Paprika (37 page)

It was the middle of the day. They were walking arm in arm along a road in a residential area, toward a main road that ran alongside a railway line. A dog was sprawled lazily at the side of the road. A big dog with rough black hair.

Ah. That’s the one that always tries to bite me in my dreams
. Paprika transmitted her fear to Noda, clinging tightly to his arm.

The dog slowly got to its feet.

“It’s not that Osanai, is it? Or Inui?”

“I don’t think so. What time is it now?”

“Just coming up to noon.”

“Have I been asleep all that time?!” Paprika said in a tone of lament. Her thoughts were conveyed to Noda, who was using the same PT circuit.
Oh no. I’m just going to stay like this forever, never waking up. My brain is just going to vegetate
.

No it isn’t
, thought Noda, turning to Paprika to deny her fears.

“If that’s the time, those two won’t be disturbing us,” said Paprika.
Of course. They’ll be in the Institute
.

Are you sure? I think they can access the dream from anywhere they like, as long as there are PT devices
. “After all, isn’t this dog …”
thinking vile things like it wants to rape you?

“So it is.”
We don’t need DC Minis to access your dreams anymore
. That sounded like Inui.

The dog came running toward Paprika.

“Stop! Or you’re under arrest!”

Toshimi Konakawa, dressed immaculately in police uniform, appeared like a puff of smoke from the middle of a stone wall. He roared at the dog as he materialized.

Yes, the dog was Osanai. He looked stunned.
A p-p-policeman as I thought as I thought what’s what’s going on with a DC Mini that officer I met in the lift interfering police interfering this woman in her dream damn it! …

The dog suddenly vanished, as if someone had switched off a monitor. They now seemed able to access Paprika’s dreams at will, without wearing the DC Mini, just by monitoring her dreams on PT devices.

“The vile brute has disappeared, leaving only your spirits behind. I can see that clearly. Will you know who they are, whoever they come as?” Konakawa had just fallen asleep and accessed Paprika’s dream. Paprika and Noda could also read his thoughts. The meaning of words, so unclear in a dream, became crystal clear with the direct transmission of thoughts.

They’d turned onto the main road, but could still see no way of escaping to reality. Paprika was hunting around a railway station. She couldn’t be sure whether it was crowded with people or not. No clues could be seen. Then with tears of laughter Atsuko pointed to a large rectangular clock resembling a monitor screen, hanging from the front of the station building. Osanai’s face appeared on the clock.

“Look! There he is! He’s still monitoring us!”

Konakawa glared at the clock and thrust a finger toward its face. Osanai looked startled and disappeared. The clock went back to its normal face.

There was a red advertising tower in the middle of the station plaza. Paprika looked at a number of posters that were pasted on it, desperately seeking a way of waking up.

SECTIONALISM IS MATERNITY

NOW ON SALE – ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RAGE – ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ENCYCLOPEDIAS

A TASTE OF SADNESS – PATHOS CHOUX CRÈME MADE SIMPLY ON THE RADIATOR

“If it bothers you,” said Noda, “there’s a door over there.”
Shall we open it?

I will
. Konakawa opened the rusty iron door and peered inside the advertising tower. It was empty.

“It’s empty,” said Konakawa. “No, not in that sense,” he added hurriedly, knowing that Paprika would think it referred to herself.
The advertising tower is not you
.

They went inside the station building. It was the lobby of a hotel where Atsuko often stayed to complete research papers. They could see the front desk. Several guests were milling about there. A number of porters stood motionless like broom handles. Paprika remembered how Inui and Osanai had tried to rape her from both sides in the hotel room.
Did that really happen, or was it just a dream?

It was just a dream, of course
, Noda and Konakawa replied as one.

Ah. Wait a minute. I’m about to remember something. I think I’m about to remember something
. Paprika stopped in her tracks. She looked at a sofa in the corner of the lobby.

All right, let’s go to the sofa
. Noda started walking toward it, as if to encourage Paprika.
Shall we take a rest there?

Who takes a rest in a dream?! Ah. That’s right
. Something flashed across Paprika’s mind. But rather than explaining the reason, she quickly told them what must be done.

“Tatsuo. Please rape me, over there.”
On the sofa. With all the guests and porters looking on
.

Noda and Konakawa were speechless. But Paprika’s thoughts had assumed a kind of logic. She convinced them of it, at least in logical terms.

Dreason –
dream reason. Having sex in a dream stimulates feelings of guilt, causing the dreamer to wake.
And having sex in a public place like this should wake us even more quickly, from the sheer embarrassment of it
.

“It’s too absurd.”
You can’t do a thing like that. Impossible
.

Noda laughed at Konakawa’s caution.
Of course it’s absurd. It’s a dream! Lighten up!
Noda now saw the truth – Paprika and Konakawa had made love in a dream during his treatment.
Well, then. You’ve already had your turn. You hid it from me! Look, you’re both going red!

It wasn’t like that. It was for treatment
.

That’s right. It was for treatment
.

But Noda wasn’t fooled. Paprika and Konakawa had made love in his dream because they loved each other.

Even so, Noda doubted whether he could really do it right now.
See? Even thinking about sex with Paprika is threatening to wake me up
.

“Don’t wake up!” Paprika cried. “You mustn’t! Please! Rape me, here and now!”
Or if you feel bad about raping me, it doesn’t have to be like that. Please make love to me! Tatsuo. I love you! I loved you long before I loved Toshimi!

12

“You do? Even if I ***** you in a place like this?” Noda looked around him. “Well, it’s a dream and it probably won’t matter anyway … But what will you do if Inui and Osanai start ***** and interfering? Even during the day, they sometimes ***** you with their PT equipment.”

“In that case I’ll stand guard,” Konakawa said decisively.
If I see so much as a shadow of those two, I’ll threaten them, make them switch off
.

Forgive me, Toshimi
. Noda knew all about Konakawa’s burning desire for Paprika; he felt sincerely sorry. Paprika likewise.
Please forgive us. Right in front of you like this. Especially when we’ve ***** once before
.

Hey, come on. It’s OK. We sleep together, we share the same dreams, we feel everything as one. Our thoughts, emotions, sensations. Our ***. Don’t worry. I’m sure to feel your *** too
.

It was no longer a hotel lobby, but a tatami-floored room with no furniture.
It’s the room we used for sewing classes in my old high school. A boy called ***** attacked me here after school one day. I often dream about it
, thought Paprika. Konakawa opened the door and went out into the corridor. There, he stood guard outside the sewing classroom, where a highly inappropriate after-school activity was getting underway. Paprika lay on the floor and embraced Noda from below. The heat that lingered over the tatami mats was the moist warmth of suppressed adolescence. A grove of trees blocked the window.
Now you know why I’m trying to look as cheap as possible
. So thought Paprika.
Yes. As shameful as possible
. They were already naked. Foreplay. Paprika deliberately raised her voice in a wholly unbecoming way. She felt ashamed of that in front of Noda and Konakawa.
This isn’t the real me
.

It’s all right. I understand. That’s why I’m feeling … so aroused
.

Honestly, I’m not really … this cheap. I’m only doing it to make you … more excited
.

I know. I am already. I’m excited
. Suddenly, thrusting more rapidly in straight lines. Rising passion.
Ah. Paprika. I can’t, hold it back, anymore. I can’t, hold it, back
. Noda moaned in distress and ejaculated. The three awoke more or less simultaneously, Konakawa last of all.

Atsuko must have shouted something in her sleep. She sat bolt upright in bed, under the astonished gaze of Morita and Ube. They’d already removed the DC Minis from Noda and Konakawa.

“Oh dear,” said Atsuko, blushing to think that her behavior in the dream might have been visible on the monitor.

“Ah. Excellent!” exclaimed Ube. “You all woke up together.”

Morita too displayed nothing but relief that the three had all woken safely. “How did you manage it?”

Morita and Ube had no idea what sort of dream they’d had, since all three of their viewpoints had been jumbled up together on the screen. Atsuko was mightily relieved to know that. Noda did his best to maintain his dignity in front of the officers; there was nothing in his demeanor to suggest he’d woken by climaxing just a few seconds earlier. If anything, it was Konakawa who was unable to look his subordinates in the face. He himself had reached a considerable state of excitement, and this appeared to have woken him.

“Well, let’s just say it was an emergency measure,” said Noda with a laugh, meaning
a measure you could barely dream of
. “It’s nothing we could explain really. Better not to ask.”

“Actually, there were several calls from the Institute while you were asleep,” Morita started, keen to get a worrying subject off his chest. “Apparently Mr. Himuro’s parents have come looking for him, being concerned over his whereabouts. And Miss Kakimoto’s family are coming to Tokyo for the same reason. Doctor Osanai had to invite them to the hospital, since he’s in charge of her case and he could hardly just ignore them. But Himuro’s parents were told to meet Doctor Tokita and talk to him about it. Himuro’s mother has called here twice already. What would you advise?”

“I’ll talk to them,” said Konakawa. “First, I think Doctor Chiba needs something to eat.”

Both he and Noda had been almost painfully aware of Atsuko’s hunger in the dream.

13

The restaurant was as massive as a bathhouse, with a high glass ceiling over its eastern half. Himuro’s parents sat at a table by the window. Having already met Tokita many times, they stood and bowed deeply across the cavernous dining area as soon as they saw him enter with Atsuko and Konakawa. It was difficult to see how many other diners were in the restaurant; the tables were screened off into separate booths, untouched by direct sunlight due to the height of the ceiling. Whether there were many diners or few, the ceaselessly reverberating murmur of conversation made it impossible to hear what was being said, even at the next table. This made it the perfect place for Atsuko and the others to meet Himuro’s parents. Superintendent Morita had suggested it, as he himself had used it on occasion.

Himuro’s parents, a good-natured couple in their sixties, had traveled to Tokyo from Kisarazu in the neighboring prefecture. Their expressions of uncontained bewilderment spoke volumes about their relationship with their unfathomable son; he had always walked all over them, and was continuing to do so, apparently. When Konakawa introduced himself as a Chief Superintendent in the Metropolitan Police Department, they seemed about to burst into tears at any moment.

“Has Kei been involved in some kind of incident?” asked Himuro’s father, who had the face of a fisherman but in fact owned a clothing store.

“We don’t know yet,” Konakawa replied, shaking his head. “Doctor Tokita informed us he was missing, and I thought it possible he could be mixed up in something. I wondered if you could shed some light on things. That’s why I’ve joined you here.”

“I see. But we can’t shed light on anything,” said Himuro’s mother, sending glances of desperation around the table. “You see, our son, well, all he’s done is made fools of us, and you know, he’s never even phoned us once?”

“Your son was involved in some very serious research,” Atsuko intervened on Himuro’s behalf. “I was a member of the research team. The nature of that research caused some internal friction at the Institute. You can see for yourselves how depressed Doctor Tokita is about it.”