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gangsters in the hall, and then knowing he was safe, he had a hurried conference with his friends. Tamiya, the smallest of them, went over to the man and loudly asked him to come outside. Tatsuya pulled off Nishimura's belt and bound it around his hand to protect his fingers. Tamiya walked up to the top of the stairs ahead of the man.

      He stopped and turned to him, saying, "Well, do you want to hear what it's all about?"

      "Yeah, let's have it!"

      "Better ask the guy behind you, eh!"

      As he looked around he met Tatsuya's smashing blow to his mouth. The trumpet player fell down to the landing.

      Tatsuya gripped him by the scruff of his neck and said, "You know why I hit you, don't you?"

      "For stepping on your foot, I suppose," he muttered, licking the blood oozing out from his upper lip.

      "Don't play dumb! You know what it's all about!"

      Tatsuya hit him again on the jaw, forcing the man's teeth to cut into his own already bleeding lower lip.

      "From tomorrow you quit your trumpet and shake the maracas—and out of tempo at that."

      Tatsuya felt as excited as a child watching a western film. He could not have been more satisfied with himself.

      When he told the story to Eiko afterwards, she laughed and clapped her hands in delight. This pleased Tatsuya and he too laughed.

      "I do believe you're jealous, Tatsuya!" she said and laughed again as if she had made a discovery.

      "Was I jealous?" he wondered. "Anyway," he mused, "I'm glad I knocked the fellow down. It made me feel good and Eiko, she's laughing too. It couldn't be better."

      When he had knocked the man down, Tatsuya did not know exactly what had been going on in his mind. But he was satisfied that he had done the right thing without hesitation. What was important was that he had done what he wanted, in the way he wanted. Why he had done so was not the question. He was only interested whether he had succeeded or not. He never looked back on his actual conduct. Whether he was satisfied or not, that was all. Afterward, there was no chance to feel guilty for what he did, however violent. Others would criticize him for his actual deeds, but he would judge himself only on his impulses.

      Tatsuya was not lecherous. His main interest was in doing the taking. That was where he got his satisfaction. When a bar girl or cabaret hostess said she loved him, he would turn away and not be led on. If he found himself being seduced by a girl instead of doing the seducing, he would start making fun of her. He preferred having some resistance to overcome.

      Eiko and Tatsuya spent the night in a small hotel in the suburbs. But as usual, it was only Eiko who found satisfaction.

      Summer came, and Tatsuya and his brother Michihisa began repainting their sailboat. They did this every year. First they repaired the carved hull and filled in the cracks with putty and then sandpapered the surface smooth. They were like two women fussing over their faces. While they worked they reminisced about the previous summer and thought up things to do during the present one. They had found from experience that their boat was just as successful an aid to seduction as autos were for some of their friends.

      "Girls who fall for a car are just not in the same class as those that fall for a yacht," Tatsuya said to one of these friends one day. "There's no need to wear anything out of sea. You can get to know each other pretty well without clothes on, and there are no cops out there!"

      On the strength of this advice, the friend talked his father into buying a boat even though they did not have a seaside house.

      Tatsuya and his brother renamed the boat each summer. They had an annual argument over what they should call it. The previous year it had been Popular, and the year before, Dandy. This year Tatsuya wanted to call it Climb On, but his brother flatly refused.

      "What kind of name is that? This is a boat, not a girl."

      Finally Michihisa, whose turn it was, decided to name it Bel Ami after a French writer's article.

      "Bel Ami" sounds like 'blimey,' but if you insist, it's okay," Tatsuya said.

      When Nishimura came back from the mountains, the members of their group met together at his seaside house in Hayama. It was the second week of the summer vacation. The two brothers used to avoid the crowded beaches and sail along to Nishimura's place near Isshiki Beach. The boat was usually moored there or at the harbor.

      Now the area was populated by well-off young people whose families had summer houses. Most were soon looking for boy or girl friends to while away the time with.

      Eiko appeared at her family's house in Hayama. She and Tatsuya met oftener than before at the yacht club or the hotel and sometimes went out sailing.

      Meanwhile Tatsuya was also making new conquests: a shop-girl, a not-quite famous photographer's model, a second-rate actress who was dull but, Tatsuya said, very pretty.

      He would tell Eiko about his new girls from time to time but was quite disappointed to get no reaction from her beyond a smile.

      One afternoon in August he asked her out sailing just before the evening calm. He took food and drink so that they could eat at sea and return in the cool of the evening when the breeze freshened. The Bel Ami was still sailing towards Enoshima Island when other boats began to head for shore. Later, off Inamuragasaki, the wind died down, so Tatsuya lowered the sails and dropped anchor. With a rustle of wings a dragon-fly flitted over the dark glassy sea, and they could hear the faint klaxon of cars rushing on a distant highway. Eiko tuned on the portable radio, from which poured some suitably romantic music.

      They watched the bright afterglow in the sky. If there had not been the faint lapping of the waves against the hull, the sea could have been a shiny floor for the two to dance on.

      "Hey, they're giving us a good tune."

      "Too bad we can't do anything about it!"

      "Yeah, we'd need the deck of a cruiser at least."

      The afterglow gradually disappeared, but the water continued to twinkle. Suddenly a fish jumped out of the water in front of them.

      "What's that?"

      "Just a fish."

      "Are you sure?"

      The moon was not up yet. Tatsuya took off his aloha shirt.

      "I'm going in for a swim. I feel hot after drinking."

      He dived over the stern and for a moment the smooth sea was disturbed by a series of large concentric rings. Eiko began to worry and stared anxiously at the water. But in a moment his head shot out of the water some distance away.

      "Come on in. The water's warm."

      "Wait a minute. I'm coming."

      And she too plunged in. The boat pitched and tossed and the water slapped against the bow. When she surfaced, she could not see Tatsuya. She began to swim to where she thought Tatsuya had been, but all she could see was the dim outline of the boat.

      "Tatsu!" she called, but there was no answer.

      She felt scared and turned back, and suddenly there was Tatsuya beside her laughing.

      "Here I am. Did you think I was lost?"

      As she swam closer to him, something slimy touched her.

      "Help! What's that?" She grabbed hold of him in terror.

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