Read Online Quicksand by Junichirô Tanizaki - Free Book Online

me?”
    Mitsuko’s voice sounded tearful. For my part, I was so disturbed that my heart was pounding and my knees had begun to tremble. But I asked where to take it, and she told me she was at a place called the Izutsu, a restaurant I’d never heard of, in Kasayamachi, on a pleasure quarter street south off the Tazaemon Bridge avenue. In addition to the kimono, she wanted a certain matching sash and its fastenings, which luckily I also had, along with a waistband and inner sash and socks. It seemed strange that all those things had been stolen too.
    â€œWhat about the underslip?” I asked.
    â€œNo,” she said. “They spared me that much.”
    I was to have a trustworthy person deliver everything within the hour, by ten o’clock at the latest, so I decided I couldn’t leave it to anyone else: I had no choice but to hurry there in a taxi myself.
    When I asked if it was all right for me to bring the clothes, I thought I heard someone beside her at the phone coaching her on what to say.
    â€œMaybe that would be better, Sister . . . or you could give them to Ume; she must be waiting for me at the Hanshin station in Umeda by now. She doesn’t know where I am, so you’ll have to tell her how to come. And have her ask for Suzuki.”
    Then I heard another whispered consultation. After a while Mitsuko went on, hesitantly: “And, Sister . . . I’m really sorry to bother you, but somebody else lost his clothing. Could you possibly bring along one of your husband’s kimonos, or a suit? It doesn’t matter which.” And then: “One more thing . . . I’d be ever so grateful if you could bring twenty or thirty yen too.”
    â€œI can manage that,” I said. “Just wait for me.”
    After I hung up, I immediately called a taxi. All I told my husband was that I’d be going in to Osaka briefly—Mitsuko needed some help. Then I went upstairs to the cabinet and hastily took out my matching kimono and the accessories, along with one of my husband’s best summer kimonos of silk serge, a tie-dyed sash, and a haori coat. I wrapped all of it together in a cloth parcel and had the maid spirit it out to the entrance hall for me.
    Sure enough, he seemed suspicious. “Why are you taking her a parcel at this hour?” he asked, coming out of the house just as I was ready to get into the taxi. Probably I looked flustered and pale; of course it was odd for me to be going somewhere without changing clothes or tidying my hair.
    â€œI don’t know why, but she wants my matching kimono,” I said, deliberately pulling an edge of it past the knot of the parcel to show him. “She has to have it, she says, and I’m to take it to their shop in Osaka. Maybe she’s going to be in some kind of amateur theatrical. Anyway, I’ll ask the taxi to wait, and come right back.”

    At first I thought I’d go directly to that Izutsu restaurant, since it was already so late—it must have been about nine-thirty—but then I decided I’d better go to the Hanshin station and pick up Ume, to try to find out how much she knew. When I reached the station I saw her standing by the central entrance, looking around impatiently. I called to her and beckoned from the taxi.
    â€œOh, it’s you, Mrs. Kakiuchi!” She seemed embarrassed as well as startled.
    â€œYou’re waiting for Mitsu, aren’t you?” I said. “Something awful has happened; she phoned me to come right away. You come too!”
    â€œMy, is that so?”
    Ume hesitated, as if she didn’t know what to think, but I drew her into the taxi and gave her the gist of our telephone conversation as we went along.
    â€œWho could that be, the man with her? Can you tell me, Ume?” She was tongue-tied at first and looked very distressed, but I kept after her. “Surely you know something about it. This isn’t the only