Status Updates From Thousand Cranes

“He could not call up the faces of his own mother and father, who had died three or four years before. He would look at a picture, and there they would be. Perhaps people were progressively harder to paint in the mind as they were near one. Perhaps clear memories came easily in proportion as they were ugly.”

“The doors were open, and the girl was near the veranda.
Her brightness seemed to loght the far corners of the large, dusky room.
There were Japanese irises in the alcove.
There were Siberian irises on the girl’s obi. Perhaps it was coincidence. But irises were most ordinary flowers for the season, and perhaps she had planned the combination.”