Right there on the cliff—in perfectly good Japanese no less. Who could have written it? And there was more, carved in the enormous rock face.
Over there? Over here? Which was which? What the fuck?
Real? Fake? Over where?
I turned back to look at Sano. Was he “over there” or “over here”? And was he the real Sano?
Was the real one back “over there,” which he was calling “over here”? I was getting a little confused.
But I couldn’t see anyone on that side.
I glanced back at the cliff, but now the message had changed.
Who did he think he was, ordering me around like that?
But he did know my name.
Who could carve those huge letters in a cliff like that—and then erase them and write something else?
It was then that I realized that the Sano “over there” was still waving and calling for me to “come back,” but now he was laughing like an idiot. That must be Sano. But was he doing the writing too?
I didn’t know what to think, but I knew it was totally incredible. But also impossible.
So what to do? I flew over toward the cliff over “here,” and even though there was no one to talk to, since Sano—real or fake—was over “there,” I shouted at the cliff.
“Who are you?”
There was a pause and then the words carved on the face of the cliff vanished and new ones appeared. No one filled in the old ones and no one carved the new ones. The cliff seemed to be carving itself. Never underestimate the good old US of A—if that’s where I was.
No way! This was too much. My head was starting to hurt.
“How are you doing this exactly?” I called.
“Coming!”
It was Yoji talking after all. Was I really not going to go? I banked and headed back in his direction. You do the math: Yoji vs. Sano? Bye-bye, Sano!
But then as I looked back for one last glance at Sano—I got another shock. His face, which until now had been hard to make out—sort of a blank, actually—was suddenly crystal clear, and I could see his eyes blazing, his mouth torn open, and some weird gas puffing out of his nose.
“Wait! Don’t be stupid, Aiko!”
It sounded just like something Sano would say. But Sano wasn’t Sano anymore. He’d turned into a totally creepy monster. Scary! Way scary! Time to get out of here. But as I started to pedal like mad, Sano Monster reached out toward me with both hands—and unlike normal reaching out, unlike normal hands, his seemed to keep coming and coming at me. His arms were actually stretching. Gya! He was some kind of ghost. I could see that now. It was Sano and yet not Sano. Not human Sano anyway. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was trying to drag me back “there” and I totally didn’t want to go! I could see now that he was the bad guy! Why had it been so hard to figure out before? “Over here” we have Yoji—so by definition “over there” had to be the bad guy. But all this was going through my mind really, really quick—because the rest of me was totally busy pedaling. I glanced back and could see Sano’s white arms stretching out—and out and out and out and out and out toward my little chopper. Scary Sano! Scary scary scary scary scary! Stop it! Leave me alone! I could tell I was about to start crying. But this was no time to cry. If those hands got me, I would never get back to “this” side, to Yoji’s side, and then I’d never see him again. And I couldn’t let that happen!
Sano could just fuck off and die!
But of course! That was it! I suddenly understood.
Sano had done just that—died. The Sano waving to me on the cliff was already an ex-Sano, and “over there” was the side of the dead. “Over here,” Yoji’s side, was where living people—well—lived. Shit! So then that river with all the souls swimming along down there—must be the Styx.
Good grief! I’d been about to cross the River Styx! Sano, that shit, had been trying to lure me across—which would not have been a good idea!
I glanced back. Sano was still standing on top of the cliff, reaching those spooky arms toward me. And they were getting closer and closer. I wasn’t out of the woods yet!
“Help me, Yoji!” I screamed.
Well, at least he didn’t beat around the bush.
Uh…okay. I won’t.
I didn’t. I pedaled like crazy. Pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal!
But Sano’s hands were gaining on me. They were just a few inches away. So I pedaled even harder, like totally crazy hard, like it was the end if I didn’t—duh!
Shit! It’s no good. I’m not going to make it, Yoji!
Forget it! I’m telling you I can’t. Don’t keep saying I can!
And at that point Sano’s creepy weird hands were just about to grab hold of the tail of my helicopter.
“Keep your fucking hands off, Sano!”
What?
I looked down—nothing but the sky at the bottom of the gorge and the river of dead souls flowing through it. A hundred yards below. Or more.
I could barely see from the sweat pouring off my face.
“I can’t, Yoji!”
Okay? No way! It isn’t okay at all! You think you could take a swan dive into a river of dead souls, Yoji?
Well why didn’t you say so? That’s a whole different story. But where are you? Are
