Twenty-nine Sparks Read online

  *

  ‘Maybe he needs supplements,’ Norio suggested.

  ‘No thanks,’ I replied. ‘I’m trying to quit.’

  ‘Thou shalt not carry moderation unto excess,’ Yuki read.

  Norio looked at me with a sombre face, making a steeple with his fingers.

  ‘You need supplements,’ he said again, and Yuki nodded.

  *

  Dear Thomas,

  In your reply letter, you said the moral of the snail fable is ‘Prevention is better than cure.’ My opinion is ‘We are where we live.’ Here is another fable. What is the moral?

  Once upon a time, there was a warrior without a war to fight. He tried to join a friendly village and started by making friends with the farmers. Then he made friends with the craftsmen, which made an enemy of the farmers because the craftsmen looked down on them and, after all, a friend’s enemy is an enemy. The warrior then tried to make friends with the merchants, but they were business partners with the farmers, which made the merchants his enemy because, after all, an enemy’s friend is an enemy. The warrior discovered that the craftsmen also did business with the merchants and thus they became enemies too.

  Surrounded by enemies, the warrior left the friendly village and came to an unfriendly village across the river. He soon made an enemy of the craftsmen of the new village by pointing out that they were lazier than those across the river and the farmers by pointing out that they were dirtier. The farmers of the new village resented the rich merchants. This made the merchants his friends because, after all, an enemy’s enemy is a friend. The craftsmen needed the merchants to sell their wares, which made a friend of the craftsmen because, after all, a friend’s friend is a friend. The warrior discovered that the farmers needed the craftsmen’s tools, which thus also made them friends. Surrounded by friends, the warrior decided to settle in the unfriendly village.

  *

  ‘Would you like to hear an amazing story?’ Etsuko asked.

  ‘Would I?’ I asked cautiously.

  ‘I was never hit by a car. Actually, I jumped out of a fifth story window and landed on some awnings.’

  ‘I see,’ I said, not seeing. ‘Why did you do that?’

  ‘I was feeling sick that day,’ she replied.

  ‘Do you feel better now?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes. My doctor told me to study English.’

  I passed her the book.

  ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear,’ she read.

  *

  Dear Thomas,

  In your reply letter, you said the moral of the warrior fable is ‘A conclusion is only as good as its premises.’ My opinion is ‘A rule is only as good as its applicability.’ Here is another fable. What is the moral?

  Once upon a time, the King’s lead musician was hauled before the court. He was accused of touching the Queen’s leg during a performance. The King decreed that the musician’s right hand would be cut off.

  ‘Please do not blame my hand your Majesty,’ pleaded the musician, who feared that he would lose his livelihood. ‘It was merely following my eyes.’

  ‘So we shall pluck out your eyes,’ the King said.

  ‘Please do not blame my eyes, your Majesty,’ the musician begged. ‘They were merely following your Queen’s leg.’

  The King looked beside him, but the Queen had quietly left the room.

  *

  ‘The other makes me be,’ Haruko read and imitated me by crossing her legs and scratching her chin. ‘So, my student,’ she said in deep, mocking voice. ‘What does it mean?’

  ‘Well,’ I played along, ‘you make me the teacher and I make you the student. Or the other way around today, it seems.’

  *

  Dear Thomas,

  In your reply letter, you said the moral of the musician fable is ‘Every wrongdoer blames the victim.’ My opinion is ‘Not every victim is a wrongdoer, but every wrongdoer is a victim.’ Here is another fable. What is the moral?

  Once upon a time, a Pharaoh ordered his people to make the biggest pyramid ever so that everybody would remember his greatness. He rode to the pyramid on his chariot to check their progress. Displeased, he abruptly turned his chariot from the pyramid and one of its wheels struck a stone on the road. The chariot toppled over and the Pharaoh fell onto the dusty ground.

  ‘Find the stone that did this to the Great Pharaoh and smash it into dust!’ he cried in anger.

  His people searched for the stone until one man said, ‘Great Pharaoh, I have found the stone but a piece is missing.’

  The Pharaoh ordered a search for the missing piece.

  His people searched for the second piece until another man said ‘Great Pharaoh, I have found the second piece but yet another piece is missing from that piece.’

  The Pharaoh rode away in rage and called out as he left, ‘Find all the pieces and smash them all into dust!’

  When the Great Pharaoh’s body was brought to the site for burial, there was nothing left but a sandy plain.

  *

  ‘Death is the cure of all diseases,’ Machiko read.

  ‘Sometimes I cannot cure my patients,’ she admitted. ‘And death is the cure, in a way.’

  ‘Or maybe it’s okay to kill the patient before he kills you,’ I suggested, and she looked at me askance.

  *

  Dear Thomas,

  In your reply letter, you said the moral of the pharaoh fable is ‘All are equal in death.’ My opinion is ‘Every person is a piece of another.’ Here is the last fable. What is the moral?

  Once upon a time a village chief was hearing a complaint from a man from a second village who said that his barn had been burned down in a fire caused by stray firecracker from the first village. The man produced a firework as evidence.

  ‘That doesn’t prove anything,’ the guilty villager protested, knowing that the proof of his wrongdoing must surely have been destroyed in the fire.

  ‘It proves everything,’ the man from the second village said. ‘I collected the sparks one by one from the darkness and put the firecracker back together to show your chief the evidence of your wrongdoing.’

  The guilty villager laughed in derision. ‘If you could do such a thing, you could go home and collect the pieces of the barn I burnt down too.’

  *

  ‘You’re leaving?’ I said to my reflection in the window of the empty classroom.

  ‘Yes,’ it replied. ‘How much longer can we keep writing letters to each other before someone finds out?’

  ‘But we haven’t finished yet,’ I protested.

  ‘Go home,’ it said. ‘Put your sparks back together.’

  Quotations

  ‘The most intolerable pain is produced by prolonging the keenest pleasure.’ George Bernard Shaw

  ‘Man thinks. God laughs.’ Yiddish Proverb

  ‘To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.’ Akira Kurosawa

  ‘Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ Saint Augustine

  ‘How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you was?’ Satchel Paige

  ‘Nobody loves life like him who is growing old.’ Sophocles

  ‘A good beginning makes a good ending.’ English proverb

  ‘Work sets you free.’ Nazi slogan

  ‘The power to make money is a gift of God.’ John D. Rockefeller

  ‘All the people like us are We, And everyone else is They.’ Rudyard Kipling

  ‘Travelling is a fool’s paradise.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson

  ‘Thou shalt not carry moderation unto excess.’ Arthur Koestler

  ‘There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.’ I John 4:18

  ‘The other makes me be.’ Jean-Paul Sartre

  ‘Death is the cure of all diseases.’ Sir Thomas Browne

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