No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

44
training period while the rest of us drilled on the
horizontal bar. Deliberately assuming as solemn a
face as I could muster, I lunged overhead at the bar,
shouting with the effort. I missed the bar and sailed
on as if I were making a broad jump, landing with a
thud in the sand on the scat of my pants. This failure
was entirely premeditated, but everybody burst out
laughing, exactly as I had planned. I got to my feet
with a rueful smile and was brushing the Hand from
my pants when Takeichi, who had crept up from
somewhere behind, poked me in the back. He murmured,
"You did it on purpose."
I trembled all over. I might have guessed that
someone would detect that I had deliberately unused
the bar, but that Takeichi should have been the one
came as a bolt from the blue. I felt as if I had seen
the world before me burst in an instant into the raging
flames of hell. It was all I could do to suppress a
wild shriek of terror.
The ensuing days were imprinted with my anxiety
and dread. I continued on the surface making everybody
laugh with my miserable clowning, but now and
then painful sighs escaped my lips. Whatever I did
Takeichi would see through it, and I was sure he
would soon start spreading the word to everyone he
saw. At this thought my forehead broke out in a
sweat; I stared around me vacantly with the wild