Almost Transparent Blue Read Online Free PDF Page B

town smelling of fish. I wonder where it was, the whole town smelled of fish, where was it?"
    There was the sound of a car far off. Reiko mumbled now and then. Yoshiyama went outside again. I followed. Side by side, we puked into the gutter. I braced my left hand against a wall and stuck my finger back into my throat; the muscles of my stomach jerked and warm fluid came out. As waves passed though my chest and belly, sour lumps lodged in my throat and mouth, and when I pushed them with my tongue, they numbed my gums and then plopped into the water.
    As we walked back inside, Yoshiyama said, "Hey, Ryū, when I heave like that, you know, and my guts are all mixed up and I can hardly stay on my feet and I can't see good, you know, that's the only time I really want a woman. Well, even if there was one around, I couldn't get it up and it'd be too much trouble to open her legs, but anyway I still want a woman. Not in my prick or in my head, but my whole body, all of me, is just squirming for it. How about you? Do you get what I mean?"
    "Yeah, you want to kill her, rather then fuck her?"
    "That's it, that's it, squeezing her neck like this, tearing her clothes off, ramming a stick or something up her butt, a classy chick like the kind you see walking on the Ginza."
    Reiko was coming out of the john; she said sleepily Hi, come in. The front of her slacks was open.
    She seemed about to fall ; I ran forward and held her up.
    "Thanks, Ryū, it's quiet now, isn't it? Hey, give me some water. My mouth's sticky—" Her head dropped. As I cracked some ice, Yoshiyama was stripping her where she lay on the sofa.

    The Nikomat lens reflected a dark sky and small sun. When I bent forward to have it reflect my face, Kei bumped into me. "Ryū, what're ya doing?"
    "Who's talking, you're the last one here, it's no good being late."
    "On the bus, ya know, this old guy spat on the floor and the driver made a fuss about it, even stopped the bus. They both got red in the face, shouting at each other, even though it's so hot. Where's everybody?"
    Yoshiyama was sitting sleepily by the street. She laughed at him. "Hey, weren't ya going to Yokohama today?"
    Reiko and Moko finally came out of the clothes shop in front of the station.
    Everybody around turned to look at Reiko. She was wearing an Indian dress she'd just bought, a red silk dress covered with tiny round mirrors all the way down to the ankles.
    "You really got another wild outfit," Kazuo laughed, turned his Nikomat on her.
    Kei said in my ear—her perfume hit me—"Hey, Ryū, Ah wonder if she doesn't know, being that fat and buying that kind of dress."
    "It doesn't matter, does it? She must have wanted to change her mood. She'll get tired of it soon, you can get it from her then, Kei, it'd be sure to look good on you."
    Glancing around, Reiko said to us all in a tiny voice, "Me, I was shocked. Moko did it right while the store clerks are watching, stuffed it in her bag all at once."
    "What, Moko, you've been lifting stuff again? You're stoned? They'll get you if you don't cut it out," Yoshiyama said, screwing up his face against the fumes from a bus. Moko thrust her arm in front of my face.
    "Smell's good, huh? Dior."

    "Dior's O.K., but don't be such a show-off about your lifting, you'll get us all in trouble."
    While Yoshiyama and Kazuo went off to buy hamburgers, the three girls exchanged cosmetics and smeared their faces, leaning against the railing by the ticket puncher. They pouted and peered into their compact mirrors. People passing by looked at them strangely.
    An older station official laughed to Reiko, "Great clothes, sister, where're you going?"
    Drawing on her eyebrows and looking very serious, she told the man who punched her ticket, "Party, we're going to a party now."

    In the middle of Oscar's room, nearly a fistful of hashish smoldered in an incense burner, and like it or not, the spreading smoke entered one's chest with every breath. In less than thirty seconds I was