After Dark

It is 3:42am. Mari and Takahashi sit together at the otherwise deserted park. Mari feeds a white kitten. Takahashi explains that when he worked at the Alphaville, he used to come to the park to spend time with the cats on his breaks. He grew up with cats and misses them. Mari was never allowed to have a cat because Eri was highly allergic to them, among many other things.

Takahashi tells Mari he had one very deep conversation with Eri back in April. Mari is surprised Eri opened up to Takahashi. Takahashi does not know why she did, but he tells Mari that people often open up to him. He wonders if it is because people often think he is gay, and that perhaps Eri found him unthreatening.

Eri told him a number of personal secrets, one of which was that she wished she and Mari were closer; she felt that Mari had put up a barrier between them. Mari is surprised. Takahashi recalls Eri taking numerous pills throughout the conversation. Mari confirms this, saying, “Pills, fortune-telling, and dieting: nobody can stop her when it comes to any of those things” (149). Throughout their talk, Eri made Takahashi feel like he could have been anyone, like he was just her sounding board. Takahashi realized that Eri was not absorbing anything he said, like there was some sort of spongey barrier between them. Mari tells Takahashi that this is exactly how she has felt with Eri for the past few years.

Mari asks Takahashi if the girl he took to Alphaville was Eri; Takahashi assures her that it was not. Mari says that she does not care either way, so long as it was what Eri wanted. Takahashi responds that even Eri probably has no grasp of what she wants.

Mari tells Takahashi that she wanted to be closer to Eri in her early teenage years, but that was when Eri was busiest with her modeling career. Though they grew up in the same house, it was as though they lived in two different worlds. Given this, Mari does not know what to do with the fact that Eri wishes they were closer. Takahashi suggests that Eri had a complex about Mari, not the other way around. He thinks Eri was not able to form as clear of a sense of self as Mari. Mari rejects this idea; she does not have a clear sense of herself, either.

Takahashi tells Mari that she is probably a late-bloomer still in a “preparatory stage.” Mari remarks that Guo Dongli is also 19, and there was no room for her to be in a preparatory stage. She felt an immediate want to be friends with Guo, something she had never experienced before. She feels as though Guo is a part of her now.

Takahashi wants Mari to consider the idea that Eri might be suffering violence similar to what Guo experienced, and that she is lashing out, harming herself, because she is unable to express her pain. Mari tells Takahashi that Eri is in a deep sleep and does not want to wake up.

At 3:58am, Shirakawa does exercises, shirtless, on a yoga mat in his office in time to a Scarlatti cantata. It is part of his daily routine. When he is finished, he cleans up and inspects his right hand, which does not show much damage but which still hurts. He dresses and stares at himself intently in the bathroom mirror, as though expecting something else to emerge from it. Shirakawa leaves, but his reflection remains, motionless, until it rolls its neck and touches its face in the now dark bathroom.

Back at his desk, Shirakawa twirls the same silver “VERITECH” pencil that Eri found on the floor. He opens a bag containing the clothes and belongings he stole from Guo. Some of the clothes, including the undergarments, are stained black with blood. He empties her purse and takes back the 3,000 Yen he paid her. He listens to each of the messages on her cheap burner phone, all from the same man and all in Chinese, so he does not understand them. He crumples all of Guo’s belongings into a garbage bag, except for the cell phone, which he pockets, and calls a cab.

The cab driver recognizes Shirakawa; he has taken him home this late before. He comments that it must be rough to always work this late. Shirakawa blames it on the recession. He asks the cab driver to make a detour to a 7-Eleven so he can throw away his garbage and pick up the milk his wife requested.

At 7-Eleven, Shirakawa adds the garbage bag containing Guo’s possessions to the pile by the dumpster. It is indistinguishable from the other bags and will be picked up in the morning. He places Guo’s cell phone next to the cheese in the dairy section in the store. He purchases milk and a container of yogurt.

Back in the cab, he tells the driver to wake him when they get near his house. He pretends to sleep rather than make small talk. Some time later, at a red light, the man on the black motorcycle pulls up next to them, though he is oblivious to Shirakawa’s presence.

It is 4:09am. Takahashi does not know what to make of Mari saying that Eri does not want to wake up. Mari wants to go to the Alphaville, and Takahashi volunteers to walk with her before he gets back to practice—likely his last ever all-night band practice.

The city is dead at this time of night. Trash litters the streets, yet to be picked up by sanitation workers. Takahashi asks why Mari is wearing a Boston Red Sox hat. Mari, who does not follow baseball, replies that someone gave it to her. Takahashi tries to ask Mari what she meant about Eri not wanting to wake up, but Mari does not want to talk about it. She asks Takahashi to tell her more about himself. He warns her that he can only think of dark things at the moment.

Takahashi’s mother died from breast cancer when he was 7. His father was in prison for fraud. Takahashi was left alone, tended to by estranged aunts and neighbors. Takahashi mostly fended for himself until his father returned. He was relieved to have him back, but his father felt like a stranger thereafter. He tells Mari she is lucky she never had to deal with that. Takahashi’s father never went back to prison, though he continued to work in a legal gray area. Takahashi’s childhood was a series of extreme financial ups and downs. He changed schools frequently and was never able to make friends. Takahashi’s father eventually settled down. He reliably pays Takahashi’s tuition and even sends him spending money from time to time.

Mari asks about Takahashi’s stepmother. He says she never had a child of her own, so she raised Takahashi as if he were her own son. Takahashi is grateful, but the feeling of being an orphan never left him.

They reach Alphaville. Takahashi looks at Mari seriously and jokes, “I’m thinking exactly the same thing you are. But today’s no good. I’m not wearing clean underwear” (181). Mari looks at him, disgusted, and tells him not to make such jokes. Takahashi tells her he will come back at 6am and take her to a restaurant nearby that makes good omelets. He waves goodbye, and Mari enters the love hotel.

At 4:25am, Eri presses her hands to the screen of the television. Her actions seem uncoordinated, as though she is not fully able to shake off the effects of sleeping for so long. She mouths words, but they are sluggish and incoherent; nothing can be discerned from “our side” of the screen. Eri can evidently see her room, but she cannot break through.

Eri’s image on the screen begins to break up. The narrator forgets its self-imposed neutrality and shouts for Eri to run, but the voice does not reach her. Eri is aware of the danger, that “the meaning of her physical self is eroding” (186). She runs out of frame, and the television screen goes black.

The clock in Shirakawa’s kitchen reads 4:31am. Shirakawa sits eating yogurt directly from the container, watching a program about deep-sea creatures and contemplating the relationship between thought and action.