A Wild Sheep Chase Read Online Free PDF Page B

way. My sign is Capricorn and my blood type is A—a perfect combination for bank tellers and civil servants. I’m not supposed to get along well with Sagittarians and Libras and Aquarians. A boring life, don’t you think?”
    “I’m fascinated.”
    “I grew up in an ordinary little town, went to an ordinary school. I was a quiet child, but grew into a bored kid. I met this ordinary girl, had an ordinary first romance. When I was eighteen, I came to Tokyo to go to college. When I got out of college, a friend and I set up a small translation service, and somehow we scraped by. Three years ago, we branched out into P.R. newsletters and advertising-related work, and that’s going fairly well. I gotinvolved with one of the women who worked at the firm. We got married four years back and got divorced two months ago. No one reason I can put it all down to. I have an old tomcat for a pet. Smoke forty cigarettes a day. Can’t seem to quit. I own three suits, six neckties, plus a collection of five hundred records that are hopelessly out of style. I’ve memorized all the murderers’ names in every Ellery Queen mystery ever written. I own the complete
A la recherche du temps perdus
, but have only read half. I drink beer in summer, whiskey in winter.”
    “And two days out of three you eat omelettes and sandwiches in bars, right?”
    “Uh-huh,” I said.
    “What an interesting life.”
    “It’s been boring so far. It’ll probably be the same from here on. Not that that bothers me. I mean, I take what I get.”
    I looked at my watch. Nine minutes, twenty seconds.
    “But what you’ve just told me isn’t everything, no?”
    I gazed at my hands on the table. “Of course that’s not everything. There’s no telling every last thing about someone’s life, no matter how boring.”
    “May I comment?”
    “Certainly.”
    “Whenever I meet people for the first time, I get them to talk for ten minutes. Then I size them up from the exact opposite perspective of all they’ve told me. Do you think that’s crazy?”
    “No,” I said, shaking my head, “I’d guess your method works quite well.”
    A waiter came, set the table with new plates, onto which another waiter served the entrée, topped with sauce by still another waiter. A quick double play, shortstop to second, second to first.
    “Applying this method to you, I’ve learned one thing,” she said, putting the knife to her sole mousse. “That your life is not boring. You wish your life was boring. Am I off base?”
    “Maybe not. Maybe my life isn’t boring, maybe I don’t really seek a boring life. But effectively it’s the same thing. Either way I’ve already got what’s coming. Most people, they’re trying to escape from boredom, but I’m trying to get into the thick of boredom. That’s why I’m not complaining when I say my life is boring. It was enough to make my wife bail out, though.”
    “Is that why you and your wife split up?”
    “Like I said before, there’s no one thing I can put it all down to. But as Nietzsche said, ‘The gods furl their flags at boredom.’ Or something like that.”
    We took our time eating. She had seconds on the sauce, and I had extra bread. Then our plates were cleared away, we had blueberry sorbet, and about the time they came out with espresso I lit up a cigarette. The smoke drifted about only a short while before it was discreetly whisked away by the noiseless ventilation system.
    People had begun to take their places at other tables. A Mozart concerto played from the overhead speakers.
    “I’d like to ask you more about your ears, if I may,” I said.
    “You want to ask whether or not my ears possess some special power?”
    I nodded.
    “That is something you’d have to check for yourself,” she said. “If I were to tell you anything, it might not be of any interest to you. Might even cramp your style.”
    I nodded once more.
    “For you, I’ll show my ears,” she said, after finishing her espresso.