Light and dark

[49]

THE SCENE inside was just as before. The figures of the men and women moving about in the parterre directly beneath them were a tangled, dizzying spectacle, as if they were underfoot. Activity designed to attract as much attention as possible was in evidence everywhere. As one gesture completed itself, it vanished as if to cede a place to the next ostentatious burst of color. The small world compassed in their field of vision was all a wavering blur, complex and disordered and always resplendent.

From the rear of the relatively quiet stage, the sounds of the property master’s hammer from time to time ringing out across the theater awakened a sense of anticipation. And the wooden clappers striking behind the curtain at intervals rang in the ears like night alarms attempting to focus scattered attention on a single point.

What was odd was the audience. Without a word of complaint about this long intermission with nothing to do, appearing ever so content, people supped with equanimity on the scattered excitement as they were swept along unprotestingly by the passage of time. They were tranquil. They appeared happy. They seemed drunk on the breath they inhaled from one another, and when they began to sober up a little they had only to shift their eyes to another’s face. There they would immediately discover something lulled and mellow. And they were able to assimilate at once their neighbor’s mood.

Returning to their seats, the girls glanced around them with what appeared to be pleasure. As if by prearranged signal, they turned in the direction of the Madam Yoshikawa. The binoculars were no longer trained on them. But neither was their owner anywhere in sight.

“She’s disappeared.”

“It seems so.”

“Shall I try to find her?”

Yuriko lifted her own opera glasses to her eyes.

“She’s not there — she’s gone off somewhere. She’s fat enough for two people so there’s no way I could miss her if she was there.”

Yuriko lowered the ivory glasses. Coming from a girl who still wore her obi so high that it obscured the beautiful pattern of beasts and flowers on her back, the remark was hardly appropriate for use in public: her elder sister, projecting grown-up authority even as she tightened her mouth to conceal her amusement, spoke admonitorily.

“Yuriko-san!”

The younger sister offered no reply. Looking slightly disgruntled as before, an expression that seemed to be exclaiming “What’s the problem?” she turned pointedly to her sister.

“I want to go home now. I wish Father would hurry and get here.”

“If you want to leave, you may. It doesn’t matter if Father isn’t here.”

“I’d better stay.”

She didn’t budge. Sitting alongside this contrary cousin as she carried on like a child, O-Nobu turned to her aunt with a show of discretion appropriate to her age.

“Shall I find Mrs. Yoshikawa and just say hello? It seems rude to ignore her.”

To tell the truth, O-Nobu wasn’t overly fond of this matron. Nor did it seem to her that the other party liked her any better. She even had a vague explanation: that the awkwardness between them had occurred because Madam had taken a dislike to her from the moment they had met. She was furthermore confident that this had occurred despite the fact that she had given her no cause. O-Nobu had realized when the binoculars had been trained on her a while ago that she would be obliged to pay her respects, but she had been unable at the time to summon the courage required and was therefore hoping as she consulted her aunt, having converted her internal uneasiness into a question, that she would help her fulfill her obligation more easily by going to greet Madam Yoshikawa herself and taking her along.

Her aunt replied at once.

“That’s a good idea. Do go and find her.”

“But she isn’t there now.”

“Of course she is, probably in the corridor.”

“But — then I’ll go, but you come too, please.”

“I was planning—”

“You won’t come with me?”

“I suppose I could. But since we’re having dinner together, I thought I’d wait until then.”

“That’s been arranged? I didn’t know a thing about it. Who’s having dinner with whom?”

“Everyone.”

“Including me?”

“Yes.”

Taken by surprise, O-Nobu paused before replying.

“In that case, I’ll wait, too.”