No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

52
to ascertain the feelings by which a woman lives than
to plumb the innermost thoughts of an earthworm.
Long personal experience had taught me that when
a woman suddenly bursts into hysterics, the way to
restore her spirits is to give her something sweet.
Her younger sister, Setchan, would even bring
friends to my room, and in my usual fashion I amused
them all with perfect impartiality. As soon as a friend
had left Setchan would tell me disagreeable things
about her, inevitably concluding, "She's a bad girl.
You must be careful of her." "If that's the case," I
wanted to say, "you needn't have gone to the trouble
of bringing her here." Thanks to Setchan almost all
the visitors to my room were girls.
This, however, by no means implies that Takeichi's
compliment, "Womenll fall for you" had as yet
been realized. I was merely the Harold Lloyd of Northeast
Japan. Not for some years would Takeichi's silly
statement come palpitatingly alive, metamorphosed
into a sinister prophecy.
Takeichi made one other important gift to me.
One day he came to my room to play. He was
waving a brightly colored picture which he proudly
displayed. "It's a picture of a ghost," he explained.
I was startled. That instant, as I could not help
feeling in later years, determined my path of escape.
I knew what Takeichi was showing me. I knew that it