“All right,” Sendoh said to himself as he stood in front of the mirror, spiking his hair in preparation of what he was so awfully sure would be a fun-filled Saturday. It was this kind of optimism that made him blind to all the suffering in the world, primarily Jin’s, and made him believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
“Lookin’ good,” he said, casting his reflection a toothy grin, and then dashing off to the bathroom to remove that offensive black fleck he spotted on one of his front teeth.
He returned after a while, the smell of toothpaste drowning the scent of the cologne he had used in generous amounts earlier. But Sendoh was way too optimistic to let the smell of toothpaste bother him too much. It was in its own right, an aroma to end all aromas. Apart from that, the morning was sunny, and such weather seldom made allowances for gloomy thoughts.
Sendoh repositioned himself before the mirror again, brimming with confidence, and cleared his throat, as if preparing to speak at length on an interesting issue.
“Lookin’ good,” he said, starting over. He scrutinized his reflection with utmost care, making sure that there was no other anomaly on his sexy body. Imperfections, he had come to realize, turned women off.
Upon remembering something, he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.
“What was it that Jin told me yesterday?” he wondered aloud, trying to recall the conversation he had had with a seemingly desperate Jin the evening before. He remembered there was an air of urgency about the whole talk, a kind of anxiety on Jin’s part, a hurried, nervousness that couldn’t be concealed despite the disturbance in the line.
“Oh yeah!” he said when it finally hit him. “He wanted me to go to the Town Center Mall with him and Ayako!”
He thought awhile.
“You know what?” he said to his reflection, frowning slightly when the reflection appeared to ask him the same question. “I keep forgetting you’re not real,” he said, and felt a pang of hurt in his heart as he remembered all the times he thought the mirror had been there for him. “Anyway, that’s not what I was gonna say. I mean that you can’t accompany someone on their date. They’ve gotta do it on their own or they’ll never become adults.”
Sendoh was reminded of the fact that he had never been on a date his entire life. The closest he had come to one was when he had treated his aunt at a restaurant on her birthday, and he was careful not to speak of this in front of his teammates.
“So I guess I’ll pass on Jin’s invitation,” Sendoh said resolutely, trusting in his better judgement, and now talking to a picture of himself holding a Junior High MVP’s trophy. “I won’t tell him or he’ll cancel the date, that dumbass. Maybe he’ll feel a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but I’m sure he’ll get used to it. I mean, Ayako’s a really nice girl. Good-looking, polite…” He trailed off for a couple of moments, looking out the window at the bright blue sky, but regained his composure quickly. “She’d put him at his ease for sure.”
The momentary lapse in his speech was a result of a certain piece of reminiscence: the time when Ayako had sentenced him to such rigorous punishment for no apparent fault of his. It was invidious, and traumatic, and certainly belied everything nice Sendoh had just said about her. But he knew that Jin would frown upon the idea of Ayako being anything less than perfect, and since Sendoh prided himself for being a good friend, all personal prejudices would have be cast aside.
And thus bereft once again of any bitter thought, Sendoh decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. People usually do that in movies when they want to clear their mind of something or want inspiration to hit them. Sendoh wasn’t in any immediate need of either, but was simply driven by the impulse. He was, as they would say, an impulsive guy.
Half an hour later he had reached Ryonan.
“The guys are probably having basketball practice now,” he said fondly, staring in the direction of the gym, from where he imagined the sound of dribbling was proceeding. “I’m a piano guy now. Or a violin guy, maybe… Not a basketball guy anymore. Well,” said Sendoh, assuming his characteristically optimistic mindset, “at least I’m still a guy.”
With this last sentence he felt a rush of sympathy toward Jin, for reasons he couldn’t quite place his finger on. But this thought evaporated as quickly as it had come when an even more ominous thought hit him.
“Oh crap!” exclaimed Sendoh. “I’ve gotta go to Mrs. Turbulence’s today! Shit, shit, shit! I was supposed to go there yesterday! Great! She’s probably gonna fry me.”
He recalled how apprehensive he had been in the demanding presence of the widow of Major Turbulence, and quite frankly didn’t want to know how bad her bad side was. He was certain she had one.
“Sorry Jin,” he said, dashing homeward to make sure he had everything ready for the evening’s class. “I wouldn’t have been able to go with you and Ayako anyway.”
Jin yawned, staring at the mess he had made by emptying the contents of his closet in the unfruitful pursuit of suitable attire for that evening’s rendezvous with the love of his life. She wouldn’t know he was there, of course. Although his initial plan was to dutifully deliver Sendoh at Ayako’s feet as promised and bow and walk away with obsequious satisfaction, he could not help but feel that normal human emotion called attachment, a curiosity as to how deep Ayako’s love for Sendoh was, and a natural desire for the girl of his dreams to grace his vision at all times. This led him to come up with a plan that the old Jin—the nerdy one that deprecated any kind of dishonesty—would have condemned most vehemently: viz. spying on Sendoh and Ayako on their date.
“A little childish,” Jin conceded, remembering how he had learned the concept of espionage in a children’s fairytale in which a goblin stalked a pixie around a magical village until the latter was forced to turn him into a beetle.
He cringed at the allusion to his playing the role of the goblin in the present fairytale, and frowned deeply at the notion of Ayako turning him into a beetle, but subdued all these thoughts and put a firm foot down, wincing as it made contact with a pencil he had dropped earlier.
“I am following them,” he said with conviction, rubbing his foot. “And I will continue to follow them,” he said with greater conviction, adding in a softer tone, “until I’m caught.”
One must note how convinced he was that he would be caught.
“I was never good with all this secrecy business,” he said with a sigh, cursing his parents for having taught him to be the goody two-shoes that he so unfortunately became, against all odds. He had once been caught by a triply handicapped man in the attempt of making away with the guy’s hat on the road as part of a dare when he accidentally tripped over the guy’s foot.
“Well, I guess I have to enjoy it as long as it lasts,” he said wistfully. He didn’t take life for granted. He knew that life’s pleasures were short-lived. As they say, today’s meat is tomorrow’s poison. No, that wasn’t right, was it?
Jin thought, and thought, but couldn’t reach a conclusion regarding what they said.
“Anyway, I get to be with Ayako tonight,” he said. “In a manner of speaking.”
He sighed, bopped himself on the head and sniffled.
“I’m a man,” he kept telling himself. “Men don’t cry.”
He walked opened the drawer of his desk and produced an ornately framed picture of Ayako. He stared fondly at it. Time seemed to have stopped. It was the sound of the alarm clock ringing that made him realize that it hadn’t.
“Oh shoot!” he said with emotion. “Four-thirty already?!”
He selected a pair of pants and a tee-shirt at random and dashed into the bathroom as though his butt were on fire. He changed in a matter of seconds, rushed out of his room, ran down the staircase taking four steps at a time, and was out of the house by the time his wristwatch showed 4.34. He didn’t stop to greet the old woman next door, who always so amiably waved to him while doing her gardening, didn’t wait for the gentleman down the lane to give him his customary word of advice, and, unfortunately, didn’t wait for the “Don’t Cross” signal to say otherwise.
“Whoa!” he said as a car whizzed past him, too close for comfort. “I should seriously stop doing that.”
A rude truck driver yelled at him to get his “friggin pretty boy ass off the road!” and Jin obliged.
He reached the mall by precisely 4.53. Now all he had to do was wait for Ayako to arrive. Then he would commence surreptitiously drooling at her profoundly good looks and imagining what it would have been like if Ayako had asked him to come to mall instead of Sendoh.
He positioned himself strategically behind a bush near the entrance of the mall. This way he would have a clear view of the mall and all the people entering and leaving it, without being spotted.
“Hey, Jin,” said a voice behind him, and Jin nearly jumped out of his skin. “What are you doing here?”
“A-Ayako!” stammered Jin. He broke into sheepish laughter as he tried hard to come up with an explanation for his questionable presence at what was about to be Ayako’s date. “I was just… uh… nothing, really… I was just… you know…”
Ayako laughed.
“Don’t worry,” she said.
“Huh?”
“You’re probably worried that Sendoh’s going to take advantage of me, aren’t you? Me, a lone, pretty girl, and he, a big hunky basketball player, muscular, hunky, and oh, that beautiful hairdo…” She trailed off, a dreamy look in her brown eyes.
Jin coughed to remind her of his presence.
“Oh!” said Ayako, feeling rather conscious. “I’m sorry.” She was blushing furiously.
“It’s no problem,” Jin mumbled, suddenly interested in his fingernails.
“Hey, I got an idea!” said Ayako suddenly.
Frankly, Jin didn’t want to hear it unless it involved her ditching Sendoh to go out with him instead, but he found himself saying, “Yeah?”
“I’ll wait here until Sendoh comes. Then I’ll surprise him. BOO!” she said, startling Jin.
“Don’t do that,” said Jin weakly.
“Sorry. But I’m excited, you see. I mean I’ve never been on a date with a guy before. I don’t mean that I’ve been on a date with a girl, of course. That would be gross. To be honest, I wonder if this is going to be like what they show on TV. If it is, then it would be really cool. I mean—”
She rambled on and on and on until Jin completely lost track of time.
Only halfway up the driveway of the Turbulent Academy of Turbulence and Sendoh was already beginning to feel weak. The building wasn’t really imposing. Its architecture was such that it would effortlessly blend in with any building surrounding it. What was scary was the evil aura that seemed to radiate from it, and the distant sound of a monotonous piano tune.
Sendoh swallowed as he walked through the familiar glass doors.
He noticed that the Receptionist’s chair was empty, and that there didn’t seem to be a soul in sight. The eerie music seemed to proceeding from somewhere beyond those paneled walls.
Paneled walls… thought Sendoh. He recalled having seen them in a horror movie he had gone to see with his teammates. And oh, what a horror movie he had been. The young girl was creeping along a narrow corridor where the panels on the wall were quite like the one here, when all of a sudden, from nowhere, the vampire swoops down on her and devours her, her dying scream echoing around the theater and making everyone’s blood curdle. The hairs on Sendoh’s neck stood on their ends just thinking about it.
“Doomed,” he said to himself under his breath.
Deciding that he was old enough to fend for himself, he made his way toward Mrs. Turbulence’s office. He remembered the directions from his last visit to the place.
He knocked on the door. No reply. He turned the knob. There was no one in the room.
He entered, deeming it prudent to do so. Mrs. Turbulence would probably want to talk to him personally before taking him to his class.
He made himself comfortable in one of the chairs, or at least tried, since it was terribly uncomfortable.
He began whistling to himself a random tune he had selected from the library in his head when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
“Whoa!” he said, jumping up. He was looking into the face of Mrs. Turbulence.
“Well, hello there, dearie,” she said, rolling the Rs a bit too much. “Can I help you?”
“Er…” said Sendoh. “I’m Akira Sendoh. I’ve signed up for your course in piano—”
“Oh, of course!” exclaimed Mrs. Turbulence. “I remember! Mais oui, you were here with your mother but a few days ago, weren’t you?”
Sendoh nodded.
“Ah, it all comes back to me!” said Mrs. Turbulence happily. “Come with me. I shall take you to your class. Since it’s your first day here, I shall personally instruct you.”
That’s what Sendoh was afraid of. Mrs. Turbulence could be described, in one of many ways, as a Jack-o’-lantern with tooth decay.
Mrs. Turbulent led him down a corridor (with paneled walls, as Sendoh noted), into a small, soundproof room—like the ones in which people record things—where a black upright stood magnificently against the wall.
“Make yourself comfortable,” said Mrs. Turbulence, pointing at the stool, while she herself shoved her ample bottom into a plastic chair next to it.
Sendoh did as he was told, staring dumbly at the black and white keys before him.
“Now, dear,” said Mrs. Turbulence. “Could you play me the scale in C-major? Right hand.”
All Sendoh could manage was “Err…?”
Mrs. Turbulence sighed.
“I suppose we shall have to start at the beginning. Mon cher garçon, this is Middle-C. The C-major scale is like this—”
The played it adroitly and flawlessly. Sendoh was overawed.
“Now you try,” said Mrs. Turbulence.
Sendoh tried—messed up in several places, but nonetheless, tried, Mrs. Turbulence uttering encouraging words all through.
By the time class had ended, Sendoh could play the C-major scale with both hands without faltering anywhere.
He was beginning to warm to Mrs. Turbulence and her music academy. The faint piano music he could hear on his way out no longer seemed foreboding and monotonous. The secret of music was finally revealed to him.
He inhaled deeply as he set off for the train station.
No sooner than he had walked ten yards than he saw none other than his old teammates coming toward him from the opposite direction. Fortunately, they were too wrapped up in their conversation to notice Sendoh. Koshino seemed to be yelling, and everyone else seemed to be yelling back.
Sendoh swiveled around. He needed a place to hide. The Turbulent Academy was too far off. There was no time. He noticed a small alleyway just a couple of yards away, and made a dash for it.
“SENDOH!”
He froze in his tracks just as he was about to enter the alleyway.
“Shit!” he said, turning around slowly and fearfully, expecting to see an infuriated Koshino march up to him with a wild look in his eyes.
But Koshino and the others were still talking amongst themselves. They appeared not to have noticed him. The voice must have been Sendoh’s imagination.
He sighed in relief.
“SENDOH!”
He jumped several inches into the air. There was no mistaking it this time. The voice was not his imagination.
“In here, you git.”
Sendoh turned toward the alleyway and for the first time noticed someone standing there: someone big and burly who knew his name.
“Uozumi!” said Sendoh in surprise.
“Shut up!” warned Uozumi. “Get in here, quick.”
Sendoh did so unhesitatingly.
“I think I know what’s going on,” said Uozumi, tossing a bloated garbage bag into the dumpster. “Come inside, and I’ll fix you up some ramen.”
“Ramen?”
“This is my father’s restaurant.”
“Oh…” said Sendoh. He knew Uozumi had started working at his father’s restaurant. It had just never occurred to him that the restaurant was on Earth.
“You made a big mistake there, Sendoh,” said Uozumi, shaking his head as he placed a bowl of steaming ramen before Sendoh when he was safely seated inside the restaurant.
“Correction,” said Sendoh. “I think you did.”
Uozumi was irritated.
“This food is for free. The least you could do is be grateful.”
“I don’t mean that: I mean you made a mistake bringing me in here.”
“What do you mean?”
“That.”
Sendoh pointed at the doorway, in which Koshino and the rest of the Ryonan basketball team were standing.
“Well, well,” said Koshino when he noticed Sendoh. “Look what the cat brought in.”
“You mean the gorilla,” said Uekusa quietly.
“Whatever,” snapped Koshino. “Sendoh, you’re gonna pay for what you did to us: for the humiliating defeat we just suffered against Takezono.”
“Lookin’ good,” he said, casting his reflection a toothy grin, and then dashing off to the bathroom to remove that offensive black fleck he spotted on one of his front teeth.
He returned after a while, the smell of toothpaste drowning the scent of the cologne he had used in generous amounts earlier. But Sendoh was way too optimistic to let the smell of toothpaste bother him too much. It was in its own right, an aroma to end all aromas. Apart from that, the morning was sunny, and such weather seldom made allowances for gloomy thoughts.
Sendoh repositioned himself before the mirror again, brimming with confidence, and cleared his throat, as if preparing to speak at length on an interesting issue.
“Lookin’ good,” he said, starting over. He scrutinized his reflection with utmost care, making sure that there was no other anomaly on his sexy body. Imperfections, he had come to realize, turned women off.
Upon remembering something, he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.
“What was it that Jin told me yesterday?” he wondered aloud, trying to recall the conversation he had had with a seemingly desperate Jin the evening before. He remembered there was an air of urgency about the whole talk, a kind of anxiety on Jin’s part, a hurried, nervousness that couldn’t be concealed despite the disturbance in the line.
“Oh yeah!” he said when it finally hit him. “He wanted me to go to the Town Center Mall with him and Ayako!”
He thought awhile.
“You know what?” he said to his reflection, frowning slightly when the reflection appeared to ask him the same question. “I keep forgetting you’re not real,” he said, and felt a pang of hurt in his heart as he remembered all the times he thought the mirror had been there for him. “Anyway, that’s not what I was gonna say. I mean that you can’t accompany someone on their date. They’ve gotta do it on their own or they’ll never become adults.”
Sendoh was reminded of the fact that he had never been on a date his entire life. The closest he had come to one was when he had treated his aunt at a restaurant on her birthday, and he was careful not to speak of this in front of his teammates.
“So I guess I’ll pass on Jin’s invitation,” Sendoh said resolutely, trusting in his better judgement, and now talking to a picture of himself holding a Junior High MVP’s trophy. “I won’t tell him or he’ll cancel the date, that dumbass. Maybe he’ll feel a little uncomfortable in the beginning, but I’m sure he’ll get used to it. I mean, Ayako’s a really nice girl. Good-looking, polite…” He trailed off for a couple of moments, looking out the window at the bright blue sky, but regained his composure quickly. “She’d put him at his ease for sure.”
The momentary lapse in his speech was a result of a certain piece of reminiscence: the time when Ayako had sentenced him to such rigorous punishment for no apparent fault of his. It was invidious, and traumatic, and certainly belied everything nice Sendoh had just said about her. But he knew that Jin would frown upon the idea of Ayako being anything less than perfect, and since Sendoh prided himself for being a good friend, all personal prejudices would have be cast aside.
And thus bereft once again of any bitter thought, Sendoh decided to take a walk around the neighborhood. People usually do that in movies when they want to clear their mind of something or want inspiration to hit them. Sendoh wasn’t in any immediate need of either, but was simply driven by the impulse. He was, as they would say, an impulsive guy.
Half an hour later he had reached Ryonan.
“The guys are probably having basketball practice now,” he said fondly, staring in the direction of the gym, from where he imagined the sound of dribbling was proceeding. “I’m a piano guy now. Or a violin guy, maybe… Not a basketball guy anymore. Well,” said Sendoh, assuming his characteristically optimistic mindset, “at least I’m still a guy.”
With this last sentence he felt a rush of sympathy toward Jin, for reasons he couldn’t quite place his finger on. But this thought evaporated as quickly as it had come when an even more ominous thought hit him.
“Oh crap!” exclaimed Sendoh. “I’ve gotta go to Mrs. Turbulence’s today! Shit, shit, shit! I was supposed to go there yesterday! Great! She’s probably gonna fry me.”
He recalled how apprehensive he had been in the demanding presence of the widow of Major Turbulence, and quite frankly didn’t want to know how bad her bad side was. He was certain she had one.
“Sorry Jin,” he said, dashing homeward to make sure he had everything ready for the evening’s class. “I wouldn’t have been able to go with you and Ayako anyway.”
Jin yawned, staring at the mess he had made by emptying the contents of his closet in the unfruitful pursuit of suitable attire for that evening’s rendezvous with the love of his life. She wouldn’t know he was there, of course. Although his initial plan was to dutifully deliver Sendoh at Ayako’s feet as promised and bow and walk away with obsequious satisfaction, he could not help but feel that normal human emotion called attachment, a curiosity as to how deep Ayako’s love for Sendoh was, and a natural desire for the girl of his dreams to grace his vision at all times. This led him to come up with a plan that the old Jin—the nerdy one that deprecated any kind of dishonesty—would have condemned most vehemently: viz. spying on Sendoh and Ayako on their date.
“A little childish,” Jin conceded, remembering how he had learned the concept of espionage in a children’s fairytale in which a goblin stalked a pixie around a magical village until the latter was forced to turn him into a beetle.
He cringed at the allusion to his playing the role of the goblin in the present fairytale, and frowned deeply at the notion of Ayako turning him into a beetle, but subdued all these thoughts and put a firm foot down, wincing as it made contact with a pencil he had dropped earlier.
“I am following them,” he said with conviction, rubbing his foot. “And I will continue to follow them,” he said with greater conviction, adding in a softer tone, “until I’m caught.”
One must note how convinced he was that he would be caught.
“I was never good with all this secrecy business,” he said with a sigh, cursing his parents for having taught him to be the goody two-shoes that he so unfortunately became, against all odds. He had once been caught by a triply handicapped man in the attempt of making away with the guy’s hat on the road as part of a dare when he accidentally tripped over the guy’s foot.
“Well, I guess I have to enjoy it as long as it lasts,” he said wistfully. He didn’t take life for granted. He knew that life’s pleasures were short-lived. As they say, today’s meat is tomorrow’s poison. No, that wasn’t right, was it?
Jin thought, and thought, but couldn’t reach a conclusion regarding what they said.
“Anyway, I get to be with Ayako tonight,” he said. “In a manner of speaking.”
He sighed, bopped himself on the head and sniffled.
“I’m a man,” he kept telling himself. “Men don’t cry.”
He walked opened the drawer of his desk and produced an ornately framed picture of Ayako. He stared fondly at it. Time seemed to have stopped. It was the sound of the alarm clock ringing that made him realize that it hadn’t.
“Oh shoot!” he said with emotion. “Four-thirty already?!”
He selected a pair of pants and a tee-shirt at random and dashed into the bathroom as though his butt were on fire. He changed in a matter of seconds, rushed out of his room, ran down the staircase taking four steps at a time, and was out of the house by the time his wristwatch showed 4.34. He didn’t stop to greet the old woman next door, who always so amiably waved to him while doing her gardening, didn’t wait for the gentleman down the lane to give him his customary word of advice, and, unfortunately, didn’t wait for the “Don’t Cross” signal to say otherwise.
“Whoa!” he said as a car whizzed past him, too close for comfort. “I should seriously stop doing that.”
A rude truck driver yelled at him to get his “friggin pretty boy ass off the road!” and Jin obliged.
He reached the mall by precisely 4.53. Now all he had to do was wait for Ayako to arrive. Then he would commence surreptitiously drooling at her profoundly good looks and imagining what it would have been like if Ayako had asked him to come to mall instead of Sendoh.
He positioned himself strategically behind a bush near the entrance of the mall. This way he would have a clear view of the mall and all the people entering and leaving it, without being spotted.
“Hey, Jin,” said a voice behind him, and Jin nearly jumped out of his skin. “What are you doing here?”
“A-Ayako!” stammered Jin. He broke into sheepish laughter as he tried hard to come up with an explanation for his questionable presence at what was about to be Ayako’s date. “I was just… uh… nothing, really… I was just… you know…”
Ayako laughed.
“Don’t worry,” she said.
“Huh?”
“You’re probably worried that Sendoh’s going to take advantage of me, aren’t you? Me, a lone, pretty girl, and he, a big hunky basketball player, muscular, hunky, and oh, that beautiful hairdo…” She trailed off, a dreamy look in her brown eyes.
Jin coughed to remind her of his presence.
“Oh!” said Ayako, feeling rather conscious. “I’m sorry.” She was blushing furiously.
“It’s no problem,” Jin mumbled, suddenly interested in his fingernails.
“Hey, I got an idea!” said Ayako suddenly.
Frankly, Jin didn’t want to hear it unless it involved her ditching Sendoh to go out with him instead, but he found himself saying, “Yeah?”
“I’ll wait here until Sendoh comes. Then I’ll surprise him. BOO!” she said, startling Jin.
“Don’t do that,” said Jin weakly.
“Sorry. But I’m excited, you see. I mean I’ve never been on a date with a guy before. I don’t mean that I’ve been on a date with a girl, of course. That would be gross. To be honest, I wonder if this is going to be like what they show on TV. If it is, then it would be really cool. I mean—”
She rambled on and on and on until Jin completely lost track of time.
Only halfway up the driveway of the Turbulent Academy of Turbulence and Sendoh was already beginning to feel weak. The building wasn’t really imposing. Its architecture was such that it would effortlessly blend in with any building surrounding it. What was scary was the evil aura that seemed to radiate from it, and the distant sound of a monotonous piano tune.
Sendoh swallowed as he walked through the familiar glass doors.
He noticed that the Receptionist’s chair was empty, and that there didn’t seem to be a soul in sight. The eerie music seemed to proceeding from somewhere beyond those paneled walls.
Paneled walls… thought Sendoh. He recalled having seen them in a horror movie he had gone to see with his teammates. And oh, what a horror movie he had been. The young girl was creeping along a narrow corridor where the panels on the wall were quite like the one here, when all of a sudden, from nowhere, the vampire swoops down on her and devours her, her dying scream echoing around the theater and making everyone’s blood curdle. The hairs on Sendoh’s neck stood on their ends just thinking about it.
“Doomed,” he said to himself under his breath.
Deciding that he was old enough to fend for himself, he made his way toward Mrs. Turbulence’s office. He remembered the directions from his last visit to the place.
He knocked on the door. No reply. He turned the knob. There was no one in the room.
He entered, deeming it prudent to do so. Mrs. Turbulence would probably want to talk to him personally before taking him to his class.
He made himself comfortable in one of the chairs, or at least tried, since it was terribly uncomfortable.
He began whistling to himself a random tune he had selected from the library in his head when he felt a cold hand on his shoulder.
“Whoa!” he said, jumping up. He was looking into the face of Mrs. Turbulence.
“Well, hello there, dearie,” she said, rolling the Rs a bit too much. “Can I help you?”
“Er…” said Sendoh. “I’m Akira Sendoh. I’ve signed up for your course in piano—”
“Oh, of course!” exclaimed Mrs. Turbulence. “I remember! Mais oui, you were here with your mother but a few days ago, weren’t you?”
Sendoh nodded.
“Ah, it all comes back to me!” said Mrs. Turbulence happily. “Come with me. I shall take you to your class. Since it’s your first day here, I shall personally instruct you.”
That’s what Sendoh was afraid of. Mrs. Turbulence could be described, in one of many ways, as a Jack-o’-lantern with tooth decay.
Mrs. Turbulent led him down a corridor (with paneled walls, as Sendoh noted), into a small, soundproof room—like the ones in which people record things—where a black upright stood magnificently against the wall.
“Make yourself comfortable,” said Mrs. Turbulence, pointing at the stool, while she herself shoved her ample bottom into a plastic chair next to it.
Sendoh did as he was told, staring dumbly at the black and white keys before him.
“Now, dear,” said Mrs. Turbulence. “Could you play me the scale in C-major? Right hand.”
All Sendoh could manage was “Err…?”
Mrs. Turbulence sighed.
“I suppose we shall have to start at the beginning. Mon cher garçon, this is Middle-C. The C-major scale is like this—”
The played it adroitly and flawlessly. Sendoh was overawed.
“Now you try,” said Mrs. Turbulence.
Sendoh tried—messed up in several places, but nonetheless, tried, Mrs. Turbulence uttering encouraging words all through.
By the time class had ended, Sendoh could play the C-major scale with both hands without faltering anywhere.
He was beginning to warm to Mrs. Turbulence and her music academy. The faint piano music he could hear on his way out no longer seemed foreboding and monotonous. The secret of music was finally revealed to him.
He inhaled deeply as he set off for the train station.
No sooner than he had walked ten yards than he saw none other than his old teammates coming toward him from the opposite direction. Fortunately, they were too wrapped up in their conversation to notice Sendoh. Koshino seemed to be yelling, and everyone else seemed to be yelling back.
Sendoh swiveled around. He needed a place to hide. The Turbulent Academy was too far off. There was no time. He noticed a small alleyway just a couple of yards away, and made a dash for it.
“SENDOH!”
He froze in his tracks just as he was about to enter the alleyway.
“Shit!” he said, turning around slowly and fearfully, expecting to see an infuriated Koshino march up to him with a wild look in his eyes.
But Koshino and the others were still talking amongst themselves. They appeared not to have noticed him. The voice must have been Sendoh’s imagination.
He sighed in relief.
“SENDOH!”
He jumped several inches into the air. There was no mistaking it this time. The voice was not his imagination.
“In here, you git.”
Sendoh turned toward the alleyway and for the first time noticed someone standing there: someone big and burly who knew his name.
“Uozumi!” said Sendoh in surprise.
“Shut up!” warned Uozumi. “Get in here, quick.”
Sendoh did so unhesitatingly.
“I think I know what’s going on,” said Uozumi, tossing a bloated garbage bag into the dumpster. “Come inside, and I’ll fix you up some ramen.”
“Ramen?”
“This is my father’s restaurant.”
“Oh…” said Sendoh. He knew Uozumi had started working at his father’s restaurant. It had just never occurred to him that the restaurant was on Earth.
“You made a big mistake there, Sendoh,” said Uozumi, shaking his head as he placed a bowl of steaming ramen before Sendoh when he was safely seated inside the restaurant.
“Correction,” said Sendoh. “I think you did.”
Uozumi was irritated.
“This food is for free. The least you could do is be grateful.”
“I don’t mean that: I mean you made a mistake bringing me in here.”
“What do you mean?”
“That.”
Sendoh pointed at the doorway, in which Koshino and the rest of the Ryonan basketball team were standing.
“Well, well,” said Koshino when he noticed Sendoh. “Look what the cat brought in.”
“You mean the gorilla,” said Uekusa quietly.
“Whatever,” snapped Koshino. “Sendoh, you’re gonna pay for what you did to us: for the humiliating defeat we just suffered against Takezono.”
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