Memoirs Of A Geisha

ng, when Auntie dropped a sewing tray onto the floor of the ent

what is a

but just went on reeli

?" I sa

mo will end up, if she ever get

say more, so I had no choi

days. I was permitted to attend the school as long as Pumpkin accompanied me; but I was no longer permitted to run errands. I suppose I could have dashed out the door at any time, if I'd wanted to, but I knew better than to do something so foolish. To begin with, I wasn't sure how to find the Tatsuyo. And what was worse, the moment I w

her no harm, but it did give me satisfaction. Granny I repaid by wiping the toilet rag around on the inside of her sleeping robe; and I was very pleased to see her sniffing at it in puzzlement, though she never took it off. Soon I discovered that the cook had taken it upon herself to punish me further over the kimono incident-even though no one had asked her to-by cutting back on my twice-monthly portions of dried fish. I couldn't think of how

Yoko came out a moment later and went up the stairs. When she came back down, s

as to play a song on a shamisen. I don't know what's gotten into her, but she won't use the one th

to leave the maid's room in case she should miss an important telephone call, and she wasn't involved in the life

ngling with nervousness that someone might stop me. The maids and Pumpkin-even the three older women-were all as

eculiar looks, because in those days we still had men and women in Gion who made their living as shamisen porters. They were often elderly; certain

from a maple tree with their brilliant red leaves of fall. At length I worked up my courage and brushed past the little curtain. Near the vase, a spacious entryway opened to one side, with a floor of coarsely polished granite. I remember being astounded that all the beauty I'd seen wasn't even the entry-way to the teah

blue kimono with a simple pattern in gray. A year earlier I would have taken her to be the young mistress of such an extravagant place, but now after my months in Gion, I recognized at once that her kimono-though more beaut

e back,"

o has ask

in, and rolled the door shut w

side the teahouse. The door at the back entrance rolled open as I arrived, and the same maid k

. . . Can you tell me where

u want to

pick up s

lk along the river until I had passed the Minamiza

ng, though evidently not by what the old man was saying. She kept glancing at another geisha with her back to me. I found myself remembering the last time I had peered into a teahouse, with Mr. Tanaka's little daughter, Kuniko, and began to feel that same sense of heaviness I'd felt so long ago at the graves of my father's first family- as if the earth were pulling me down toward it. A certain thought was swelling in my head, growing until I couldn't ignore it any longer. I wanted to turn away from it; but I was as powerless to stop that thought from t

topped at the theater. So I followed the street behind the Minamiza instead. After a few blocks I found myself in an area without streetlights and nearly empty of people. I didn't know it at the time, but the streets were empty mostly because of the Great Depression; in any other era Miyagawa-cho might have been busier even than Gion. That evening it seemed to me a very sad place-which indeed I think it has always been. The wooden facades looked like Gion, but the place had no trees, no lovely Shirakawa Stre

yo sat an old woman on a stool, carrying on a conversation with a much younger woman on a stool across the alley-though really it was the old woman who did all the talking. She sat leaning back against the door frame with her gray robe sagging partway open and her feet stuck out in a pair of zori. These were zori woven coarsely from straw, of the sort

"The mistress thinks I am, but I'm not. My son's wife is going to take good c

across the way said. "There's a little girl

st time. She didn't say anything, but she gave

id, "do you have a gi

ve any Satsu

man was just walking past me toward the entrance. She stood partway and gave him several bows with her hands on her

old woman said to me. "I tol

an across the way. "Your Yukiyo. He

But we don't have any Satsu for this girl. I

. A sen-which was worth only one hundredth of a yen-was still commonly used in those days, though a single one wouldn't buy even an empty cup from a v

ll pay you." "Why should she pay to speak t

nd when I neared her, she took m

er to Yukiyo? If our Yukiyo was as pretty as this one, we'd be the busiest house in town! You'

ve just because this woman didn't believe me. So I turned myself around and gave her a bow, and said to her, "I apologize if I seem to

younger woman across the alley. "You go up for me. You're not busy tonight.

d across into the Tatsuyo. I heard her climbing the

hen he's done, someone wi

a might discover me gone. I had an excuse for leaving, though Mother would be angry with me just the same; but I didn't have an excuse for staying away. Finally a man came out, picking at his te

s and reds. And her mouth was painted with a bright lipstick like the kind Mother wore. She was just tying her sash in the front, like the women I'd seen on my way there

r, and disappeared inside the Tatsuyo again. A moment or so later she was back, and dropped sev

he added, "it means the mistr

ase was a sliding door that had come off its track. Satsu tugged it open, and with difficulty managed to shut it behind us. We were standing in a tiny

thought she was scratching her face, for I couldn't see well. It took me a moment t

k until we were hugging. I found that all I could think about was how bony she'd grown. She stroked my hair in a

ne, her breath had a pungent odor when she spoke. "I'll get a beating

orry! I know you cam

ths

s a monster. She wouldn't give me

yo. I can't stay here in

ome wit

ealing money whenever I can. I have enough to pay off Mrs. Kishino. She gets

ino . . .

r place. I can't wait any longer! This is a horrible spot. Never end up anywhere

When do w

e, and don't say a word.

then his heavy footsteps ascended the stairs over my head. Soon someone came down again hurriedl

night, five days from now. I have to go

. Where will we

ne in the morning. Bu

thought it would be too easy for people to find us. We

o go now,

f I can't get away? Or w

s long as I can. You have to go now before the mistress comes b

hed the door shut behind us. I would have watched her go up the stairs, but in a moment the old

awa-cho. I wished it so hard that if such a thing had been possible, I think time itself would have begun to run backward just from the force of all my wishing. I got to my feet and crept down onto the dirt corridor, feeling dizzy from worry, and with my throat as dry as a patch of dusty ground. When I reached the door of the maids' room, I brought my eye to the crack to peer inside. I couldn't see well. Because of the damp weather, Yoko had lit charcoal earlier that evening in the brazier set into the floor; only a faint glow remained, and in that dim light, something small and pale was squirming. I almost let out a scream when I saw it, because I was sure it was a rat, with its head bobbing around as it chewed at something. To my horror I could even hear the moist, sma

her boyfriend's voice

g," Hatsumom

ne's t

he said. "I thought I heard

the hallway, feeling as shaken as if I'd almost been run over by a trolley. I heard groans and noises coming from the maids' room for s

hall," he said. "She was

girl tonight and went out of the okiya when sh

oichi-san," she said, "you're in such a bad mood tonight!" "Yo

al

entry-way. I kept my eyes to the floor, but I could feel myself blush a brilliant red. Hatsumomo rushed past me to help him

down. I don't know what's gotten into

nt to see y

g. I'll meet you anywhere you say, o

meet you. My wife watches

here. We have

and being spied on! Just let me

I don't know why you get this way! Tell me y

ack," he said. "I've to

sumomo came back into the front entrance hall and stood peering down the corri

. "You went to visit that ugly

atsumomo-s

he elderly maids, who propped herself on her elbow to look at us. Hatsumomo shouted at her,

u want me to do," I said. "I don't

to do. That isn't even a subject for di

ut to deliver

ster, and you made plans to run away with her. Do you thi

d. "I didn't know it was y

ght I'd seen a rat, but I did

upstairs to her room. When she came back d

the better for me. Some people think I don't have a heart, but it isn't true. It's touching to imagine you and that fat cow g

hatever she was holding in her fist she wanted to tuck beneath th

r seen, though I don't know how much. "I've brought this from my room for you. You don't need to thank

d then she did the strangest thing. She turned me around to face her again, and began to stroke the side of my head with her hand, wearing an almost motherly gaze. The very idea of Hatsu-morno behaving kindly toward me was so odd, I felt as if a poisonous snake had come up and begun to rub against me like a cat. Then before I knew what she was doing, she worked her fingers down to my scalp; and all at once she clenched h

Mother's door and called out for her. Mother opened it very

er with the two o

could do nothing but huddle into a ball on the floor and cry out for her to stop until Moth

dn't think anything of it, because I knew it couldn't be her. She isn't supposed to be out of the okiya at all. But when I went up to my room, I found

ly silent a long w

some of my jewelry to raise money. She's planning to run away from the o

at's quite enough. You and Auntie go int

d up at her from where I knelt on the floor

end. She's angry about something, and she's taki

me. Soon Hatsumomo came out and said she was missi

ine actress. "She's sold my emerald brooch to that horrible man! It wa

e girl," M

pay it any attention at first, but went on with what it was doing; only when it was finished did it creep over on its pointy toes and sting that poor mosquito to death. As I sat there on that wooden floor and watched Hatsumomo c

little," she said to me. "Particularly since i

her own sleeping robe, a

iend here in the

ut she didn't hesitate to reply, "Wh

and then Mother said to

She looked at me with cold eyes as Mother gathered up the koshimaki and pushed her knees apart. Then Mother reached up between her legs, and when her hand came out again her fingertips w