Read by Strangers by Philip Dean Walker

Author:Philip Dean Walker [Walker, Philip Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lethe Press
Published: 2018-05-18T04:00:00+00:00

AT FIRST, TETSUYA was convinced he’d made the biggest mistake by moving to Singapore.

His mother called him every day in the beginning. She spoke about the most commonplace things. She said that she needed to be reminded to pick up eggs for the week because there was a special or that she’d found a stone shaped like a face in the park near Sugamo and what did he think that meant and should she send it to him? Her voice sounded far away, forced into unnaturally high tones he’d never heard her use before. Tetsuya imagined her excitement while she dialed his number and then the slow, steady letdown that came halfway through their conversation as she realized that her son no longer needed her, that he surely could get by without knowing the price of bread for the week or the hair appointment it had taken her weeks to book. Sure, he needed a mother like everyone else, but now she seemed to be just another thing to return to nostalgically from time to time in his mind. She was part of the same fading photograph, the details of his life receding into the background and becoming part of a great, white wash. He knew everything and everyone in his life eventually would find its way to that place.

Singapore smelled. Tokyo had been no great joy, but there at least had been a certain charm to its odor: old, wet flowers waiting to be tossed. The Singapore smell was decidedly different and made him think twice about going outside.

His first day at the new office was a welcome change from the time he’d spent in the surrounding environs. The building itself was brand new and located in a high-end business district—both gloriously smelling like nothing. If he had to package the scent as one of those dangly car trees, he would’ve called it “Corporate Chill,” and the tree would’ve been a light gray, the color of fresh cigarette ash.

Tetsuya’s office was at the end of a long hallway with the restrooms for the floor right around the corner in their own niche. The company had given him a secretary, Mei Ling, whom he shared with one other employee, a man named Ji Min. Tetsuya and Ji Min met only briefly upon his arrival.

Everyone used English in the office, and Tetsuya was comfortable with that. The years he’d studied with native-speaking tutors had given him a mastery over the language and a bit of a New Zealand accent, as his primary tutor had been from Wellington. He’d even managed to triumph over the unconquerable “r-l” confusion by making the word licorice part of his daily vocabulary.

Never having had a secretary in the past, he wasn’t sure what to do with Mei Ling. Fragrance research and development wasn’t something he necessarily needed assistance to perform. Having worked on the chemical-manufacturing side of the business in Tokyo, he had more than enough experience in carrying out market research and conducting fragrance field trials and whatever else needed to be done.

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