Free Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami Page B

The kitchen window and glass sliding doors shone like sheets of silver.
    While I was breathing in the scents of the warming air and fixing coffee, the outside door suddenly opened. There stood three cops, their thick chests wrapped in sweaty-smelling uniforms, white braid hanging from their shoulders.
    Startled, I spilled the sugar on the floor. One of the younger cops asked me,
    "What're you kids up to in here?"
    I just stood there without answering, and the two cops in front pushed me aside and came into the room. Ignoring Kei and Reiko lying there, they stood with folded arms before the veranda door, then violently yanked the curtain open.
    At that sound and the strong light pouring in, Kei leaped to her feet. With the light behind them, the cops looked very big.
    The older fat officer left standing in the entranceway nudged aside the shoes scattered there with his foot and slowly entered the room.
    "Well, we don't have a warrant, but you're not going to make any fuss about that, are you? Is this your place? Is it?" He seized my arm and checked it for needle marks.
    "You're in college?" The fat officer's fingers were short and his nails were dirty.
    Although he wasn't holding me very hard, I couldn't shake free. I gazed at the hand, washed with morning sunlight, of the officer who had caught me so casually, as if I had never seen a hand before.
    The other people in the room, all almost naked, were hurrying to put on their clothes. The two young cops were whispering together. From where I stood I could hear words like "pigsty" and "marijuana."
    "Get dressed fast, hey you, put on some slacks."
    Kei, still just in her panties, pouted and glared at the fat officer. Yoshiyama and Kazuo stood by the window, their faces frozen. As they rubbed their eyes, one cop ordered them to turn off the noisy radio. By the wall, Reiko clawed through her handbag, found her hairbrush and straightened her hair. The cop with glasses picked up her purse and dumped its contents out on the table.
    "Hey, what are you doing, quit it," Reiko protested in a faint voice, but the cop just snorted and ignored her.
    Moko, naked, was still lying flat on her stomach on the bed, making no effort to get up, her sweaty flanks exposed to the light. The young cops stared at the black hair sticking out from between her buttocks. I went over and shook her shoulder, saying, Get up, and covered her with the blanket.
    "You, get on some slacks, what are you looking at me like that for, huh?" Kei muttered something and turned away, but Kazuo tossed her some jeans and she pulled them on, clicking her tongue. Her throat trembled.
    Hands on their hips, the three looked around the room and checked the ashtray.
    Moko finally opened her eyes and mumbled Huh? What? Who are these guys?
    The cops snickered.
    "Hey, you kids, you've got it too much your own way, it bothers us, all of you lying around naked in the daytime, maybe it doesn't matter to you, but some people—not like you punks— know how it is to feel ashamed."
    The older officer opened the veranda window, letting out a shower of dust.
    The morning town seemed too bright to make out details. The bumpers of cars passing on the road glinted and I felt sick.
    The cops seemed one whole size larger than any of the rest of us in the room.
    "Uh, is it O.K. if I smoke?" Kazuo asked, but the cop with glasses said Forget it, took the cigarette from between his fingers, and put it back in the pack. Reiko helped Moko put on some underwear. Very pale and shaking, Moko hooked on her bra.
    Fighting my rising nausea, I asked, "Has there been some trouble?"

    The three looked at each other and laughed loudly.
    "Trouble? Hey, that's good, coming from you! Listen, you just don't show your butts in front of other people, maybe you don't know it, but you shouldn't act like dogs.
    "You kids got families? They don't say anything about the way you carry on?
    They don't care, huh? We know how you swap each other around. Hey you, you'd probably