Parade (Vintage Contemporaries) by Shuichi Yoshida

Author:Shuichi Yoshida [Yoshida, Shuichi]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery & Crime, Thriller
ISBN: 9780307454935
Amazon: 0307454932
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2005-01-01T11:00:00+00:00

SATORU KOKUBO (18)

4.1

LAST NIGHT MISAKI, Naoki’s old girlfriend, showed up. So there’s one more person in this group of people-playing-at-being-friends. A nutcase girl who comes up with a name like ‘Fernando Boulevard’ for the Karasuyama shopping district. Apparently their apartment was originally rented by Naoki and this nutty girl. A cowardly college student. A love-addicted girl. A freelance illustrator who likes to hang out with gay guys. And a health-obsessed jogger. If I hadn’t met them there, there’s no way I would ever talk to people like that. Still, hanging out with them turns out to be more fun than I ever imagined.

Last night I let this new girl, Misaki, have the sofa. Then I went out to Shinjuku, after ten, and Makoto and I did our usual thing, taking speed in a public toilet and then hanging out, high, in the park. In less than five minutes this guy who stuck his tongue out like a lizard picked up Makoto, and I figured this night I was out of luck, but then Sylvia, a regular customer, picked me up. For whatever reason, ever since I started living in that apartment customers haven’t been biting.

I went with Sylvia – who’s shooting up so many hormones she’s pretty emotionally unstable – to her place, serviced her, and finally fell asleep near dawn, but still woke up at eleven, had one of her Calorie Mate bars for lunch, and left. I was wandering in the direction of Hatagaya Station when I saw a young girl exiting a high-end condo, the kind with a self-locking front door. Her profile reminded me a bit of Koto. The girl checked her mailbox, which had the number of her apartment on it, dumped a sack of rubbish, and walked off towards the station.

I bought a hot dog and milk at a convenience store, sat on some railings, and kept an eye on the condo. When a young guy, college student by the look of him, came out, I slipped inside just before the front door locked. I went to the seventh floor and with the handy wire I always carry with me, prised open the door to her place in under two minutes.

The apartment was neat and tidy. The pillows were in a strange location, but the bed was nicely made, and the dried flowers hanging on the wall smelled like lavender. A pair of flesh-coloured stockings were discarded on the bed, perhaps because they had runs in them, one stocking hung down towards the wooden floor. There was a burnt smell of butter and toast, probably the remains of breakfast. A typical studio apartment with white walls and wooden flooring.

I took a look around the place, went back down the short hallway to the front door. I locked it and lined up my trainers, which I’d been carrying, next to some black pumps.

In the middle of the apartment was a low table. This girl who resembled Koto must have had some tea before she left – there was a mug with a tiny amount of tea in the bottom.

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