Tokyo Redux by David Peace

Author:David Peace [David Peace]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571323647
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2021-06-14T22:00:00+00:00

He got off another train at another station in another suburb west of Shinjuku. But he did not put on his necktie and spectacles, he did not buy any cakes. He took out his notebook to double-check the address, the address and the route. He put the notebook back inside his jacket and began to walk, to walk the way he had come last Friday night, last Friday night when he had followed the man, followed the man back to his home, his family home, his happy home. Maybe because it had been a little later then, a little darker then, or maybe because it had been a Friday and not a Sunday, but it had seemed a much nicer place then, a much better area then. Now it was just another ugly little concrete hutch in another ugly sprawling suburban development, with its silly little fence and its patch of yellow grass, so much better in the dark, so much nicer in the night.

Murota Hideki took out his sunglasses and put them on, took out a toothpick and stuck it in his mouth. Then he opened the stupid little gate and walked up the stupid little path. The lights were on in the living room, the television on, the baseball on, the faint smells of dinner, the soft sounds of voices, the smells of a family, the sounds of a family. He pressed the stupid doorbell of the stupid glass door, holding it down a little too long, just a little too long, listening to it ringing through their little family home, hearing little feet running to the door. Little hands opened the door and a little face looked up at Murota Hideki. He took his finger off the bell, the toothpick from his mouth, put a big hand on the little head of this little child, looked down through his sunglasses, and said, Is Papa home?

Of course Papa was home, he could see him now, see him coming down the little hallway, anxious and fearful. He could see Mama, too, see her standing in a doorframe down the hallway, anxious and fearful, too. Both anxious and fearful because they could see Murota Hideki, see him standing at the door to their house, on the threshold of their home, their little family home, their little happy house, with his sunglasses and his toothpick and a hand upon the head of their firstborn, their precious little boy, the boy turning his head, looking for his father, the father pulling him away from the man at their door, pushing his precious little boy back down the hall, back to his mother, into her arms, as his father turned to Murota Hideki, asking Murota Hideki, What do you want …?

Murota Hideki stared past his face, over his shoulder into his house, down the corridor, straight at his wife as he told the man his own name and the name of his company. Then he smiled and said, That’s you, isn’t it?

Who are you, said the man.

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