[161]

HE CRUMPLED the notes and stuffed them into his jacket pocket. The move was as off hand as his gratitude was perfunctory.

Thanks. I’d like to be borrowing this, but I suppose you’re intending it as a gift. Given the contempt in which you hold me, you must have told yourself from the beginning I won’t have the means to pay you back or the desire either.”

Tsuda replied.

“Of course I’m giving it to you. I assume you’ll notice the contradiction in accepting it.”

“What contradiction? I’m not aware of any contradiction. Is accepting money from you a contradiction?”

“You don’t see that?” Tsuda condescended. “Think about it. Until just now, that money was in my wallet. And in the twinkling of an eye it moved to your suit pocket. If that sounds too much like a novel, let me put it another way: Who transferred the right to that money from me to you so quickly? Answer me that.”

“You of course. You gave it to me.”

“Wrong. It wasn’t me!”

“You’re sounding like a Zen monk. Who was it then?”

“It wasn’t anyone. It was latitude — that same latitude you’ve been denigrating gave it to you. So accepting it without a word amounts to dipping your head to latitude even as you hack it to pieces. What’s that if not a contradiction?”

Kobayashi blinked rapidly before he spoke.

“You may have a point there — it’s funny, though. I don’t feel as though I’m bowing to latitude.”

“Then give the money back.”

Tsuda thrust his hand in Kobayashi’s face. The palm appeared to be as smooth as a woman’s.

“Like hell I will. Latitude isn’t telling me to give it back.”

Smiling, Tsuda withdrew his hand.

“I rest my case.”

“What case? It appears you’re not getting my meaning when I say latitude hasn’t told me to give it back. Poor Little Lord Fauntleroy!”

Turning aside, Kobayashi glanced toward the entrance as he spoke.

“He should be here by now.”

Tsuda, who had been observing him closely, was a little surprised.

“Who’s coming?”

“Nobody; someone with even less latitude than I.”

Kobayashi made a show of tapping the pocket where he had stuffed the money.

“The latitude that transferred this money from you to me isn’t saying return it to you. It’s commanding me to pass it along to someone even more deficient in latitude. Latitude is like water. It runs downhill, but it doesn’t flow back up.”

Tsuda understood Kobayashi’s drift as a concept. But he was unable to see how it actually applied. This unsettled him, and he withdrew into rumination. Kobayashi’s subsequent words came marching through the haze like an invading army.

“I will bow down to latitude. I’ll acknowledge my contradiction. I’ll affirm your illogical assertions. I’ll do anything. I thank you. I’m grateful.”

Abruptly, large tears began spilling from his eyes. This radical transformation left Tsuda, already surprised, feeling all the more uneasy. Unable to avoid recalling the recent scene at the bar where he had been placed in an awkward situation, he frowned, realizing at the same moment that now was the time to manipulate his companion.

“Why would I expect gratitude from you? You’re the one who’s forgotten the past. I’m doing now what I’ve always done, in the same spirit, but you stand everything on its head, which just makes associating with you more and more a bother. For example, you go to my house when I’m away and say something to my wife while you’re there—”

Having said this much, Tsuda tried assessing its effect on his companion without seeming to. But Kobayashi was looking down, and Tsuda was unable to read his mood to see whether it might have changed.

“Did you have to go out your way to see if you could drive a wedge between your friend and his wife for the fun of it?”

“I don’t recall saying anything about you.”

“But just a minute ago—”

“That was a joke. You were taunting me so I taunted back.”

“I don’t know who started the taunting, but that hardly matters. I just don’t see why you can’t tell me the truth.”

“But I have. I’ve said over and over again I don’t recall saying anything about you. Try questioning your wife and you’ll see.”

“O-Nobu won’t—”

“What’d she say?”

“Nothing, that’s the problem. If she’s thinking something without saying it, I can’t defend myself or explain; I’m the only one who’s left in the dark.”

“I didn’t say anything. The question is what you’ll do now; are you up to behaving like a husband or not?”

“I don’t—”

As Tsuda began to speak, footsteps signaled the arrival at the table of a third party.

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