Give the Idiot a Night of Pleasure
When we left the bar at three in the morning, walking was a major problem. Perhaps because I’d never had a bunch of friends to fool around with, I couldn’t remember ever being so drunk.
“You should drink sake more often,” Mizuki laughed, slipping her arm round my waist as Okamura vanished down the street with a drunken wave of the hand. “Tonight you’ve dropped that boring professor disguise—the one who’s mad at the world.”
“I don’t know who I am tonight.”
“So much the better. It’s good to get carried away sometimes. How do you want to end the night?”
Under the haze of sake-induced psychedelia, too many possibilities were floating through my mind.
I didn’t want to be the one to decide. Mizuki had made it clear she was no longer married, and the lack of any message from Gabriela showed that I no longer mattered to her.
I was free, but I wasn’t the type to make the first bold move, so I tossed the ball into her court.
“Imagine you’re the screenwriter and director of a movie starring a main character who’s a lot like me.”
By now we were at the entrance to my ryokan. She smiled, amused, her hair tousled.
“It’s nice of you to give me the job. Tell me more about the movie.”
“The man in your story is very square and always afraid of making mistakes. He’s used to doing the right thing. When it comes to love too.”
“Keep going.”
“Without really knowing why, this man ends up in Japan. His girlfriend has told him she wants to take a break and he’s hardly heard anything from her since then. But being so far from home immediately makes him feel better.”
“You mean his girlfriend is sleeping with someone else but hasn’t dared tell him yet. And then?”
Under normal circumstances, that comment would have cut deep, but I was too numbed by alcohol to feel anything.
“During his travels, this boring man meets a beautiful, eccentric Japanese woman who was raised in the United States. She’s probably the most attractive woman he’s ever met in his life, and he even starts dreaming that he might have a chance with her.”
“Life throws up many chances.” She hiccuped. “Someone said that once.”
“Imagine that this chance is within his reach and he desperately wants to make love to her, but he’s still dithering.”
“What about?”
“This woman has given him a shadow dance, something which he’ll never forget, and maybe the movie would have a more poetic ending if he leaves it at that and takes this memory home with him instead of consummating his desire. Naturally, this leading man is an idiot.”
“You’ve lost me. What’s the question then?”
“If you were the scriptwriter and director, which of the two endings would you choose for him?”
“Well, that’s easy. I’d give the idiot a night of pleasure.”