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going to Sam's place, so be sure and give the cat some milk, not the milk in the refrigerator, the milk on the shelf, don't mix them up.
    Yoshiyama didn't answer.
    When Kei opened the door, the air that flowed in was cool and moist. Hey, Kei, leave it open for a while.
    As we listened to "Left Alone" Yoshiyama filled a tumbler with gin. I picked up the pieces of glass scattered on the floor and collected them on the newspaper soaked with Reiko's vomit. "I don't like to say it, but these days it always goes like that," Yoshiyama muttered as he stared at the ceiling.
    "It was the same even before she went up to Akita to work, we sleep separate at night, even though I don't do it much anyway."
    I drank a coke from the refrigerator. Yoshiyama waved his hand to show he didn't want any and drained down all the gin.
    "She's been saying she wants to go to Hawaii. It's been awhile but remember about how there was talk maybe her dad is in Hawaii? I thought I'd get together some bread and send her there, well, I don't know if the guy in Hawaii is really her dad or not, but . . .
    "I thought I'd work, get together some bread, but now everything's all mixed up and I don't have a clue what she's thinking anymore, she's like that all the time, every day."

    Yoshiyama pressed his hand to his chest, stood up, and hurried outside, I could hear him spewing into the gutter. Reiko was really passed out. She was breathing through her mouth. From the back cupboard, hidden behind a curtain, I took a blanket and covered her with it.
    He came back holding his belly, wiping his mouth with his shirt cuff. Yellow vomit clung to the front of his rubber sandals, a sour smell floated from his body. I could hear Reiko's faint breathing.
    "Yoshiyama, come tomorrow, to the party."
    "Yeah, well, Kei, she's looking forward to it, says she wants to do it with those niggers again, so I'm kind of ... you know.
    "What's with Reiko today? She was pretty wild." Yoshiyama sat down opposite me and swallowed a mouthful of gin.
    "Yesterday, at my place, she had a fight with Okinawa. She didn't get to shoot up, you know. She's fat and her veins don't stand out, I guess, and Okinawa got impatient and shot it all up himself, hers too, shot it all up."
    "Real idiots, they are. And you were watching like an idiot?"
    "No, I'd shot up. I was flat out on the bed, thought maybe I'd die. It was scary, I got a little too much, really scary."
    Yoshiyama took two more Nibrole pills, dissolved in gin.
    My stomach felt empty but I didn't feel like eating. Thinking maybe at least I'd have some soup I looked in the pan on the gas ring, but the surface of the soup was a film of gray mold, and the bean curd in it was slimy, rotten.
    Since Yoshiyama said he'd really like some coffee, with a lot of milk, I put up with the awful smell of the soup and warmed some coffee in a pot.
    Yoshiyama poured milk up to the brim of his cup, held it firmly in both hands, and brought it to his mouth. He yelled, Hot! and vomit sprayed from his pursed lips like water from a toy pistol and fell in globs on the counter.
    "Aw shit, I'll just stick with liquor," he said, and gulped down the gin left in his glass. When he had a slight fit of coughing and I rubbed his back, he turned around and said, You're really great. His lips twisted. His back, sticky and cold, had a sour smell.
    "After that I went back to Toyama, I guess you heard from Reiko? After I'd been at your place, my mom died, I guess you heard?"
    I nodded. Yoshiyama's glass was full of gin again. The too-sweet coffee stabbed my roughened tongue.
    "It's really a funny feeling when somebody actually dies on you, that was the first time for me. Are your folks O.K., Ryū?" "They're O.K., they worry about me, I get all kinds of letters."
    The last number on "Left Alone" ended. The record turned with the sound of tearing cloth.
    "Yeah, well anyway, I took Kei with me, she said she'd come along to Toyama, she didn't want to stay at our place by herself. Sure,