Кадзуо Исигуро - Klara and the Sun

‘That’s correct. I was in the store. Then I came here.’

‘Wow. Then this is going to be so great for you! There’s nothing to be afraid of, right? No wild animals or anything. So come on, let’s go.’

As Melania Housekeeper opened the front door, I felt new air – and the Sun’s nourishment – entering the hall. Josie smiled at me, her face full of kindness, but then Melania Housekeeper came between us, and before I was fully aware, had taken Josie’s arm, tucking it under her own. Josie too was surprised by this, but didn’t protest, and I appreciated that Melania Housekeeper had concluded I might not be able to protect Josie reliably while outdoors due to my unfamiliarity. So the two of them went out together, and I followed.

We walked onto the loose stones area, which I supposed had been kept deliberately rough for the car. The wind was mild and pleasant, and I wondered how it was the tall trees up on the hill were even then bending and waving under its push. But I soon had to concentrate on my feet, because the loose stones area contained many dips, perhaps created by the car’s wheels.

The view before me was familiar from the bedroom front window. I continued to follow Josie and Melania Housekeeper onto the road, which was smooth and hard like a floor, and we walked on it for some time, even when cut grass appeared to either side. I wished to look back at the house – to see it as a passer-by would, and to confirm my estimates – but Josie and Melania Housekeeper kept walking, their arms still linked, and I didn’t dare to pause.

After a while I no longer had to attend to my feet so carefully, and looked up to see a grass mound rising to our left – and the figure of a boy moving about near its summit. I estimated he was fifteen, though I couldn’t be sure since his figure was a silhouette against the pale sky. Josie moved towards the mound, and Melania Housekeeper said something I might have heard had we been indoors, but outside the sound behaved differently. In any case, I could see there was now a disagreement. I heard Josie say:

‘But I want Klara to meet him.’

There were further words I didn’t hear, then Melania Housekeeper said, ‘All right but only short,’ and freed Josie’s arm.

‘Come on, Klara,’ Josie said, turning to me. ‘Let’s go up and see Rick.’

As we climbed the side of the green mound, Josie’s breath became short and she clung tightly to me. This meant I was only able to look back briefly, but I became aware that behind us was not just Josie’s house, but a second house standing further back in the fields – a neighbor house that wasn’t visible from any of Josie’s windows. I was eager to study the appearance of both houses, but had to concentrate on ensuring Josie came to no harm. At the top of the hill, she stopped to recover her breath, but the boy didn’t greet us or even look our way. He had in his hands a circular device, and was looking at the sky between the two houses where a group of birds was flying in formation, and I quickly realized these were machine birds. He kept his gaze on them and when he touched his control, the birds responded by changing their pattern.

‘Wow, they’re beautiful,’ Josie said, though still short of breath. ‘Are they new?’

Rick kept his gaze fixed on the birds, but said:

‘Those two on the end are new. You can tell they don’t really match.’

The birds swooped till they were hovering directly above us.

‘Yeah, but real birds don’t all look the same either,’ Josie said.

‘I suppose. At least I’ve got the whole team taking the same commands now. Okay, Josie, watch this.’

The machine birds began to come down, landing one by one on the grass in front of us. But two remained in the air, and Rick, frowning, pressed his remote again.

‘God. Still not right.’

‘But they look great, Ricky.’

Josie was standing surprisingly close to Rick, not actually touching him, but with hands raised just behind his back and left shoulder.

‘What those two need is a complete recalibration.’

‘Don’t worry, you’ll get it right. Hey, Ricky, you’re remembering about Tuesday, right?’

‘I’m remembering it. But look, Josie, I didn’t say I was coming.’

‘Oh come on! You agreed!’

‘Like hell I agreed. Anyway, I don’t think your guests will be so pleased.’

‘I’m hosting, so I can invite who I like. And Mom will be great about it. Come on, Rick, we’ve been through this enough. If we’re serious about the plan, we need to do stuff like this together. You’ve got to be able to handle it just as well as me. And why should I have to face that crowd alone?’

‘You won’t be alone. You’ve got your AF now.’

The last two birds had come down. He touched his remote and they all went into sleep mode on the grass.

‘Oh God, I haven’t even introduced you! Rick, this is Klara.’

Rick went on concentrating on his remote and didn’t look my way. ‘You said you’d never get an AF,’ he said.

‘That was a while ago.’

‘You said you’d never get one.’

‘Well, I changed my mind, okay? Anyway, Klara’s not any AF. Hey, Klara, say something to Rick.’

‘You said you’d never get one.’

‘Come on, Rick! We don’t do everything we said when we were small. Why shouldn’t I have an AF?’

She had by now both hands on Rick’s left shoulder, resting her weight there as if trying to make him less tall and the two of them the same height. But Rick seemed not to mind her nearness – in fact he seemed to think it normal – and the idea occurred to me that perhaps, in his own way, this boy was as important to Josie as was the Mother; and that his aims and mine might in some ways be almost parallel, and that I should observe him carefully to understand how he belonged within the pattern of Josie’s life.

‘It’s very nice to meet Rick,’ I said. ‘I wonder if he lives in that neighbor house. It’s strange, but I hadn’t noticed such a house before.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, still not looking directly at me. ‘That’s where I live. My mum and me.’

We then all turned to the view of the houses, and for the first time, I was really able to look at the exterior of Josie’s house. It was slightly smaller, and its roof’s edges a little sharper, but otherwise much as I’d estimated from the inside. The walls had been constructed from carefully overlapping boards which had all been painted a near-white. The house itself was three separate boxes that connected into a single complex shape. Rick’s house was smaller, and not just because it was further away. It too had been built from wooden planks, but its structure was more simple – a single box, taller than it was wide, standing in the grass.

‘I think Rick and Josie must have grown up side by side,’ I said to Rick. ‘Just like your houses.’

He shrugged. ‘Yeah. Side by side.’

‘I think Rick’s accent is English.’

‘Just a little perhaps.’

‘I’m happy Josie has such a good friend. I hope my presence will never come in the way of such a good friendship.’

‘Hope not. But a lot of things come in the way of friendships.’

‘Okay enough now!’ Melania Housekeeper’s voice shouted from the foot of the mound.

‘Coming!’ Josie yelled back. Then she said to Rick: ‘Look, Ricky, I’m not going to enjoy this meeting any more than you. I need you there. You have to come.’

Rick was concentrating again on his remote, and the birds rose together into the air. Josie watched them, both her hands still on his shoulder, so that the two of them formed a single shape against the sky.

‘Okay hurry up!’ Melania Housekeeper shouted. ‘Wind too strong! You want die up there or what?’