

“You say such pleasant things.”

“An old man lives next door to death.”

A stove was burning in the usual upstairs room. And as usual the tea was good.

“I feel a draft.”

“Oh?” She looked around. “There shouldn’t be any.”

“Do we have a ghost with us?”

She started and looked at him. Her face was white.

“Give me another cup. A full one. Don’t cool it. Let me have it off the fire.”

She did as ordered. “Have you heard something?” she asked in a cold voice.

“Maybe.”

“Oh? You heard and still you’ve come?” Sensing that Eguchi had heard, she had evidently decided not to hide the secret; but her expression was forbidding. “I shouldn’t, I know, after having brought you all this distance—but may I ask you to leave?”

“I came with my eyes open.”

She laughed. One could hear something diabolical in the laugh.

“It was bound to happen. Winter is a dangerous time for old men. Maybe you should close down in winter.”

She did not answer.

“I don’t know what sort of old men come here, but if another dies and then another, you’ll be in trouble.”

“Tell it to the man who owns the place. What have I done wrong?” Her face was ashen.

“Oh, but you did do something wrong. It was still dark, and they took the body to an inn. I imagine you helped.”

She clutched at her knees. “It was for his sake. For his good name.”

“Good name? The dead have good names? But you’re right. It’s stupid, but I imagine things do have to be patched over. More for the sake of the family. Does the owner of this place have the inn too?”

The woman did not answer.

“I doubt if the newspapers would have had much to say, even if he did die beside a naked girl. If I’d been that old man, I think I’d have been happier left as I was.”

“There would have been investigations, and the room itself is a little strange, you know, and the other gentlemen who are good enough to come here might have had questions asked. And then there are the girls.”

“I imagine the girl would sleep on without knowing the old man had died. He might toss about a little, but I doubt if that would be enough to wake her up.”

“But if we had left him here, then we’d have had to carry the girl out and hide her. And even then they’d have known that a woman had been with him.”

“You’d take her away?”

“And that would be too clear a crime.”

“I don’t suppose she’d wake up just because an old man went cold beside her.”

“I suppose not.”

“So she didn’t even know he was dead.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.