Death Sentences (22 page)

But-he never regained consciousness. The doctor shook his head and started an urgent search for other causes. But before he could determine what was wrong, without any warning, his heart ceased beating.

It happened about ten days after they'd found him.

The police ordered an autopsy and began a rather halfhearted investigation into the cause of death, accident or suicide.

Sakakibara was called in for questioning.

If suicide ... he could definitely imagine a motive. In any case, he could guess why he'd been drinking.

In a roundabout manner, Sakakibara mentioned it to the police. But they didn't take him seriously.

For one thing, he hadn't left any sort of note behind.

On the pad of paper on the kotatsu, he'd been making some notes in what appeared to be French and Japanese, but these were all related to the contents of the manuscript.

The police had already verified this.

He had written the title "Another World" in Japanese on one manuscript. On another manuscript he had jotted kagami to translate the title "Mirror."

It was obvious from the way he had scribbled these words that he had been very excited.

On the last manuscript he had translated the title "The Gold of Time" in Japanese. But he had not made any other notes on this one.

He had been holding the copy of "The Gold of Time." It was as if something had happened while he was reading it.

Apparently, the doctor did not think he had died from excessive drinking. The examination suggested that he'd probably only had about one glass of whiskey.

Besides, no matter how much he'd been drinking, drinking couldn't explain his condition.

The doctor tended to think that some sort of violent shock had left him physically and mentally incapacitated. But no one, including the doctor, could figure out what sort of violent shock could have put him in such an unusual condition.

In the end-both the causes and the effects remained unexplained, and the death was attributed to an "accident." Any lingering doubts about suicide vanished. The investigation came to an end, and the body was returned to his family.

Then yesterday the funeral ceremony had been at last held, after a delay of five days.

The call from Kasadera's mother had come at about eleven in the morning.

Sakakibara promised to come by sometime after one.

He had assumed that no one would come to work today, but Miyagami turned up.

He had received the cover illustration for Kirin Quarterly and decided to come in.

Now that he had the image, he had planned on doing the cover layout that afternoon.

Sakakibara asked him to go with him.

Sakakibara was familiar with Kasadera's collection of books. There were some valuable volumes. It would be a waste to let them go.

Miyagami worried that he'd fall behind on his deadline, but the offer of a free lunch swayed him.

At twelve-thirty, after lunch and a cup of coffee, Miyagami went to pick up a small van from the rental car office on Waseda Avenue.

They filled the back with empty boxes and headed for Kasadera's house.

His elderly father and mother greeted them.

They guided them into Kasadera's study where only shelves of books remained.

The desk and chest and kotatsu had all been removed.

Sakakibara and Miyagami began silently to sort through the books.

They decided to take the draft of his translation of the manuscripts and his notes.

By just after four they had filled all the boxes. The books that they didn't want would go to a used bookstore.

The task left them feeling utterly depressed. He had founded Kirin Publishers along with Sakakibara. Kirin wouldn't have been possible without his efforts. Memories of those tough days came back. And then, on that last night ... the expression on his face as he turned and looked at him ...

Kasadera's mother brought them tea.

Sakakibara had intended to pay for the books, but she refused adamantly. "If I took your money, it would be as if you and Toru had been complete strangers," she said.

"Toru relied on you more than on his own brothers. And the fact that it was you who found him, it was as if he had called out to you."

She continued to speak fondly of him. Sakakibara let Miyagami carry the boxes so he could listen to her.

It took about an hour for the conversation to wind down.

"I hope you'll excuse our intruding on you today."

Sakakibara stood up.

"As soon as an opportunity arises, I would like to call on you again in Shizuoka."

The elderly woman bowed deeply in reply. The elderly father came out to see them to the entrance.

"You know ..."

The woman whispered in Sakakibara's ear as he put his shoes on.

"You know ... the young woman ... the one who helped out with the reception the other day ... named Mishima, Mishima Keiko?"

"Yes, that's her."

The old woman smiled slyly at him.

"She's quite pretty, isn't she?"

"Our Toru seemed really taken with her ..."

Sakakibara stiffened.

"We were just reading a bit of Toru's diary, the two of us, you see. The young woman's name came up again and again. Isn't that right, dear?"

"That's enough, Tomiko."

Her husband stopped her from going any further.

"If the young woman heard this, wouldn't she feel terrible? Please excuse us. It's better to forget all about it."

Sakakibara bowed his head and slipped out the entrance.

Darkness had already fallen outside.

It was cold.

It felt cold enough to snow.

Sakakibara barely spoke a word during the trip back to the offices in Takada-no-baba.

He was dead tired.

As they carried the boxes from the van into the building, it actually began to snow.

He thought of Keiko. He thought of what the woman had said.

Miyagami spoke up.

"I'll return the van and walk home, but do you want me to drive you home first? It'd be pretty dangerous on your bike with all this snow."

"That's okay, thanks anyway. I have a few things left to do."

"Okay, see you then."

Miyagami left.

Sakakibara sat with his elbows propped on the desk and stared into space for some time.

Then he picked up the phone.

Keiko picked up immediately.

"Hey, where have you been?"

Sakakibara explained what had happened.

"I see ... is that what happened? ..."

Keiko's voice trailed off. But, as if rallying her spirits, she invited him over.

"Why don't you come over now? Let's have something to eat together."

Ever since that day, he hadn't had much time to talk with her. Of course, it hadn't been just that.

But they were finally past that stage.

If he spent some time with her, if he spent some time alone with her, it would do a lot to lift his spirits.

He should do it.

"Should I bring something?"

"That would be great. Could you bring something to drink? I have some whiskey but no beer or wine-"

Whiskey really didn't appeal to him just then.

"Okay, then. I'll get something."

He hung up and looked around the silent empty office.

The boxes they'd carried in were stacked along the wall. He opened one.

Right on top in a bundle were the notes that Kasadera had been jotting down that day, the copies of "Another World" and "Mirror" that had been lying on the kotatsu, and the copy of "The Gold of Time" that he'd been holding when he died.

Sakakibara took the papers and slid them into a large envelope. He turned off the heat and lights and left.

He selected a bottle of white wine at a nearby store and then grabbed a bottle of red wine as well.

He was thinking that, if possible, he'd really like to get a bit drunk.

He hurried through the snow to the metro station.

2

The first bottle of wine was empty in no time.

But it hadn't taken the edge off his mind as he'd hoped.

Keiko's face was flushed red.

Sakakibara removed the cork from the second bottle.

As he stood to throw away the empty bottle, the envelope fell from his chair to the floor.

"Hey, what do you have in there?"

Keiko leaned over and picked it up for him.

"It's the copies you made ... from before ..."

Sakakibara opened the envelope to show her.

"It's Kasadera's copies. I guess he was going to translate them himself. These are his notes here."

Keiko took the manuscript, nodding silently.

"I was going to read this over the weekend anyway-I really want to put it in the next volume. In remembrance of Kasadera ..."

These past two weeks-

Every day had been a mess. He wasn't in the frame of mind to sort through the materials to catalog them.

But he had had plenty of time to think.

He had pretty much worked out in his head the structure for a book series based on the new materials.

The series would be called Undiscovered Materials.

The first volume, Sources of Surrealism, would provide a historical survey of surrealism from a new perspective.

The second volume, Visions of Surrealism, would include a range of visual materials from painting to cinema.

The third volume, Forms of Surrealism, would also deal with visual materials but with an emphasis on the plastic arts such as sculpture, objets d'art, and other objects.

The fourth volume, Languages of Surrealism, would contain word experiments, with an emphasis on poetry, but also including diaries and dream notebooks.

He had a number of possible titles for the subsequent volumes, such as "Oratories," "Realities," "Presents," and "Limits," in order to publish collections of treatises, letters and miscellaneous writings, and to present personal histories and biographies. His basic idea was to provide a definitive account of the development and contemporary legacy of surrealism, focusing on the vitality and limits of the undiscovered materials in order to pose new questions.

He wanted the fourth volume finished by the time of the Seito exhibition, if possible. At very least he wanted the first three volumes on display.

Subsequent volumes would be books for specialists. Actually, the fourth volume was also somewhat specialized, but the first three would surely attract the eye of the public due to the wealth of visual materials.

It was also part of Sakakibara's plan to use the revenues from the first three volumes to fund the later volumes.

Surely the completion of three, maybe four such volumes would fulfill his obligations to the head of Seito, Tsujimi.

He wanted to use Who May's writings in volume three or four, Languages of Surrealism.

Even if they couldn't actually verify that the texts were by Antonin Artaud, the materials were undeniably important, if only because they showed that these two masters of surrealism, Artaud and Breton, both had secretly possessed the same manuscripts. And then they also had in common the cryptic phrase "the gold of time."

In any case ... the first thing would be to study the texts closely.

That much was clear, and they would have to determine if it could be rendered in Japanese.

With only a quick look at the texts, he had found all kinds of odd word usage. While this contributed to its poetic value, it might make translation pretty much impossible.

Keiko got up to wash the wine glasses. Sakakibara then refilled their glasses with red wine.

The two of them again clinked their glasses in cheer.

"Keiko, have you read the Who May texts yet?" Sakakibara asked after draining his glass.

Keiko nodded slightly.

"I took a quick look at `Un univers tenebreux,' the one that Kasadera translated as "Another World."

"How was it?"

"Well, rather strange ... it made a strange impression ... how should I put it? It was like hearing a song from an unknown people dwelling in a mysterious land ... and suddenly that land appeared before my very eyes."

"Really? It sounds great."

"But then ... once I had read it ... that was it. None of it left a lasting impression. I'm not sure, though. Maybe I was missing something ... there were lots of odd words. For instance ..."