HANKETSU PART 6

“Hanketsu Part 6” Yuki Sembommatsu, edited by Louie

Chapter 6

The sun, after working hard all day to bring life to the world, dipped into the sea to rest until tomorrow. As the beach volleyball match ended and everyone was heading home, Kentaro, like a child, didn’t want to come out of the water. “Kentaro, come on it’s getting late. Let’s get back to the house!”, Kevin said playing the annoyed parent.

Like “The Truman Show,” a movie about someone who was born and grew up in a TV show, and who found out later that his whole world had been made of painted on scenery and his whole life had been watched for entertainment, Kevin always had the feeling that this might be true of his own life. He regretted ever watching the movie and the dark thoughts it brought to him.

In his mind now he saw a paper sun set as a paper moon rose suspended, he felt, on invisible wires. He couldn’t shake the so-called “Truman Delusion” that he was suddenly overcome with. Kentaro’s perfect hanketsu was glowing in the pink light of twilight as Kevin followed him up the path to the house.

“Are you really going to her room tonight?”, asked Kevin. He wished that he could spend the night with him wrapped in his arms.

“Yes, I’m really curious about what’s going to happen”, he said with the innocence and curiosity of a child.

It was Saturday night and there were only five of Luna’s men at the dinner table. The whole scene was lit by candlelight and had the decadent air, Kevin thought, of the final scene of Visconti’s “The Leopard” with the nobility dining at a similarly candlelit table. Candles on the table and candles in the chandelier. So many candles that you could almost see the men sweating in the heat they caused. Kevin stared at the candles as if hypnotized and thought of them as hourglasses measuring what little time we had left in this life. Even in the bright flame of the candles he saw darkness.

Sadaharu was there in his tuxedo. He pulled out his phone and showed Kevin and Kentaro his artwork. Kentaro really liked them, but Kevin didn’t like the blindingly bright fluorescent colors he painted in, so bright that they almost hurt his eyes.

A phone rang and everyone, in a knee-jerk reaction, reached for their phones. The punk music ringtone was unmistakably Kentaro’s.

Kevin was still trying to place the ringtone song and, as he realized that it was “London Calling” by The Clash, he heard Kentaro shout with excitement, “Really, okay I’ll be there!”

As Kentaro hung up Kevin started to blurt out, “Oh, that’s “London Calling!” Cool! How did you get that ringtone?” But before he could get his sentence out completely, Kentaro said, “My father called. I have to do the funeral thing again. This time he promised me an expensive skateboard – one that I’ve been wanting for a while. Dad’s gonna pick me up in an hour and, as this place is on the way, we’ll go straight to the funeral.”

Kentaro left him heartbroken and missing his firm ass. He was tired and lay on the bed and closed his eyes. The bed was a canopy bed made of expensive wood with elaborate Art Deco carvings. It was something that belonged in a museum. He wondered, darkly, if anyone had ever died in this bed. As he drifted towards sleep he had the strange feeling that he was still in the water swaying with the rhythm of the waves.

In his half sleep he heard a strange sound like someone tapping at the window, which was even stranger as he was on the second floor. The scene from the movie “Wuthering Heights” ,where a frozen and bleeding ghostly hand broke though the window, entered his mind immediately. Another movie he regretted watching he thought.

Kevin now recognized the sound as the flapping of wings and wondered why there were birds at night. Looking out the window he saw that the flapping was caused by the angels he saw earlier at the beach. Their hair, halos and wings were now all black. Ten sets of black eyes were peering into the room curiously wanting to get in. Kevin ignored them, which he found was always the best way to deal with these hallucinations. He lay down and wondered if Kentaro had to dye his hair black again for the funeral, but as they were going straight to the funeral it would be a neat trick if he did. Trying to remember when Kentaro said he had to be at Luna’s room, it finally dawned on him that it was at 10 pm.

Kevin looked at the old grandfather clock and saw that it was five minutes to ten. The only people who knew that Kentaro had left were the guys at the dining table – the two guys in white tuxedos were in the kitchen at the time. Now Kevin had to decide quickly if he was going to go to Luna’s room. He thought that if he underwent a personality transformation and became carefree like Sadaharu, his life might change forever and he’d be free of all the dark thoughts that always followed him.