Other Worlds
Other Worlds
by Michael Hoffman
VBW Publishing, 2016
197 pages
ISBN: 978-1-62137-904-1 (softcover); 978-1-62137-905-8 (ebook)
Contents
1. Granule and Mandolyn
2. Real Life
3. What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train
4. They Were Standing in Line at the Airport
5. Silence
6. Sheila
7. Something Weird
What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train, They Were Standing in Line at the Airport, and Sheila first appeared in Eastlit.
Michael Hoffman is a fiction and non-fiction writer based in northern Japan. His “Big in Japan” and “The Living Past” columns appear regularly in The Japan Times. His previous books include In the Land of the Kami: A Journey into the Hearts of Japan; The Naked Ear; Little Pieces: This Side of Japan; and The Coat that Covers Him and Other Stories.
Granule and Mandolyn
“There’s a world,” he said, speaking slowly and hesitantly, as a man does when his experience has outrun his vocabulary, “where there’s a thing called death. They are human there, like us, only… they come into being at a certain point in time, through a process called birth, and then… they die, they vanish.”
The little group fell silent, and the silence seemed to spread to other parts of the room.
Real Life
He had been given three months’ notice and a twelve-month pay package. He was young and, as the division chief said, talented. He would find something. There was no cause to panic. Should he tell his wife? Of course he should, he decided on the train home that evening.
What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train
“But... I’d be dead,” he murmured. “I’d be…”
“And aren’t you dead now?”
“Am I?”
“What will your wife say?”
“My wife?”
“And your son?”
“They... they won’t say anything, they won’t know...”
The girl shook her head sadly. “You don’t yet fully understand,” she said, “what has happened to you.
They Were Standing in Line at the Airport
“Yoshi?”
“Dad. What’s up?”
“Listen. There’s a typhoon out there. I don’t want you to fly.”
“The flight hasn’t been canceled.”
“Don’t fly, Yoshi. I have a… laugh if you like… a premonition.”
Yoshinori laughed. “You and your premonitions!”
Silence
April 17.
“I am a sick man, I am a spiteful man…” Dostoevsky! To you, master, these pages are dedicated. Do you know, I almost feel as if I know you? No, more than that – as if I were you in a past life, or you were me in a future life, or… I hardly know how to say it!
I hardly know how to say anything. I had an idea once. I would move to a place where no one knows me and pretend to be mute. Better to be mute than to talk nonsense. Never, in all my life, in all my seventeen years, have I talked anything but nonsense. I see that now. I saw it a long time ago – when I was twelve. But now I really see it. What to do? What to do with my life? What to do with a life like mine?
Sheila
I have to renew my visa,” she said as she served dinner that night.
“Ah.”
“Do you know the law? I’m here as a nurse. Are you sure they’ll let me stay as a housekeeper?”
“We can marry.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Once you’re my wife… oh, you needn’t worry!” he hastened to assure her.
Something Weird
“I too,” said Jacob, “have an idea.”
by Michael Hoffman
VBW Publishing, 2016
197 pages
ISBN: 978-1-62137-904-1 (softcover); 978-1-62137-905-8 (ebook)
Contents
1. Granule and Mandolyn
2. Real Life
3. What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train
4. They Were Standing in Line at the Airport
5. Silence
6. Sheila
7. Something Weird
What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train, They Were Standing in Line at the Airport, and Sheila first appeared in Eastlit.
Michael Hoffman is a fiction and non-fiction writer based in northern Japan. His “Big in Japan” and “The Living Past” columns appear regularly in The Japan Times. His previous books include In the Land of the Kami: A Journey into the Hearts of Japan; The Naked Ear; Little Pieces: This Side of Japan; and The Coat that Covers Him and Other Stories.
Granule and Mandolyn
“There’s a world,” he said, speaking slowly and hesitantly, as a man does when his experience has outrun his vocabulary, “where there’s a thing called death. They are human there, like us, only… they come into being at a certain point in time, through a process called birth, and then… they die, they vanish.”
The little group fell silent, and the silence seemed to spread to other parts of the room.
Real Life
He had been given three months’ notice and a twelve-month pay package. He was young and, as the division chief said, talented. He would find something. There was no cause to panic. Should he tell his wife? Of course he should, he decided on the train home that evening.
What Happened to Mr. Goto on the Train
“But... I’d be dead,” he murmured. “I’d be…”
“And aren’t you dead now?”
“Am I?”
“What will your wife say?”
“My wife?”
“And your son?”
“They... they won’t say anything, they won’t know...”
The girl shook her head sadly. “You don’t yet fully understand,” she said, “what has happened to you.
They Were Standing in Line at the Airport
“Yoshi?”
“Dad. What’s up?”
“Listen. There’s a typhoon out there. I don’t want you to fly.”
“The flight hasn’t been canceled.”
“Don’t fly, Yoshi. I have a… laugh if you like… a premonition.”
Yoshinori laughed. “You and your premonitions!”
Silence
April 17.
“I am a sick man, I am a spiteful man…” Dostoevsky! To you, master, these pages are dedicated. Do you know, I almost feel as if I know you? No, more than that – as if I were you in a past life, or you were me in a future life, or… I hardly know how to say it!
I hardly know how to say anything. I had an idea once. I would move to a place where no one knows me and pretend to be mute. Better to be mute than to talk nonsense. Never, in all my life, in all my seventeen years, have I talked anything but nonsense. I see that now. I saw it a long time ago – when I was twelve. But now I really see it. What to do? What to do with my life? What to do with a life like mine?
Sheila
I have to renew my visa,” she said as she served dinner that night.
“Ah.”
“Do you know the law? I’m here as a nurse. Are you sure they’ll let me stay as a housekeeper?”
“We can marry.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Once you’re my wife… oh, you needn’t worry!” he hastened to assure her.
Something Weird
“I too,” said Jacob, “have an idea.”
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