FOOLED BY APPEARANCES

     FOOLED BY APPEARANCES

 

“I can’t stand this stuffy place. I want to go out,” Kanta said to himself. He had been in an automatic vending machine for two days.

   Footsteps were coming towards the machine and stopped in front of it. Kanta wondered who had just stopped, a man, a woman, a boy, or a girl?

    Chink. The sound of a 10-yen coin was heard. Another chink. The sound of a 100-yen coin. And another 10-yen coin.

   Kanta thought, “This is my turn to go out.” The next moment, he fell headlong onto the slot. Ouch!

   “Good luck, Kanta. Bye-bye,” Kankichi said to Kanta.

   Kanta looked at the buyer. He had a noble countenance and a tall stature. He might be around 50. He wore a fine suit despite the summer heat. His tie was blue and stripy. His black leather shoes were well polished. Kanta was glad that such a gentleman had bought him. If an ill-mannered man had bought him, the man would throw him into a ditch after he drank him. “I am lucky,” Kanta thought. He said good-bye to Kankichi.

  The gentleman walked on grasping Kanta in his left hand. As he walked, the coffee in Kanta’s body plashed. He walked in a firm and rhythmical manner. Kanto thought he was a raffine.

   “You should drink me as soon as possible, otherwise I will be lukewarm,” Kanta thought.

   The gentleman did not drink him.

Suddenly his iphone rang. He took it out from his pocket with his right hand and began to talk into it.

   “Moshi moshi, Ando desu. Oh, hello, this is Ando speaking,” he first spoke in Japanese and then in English. Kanta admired him for speaking a foreign language fluently, probably English. He thought he must be an executive of a trading company or a government official of the Foreign Ministry. He must be working in international business. He thought he was honored that such an eminent man as he would drink him.

   As he was speaking English, the gentleman came to the platform of Tsurumai Subway Station. The train was approaching.

   “All right, see you later,” he said and hung up. Little did Kanta dream that the gentleman was talking with a woman he had an affair with. Kanta thought that the gentleman was doing business with an English speaking person.

   The train arrived at the platform. The door opened and the gentleman sat on a seat. Kanta thought he would now drink him, but he took out his iphone again and began to operate it. Kanta thought he was sending e-mails. He moved his fingers as fast as a high school girl.

   A high school boy sitting next to the gentleman glanced at the iphone game he was absorbed in and said, “You’re skillful,” but Kanta did not hear the boy.

   Kanta looked around the train. It was after the evening rush hours, and there were some vacant seats here and there.

   The train announcement was heard:

   “We are arriving at Arahata Station. The doors on the right side will open.”

   When the train stopped, the seats on the right side of the man became vacant and were occupied by two middle-aged men, one wearing a tie and the other wearing no tie.

   “I was amazed at school today,” the man with a tie said.

   “Why? Some problem?” the man with no tie said.

   Kanta cocked up his ears.

   “You know a second year student, Yonekura?” the man with a tie said.

   “Yes, Koichi Yonekura, you mean?” the man with no tie said.

   “Yah, I saw him spit onto the corridor.”  

   “He would do such a foul thing.”

   Kanta eavesdropped on them.

   “He must learn public manners,” the man with a tie said.

   “So, did you scold him?”

   “Yah, I said to him, ‘You don’t spit phlegm in your house, do you? This is your school. I have to punish you.’ And I ordered him to clean the whole corridor in front of the classroom with a wet rag.”

   “Did he obey your order?”

   “At first, he complained, but as I was so furious that he reluctantly cleaned the corridor with a rag and bucket. A crowd of students were looking at him wring the water out of a rag. You know he always goofs around during the school cleaning period.”

   “You’ve done a good job. He must have learned a lesson.”

   “I hope so. High school students these days do not know manners. They are selfish. They care about only themselves and not about others.”

   “That’s right. They won’t pick up litter in the corridor. Instead, they throw trash.”

   “Yah. I usually pick up trash whenever I see any in the school. I think it my duty to show a good example to my students.”

   “But they never try to follow your example. They just think, “Ah, that foolish teacher is showing off.”

   “That may be true. But I make it a rule to pick up trash whenever I have a chance.”

   Kanta thought the teacher with the tie was a good-mannered man. Few people pick up trash these days.

   The gentleman who had Kanta in his left hand was absorbed in operating his iphone. Kanta thought he was busy giving directions to his men.

   The announcement was heard:

“Gokiso, Gokiso Station. Please change trains at this station if you are going to take the Tsurumai Line.”

Several passengers got off the train and several others got on it. Among them were two women around 50 years old. They sat on the left side seat of the gentleman. One of them had brown hair and the other black.

“You haven’t changed at all,” the woman with brown hair said.

“Yes, I have. I am getting gray hair. If I don’t dye, my head is all white,” the woman with black hair said.

“But you look young. I envy you.”

“Thank you. To be frank with you, I attended a lecture, ‘an Attractive Woman after the Age of 50’ at a culture center this afternoon.”

“That sounds interesting.”

“Yes. The lecturer was a beautiful intelligent woman. I thought she was around 50, but she said she was 67. I was amazed.

“That’s her makeup, isn’t it?”

“No. Her makeup was light.”

“So, what about ‘An Attractive Woman’?”

“She said, ‘It’s waste of energy to compete with young women about appearances. So you should compete with them about the beauty within your body.’”

“Beauty within your body? What does it mean?”

“To have a beautiful heart.”

“What? How can you have one?”

“She says your heart affects your appearance.”

“I know, but how could you?”

“It’s easy she says. Your heart becomes beautiful if you do good to others.”

“Really?”

“She says so. You know you become happy if others do you good, but those who have done you good also become happy.”

“Yes, that’s true. You feel rewarded when you’ve been nice to others.”

“She says your rejuvenating hormonal secretion is stimulated when you feel rewarded.

“Rejuvenation hormone? Who is that lecturer?”

“She is a professor at Nagoya University of Medicine.”

“A professor? Then, she is reliable, isn’t she?”

“Yes. Just a little kindness to others rejuvenates your heart.”

“A little kindness goes a long way, you mean.”

“Yes. For example, if you are asked the way to such and such a place, you show the way kindly. And that’s it.”  

“If that’s the way to make my heart beautiful, it’s easy. Thanks for your good advice.”

“So, I’ve been looking for something I can do for others since the lecture was over.”

“OK, then, I’ll do the same.”

Kanta thought the two women were good to think that way.

The gentleman suddenly stopped operating his iphone and put it in his pocket. Then he shook me hard. I thought he was going to drink me at last.

The train announcement was heard:

“The train will soon arrive at Kawana Station. The exit is on the left side.”

The train was approaching the platform. The gentleman drank me hurriedly, put me on the floor under his seat, and got off the train. Some coffee was left in my body.

“Hey, you, man! Don’t leave me on the floor,” Kanta cried.

The next moment, the door shut and the train started.

Kanta was disappointed.

“He was not a gentleman, but an ill-mannered rascal. Kanta thought he had been betrayed by the man.

At Kawana Station, four passengers got off the train and five got on. One of them was a girl about 20 years old. She sat on the seat where the “gentleman” had sat. Her seat was directly on the opposite side of the teachers’ and the women’s seats.

The girl’s appearance amazed Kanta. She wore all kinds of ornaments in the world. Her long hair that reached her shoulders was dyed blond with some lock of green and red here and there. Her false eyelashes were so long (about 2 or 3 centimeters) that they waved as the train shook. Her eyes looked like those of a panda because she painted her eye shadow black so that her eyes looked bigger. Her colorful earrings were more than 10 centimeters long; each end of them rested on her shoulder. Her lips were brilliantly red and were double pierced. A red sleeveless semi-transparent blouse covered her rich breasts. Her ten manicure nail designs were so fantastic that they would have beaten Van Gogh’s elaborate works. Her overwhelmingly plump legs extended from her pinkish short pants. Her blue high sandal revealed her ten pedicured nails. They were so bright that Klimto’s gold-colored masterpieces looked dull and dark. She had a big Gucci bag, the cover of which was open and various things were seen in it, including a book titled, Appearances Decide Your Life.

Kanta thought that the girl believed in the book. She must be thinking that appearances make an attractive woman.

Kanta understood how men felt when they happened to sit in front of half-naked, whore-like girls in the train. They complain, “I get bewildered and I don’t know where to look.”

The girl took out a handheld mirror and began to fix up her makeup. The mirror made a high wall between her world and the rest of the world. She was absorbed in using various kinds of makeup tools one after another. She couldn’t hear the noise of the train and the passengers, nor see anything but her face. She breathed her own breath secluded in her own world.

The train announcement was heard:

“The train will soon arrive at Irinaka Station. The exit is on the right side.”

 
　　　　　　　FOOLED BY APPEARANCES　the last part

When the train stopped, seven passengers got on. Among them was a high school boy. As he walked in the car, his shoe happened to strike Kanta. Kanta fell on the floor, spilling a little coffee onto the floor. Unaware of Kanta, the boy walked on and sat on a seat. Following the boy, a kindergarten girl and her mother also got on the train and sat on the seat next to the blond-haired, lip-pierced girl.

The train began to run. The two women were talking with each other in a small voice, occasionally casting a scornful glance at the girl. Kanta eavesdropped on their conversation.

“Look at that girl,” the black-haired woman said.

“She doesn’t know manners,” the white-haired woman said.

“Those pierces. Doesn’t she feel pain?”

“She is concealing the pain, I guess.”

Two teachers were also talking, enthusiastically. Kanta pricked up his ears.

“I don’t trust that principal. He always says, ‘Doing is better than saying,’ but he himself does not act. He just talks about ideals and that’s all. He is double-tongued,” the teacher with a tie said.

“I agree. I doubt his sincerity,” the teacher without a tie said.

“By the way, look at the girl. Isn’t she a goblin or something?”

“She’s weird.”

“She’s a social evil. If the number of such girls increases, Japan’s future is doomed.”

“I’m afraid so.”

The announcement was heard:

“The train will soon jolt. Please be careful.”

And then the train jolted greatly. Kanta began to roll on the floor spilling a little more coffee onto the floor. He felt ashamed. He wanted someone to pick him up.

“Mom, a can is rolling. Shall I pick it up?” the kindergarten girl said.

“No. It’s dirty,” her mother said.

“But….,” the girl said.

“Sit tight. That’s not your business.”

Kanta felt miserable. What a good girl! And what an ill-natured mother!

Kanta was rolling this way and that as the train swayed. Kanta thought every passenger was watching him. Please pick me up, someone, Kanta said to himself, but nobody did. When the train made a curve, Kanta rolled on to the teacher with a tie. Touching the teacher’s shoe, he stopped. The teacher glanced at Kanta, but pretended as if nothing were touching his shoe. He was still lamenting ill-mannered young people, lack of public morality, and the future of Japan. Kanta believed that the teacher would pick him up, because he had said he always showed a good example to his students by picking up litter at school. The teacher, however, kicked Kanta stealthy when the train jolted. Kanta rolled on to the woman with black-hair and stopped touching her shoe. The woman looked at Kanta a second and was shocked. She hated him as much as cockroaches. Kanta believed the woman would pick him up because she had said she was looking for a chance to be kind to others, but she pretended not to be aware of him. Kanta was disappointed. He thought he would have to remain on the floor forever. He almost lapsed into a distrust of people.

The announcement was heard:

“The train will soon arrive at Yagoto Station. The exit is on the right side. If you are going to take the Tsurumai Line, please get off at this station.”

As the train dropped the speed, Kanta again rolled and stopped in front of the eccentric girl, who was still absorbed in making up.

The train eased into the platform. The door opened. The girl stood up, picked up Kanta, and got off the train.

“Unbelievable! She among all the passengers picked me up,” Kanta said to himself. “What a wonderful heart she has!” Kanta felt ashamed of judging her by her appearance. Her hand was soft, smooth, and warm. Kanta wanted her to hold him for good.

The warm-hearted girl passed through the ticket wicket, walked on briskly, and stopped in front of a vending machine. She threw Kanta into the hole of a can bin. As Kanta heard her walking away, he said good-bye to her.

When he looked around in the bin, his old friend, Kankichi was there.

“Kankichi, is that you?”

“Oh, Kanta. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Couldn’t feel better.”

The end