Title : Maybe it's a Dream Original Title : Yume kamo shinnai Author : Hoshisato Mochiru Volume one Chapter three --- A sweet and dangerous trap. (Rev 0.9) Kase Haruo : (Kase) Kase Misako : (Kase's wife) Kase Mana : (Kase's daughter) Yumeno Sumire : (Ghost) Satou Hiromi : (Young saleswoman working in the same office as Kase) ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 50] Chapter three --- A sweet and dangerous trap. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 51] 1 Kase: Are you saying that you will make me happy? 2 Kase: You, a ghost will .... Ghost: You are right. I'm a ghost. Look. Look. 3 Kase: A ghost ... 4 Kase: Why on earth a ghost, you, will make me happy? You are coming up to revenge on me, right? Ghost: How can I bear a grudge against you? I told you I would make you happy, Kase-san. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 52] 1 Kase: I mean why did you come to me? I don't know you. First of all, what in the world does that mean: 'make me happy'? 2 Kase: It sounds like I am unhappy, you know. 3 Ghost: Anyhow, you are unhappy, aren't you? 5 Kase: What are you saying? Ghost: Don't you feel tough everyday? I'm sure you feel that way. You are tired, aren't you? 6 Kase: No, I'm not. I live a happy and full life everyday. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 53] 1 Satou: Who are you talking to? Kase: Wow! 3 Ghost: No one besides you can see me. And only you can talk to me, Kase-san. 4 Ghost: Keep on having a good time with her. 5 Kase: (in his mind) I am unhappy? 6 Satou: Kase-san, .... 7 Satou: Kase-san! Kase: Oh. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 54] 1 Kase: So sorry. I was lost in thought. 3 Kase: I know a bar where we can have nice 'sake' (Japanese rice wine) nearby. How about that for now? 4 Satou: No, thank you. I'll go home now. You look tired. 5 Kase: I am not tired at all. Don't mind that. Satou: Perhaps your wife and your kid are waiting for you. You have to go back home. 7 Satou: Thank you very much for today's dinner. You've given me much advice for sales. I've learned a great deal. Kase: Don't think anything of it. If it's OK with you, anytime I'll ... Satou: I'll surely be glad to again. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 55] 1 Kase: I'll see you home. Satou: Don't bother. I'll walk back home. 2 Kase: Satou-san, you live in Ogikubo, I didn't know that. It is quite close to my home. Satou: Yes, I do. 3 Kase: Then, see you next week. Satou: Sure. 4 Satou: Kase-san. Kase: Yes? 5 Satou: I respect you very much, Kase-san. I do want to talk with you again! ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 56] 1 (in Kase's memory) "I respect you very much, Kase-san." "... respect ..." "... respect ..." 2 Kase: I live quite a happy life, don't I. 4 Kase: I remember now. 'My wife and my kid' will be at her parents' home till next Monday. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 57] 1 Kase: Anyway, I can enjoy a single life till Monday. Yoo-hoo 2 Kase: I can keep the wide TV to myself. Yoo-hoo! I never like to watch Fami-kon. (Note: Fami-kon = Nintendo Family Computer) 3 Kase: Yehhhs. I'll wake up early to go to see a movie and do shopping, making use of this chance. 6 Kase: Look! I am fairly happy, right? ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 58] 4 Kase: Two o'clock ... It's same as usual holidays. 5 Kase: It takes time to recover my health somehow ... these days ... ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 59] 1 Kase: Tired! 2 Kase: I'd rather feel better working. I wonder if any machine troubles might happen somewhere. 4 Kase: We haven't taken pictures of the three of us for a long time. Since when? 5 Kase: I wonder when I saw their smiles for the last time. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 60] 2 Kase: I'll call her father and mother once in a while. 3 Kase: Now, what was their phone number? Here it is. 6 Phone: Yes, this is Satou. Kase: What? ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 61] 1 Phone (Answering machine): The answering machine will record your message. Please speak after the tone ends. Pi--- (tone) Kase: Oh? I wonder why I've got through to her home. 2 Kase: Ah, hello, Kase speaking. Sorry, sorry. I don't know why the phone is connected to your home .... 3 Satou: Kase-san!? Kase: Ah. 4 Kase: Oh, you are home, sorry. Satou: Don't mind. I always set up the answering machine, since I live alone and have nuisance phone calls sometimes. 5 Kase: Is that so? It is not easy .... to live alone, isn't it? 6 Kase: Anyway, I'll hang up now. This is just a call by accident. Satou: W...wait a ... ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 62] 1 Satou: Kase-san, are you occupied today? 2 Kase: To tell the truth, I'm not. Though I stay at home unlike usual, my wife and my kid went out. 3 Satou: I ... I thought well since I left you yesterday. Kase: Uh, Yeah ... 4 Satou: I thought I had to tell you the truth. 5 Kase: The truth? 6 Satou: Well, ... A little hard to ... on the phone. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 63] 1 Kase: Then how about going out with me? 2 Kase: At cafe 'Collage (Kora-ju)', yes, on the corner of the beauty parlor. I'll be there at about ... 3 Kase: In an hour. Is it all right at seven o'clock? See you then. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 64] 1 Kase: This may be too much. It's not a date. 2 Kase: But not very good to be too rough. Still I have to be ... as a chief. 3 (in Kase's memory and imagination) " ..... to tell you the truth." " About Kase-san ... I ..." 5 Ghost: Are you happy? Kase: WOW! ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 65] 1 Kase: You are still around, aren't you? Ghost: I'll be here till I make you happy. 2 Kase: You talk about that matter again. Since I'm happy enough, you don't have to do anything for me. Find another unhappy person. 3 Ghost: You are happy now, you know, and you were smiling. Kase: No, I was not smiling! 4 Ghost: You've not been having a good thing like your heart is fluttering with a smile on your face. Since when? 6 Ghost: You think so, too? I bet you live a hard life bearing a lot of thing. 7 Ghost: Don't you think you want to smile everyday and live a happy life? ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 66] 1 Kase: Ridiculous. If one lives a life, the one has a lot of things to bear with. 2 Kase: Whether happy or not is a relative matter, isn't it? In addition, the evaluation comes from individual subjectivity. In another word, if I think by myself I'm happy, I'm happy. 3 Ghost: You cannot think you are happy unless you quibble, that means you are not happy, doesn't it? Kase: It's you who are quibbling! 4 Kase: I'm not an unhappy man. I don't grin. Just because she wants to talk with me, I go out, above all this is not your job. Ghost: I am the one who called her home. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 67] 1 Ghost: It cut off suddenly, it connected to wrong numbers. Weren't your phones in bad condition lately? 2 Kase: You are the one who was responsible for that? Ghost: Yes, I am 3 Kase: Why did you do these things? 4 Ghost: I do whatever it takes to make feel happy. 5 Ghost: She loves you, Kase-san. Absolutely! 6 Kase: Really? Can you read human minds? By means of telepathy or something? ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 68] 1 Ghost: Nope. 2 Kase: I was stupid, asking you that seriously. Ghost: I don't have anything like telepathy! I'm not Uri Geller! (Note: 'Uri Geller' used to be famous for his telepathy an spoon-bending on TV.) 3 Ghost: It's just my impression as a woman. "Impression." 4 Kase: Stop that 'impression'! Stop that 'make me happy'! 5 Kase: My life is happy enough! Don't say groundless things, seeing the surfaces only! GET OUT! ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 69] 2 Ghost: Behhhhh! 4 Kase: Alas, it's already this late. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 70] 1 Kase: WOOOWWW!! 2 Kase: You were not to come back until Monday, were you? Misako: Are you going out? 3 Misako: You don't look to go out for your job. Kase: I just .... to get some cigarettes .... It's for cigarettes. 4 Kase: What happened to you! You suddenly went to your parents' home, and you came back without calling. 5 Misako: My mother entered a hospital with a strained back. It can be suddenly, can't be? I just went to see if she was all right and I came back, that's all! ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 71] 1 Kase: You had to go after getting in touch (with me)! How come you couldn't tell me about your mother even in a word ... Misako: I called you many times! But I couldn't get through to you at all! 2 Misako: You are the one! It wouldn't have beeen that strange for you to call me, would it? Kase: You have no right to blame me. Above all, you .... 3 Misako: I don't want your lecture any more! I'm tired. Mana is sleepy too. 4 Kase: Misako! 5 Kase: Since when have you started to talk so bluntly? 6 Misako: I don't know. I wonder since when. ------------------------------------------------------------ [Page 72] 3 Ghost: Dear, are you really happy? 5 Kase: Surely ... I'm happy.