Wager in Mid-air 191
The hand-stand was safely completed. For a while none of us spoke. Chō stood staring straight into space with unblinking, protruding eyes. His complexion was not even pale, but completely colourless like a dead man’s. Round the corners of his mouth I detected a cool, dark, self-mocking smile.
In a flash I remembered seeing such a smile once before. A car had come hurtling along the street where I was walking and had almost run over a man working on the tram lines. By some miracle he had escaped, though the side of the car must have grazed his overalls. Afterwards he had stood there rigid in the middle of the street still holding a large granite paving-stone. His eyes were wide open and there was a weird smile on his face. The car disappeared in the distance and the people who had stopped to look hurried on; but the man still stood there staring straight ahead into space….
Then I noticed a black bird skimming past directly over the chimney and silhouetted strangely against the dark sky.
Kichikō was the first to go down and I followed him. Glancing back, I saw Chō still standing there on the platform. His face was that of a dead man. He seemed sunk in thought.
Ogawa Mimei (b. 1882)
This story was first published in 1920
Translated by Ivan Morris
