HANKETSU Part 7

“Hanketsu Part 7” Yuki Sembommatsu, edited by Louie

As Kevin walked down the hall leading to Luna’s bedroom he heard a distinct buzzing sound. He looked around and saw the angels, who had been singing “The Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” on the beach earlier today, buzzing around his head with their black wings fluttering and chattering something about him. He heard his name but he couldn’t understand the rest as they spoke in an ancient language that could have been Latin, but Kevin was not very good at languages. The sound of the buzzing, the chattering and Kevin’s foosteps seemed to echo throughout the entire house.

He ran his finger over the finely carved art deco door. The carvings were of lotus flowers and reminded him of Japanese ukiyo-e. The wood of the door was rough and his finger was abruptly stopped by a splinter. He watched as a tiny stream of blood slowly ran down his finger. He licked it and tasted the familiar iron taste. Suddenly he became nervous. He’d never been to her bedroom.

He saw a light coming from under the heavy door and slowly and nervously pushed it open a tiny crack. He heard Takuya’s unmistakable barking and he opened the door a bit more.

“Takuya!”

He caught Takuya in mid-air as he jumped to him and licked his face. Inside the room it was dark now and Kevin walked cautiously with Takuya in his arms. He could still hear the buzzing sound.

“Kevin, what are you doing here?” he heard Luna’s familiar voice exclaim. She turned on an antique floor lamp that filled the room with a soft, warm orange light. She was wearing an elaborate white lace gown that reached the floor.

Seeing Luna in that dress reminded him again of the Visconti film “Death in Venice” as the wealthy women in the film wore similar white lace gowns. The film score, “Symphony No. 5” by Gustav Mahler played in his head. The novel on which the film was based was written by Thomas Mann in 1912 and the music was composed in 1901, so both were from the same period. When Kevin learned that Mann was a homosexual he began obsessively reading all his works. He thought about the final scene where the main character, played by Dirk Bogarde, slowly breathes his last breath watching the beautiful boy that he loves play in the waves. Kevin wondered if he was happy when he died. He seemed to be.

Again dark thoughts clouded his mind. As he was reaching the middle of the room he thought that whatever happened here tonight he would accept it all if it would change his personality and drive the dark clouds from his mind.

In the university cafeteria Sadaharu was eating his katsu curry and Kevin soup and a sandwich. He was getting the impression that Sadaharu really liked katsu curry. He only spoke when he got tired of eating.

Kevin was glaring at Sadaharu, “Sadaharu you lied to me. I went to her room and I haven’t changed at all!”

Sadaharu, speaking and chewing his food at the same time said, “You know Kevin I think your seriousness is just too severe to allow the change to take place. You’re resistant! You’re immune to change!”

He was told as a child not to talk with your mouth full which just added to his distaste for what Sadaharu was saying.

“Didn’t she throw you the bikini bottoms?” Sadaharu asked when he finished his lunch.

“Yes, I assume she did everything with me as she did with you. I was open to it all. That’s how much I wanted the personality change,” he replied. Luna had tossed the bikini bottoms to him and ordered him to turn around so that she could see his hanketsu. He didn’t feel upset or humiliated by this as she was an old friend and he had prepared his mind for, and was open to, anything that might happen. He could hear the shutter sound of her phone, and knew that he’d been added to her hanketsu collection.

Sadaharu gulped down his coke as though his curry was a little too spicy. “Did you drink that bubbling pink concoction?”, Sadaharu asked getting up to get more coke from the vending machine. He returned with three cans.

His rude manners irritated Kevin, but he needed his advice. “I drifted into unconsciousness just like you and woke the next morning in my own room, not remembering how I got there. The only difference is that I wasn’t changed like you and the others.”, Kevin complained

Sadaharu was stacking his empty coke cans into a tower that was, to him, a work of art. Kevin had always marvelled at, but understood little, of the quirkiness that came with the artist’s creativity. Three women passing by giggled, with their hands covering their mouths like high school girls, at his tower of cans. An evil little angel swooped down and kicked the tower with his pudgy foot. Sadaharu quickly took photos of the collapse and said, “Maybe it’s because you’re not her boyfriend?”

Kevin, disappointed at the whole exchange with Sadaharu went away simply wondering how many of those pink concoctions he’d have to drink to change his personality. Kevin left to give a lecture at a big trading firm. The subject was “How to Negotiate with Clients in English,” Kevin’s expertise.

The little angels were on his shoulders while he was walking and he was listening delightedly to the harmonious baroque music they were singing. He made a request of them and they obliged cheerfully and sang for him Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem “Pie Jesu” - a dark choice for such a sunny day. It’s as if his mind ran from the sunshine into the shadows.

Kevin arrived early so he decided to sit by the fountain he saw in the park and check his messages. There was Kentaro’s text full of emojis of aliens and flying saucers: “Sorry I didn’t reply to your messages. I’ve been busy rehearsing. I’m gonna do a live stream on Friday. Hope you can make it.” He sent him a ticket but didn’t say what the stream was about.

A typical Japanese salaryman walked by and stopped. You could see the exhaustion in his face from overwork. His eyes looked dead and soulless like the eyes of fish lying on a bed of ice in a fish market. This reminded him at once of the two bartenders/bodyguards/gardeners/massage-therapists in white tuxedos at Luna’s party. The man was watching the angels swimming in the fountain using their halos like life preservers. “Kawaii!,” he exclaimed in Japanese, using the word Japanese say automatically when they see anything cute.

At the sight of this he sank deeper into his depressive mood. The company wanted to take him on when he graduated and this now frightened him. He saw his future self before the fountain, the life drained from him by overwork and conformity.