Part 8
“Hanketsu Part 8” Yuki Sembommatsu, edited by Louie
Kevin, feeling lost walking down one of the most fashionable streets in Shibuya, finally found what he was looking for. The sign said ‘Live Music Club Rainbow,’ which matched the name on the ticket Kentaro had given him. As he descended the dark stairway to the club entrance he was reminded of the daydream about being swallowed by a huge shark. Reaching the entrance he heard the sound of girls arguing with the bouncer. “The tickets are sold out! How many times do I have to tell you people?”, he shouted so he could be heard above the noise coming from the club.
There were no chairs so everyone was standing. Kevin was in the center of a group of teenage punks with multicolored hair and clothing. This was bad. Kevin was claustrophobic and he began to panic. To cope with it he imagined he was in heaven watching newly created multicolored beings pop up like flowers around him and lift him up as if floating. Surprisingly this thought exercise calmed him down and his claustrophobia disappeared. A pink-haired girl beside him was holding a flyer. He glanced at it and was surprised to see Kentaro’s band among the three bands that were to play tonight. He had no idea that Kentaro appeared on stage.
The first band started to play. They were not to his taste and sounded like so many other boring bands so he moved towards the bar. There were two bartenders around his age working the bar and they reminded him of the two mysterious bartenders at Luna’s, but they were dressed in normal clothes, not white tuxedos. He got a beer and chatted with the bartenders when there was a lull in the noise that passed for music that the band was playing.
The pink-haired girl that Kevin notice before came up beside him and ordered a pink cocktail that looked just like the magic drink at Luna’s. “What is that?”, he asked the bartender, pointing at the drink. “It’s called a ‘Pink Squirrel’”, and recited the recipe. It was made with two kinds of creamy liqueurs, heavy cream and spices.
Kevin ordered one as he thought it might be the same, but there were not enough bubbles. He put his tongue to it and the taste was very close, but something was missing. Just then he remembered the metallic taste of the original. He guessed there was something that tasted metallic that caused the bubbles.
The angels, Kevin’s constant companions, were circling the disco ball that hung above the stage, pointing and laughing at the reflections from the disco ball that danced across their faces. The next band was as boring as the first. Boys and girls sat cross-legged on the floor leaning against each other and swaying to the music with eyes closed and it seemed like they were going to sleep. “We can’t make much money with a young crowd like this”, the bartender volunteered, “See? That couple is just ordering Pepsi.” Kevin, however, was ordering Pink Squirrels one after another. The kids were still sleeping on the floor and Kevin joined them wondering why they came here. Girls giggled at him because he was still wearing the formal suit he wore for the job interview earlier today. The salary they offered was more than he expected but he was still resisting assimilation into the dull gray world of a salaryman.
Kevin fell into a daydream among the kids on the floor. He imagined them lining up to be painted their gay colors by the angels, now holding brushes and pallets and wearing berets like stereotypical artists. When this was done they fell into a peaceful sleep on the huge speakers, rocked to sleep by the thumping vibrations.
Kevin was jarred out of his reverie by the screams of everyone around him. The stood up and began jumping as if they were doing a Zulu warrior dance like one he’d seen in a TV documentary. It was hard for him to see the stage with the jumping wall of people. They shouted louder and louder. “Kentaro! Kentaro” , they all chanted in unison. The sound was deafening.
He finally manged to find a spot where he could see the stage. Kentaro was in the middle with six guys singing and dancing behind him in typical pop group formation. Kevin was floored – Kentaro was a star! Kevin did a rap number and then a sugary pop number. They danced so fast that it made Kevin wonder how they could keep from falling off that small stage or bumping into the walls. Everyone was singing along, they knew all the words.
Kentaro spun around and bent with arched back to flash his ass to the audience. He was wearing extreme low-rise jeans that exposed his hanketsu. Everyone was taking photos with their phones and Kentaro shook his ass for his fans. The angels were circling his ass as they had done at the beach. They all screamed every time Kentaro shook his ass. Kevin stood in open-mouthed disbelief and the whole spectacle.
Maybe it was the shock of this or maybe all the Pink Squirrels he drank, but Kevin’s mind went blank. His senses all seemed to shut down to the world around him. He felt himself float above the scene looking back down at himself standing in the middle of the screaming kids. He passed effortlessly through the roof and through the night sky over mountains and roads that he recognized. He was on the way to Luna’s beach house. He began to fly higher and faster. He was accompanied by hundreds of fluorescent pink flamingos. The angels, always dressed for the occasion, now had pink hair, pink halos and pink wings riding in a carriages drawn by four pink squirrels each. The angels were surprisingly skillful in manipulating the reins despite their chubby little hands.
Kevin, now at the beach house, again passed though the roof without effort. He found himself floating in Luna’s bedroom witnessing their scene from the night before. It seems that he’d flown through both space and time. She was sanding there in her gorgeous white gown of handmade lace.
“Kevin, you’re the only one in my life that I can’t get.”, she said desperately. “You’re smart Luna. Surely you must have figured out that I’m gay.”, he replied.
Looking down at the scene he watched as one of the bartenders handed him that famous bubbly pink concoction that he’d hoped would change him.
“I want to change myself!”, he shouted and drank it in one gulp. “Hit me again, bartender!” , he asked. Looking down from the ceiling he noticed that the cocktail shaker in the bartender’s hands looked like a metallic rainbow. Perhaps that’s what gave the cocktail that metallic taste, he thought.
