Yutaka read the note and knit his brows. Shinji signaled Yutaka to get off the cliff rock and follow him. Once they sat under the rock, he rummaged through his day pack. He pulled out the contents and lined them up on the ground.
A half dozen gas canisters, several hundred-meter reels of thin fishing wire (that was all he found at the farm coop), plastic tape, and a box of black plastic garbage bags.
Shinji took one of the canisters and showed it to Yutaka. It was painted blue with bright red letters which read “VOICE CHANGER” (underneath the ad copy read, “Now you’ll be the life of the party!” huh!), and under that there was an illustration of a duck—Shinji recognized where it came from—based on a Walt Disney character. A whistlelike object poked out of the canister.
Shinji wrote, I remembered seeing these at the house where I found the PowerBook. You know what this is?
Before taking the pulley, Shinji had gone into the nearby house to retrieve these canisters. What in the world would the occupant of that house do with all these things, though? The files left on the PowerBook’s hard drive offered a clue. Given how they had names like “5th Grade Science” or “Third Term Report Card Drafts,” the owner of the machine must have been an elementary school teacher. Yes, he was probably one of the real teachers at that school.
Yutaka touched his throat and opened his mouth. Shinji nodded.
Right. It makes you sound like a duck! It’s helium. And this one’s a defect. So it’s still loaded with gas.
Yutaka still seemed unconvinced. Shinji thought an actual demonstration would get his point across quicker so he tore open the pack of garbage bags and pulled out a bag. He opened it up, inserted the canister valve (which was supposed to be sucked) into it, and taped it to the bag with the plastic tape. He sealed the edge of the bag with more tape. Then he pressed the valve button and the bag began to inflate.
With his finger on the button, Shinji thought, this would be a lot more entertaining with condoms. But even if they had condoms they would have been a little too small. Huh? Do I have some on me? Well, I mean, come on, this was supposed to be a study trip. Anything can happen, right? You tossed your clothes, but you’re still holding onto these? Yeah, I dunno, I do still have them. Well, you never know when they might come in handy. Let’s not go into details.
After filling up the bag, Shinji twisted the edge right above the canister and sealed it with tape. He took a reel of fishing wire and tied its end to the end of the bag. Then he removed the tape below to release it from the canister. Just to be sure, he folded the edge over again, sealing it again with more tape.
The garbage bag floated upward. It rose until the wire was taut to the point where it almost seemed to lift the reel—but it stopped right at Shinji and Yutaka’s heads.
“See?” Shinji said out loud. Yutaka had probably realized what was going on while Shinji was working on the canister. He’d already nodded several times.
Shinji tied another piece of wire from another reel to the wire stretching under the balloon. Just to be sure, he secured this to the balloon with tape. With the pair of wires in both of his hands, he moved the balloon as if it were walking on a pair of legs. Then he pointed to a nearby tree. He moved the string. Yes, in other words, these were the legs of the giant. They were too frail to crush a city and right now they’re shorter than me, but…
Yutaka seemed to understand completely. He gave two huge nods. Then he moved his lips without saying anything. It looked like he was saying, “Awesome, Shinji.” Or maybe it was, “Enough already.” Whatever, it didn’t matter.
Shinji took the memo pad and wrote, We make one or two more balloons and attach them to each other. But I still don’t know how far up the wire can be stretched. There’s also the wind. Let’s just go for it.
Yutaka read this and nodded.
Shinji glanced up at the sky. The bags were black, so even under the moon, Sakamochi and his men wouldn’t see them. Right now there wasn’t much wind either. But he had no idea what it was like further up there in the sky.
Then he said, “Let’s hurry.”
Shinji signaled Yutaka to hold onto the first balloon and proceeded to pull out another garbage bag.
48
Shogo rose a little after 10 p.m.
Shuya had been looking after Noriko, who remained resting in bed. Shuya groped through the nearly pitch black room and entered the waiting room.
“I’ll make some coffee,” Shogo said as he looked up at Shuya. Then he walked down the hall. He seemed to have good night vision.
Shuya returned to the beds, where he found Noriko up without her blanket.
“You should rest a little more,” Shuya said.
Noriko nodded, “Uh huh…” Then she mumbled, “Could you ask Shogo if he’s going to boil some more water if I can get an extra cup?” Noriko was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands by her thighs. Moonlight spilled in over the curtain from the window. She kept her chin tucked in as she looked over to her side.
“Sure but what for?”
Noriko hesitated and then answered, “I sweated so much, I just wanted to wipe my body. Maybe it’s too much to ask for.”
“Oh no,” Shuya replied and quickly nodded. “No prob. I’ll go tell him.” He left the room.
Shogo was boiling water in the dark kitchen. The tip of the cigarette between his mouth glowed red, and the charcoal flame under the pot resembled a strange firefly stirring to life.
“Shogo,” Shuya said. Shogo turned around. The afterimage of his cigarette traced a thick line before vanishing. “Noriko was wondering if she could have some hot water. She said one cup was enough—”
“Ah.” Shogo didn’t let him continue. He removed his cigarette from his mouth. Shuya could see Shogo was smiling in the dim moonlight coming through the window. “Sure. A cup or an entire bucket, fine with me.”
As he moved he scooped up water with the bowl from the bucket and added it to the pot. He repeated this five times. He kept a low charcoal flame going to keep the water in the pot boiling. Shuya felt some steam drift by.
“She’s a girl,” Shogo said.
It turned out Shogo wasn’t as slow as Shuya was. He knew why Noriko asked for hot water.
Shuya was silent and Shogo unexpectedly continued on his own.
“She wants to stay pretty cause she’s with you.”
Then he exhaled some smoke.
Shuya remained quiet, but then asked, “Can I help you?”
“No.” Shogo seemed to be shaking his head. Squinting his eyes, Shuya could see three cups and a coffee dripper already loaded with a filter on the table. There was also a tea bag for Noriko.
“Hey,” Shogo called him.
Shuya lifted his brow, “What is it? All of a sudden you’re so chatty.”
Shogo chuckled. “I understand how you feel about Yoshitoki, but don’t forget about Noriko’s feelings.”
Shuya fell silent again. The he spoke. For some reason, there was a hint of dissatisfaction in his tone of voice. “I know.”
“You have a girlfriend?” Shogo proceeded to ask.
Shuya shrugged. “Nope.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Shogo continued to look at the window, smoking his cigarette. “It’s not a bad thing to be loved.”
Shuya shrugged again. Then he asked, “Don’t you have someone?”
His cigarette glowed brightly. He didn’t say anything. The smoke drifted slowly through the dark. “A secret, huh?”