she’d bought at Peacock. Without her penciled eyebrows she looked homely and weird, plus her stomach was sticking out. You’re the one who’s disgusting scum, I wanted to tell her, and besides, why do I have to be yelled at by somebody like you?
“Sorry that I’m scum.”
“You should be. This is all you do instead of studying. What in the world are you thinking? What about college entrance exams? You’re a criminal, you know that? Why are you doing this?”
“A criminal?”
“That’s right,” she said. “A peeping Tom. You did the same thing in our old place and that’s why we had to move. We had to get out of there before people found out about you, and it was very hard for Father and me.”
“You just moved because you wanted to build a single-family home.”
The old lady’s face stiffened.
“How can you say that? People were about to find out about what you were up to, so we had to take off. Father and I were worried sick because we didn’t want anything to hurt your future. It wasn’t because of me. Something’s wrong with you. What should we do? What could you possibly be thinking? What should we do?”
What should we do? What should we do? What should we do? The old lady glared at me, demanding a reply. Behind her silver-framed glasses, her eyes were bulged and burned with anger and contempt. It shocked me to think that a moron like this had contempt for me. Her anger was really jealousy, I suddenly realized. I mean, she was so totally angry. Shut up, old bag! Maybe I should just kill her. The thought sprang up in my mind. If she was out of the way, imagine how free I’d be. As long as she’s around I’ll never be free. She’ll decide which university I should go to, pick out who I should marry, and wind up bossing my kids around. You can count on it.
“I’m going to tell Father what happened here,” she said, and left the room. Not that the old man could say anything. He doesn’t scare me. I’m taller than him, and stronger. Predictably, after a while the old man lumbered upstairs and without a word shut himself in his study. Tomorrow, I decided, after the old man’s gone to work, I’m going to murder my old lady. With the metal bat in the corner of my room. Then I’ll really be a criminal. Excellent. The Triple Crown: a criminal, a pervert, and a mother-killer. Imagining the bat humming down on the old lady’s head, I took a couple of practice swings. But what she’d just said was still floating around in my mind.
People were about to find out what you were up to, so we had to take off.
Here’s what happened. Before we came to Suginami-ku, until I was a freshman in high school, we lived in a suburban town with a population of about 150,000. In this huge housing project with about two hundred other families. The kind of huge apartment building you see everywhere, with long open hallways and tricycles and co-op boxes outside every door.
But that’s where I was brought up, so I liked that town and our building. There were still fields around our apartment, and my friends and I played baseball there until it got dark. On rainy days we’d chase each other around the building. Most of my friends lived in the building, so we were all pretty much from the same sort of background.
Mom, though, hated the apartment. She said it was constructed shabbily, that you could hear people talking through the walls and sounds from above and below. Her real complaint, though, was that this apartment didn’t measure up to her idea of the good life. Which to her meant a single-family home within the Tokyo city limits. You’re a doctor, she told Dad, but look at us, living in the same sort of place as people who just work down the street. Dad just gave a contented laugh. What a stupid couple. After I passed the exam to get into K High, the old lady complained about this more and more. “I hate this place, I hate it!” she said.
Since I was happy living there, I didn’t want her to get
“Sorry that I’m scum.”
“You should be. This is all you do instead of studying. What in the world are you thinking? What about college entrance exams? You’re a criminal, you know that? Why are you doing this?”
“A criminal?”
“That’s right,” she said. “A peeping Tom. You did the same thing in our old place and that’s why we had to move. We had to get out of there before people found out about you, and it was very hard for Father and me.”
“You just moved because you wanted to build a single-family home.”
The old lady’s face stiffened.
“How can you say that? People were about to find out about what you were up to, so we had to take off. Father and I were worried sick because we didn’t want anything to hurt your future. It wasn’t because of me. Something’s wrong with you. What should we do? What could you possibly be thinking? What should we do?”
What should we do? What should we do? What should we do? The old lady glared at me, demanding a reply. Behind her silver-framed glasses, her eyes were bulged and burned with anger and contempt. It shocked me to think that a moron like this had contempt for me. Her anger was really jealousy, I suddenly realized. I mean, she was so totally angry. Shut up, old bag! Maybe I should just kill her. The thought sprang up in my mind. If she was out of the way, imagine how free I’d be. As long as she’s around I’ll never be free. She’ll decide which university I should go to, pick out who I should marry, and wind up bossing my kids around. You can count on it.
“I’m going to tell Father what happened here,” she said, and left the room. Not that the old man could say anything. He doesn’t scare me. I’m taller than him, and stronger. Predictably, after a while the old man lumbered upstairs and without a word shut himself in his study. Tomorrow, I decided, after the old man’s gone to work, I’m going to murder my old lady. With the metal bat in the corner of my room. Then I’ll really be a criminal. Excellent. The Triple Crown: a criminal, a pervert, and a mother-killer. Imagining the bat humming down on the old lady’s head, I took a couple of practice swings. But what she’d just said was still floating around in my mind.
People were about to find out what you were up to, so we had to take off.
Here’s what happened. Before we came to Suginami-ku, until I was a freshman in high school, we lived in a suburban town with a population of about 150,000. In this huge housing project with about two hundred other families. The kind of huge apartment building you see everywhere, with long open hallways and tricycles and co-op boxes outside every door.
But that’s where I was brought up, so I liked that town and our building. There were still fields around our apartment, and my friends and I played baseball there until it got dark. On rainy days we’d chase each other around the building. Most of my friends lived in the building, so we were all pretty much from the same sort of background.
Mom, though, hated the apartment. She said it was constructed shabbily, that you could hear people talking through the walls and sounds from above and below. Her real complaint, though, was that this apartment didn’t measure up to her idea of the good life. Which to her meant a single-family home within the Tokyo city limits. You’re a doctor, she told Dad, but look at us, living in the same sort of place as people who just work down the street. Dad just gave a contented laugh. What a stupid couple. After I passed the exam to get into K High, the old lady complained about this more and more. “I hate this place, I hate it!” she said.
Since I was happy living there, I didn’t want her to get
Similar Books
