前のエピソード――第15話 August 1984 --Chapter 15--

　　　******************** September ********************

　　　　　　　　　　　　-- Chapter 16 --

　　　Takano-san, who Melba believed needed me, did not show up at Sakura for more than two weeks, however, from the day I had served him for the first time.

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　　　Lisa started voicing her worry about him when the number of days of his absence had amounted to four. And a few days later, it was already her daily routine to ask Melba, for a start, and then some other girls who had been relatively close to him, if anything new about him had been learned. It was more than once that Lisa asked even me the same kind of question.

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　　　Some girls guessed, 'Takano-san may have found his steady girlfriend at another karaoke saloon somewhere in Ermita, at last.' Others imagined, 'He may have gone back to Japan, having gotten totally bored by Sakura's services.'

　　　Hearing such speculations, Melba was disheartened. She even looked ashamed of having no idea on why Takano-san had not shown up for such many days. She even dared to ask me again what I had talked with him on my first day at Sakura, perhaps suspecting that there might have been some clues in our conversation to know why he had abruptly stopped coming to Sakura, just like he had done exactly so right after her refusal of his offer.

　　　No such clues were found.

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　　　Despite their deep worries, however, both Lisa and Melba did not try to visit or call Takano-san's hotel in order to find out how and what he was doing there. That might be the common way for both of them to make friends with their customers, I guessed. Otherwise, they might have made up their minds not to do such things, perhaps, after somehow learning Takano-san himself wanted his relationship with them to remain that way.

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　　　I myself had one reason to worry about Takano-san. And the fact I had not persuaded him into using taxi on the way back to his hotel was the one: Streets in Manila must have been full of danger for a foreigner at that night too, like any other night.

　　　My worry about him was getting deeper, as rapidly as Lisa and Melba's, presumably. ..Well, I may have come to feel by that time that Takano-san was not just one of Sakura's regular patrons any more ever since I had learned about the incident between him and Melba. Otherwise, my mind may have been subtly affected by Melba's prediction that he would fall in love with me.

　　　Nonetheless, I did not show my concern about him too much. For, as the newest hostess at Sakura, who had served him only once just for a couple of hours, I thought, I had better not be too conspicuous or intrusive on the matter like that.

　　　Instead of worrying about him, I tried to make myself convinced that Takano-san had finally found out the 'something' he had been looking for in Metro Manila. I told myself that he must have been just enthralled by the 'something' so deeply as to be unable to bring himself up to Sakura, therefore, the reason why he had been away from Sakura should not be either 'he has found a steady girlfriend somewhere else' or 'he has already gone back to Japan'. I even eliminated illness and a traffic accident from the possible causes of his sudden nonappearance.

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　　　I was in a small reception room of K&T Production.

　　　The K&T was a tiny joint venture established by a Japanese -Yoshio Kato- and a Filipino -Joseph Tolentino. And it was one of so-called talent productions that would send Filipino entertainers such as singers, dancers, musicians, and sometimes prostitutes, too, to Japan.

　　　Thirty minutes had already past since I had been told to wait in the room. Having become bored of looking down to a corner of Luneta Park, I was calmly sitting on one of the chairs set opposite each other in front of an unattended receptionist desk.

　　　In the studio between the reception room and main office, Joseph was busy auditioning seven female dancers. He was showing no trace of fatigue of his one-week business trip to Japan, from which he had returned on the previous day.

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　　　Every dancer was already finished with her portion of tryout with the music she had chosen by herself to maximize her performance.

　　　Joseph was giving his instruction to the girls sitting side by side on a long bench. "To repeat, only three dancers are wanted this time. Clear? At this stage of recruit, all I do is just to send your pictures, simple personal histories as dancers and my opinion on your abilities to dance, to a Tokyo agent that represents a Gunma onsen (hot spring) hotel. So I have no idea on whom the hotel will finally choose among you girls. Don't forget this, girls: There still is a possibility that all of you may be passed over this time.

　　　"By the way," Joseph stared at the faces of all the girls one by one, "because this is the first time I work with this Japanese agent, I suggested its shacho-san (president of the company), when I met him in Japan, to visit Manila to see at least how I operate my business here. And he called me up this morning and told me he would come here in several days. So, you guys may have chances to directly see him. I'm going to give each one of you the chance to see him equally if you wish. ..You know what I mean?" Joseph made a big grin.

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　　　With playful bitter smiles, some of the girls gave Joseph some tuts.

　　　"All right, all right, girls." said Joseph waving his hand to calm them. "But let me dare to explain more because some of you don't appear to understand what I implied. ..That is, your chances to go to and work in Japan may get bigger if you guys sleep with him."

　　　More tuts.

　　　"It still is 'may'," Joseph went on, "but for some of you, that 'may' may be very significant. May not? So, contact me later on if you want to take a long chance on that. A phone call will be fine with me. Ah, don't worry. I'll never reveal your secret to anybody. Even if all of you girls engaged in this dirty business, I'm sure, none of you would know who did what. So you can just pretend each other that you didn't do anything. Nobody will be embarrassed. ...However, keep in mind, girls, your chances to work in Japan still won't be guaranteed by that. ..So, good luck."

　　　Chuckles arose among the girls.

　　　"Meanwhile," Joseph said playfully with an even bigger grin, "don't forget, girls, your chances may be much bigger if you sleep with me!"

　　　"Hey, what a lewd man you are, Joseph!" One girl shouted, bursting out into laughter.

　　　Again, some of the girls tutted. They appeared to have known him well for a long time.

　　　Joseph was around forty-five years old, known among girls to be a conscientious production operator who never preyed upon the girls who visited his office to seek jobs in Japan. Well, among them, there was a gossip that his actress wife, Aida, much younger than him and quite good-looking albeit her usual limited supporting roles in movies, would not allow him to flirt with any girl around, always watching him carefully.

　　　"Anyway," said Joseph with exaggerated haughtiness, "what I'm saying is, you can choose that way, too. Understood?" That, I knew, was the phrase he liked to use every time he concluded his instruction to girls.

　　　"Well understood!" One girl responded him loud.

　　　Standing up from the bench, one of the girls asked him teasingly. "Hey, Joseph, is that really a serious proposition?"

　　　All other girls went into fits of laughter.