5.(14-17) After Sex! Sex! Sex! Surprise!

Slim Novel 5 - http://adventuresofkimi.blogspot.com - See Homepage


14. Honorable Early Morning Girl

Kimi quietly inserts key, turns it and opens door, tiptoeing past seemingly sleeping housemates and -- pulling off skirt, blouse and underclothes -- she drops face down on sofa. No sooner her eyes close than Olga’s voice shatters the silence.
   “Honorable early morning girl returns!”
    “Good morning, honorable early morning girl” chimes in Harumi always alert to politically correct speech.
   Kimi opens eyes. “Honorable early morning girl?”

   “Well”, explains Olga, “tiptoeing in as you just did after a night of who knows what? Isn’t that reminiscent of the erring salariman who tiptoes into wifie’s bed in early hours having done you know what with who knows whom all night? And does not wifie refer to him as ‘Honorable early morning man?’ So where did he take you and what his technique?”

   Soon her mates are sitting over coffee and cake as Kimi describes the interior decor of the hotel, the Swiss style of sex, the taste of the shrimp and so forth.

   “You do have luck,” quips Olga pouring third cup of powerful American coffee into personal mug. “I count three orgs.”

   “It is a test of your contraceptive Friend,” says Harumi seriously.

   Kimi yawns. Despite the coffee she is sleepy. With mumbled excuse she falls back on sofa. Olga and Harumi get up from rug and don work togs and go outside for Sunday chore – a long delayed digging of air-raid trench.

15. Air-Raid or Drill?

Sun shines in the open door and lacy blue window curtains ripple in breeze. Kimi dreams she is at Grandma’s. Reality intrudes with murmur of voices from garden and out in street the strident music of Patriotic March. Awakening and going out front, she sees Harumi in white headband and peasant jacket and monpe knickers, standing waist deep in trench, shoveling while Olga in slacks and sweater squats at edge of the pit a lit cigarette dangling from lips.

   Harumi throws shovel down. “Hooray! Honorable early morning girl awakens! Hows about digging?”

   Soon she is shoveling energetically while Harumi lolls on grass by Olga.

   “Where is the awful Patriotic Moron March coming from?” asks Harumi standing to stretch.

   “Hush,” warns Kimi. “Neighbors might report your question.”

   Olga winks at Kimi. “Don’t you know darling, they put a loudspeaker on the post office roof so we could hear the musical masterpieces? Don’t you want your patriotic consciousness raised?”

   “Hah!” exclaims Kimi throwing a shovelful at her.

   Music stops and announcer introduces the Prime Minister for his Sunday chat. A policeman comes down the street and she drops shovel, climbs out of trench – taking cue from Olga and Harumi – and they bow toward the PM’s voice. Everyone on street stands stiffly as he tells how well the Great Pacific War goes. The Imperial Army has taken Guadalcanal, a step-stone to Australia, which once cleansed of the whites, will be developed as living place for Asians under Japanese guidance. Wake Island has fallen and Americans in the Philippines have surrendered after Macarthur’s cowardly escape while the Philippine brothers are asking for admission into Japan’s Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. The bandit Chiang Kai-shek is on the run in China from the advancing Imperial Army. And the Negroes are rioting in New York. Peace negotiations with the American government are expected soon.

   “Japan will be reasonable. All we need is living space to create a world for all Asian brothers under Japan’s umbrella.”

   A new noise covers the last words – a machine hum. Kimi looks east, Olga too. Harumi runs for binoculars and Olga lights another cigarette nervously.
   “I’ll bet it’s a damn air-raid drill with planes to mock it up.” A siren wails.

   “See, it’s a drill!” Olga sighs in relief as the roar gets louder from the east. Harumi returns with binoculars. “C’mon, the roof!” They clamber up ladder.

   “I see them! I see them!” shouts Kimi pointing.
   “I never saw anything like these before: not Mitsubishi’s, not Zeroes. Twin engine?”

   Olga grabs a look. “Wing insignia’s funny – white star?” Something clicks. “American! They’re American! It ain’t no drill.”

16. How Could It Happen?

They hastily scramble from the roof while people in street rush to shelters. Kimi looks up and sees a plane swoop low, seeming to be headed for her. An opening appears in its underside and a black object tumbles down and comes to rest in the garden an arm’s length away. Not pausing to feel fear, Kimi grabs a shovel, knocks the hand-size bomb into the pit she has just helped dig and smothers it with loose sod. Another bomb lands in front of the gate, fizzling and sparking. Olga and Harumi grab buckets of water stowed in the garden against fire and successfully drench it.

   The planes roar away leaving confusion.

   Kimi squats by gate, face sooty, heart pounding. Out on street a fire engine screams.

   “It’s the start of something I don’t like,” says Olga. “Damn war! From this moment on I’m pacifist!”

   Kimi looks down at grimy hands. “Well, we did what they taught us.”

   Harumi laughs. “How come the Americans bomb us if they are being so badly defeated? Those planes must have come from nearby.”
   A car's loud “Honk! Honk!” interrupts. “Hey there, Girl, clean up and come with me, we have work!” says Kimura from rear of his Agency car with military driver.

Minutes later Kimi sits peering out car window. Everything is disordered and everyone is running about, curious. It is a first air raid and people are thinking “How can the Yankee Monkees bomb Tokyo just 4 months after Pearl Harbor and the other Imperial Navy and Army victories?” Forgetting air defense duties, people climb onto rooftops with binoculars and cameras. Kimi sees only slight damage. Their car passes through residential Shibuya and she spots a burning house rapidly being doused by bucket brigade of women in monpe and long sleeved peasant jackets with padded hoods against the fire. They are relaying oaken buckets full of water up rickety bamboo ladder to leading firefighter who dumps arriving water onto smoldering section of roof, throws the empty bucket into vat below and reaches back for a full bucket.
    Passing the Mitsukoshi Department Store she sees flame and smoke billowing off one wall but it is only burning promo banners hanging off the building and ignited into flashy fire by sparks from a bomb. At intervals Kimura bids driver stop, and he gets out, takes pictures and interviews onlookers.

   Snatches from the babble: “How could it happen?" "Where did they come from?" "We handled it well, didn’t we, just like we were taught in the drills?" "It wasn’t all that bad. We have nothing to fear from American bombs.”

17. A Fine Frenzy

Next morning at War Office the Army spokesman says the B-25 bombers took off from the Hornet one of the few aircraft carriers to escape Pearl Harbor. The added-on weight of the bombs did not allow enough fuel for return so it is a one-shot propaganda ploy, a desperate suicide mission to frighten the civilian population.

   The briefing opens for questions.
   “No, the damage not serious; a few homes burned and twelve killed."
   "Yes, any airman captured will be tried for war crimes before an International Tribunal in Tokyo."
   "No, the raid is not expected to affect morale. Au contraire!”
   The spokesman, who trained at the French military academy St. Cyr as exchange student, threw in his fancy French as snobby lobby and for the Vichy France correspondent.
   “Now that the people see the poor American bombing they will no longer fear it.”

Later, in small café in Kanda, a student district known for radical politics and cheap noodles, Kimura, explains. He is sure the government is lying about the war. He has seen secret memorandum which concludes that, in a war between Japan and the U.S., the American victory is certain because of resources, manpower and productive superiority. The memo paints a grim picture of War’s end based on high probability America will have a super bomb which in one flash could blow Japan into next Wednesday. “Yes,” he says after a low laugh “those are the actual words – ‘next Wednesday’.”

  Kimi listens gravely accepting his words but not emotionally. She dislikes arrogant militarism but, after all, one cannot turn against one’s country. She has not come that far yet.

   “I must chronicle the facts” Kimura continues, staring intensely ahead. “And now a deus ex machina has popped up to deliver my desire.”

   In voice brimming with excitement he reveals the Mission:

On-the-spot coverage of the decisive battle; nothing less than the invasion of Hawaii! He will report it from Admiral Yamamoto’s flagship! Even now the armada is assembling. The militarists expect another Pearl Harbor. But what if they fail? It will end any possibility of conditional peace. He is sure such failure would be kept from the public but he means to get the story. “It is my obsession that has built to a frenzy: A fine frenzy.”
   For next, now, click 5.18 A Swerve - Sea & Sand