The Eyes in the Dark by Chris Ward

Author:Chris Ward [Ward, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AMMFA Publishing

24

Trouble for Forbes

She ignored Banba-sensei’s calls for as long as she could, but after four days she gave in. She didn’t need him to tell her what she already knew—her contract had been cancelled. In the wake of O-Remo’s drug bust and her subsequently jilting him at the altar, her solo album had bombed. No longer the starlet former lead singer with Girls Chorus, she was the washed up former lover of a drug-addled failed rock star.

Her career was in freefall, but Banba-sensei said he had one last case to make to her.

She met him in a late-night restaurant in Shinjuku. He was late; she was already a little drunk when he arrived, sitting at a corner table in the dim room with a candle flickering in front of her, picking at some pickles and soy beans.

‘What I have for you is work that will be distributed outside of Japan,’ he told her, almost before he had made himself comfortable. ‘It’s all I can do for you, I’m afraid. There’s no contract, but there’s plenty of work available and the money is excellent, comparable to what you were earning before. You’re still young, Karin.’

She mulled over his words as he ordered food, and then rather presumptively a bottle of champagne. ‘I need you to know that I’m doing this as a favour,’ he continued, popping the champagne and pouring it into two glasses. I could just as easily set you adrift, watch you waste your life in hostess bars or on crappy cable TV shows paying convenience store wages. You’re not going to like this, but at the end of the day it’s just work. And it’s lucrative.’

When he told her she scoffed, threw her champagne over him, and stormed out, but his words lingered on: It’s just work.

After two more days of ignoring his calls, she opened an email and glanced over the figures he was quoting. Five thousand US dollars for a day’s work, under an assumed name, and in productions which Banba-sensei assured her would only be distributed outside of Japan. He even insisted on writing that into each contract that she signed.

The first time was in a seedy love hotel in Shibuya with two big, muscular American guys who were clearly old hands in the trade. For two hours she was passed back and forth like a piece of candy while three men operated one still camera, one handheld camera, and a boom. While one of the male actors was working on her she could closer her eyes and imagine it was just regular sex, but then one of the cameramen would shout ‘cut!’, tell her to change position, and the whole thing would start over again. It was seedy, emotionless, and degrading, but she was five thousand dollars richer at the end of the day, and her involvement was over as soon as they considered she’d been screwed senseless enough times to get a decent take.

She went home and cried herself to sleep.

Two weeks later, she called up Banba-sensei and arranged for another contract.

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