Real World Read online

  “We’ve got to decide right now,” I said. “If we don’t do something we’re going to get caught.”

  “I know, I know. But I just can’t think of anything.”

  “Let’s stay over at a cheap love hotel and take a train back to Tokyo tomorrow morning. If it’s a local train we should be able to afford it.”

  “But where’re we going to go when we get back?” Worm tossed his boxed lunch on the ground. “I killed my old lady, remember? I don’t have anyplace to go.”

  “Then let’s go kill your dad, too.”

  I clung to Worm’s ridiculous plan. Instead of debating what was right and wrong, I wanted to get moving and do something. That’s all it was.

  “You’d kill my dad with me?”

  I shook my head.

  “No. ’Cause I don’t hate him.”

  My mind wasn’t working anymore. I stood there, feeling like I’d lost everything. A mosquito landed on my bare leg, but it was too much trouble to brush it away. As I sat there vacantly, Worm suddenly hugged me to him. “You stink, you idiot,” I told him. I tried to push him away, but he held me tight and wouldn’t let me go. We plopped down into the bushes. The stems of the bamboo grass poked me. It hurts, I was about to say, but before I could, Worm had mashed his lips against mine, rough and strong. I was faceup and he made a grab for my breasts. The moment I decided he could do whatever he wanted with me, the pain turned to pleasure. I pulled up my T-shirt and took off my own clothes. I was on fire, the first time I’d ever felt that way. How could we be doing something like this, I thought, when we’d been driven into a corner? We laid our clothes down on the ground to lie on, then had wild, frantic sex.

  “I’m hungry.”

  Worm, naked, was looking around to locate the box lunch he’d thrown away earlier. He finally found it and came back to where I was. He’d suddenly gotten all kind and gentle, and it made me happy. Naked, we ate the lunch together, taking turns swigging sips from the water bottle. After that we did it again, this time standing up with me leaning back against the trunk of a tree. I felt like I was doing it with him forever.

  Suddenly a flashlight shone above us and we heard men’s voices. Maybe the police had heard us talking and had tracked us down. Were they combing the hills for us? We flattened ourselves against the ground, avoiding the light. What would we do if they found us? I was scared out of my mind. Not of being chased by adults, but of being discovered like this in the hills, naked, having sex, being scolded and accused. It was a feeling close to original sin. Like Adam and Eve.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Worm whispered.

  I threw my clothes on; then Worm grabbed my hand and we raced down the mountain path. Every time a car or patrol car passed we hid beside the road in the bushes. When we finally reached Highway 18, there was a patrol car outside the convenience store we’d stopped at.

  Just then an empty cab drove up. If I let that cab get away, I thought, I’ll never escape this world.

  “Let’s take that cab back to Tokyo,” I said.

  “We don’t have enough money.”

  I looked Worm in the face.

  “Didn’t you tell me you were going to rob a cab?”

  I ran out onto the highway and flagged down the cab. The cab slowed to a stop, and I could see a surprised look on the driver’s face as Worm pushed me from behind.

  “Let’s do it.”

  We climbed in the back of the cab. It was full of cigarette smoke and chilled by the AC. The driver, with his typical white cloth-covered cap, was obviously local, and he turned around slowly. An old guy in his late forties. A plastic bottle of tea lay on the seat beside him.

  “When I just saw the girl I figured it was a ghost. So you’re dating, huh?”

  “That term’s too old. We’re not dating, we’re a couple.” My voice shook as I spoke, and I laughed to try to cover it up. “Excuse me, but we’d like to go to Tokyo. We have to get back to Tokyo right away.”

  “To Tokyo at this time of night?”

  “There aren’t any more trains, and someone is very sick, so we’ve got to get back. Please let us out in Chofu, at the Chofu exit.”

  The driver checked out Worm in the rearview mirror and looked startled for a second. Did he know who we were? Worried, I looked over at Worm, who was staring down, his face pale. You jerk. Get it together. I kicked him on the foot.

  “It’s his father,” I explained. “He’s on his deathbed. So, please, take us there.”

  “I see,” the driver said, his expression kinder. But his next question was anything but friendly. “I’m sorry to ask at a time like this, but do you have enough money? Night rates apply now and it should easily be fifty thousand yen to Tokyo.”

  “Don’t worry. We have enough cash.”

  Still looking doubtful, the driver slowly started to pull away.

  “I’m glad to hear that. I was just a little concerned, you being so young and all.”

  “Please just take us there. Don’t worry, you’ll get paid.”

  The driver pulled the cab over to the side of the road.

  “Sorry, but would you mind showing me the cash?”

  The driver’s stubbornness really pissed me off. I had only ten thousand yen, so how in the world was I going to pay? Worm suddenly yelled, “If we don’t have enough, my parents will pay the rest! So please—my dad’s dying here.”

  Worm’s yelling clearly pissed off the driver. And he stared hard at me, checking out how I looked. My T-shirt was muddy and covered with leaves. I quickly brushed them off.

  “Miss, please don’t do that. The cab will get all dirty.”

  At a loss for what to do, I glanced over at Worm. With one hand he was rustling around in his backpack on the floor. He’d taken the butcher knife back. I held down his arm and said in an insistent voice, “I’ll phone home.”

  I had no choice, so I dialed home. As I expected, my mom, sounding sleepy, answered, grumbling right off the bat. “Where in the world are you? You didn’t call, so I was worried. What are you doing out this late?”

  “I’m on my way home, but don’t seem to have enough for the taxi fare. When I get there, can you pay it?”

  She was launching into another complaint, so I hurriedly hung up.

  “She said they’ll pay.”

  The taxi driver must have overheard my mom, so he nodded reluctantly and started to drive. Good—at least we’d get back to Tokyo. I felt optimistic—as long as we got back there, something would work out. Then the enka song on the radio suddenly cut off and a voice came on, full of static.

  “A customer has forgotten something in one of the cabs. Something very large. It’s a young male customer. I repeat, a customer has forgotten something in one of the cabs. A young male customer. If anyone finds this large item, please get in touch right away.”

  The driver looked up into the rearview mirror. I felt uneasy.

  “That was the police channel, wasn’t it?” Worm asked.

  “No, it’s from our company.”

  The driver didn’t look back anymore. He was driving at a leisurely pace. I drank the rest of the water from our plastic bottle. The bottom of the bottle was muddy, so I wiped it on the seat. Now this was an adventure! My confusion I felt before about having sex with Worm in the woods had vanished, and I was happy with how bold we’d been. As I stared at the taillights of the car in front of us, I got sleepy, and finally started to doze off.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  At Worm’s voice, I jolted awake. The butcher knife was right in front of my eyes, its point aimed at the driver’s neck.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “This jerk was going to pull into a police station.”

  Flustered, I looked outside and saw a police station pass by on the left side. The driver, looking upset, was facing straight ahead. “You guys better knock it off,” he muttered. “Robbing a cab is a felony. You’ve got to think of your future.”

  Worm just s