The Pearl Diver Read Online Free PDF Page B

Shikagawa. Why do you want to know everybody’s name?”
    “Because they said I must choose one.”
    “That’s not easy. You have to think of something happy in your life. Make a name from that.”
    “We’re not supposed to think of our past.”
    “That’s only what they say. They know that’s impossible, but what else are they to tell us?”
    “Why did you choose Shikagawa?”
    “When I was a child, I used to see a deer drinking from the river near my family’s home. So I chose Shikagawa— deer drinking from the river.”
    “That’s beautiful.”
    “At least something I have is. That’s why it’s so important for you to give this some real thought. I will be quiet now. Good night. I’ll ask you your name in the morning.”
    There is a single dream that she has in this first week. Maybe she has so few dreams because she sleeps so little. It is the same dream over and over, very short but exactly as the previous one.
The man who rowed her here has arrived back at Shodo Island and he has dragged his boat ashore. And although it is late December, he removes the fingerless gloves from his hands, then his hat, jacket, shirts, socks, pants, underwear, and throws them all in the boat. He empties a container of kerosene over it, tosses a match. Everything is in black and white. Even the flames. The man doesn’t stand there to get warmed by the fire, but runs away naked, and she is here on this shore, watching him through the flames until she sees him no more.

the artifacts of nagashima
    Every artifact has a dozen stories—a thousand.
    ARTIFACT Number 0012
The money of Nagashima
    The Coins:
    One Sen: oval-shaped. The front: black, trimmed in gold, a hole in the middle, the amount, along with the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium. The back: plain bronze, no design.
    Five Sen: round-shaped. The front: black, trimmed in gold, a hole in the middle, the amount, along with the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium. The back: plain bronze, no design.
    Ten Sen: round-shaped, a little larger than the five-sen coin. The front: black, trimmed in gold, a square hole in the middle, the amount, along with the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium. The back: plain bronze, no design.
    Fifty Sen: round-shaped, a little larger than the ten-sen coin.
The front: black, trimmed in gold, no hole in the middle, the amount, along with the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium.
The back: plain bronze, no design.
    One Hundred Sen: oval-shaped, the largest of all the coins. The front: gold, trimmed in black, no hole in the middle, the amount, along with the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium, a handheld fan design on the bottom. The back: plain gold, no design.
    The Paper Money:
    One Yen: rectangular-shaped. The front: plain white, with black ink. The date handwritten down the left side, the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium printed from right to left across the bottom, the amount in the middle. The back: plain white.
    Five Yen: rectangular-shaped, a little larger than the one-yen bill. The front: plain white, with black ink. The date handwritten down the left side, the
kanji
for Nagashima Leprosarium printed from right to left across the bottom, the amount in the middle, to the right side of which is a drawing of a small sunrise over an island, the thin beams of the sun stretching far; to the left side of the amount, a picture of pampas grass bending in the wind. The back: plain white.
    And on the seventh day of the first week, the final week of 1948, she, like all of the new patients, receives her money.
    ARTIFACT Number 0022
    Those who arrived in 1948
    a third-year university engineering student
four fishermen
two mothers
a boy who just completed seventh grade
a tanka poet
three World War II veterans and a
twenty-year-old kamikaze who lived
a young woman two weeks from her marriage
a mah-jongg gambler
five high school girls and boys
a twenty-six-year-old man who worked in the ship-yards
a semiprofessional baseball player
three schoolteachers—two women and