Through the Arc of the Rain Forest by Karen Tei Yamashita

Author:Karen Tei Yamashita
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781566895040
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Published: 2017-06-29T16:00:00+00:00

In the next few days, J.B. Tweep had a memo sent to himself ordering him to make every sort of arrangement for the very important stockholder of GGG Enterprises, Mr. K. Ishimaru. Even though all the best hotels were on the Matacão, J.B. managed to find a suitable place a good distance away. For precaution’s sake, J.B had the furniture screwed down to the floors in the hotel room and had an assistant come in and velcro Kazumasa to his bed at night, but this was probably unnecessary. Kazumasa and I were quite ready to leave the Matacão for an easier life of surer gravity, but J.B. was insistent that Kazumasa stay to take the special GGG Enterprises tour that had been arranged. J.B. was also curious about my strange attraction to the Matacão. GGG had a sort of side foundation devoted to the study of the Matacão, something called Matacão Scientific Research Institute, which claimed to be studying the origins of the Matacão and for which GGG got a substantial tax break. J.B. was privy to some important, but very secret, breakthroughs about the nature of that smooth mysterious plain. It was possible that my relationship to this place could be the the missing link.

In order to provide Kazumasa with some comfort during his tour of GGG, J.B. had key areas recarpeted in velcro. He also had furniture upholstered in the same material. On the day of the tour, Kazumasa was given special velcro shoes and clothing. This must be, Kazumasa thought, what astronauts experience on the moon or how insects feel crawling up a wall. Kazumasa stuck to everything at GGG. He had to pry himself away from floors and chairs. At the same time, every time we passed a window overlooking the Matacão, Kazumasa would flail wildly off balance—his head jerked toward the Matacão while his feet were glued to the carpeting. It was a very tiring business.

Kazumasa tried to listen politely to all the explanations about what this or that department did, who this or that vice president or director was. Kazumasa noticed that all the desks had a large supply of plastic-covered clips, that managers generally had stainless-steel clips, directors silver-plated clips, vice presidents pure silver clips, and that only the president used gold clips. He noticed that all the women on the first floor had red hair and nails, while all the women on the second floor had black hair and gold nails. As you went up the floors at GGG, the similarities between people were less conspicuous, until they actually became rather subtle on the upper floors. Kazumasa, who was so busy trying to keep his ground, could hardly appreciate these details, but I had nothing else to do but observe. The employees on the tenth floor all did crossword puzzles, while those on the eleventh were into pornographic video games. Everyone on one floor had secretly written a screenplay, and the vice president’s secretary on that floor was really a Hollywood agent. On one floor everyone was politically left and on another politically right.

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