Ruth Ozeki [Ozeki - A Tale for the Time Being

This is one of the most deeply moving and thought-provoking novels I have read in a long time. In precise and luminous prose, Ozeki captures both the sweep and details of our shared humanity, moving seamlessly between Naos story and our own. The result is gripping, fearless, inspiring and true

Madeline Miller

Ingenious and touching, A Tale for the Time Being is also highly readable. And interesting: the contrast of cultures is especially well done

Philip Pullman

A Tale for the Time Being is a downright miraculous book that will captivate you from the very first page. Profoundly original, with authentic, touching characters and grand, encompassing themes, Ruth Ozeki proves that truly great stories like this one can both deepen our understanding of self and remind us of our shared humanity

Deborah Harkness

ALSO BY RUTH OZEKI

My Year of Meat

All Over Creation

Published in Great Britain in 2013 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE

www.canongate.tv

This digital edition first published by Canongate in 2013

Copyright Ruth Ozeki Lounsbury, 2013

The moral right of the author has been asserted

First published in the United States of America in 2013
by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA)

British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

ISBN 978 0 85786 796 4
eISBN 978 0 85786 798 8

For Masako,

for now and forever

An ancient buddha once said:

For the time being, standing on the tallest mountaintop,

For the time being, moving on the deepest ocean floor,

For the time being, a demon with three heads and eight arms,

For the time being, the golden sixteen-foot body of a buddha,

For the time being, a monks staff or a masters fly-swatter,

For the time being, a pillar or a lantern,

For the time being, any Dick or Jane,

For the time being, the entire earth and the boundless sky.

Dgen Zenji, For the Time Being

Hi!

My name is Nao, and I am a time being. Do you know what a time being is? Well, if you give me a moment, I will tell you.

A time being is someone who lives in time, and that means you, and me, and every one of us who is, or was, or ever will be. As for me, right now I am sitting in a French maid caf in Akiba Electricity Town, listening to a sad chanson that is playing sometime in your past, which is also my present, writing this and wondering about you, somewhere in my future. And if youre reading this, then maybe by now youre wondering about me, too.

You wonder about me.

I wonder about you.

Who are you and what are you doing?

Are you in a New York subway car hanging from a strap, or soaking in your hot tub in Sunnyvale?

Are you sunbathing on a sandy beach in Phuket, or having your toenails buffed in Brighton?

Are you a male or a female or somewhere in between?

Is your girlfriend cooking you a yummy dinner, or are you eating cold Chinese noodles from a box?

Are you curled up with your back turned coldly toward your snoring wife, or are you eagerly waiting for your beautiful lover to finish his bath so you can make passionate love to him?

Do you have a cat and is she sitting on your lap? Does her forehead smell like cedar trees and fresh sweet air?

Actually, it doesnt matter very much, because by the time you read this, everything will be different, and you will be nowhere in particular, flipping idly through the pages of this book, which happens to be the diary of my last days on earth, wondering if you should keep on reading.

And if you decide not to read any more, hey, no problem, because youre not the one I was waiting for anyway. But if you do decide to read on, then guess what? Youre my kind of time being and together well make magic!

Ugh. That was dumb. Ill have to do better. I bet youre wondering what kind of stupid girl would write words like that.

Well, I would.

Nao would.

Nao is me, Naoko Yasutani, which is my full name, but you can call me Nao because everyone else does. And I better tell you a little more about myself if were going to keep on meeting like this... !

Actually, not much has changed. Im still sitting in this French maid caf in Akiba Electricity Town, and Edith Pilaf is singing another sad chanson, and Babette just brought me a coffee and Ive taken a sip. Babette is my maid and also my new friend, and my coffee is Blue Mountain and I drink it black, which is unusual for a teenage girl, but its definitely the way good coffee should be drunk if you have any respect for the bitter bean.

I have pulled up my sock and scratched behind my knee.

I have straightened my pleats so that they line up neatly on the tops of my thighs.

I have tucked my shoulder-length hair behind my right ear, which is pierced with five holes, but now Im letting it fall modestly across my face again because the otaku salaryman whos sitting at the table next to me is staring, and its creeping me out even though I find it amusing, too. Im wearing my junior high school uniform and I can tell by the way hes looking at my body that hes got a major schoolgirl fetish, and if thats the case, then how come hes hanging out in a French maid caf? I mean, what a dope!

But you can never tell. Everything changes, and anything is possible, so maybe Ill change my mind about him, too. Maybe in the next few minutes, he will lean awkwardly in my direction and say something surprisingly beautiful to me, and I will be overcome with a fondness for him in spite of his greasy hair and bad complexion, and Ill actually condescend to converse with him a little bit, and eventually he will invite me to go shopping, and if he can convince me that hes madly in love with me, Ill go to a department store with him and let him buy me a cute cardigan sweater or a keitai or handbag, even though he obviously doesnt have a lot of money. Then after, maybe well go to a club and drink some cocktails, and zip into a love hotel with a big Jacuzzi, and after we bathe, just as I begin to feel comfortable with him, suddenly his true inner nature will emerge, and hell tie me up and put the plastic shopping bag from my new cardigan over my head and rape me, and hours later the police will find my lifeless naked body bent at odd angles on the floor, next to the big round zebra-skin bed.

Or maybe he will just ask me to strangle him a little with my panties while he gets off on their beautiful aroma.

Or maybe none of these things will happen except in my mind and yours, because, like I told you, together were making magic, at least for the time being.

Are you still there? I just reread what I wrote about the otaku salaryman, and I want to apologize. That was nasty. That was not a nice way to start.

I dont want to give you the wrong impression. Im not a stupid girl. I know Edith Pilafs name isnt really Pilaf. And Im not a nasty girl or a hentai, either. Im actually not a big fan of hentai, so if you are one, then please just put this book down immediately and dont read any further, okay? You will only be disappointed and wasting your time, because this book is not going to be some kinky girls secret diary, filled with pink fantasies and nasty fetishes. Its not what you think, since my purpose for writing it before I die is to tell someone the fascinating life story of my hundred-and-four-year-old great-grandmother, who is a Zen Buddhist nun.