No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

130
Cypress-slender Minister of Wine.' Do you understand?"
"No, I don't."
"What a stupid little girl you are. I'm going to
kiss you."
"Go ahead." She pouted out her lower lip, not
in the least abashed.
"You silly fool. You and your ideas of chastity
"
There was something unmistakable in Yoshiko's
expression which marked her as a virgin who had
never been denied.
Soon after New Year, one night in the dead of
winter, I drunkenly staggered out in the cold to buy
some cigarettes and fell into a manhole in front of
her shop. I shouted for Yoshiko to come save me.
She hauled me out and bandaged my bruised right
arm. Yoshiko, earnest and unsmiling, said, "You drink
too much."
The thought of dying has never bothered me, but
getting hurt, losing blood, becoming crippled and the
like—no thanks. I thought as I watched Yoshiko
bandage my hand that I might cut down on my drinking.
"I'm giving it up. From tomorrow on I won't
touch a drop."
"Do you mean it?"