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Tuesday. 11/01/05. 12:13:25 AM
Ryo slept the entire day, the sun coming up and down as he
dreamed about meeting up with Eiji Shinrow, and all the
questions he wanted to ask him, in a smoky bar with pieces of
peanut shells littering the bar counter, glass rings staining
everywhere.
Even with all those questions pounding in his brain, the only
thing his dream self asked was "Do you remember that time, when
we both did the exact same thing except on different places?"
As if he already knew him, for a long, long time, old friends
from the past, memories overflowing with nostalgia.
"Yes." Was the simple reply that Eiji gave off, as he drank his
beer and ate some more peanuts, shells and peels covering the
bar.
Nights ago, when he had followed that girl into the darkness of
the door, opened by the 'marshmallow monster', it took his eyes
a while to adjust still.
With the clouds covering the moon, all that the glass windows
would show were just more and more splatters of rain drops,
crashing and crashing on the surface, desperate to get in.
In the room, just by the window, was an old man, sitting Zen
style on a purple bean bag, eyes closed, his long well-trimmed
beard reaching his crossed up legs.
Before Ryo said anything, the girl sat right besides the old
man, who seems taller since he was sitting on a bean bag.
"You're here to ask about Eiji Shinrow, right?" The old man
asked, his eyes still closed. "Is there any reason for it?"
"I don't know," Ryo smiled. "Shouldn't you be the one to tell me
on these things?"
"I only tell the things that fate wants me to tell, for what I
will tell you will be discovered any other way even if I didn't
tell you, so it would just be quicker if I did."
Oh, God, do all of you old people talk like that? Ryo
wanted to say, yet didn't. "I need to kn-"
"Eiji came here just a few days before he died, you know?" The
old man continued abruptly before Ryo finished his sentence. "He
asked for a way to stop having to expect a new tomorrow, having
to be afraid whether the next day, hour or minute was going to
be good or bad."
And with a pause, he continued. "Wished that he could stop
trying."
"That doesn't really sound like the Eiji I've been hearing from
his friends." Ryo interrupted.
"Everyone has more than just a mask, layers and layers to shape
up the smile that the show on the surface." The old man
chuckled. "In fact, don't you yourself have masks like those?"
"I hate people who are fake and pretentious like that."
"We hate those who are most similar to us," The old man said.
"For they threaten our singularity of being unique and special
in this life." A pause. "It's only an instinct of survival to be
the one with the special genes to move on, and if there are more
than one of you, then that uniqueness and singularity is gone."
Ryo wasn't sure how any of this correlated with his original
question. "Do you know who might have taken Eiji Shinrow's
body?" He continued, ignoring the long rant by the old man. "An
enemy? A lover? A family?"
The old man just smiled. "Maybe he just took himself out of the
morgue?"
And with that, he took a deep breath. |
