Chapter
five
I headed out early the next morning, wanting to get to a public phone and see if there was news from McGraw. I took the stairs, not liking that coffin-sized elevator, and as I reached the bottom, I heard a man’s voice, slurred and aggressive, shouting in Japanese. “I already told you, I just want a rest!”
I opened the stairwell door and emerged into the tiny lobby. A Japanese man in a rumpled suit and holding a cheap battered briefcase was standing in front of the reception window. I could smell the sake from ten feet away. A salaryman, I guessed, who’d stayed out too late and now just wanted a place to sleep it off for a few hours before going back to the office.
“I understand, sir,” came a soft female voice from the other side of the glass. “A rest is two thousand yen.”
I recognized the voice. The same girl who’d checked me in the night before.
“I told you, I only have a thousand. I’ll get you the rest later, when the banks are open. When the banks are open I’ll even give you an extra thousand for your trouble. All right?” He shoved a crumbled bill under the glass.
The girl pushed the bill back. “I’m sorry, sir. Full payment in advance. No exceptions. Company policy.”
“F*ck your policy!” the man shouted.
On a whim, I dug a thousand-yen note out of my pocket and walked over to the window. I put the bill down in front of the glass. “I’ll pay the difference,” I said.
The girl looked at me like I was crazy. The money just sat there.
The guy turned to me. “Who the f*ck are you?”
“The bank, apparently.”
He glanced at the thousand-yen note, then back to me, his eyes narrowing. “Why would you pay for me?”
I glanced at the girl and shrugged. “A thousand yen seems like not very much to get you to leave her alone.”
He leered at me. “What are you expecting, you pay for the room, you’re going to follow me up there so I can suck your dick? That what you’re thinking?”
All he was looking for, I should have recognized, was the opportunity to save a modicum of face. That, or it was some weird kind of projection or trial balloon, and he was hoping I really did want him to suck my dick. Either way, all I had to do at that point was calmly say something like, Do you want the money or not? It was clear he would have taken it.
But I was still young, and stupid, and prone to take things personally. I said, “I’m expecting you to take the money, while it’s still on the counter. It’ll be a lot easier to retrieve from there than it will be after I shove it up your ass.”
His eyes widened and he flushed. His mouth twitched, but whatever he saw in my eyes got the twitching under control before it turned into words. He pushed the note under the glass. The girl took it and slid him a key. He picked it up and headed toward the elevator. As he got inside, he spat, “Baka yaro!” A*shole!
When he was gone, I turned to the girl. She was dressed as she had been when I’d arrived—obviously, she’d been there through the night. I was struck again by how pretty she was, and by how deliberately she seemed to be doing nothing to accentuate it. “You okay?” I said.
“Why would I not be okay?”
I was surprised. I realized I was expecting something more along the lines of a thank-you.
“I don’t know…I just wanted to make sure. That guy was pretty belligerent.”
“You don’t think I deal with a*sholes like that about five times a week on average?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I do. Without anyone’s help.”
“I…guess I don’t know much about hotels,” I stammered.
“Yeah, well this one’s not known for its high-class clientele. You want that, try the Imperial.”
Why was I arguing? I had more important things on my mind. I shook it off and said, “I didn’t mean to suggest you couldn’t handle it yourself. I’m glad you’re okay.”
I moved off, out the exit door, past the privacy wall, into the narrow street. I was about to turn the corner when I heard the door open behind me. A voice called out, “Hey.”
I turned. It was her. But it took me a second to process—what was she doing sitting?
No, not sitting. She was in a wheelchair.
She pushed the wheels to propel herself forward a few feet, closer to where I stood. Then she stopped and regarded me.
“Thank you,” she said. But before I could overcome my surprise and come up with something in response, she had spun around and disappeared inside.