The City and Its Uncertain Walls

The child was a boy, and they lived as a happy family in the town. On their son’s fifth birthday, Mr. Koyasu and his wife gave him a bike. One day, as Mr. Koyasu’s wife cooked dinner, their son rode his bike outside. Suddenly, it grew quiet, and in the silence Mr. Koyasu’s wife heard the screech of breaks and a collision. She ran outside to find that her son was hit by a truck in the road. They rushed him to the hospital, where he died days later.

The grief overwhelmed Mr. Koyasu’s wife. She blamed herself for their son’s death. Mr. Koyasu tried to comfort her, but it wasn’t enough. During a storm after their son’s death, Mr. Koyasu woke to find his wife gone, two scallions in her place in the bed. Later that day, a fireman found her body washed up in the swollen river. She took sleeping pills, tied her legs together, and jumped in. In a matter of months, Mr. Koyasu’s life turned upside down.

After his wife’s and son’s deaths, Mr. Koyasu barely interacted with anyone. When his father died, he sold the sake business. Years later, he began wearing the blue beret and a skirt. At first, the town found it odd, but Mr. Koyasu became more social, and seemed to heal from the tragedy of his family. Ten years before his death, he took the money from the sale of the brewery and established the library, using his own money for renovations, book purchases, and salaries.

Mrs. Soeda tells the protagonist that after Mr. Koyasu’s funeral, Mr. Koyasu woke her in the night and told her to find documents in his office and present them to the board of the library. These documents left all of his money to the library. To choose his replacement, Mrs. Soeda left resumes on the desk in Mr. Koyasu’s office, and he picked the protagonist.

Mr. Koyasu does not visit the protagonist for a long time, and the protagonist begins to wonder what connection he may have with the ghost. One day, the protagonist goes to visit Mr. Koyasu’s grave. He finds the man buried with his wife and son. As he looks at the grave, the protagonist begins to cry, mourning Mr. Koyasu’s family tragedy. Despite this, the protagonist realizes that he does not know how to mourn a man whose ghost he speaks with frequently.

Later that night, the protagonist cannot sleep. He gives up trying, dresses, and walks out into the cold for a walk. The cold numbs his mind, and he thinks of nothing as he wanders by the river. He soon realizes that without meaning to, he is walking toward the library. When he arrives, he goes right to the subterranean office.

Mr. Koyasu is waiting for the protagonist in the room. Aware that the protagonist visited his grave, he talks about the pain of his losses and shares that he thinks the protagonist had a similar experience of loss. He knows the protagonist once lost his shadow, and this is part of the reason he picked him to be the new director of the library.

The protagonist relates his experience in the walled-in town, expressing confusion as to how he returned, believing some outside force overrode his wish to stay. Mr. Koyasu argues that maybe it was the protagonist’s own will that led him back to the real world with his shadow. The protagonist acknowledges that the pain of losing his girlfriend led him into the other world, but questions whether their love was worthy. Mr. Koyasu tells him that love, not matter when and for how long it happens, is love. He believes both of them experienced their greatest loves.

Mr. Koyasu tells the protagonist that it is impossible to move on from the wound this kind of heartbreak leaves. When he lost his wife and son, people tried to set him up with other women, and he began wearing the skirt to ward them off. The protagonist tells Mr. Koyasu that sometimes he feels like a shadow pretending to be himself. Mr. Koyasu assures him that the real self and shadow are too close, and that the protagonist is always himself. Mr. Koyasu must leave but tells the protagonist they will see each other again soon.

One morning in the library, a teenager who visits every day approaches the protagonist and asks the protagonist for his date of birth. The protagonist gives it to him, and the boy tells the protagonist he was born on a Wednesday. Later, the protagonist asks Mrs. Soeda who the boy is and why he spends every day in the library and not in school. The boy is a “savant,” and though he reads at a fast pace, he struggles to connect what he reads to any practical use. He did not have the grades to go to high school, and his mother asked Mr. Koyasu if he could mentor the boy and allow him to read in the library every day. He never bothers anyone, but the town largely ignores him.

On a Monday morning, the protagonist goes to Mr. Koyasu’s family grave and speaks about the walled-in town. While there, he notices the boy from the library watching him. The protagonist leaves, wondering if the boy also sees Mr. Koyasu’s ghost. He asks Mrs. Soeda what Mr. Koyasu thought of the boy, and she shares that Mr. Koyasu watched and smiled at him.

For the next week, the protagonist notices that the boy, who wears a Yellow Submarine parka every day, watches him. The boy comes to the library every day at the same time. The protagonist meditates on the boy’s habits, noticing that when he does not wear the Yellow Submarine parka, he wears one with the Yellow Submarine character Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD, instead. He wonders why the boy commits to such a repetitive routine.

The next Monday, his weekly day off, the protagonist goes to Mr. Koyasu’s grave, hoping the boy will be there. He does not know why, but the protagonist wants to tell the boy about the walled-in town. When the boy is not there, the protagonist follows his Monday ritual, going to a local coffee shop, realizing he, too, leads a repetitive life. Days later, Mrs. Soeda brings the protagonist an envelope from the boy, M**, saying he asked her to pass it along. When the protagonist opens it, he finds a near-perfect map of the walled-in town.

The map is a near-exact depiction of the town. He believes the boy probably overheard the protagonist talk about the town at Mr. Koyasu’s grave. The more the protagonist looks at the map, the more he feels pulled to return to the town. He finds himself remembering the town and feeling as though he is stuck between the worlds, the divide between them weakening.

The next day, M** does not come to the library. Mrs. Soeda explains to the protagonist that sometimes the boy begins to feel unwell. It will last for a few days, but after he rests, the boy will be back. The protagonist considers M**’s abilities and figures this makes sense, his overpowered intellect needing to recharge. While M** is away, the protagonist wonders what inspired him to draw the map. The protagonist decides to respond to M** by making a copy of the map with slight corrections. He places it in an envelope and asks Mrs. Soeda to give it to M** when he returns to the library.

The following Monday, while the protagonist enjoys his coffee at the coffee shop after visiting Mr. Koyasu’s grave, M** appears next him and gives him a new map. The next day, the protagonist sits at his desk, trying not to look at the map. This new map, with its corrections, feels powerful, and evokes clear images of the walled-in town.

Mrs. Soeda interrupts the protagonist to let him know that M** wants to meet him. The protagonist invites the boy in, but the boy will not say a word. Instead, M** uses a pad of paper to communicate, writing that the wall in the town was built to prevent “[a] never-ending epidemic” (306). The protagonist at first does not understand, but comes to suggest that it is an epidemic of the soul, eliciting a slight nod from M**. The protagonist suggests the wall grew more powerful, but M** doesn’t respond. Instead, he tells the protagonist that he wants to go to the town, claiming he will be a Dream Reader.

** wants the protagonist to guide him to the town, but the protagonist tells the boy he reached the town by accident. He asks M** if he is sure he wants to leave this world, and M** shares that he has no connections to hold him back. The boy leaves, and for days the protagonist debates whether it is ethical to bring M** to the town, where his shadow will die and he will cease to exist in the real world. The protagonist asks Mrs. Soeda about M**’s family and learns that his father is embarrassed by the boy, while his mother is overbearing. He sympathizes with M** and begins to understand the boy’s intentions.

The protagonist goes to Mr. Koyasu’s grave, but the ghost does not appear to give him the advice he seeks on whether it is ethical to help M**. The protagonist begins to wonder if he will see Mr. Koyasu again. Later, at the coffee shop, the protagonist speaks with the woman who always serves him coffee. Like him, she moved to the town for work, having left her job in a city to buy the coffee shop. The protagonist feels a connection and asks the woman on a date later that night. She agrees, and he goes home to clean his house. He thinks of M** and what he does with all the information he gathers while reading. He imagines he collects it into a “Pillar of Wisdom” (322). The protagonist wonders how this “Pillar of Wisdom” would operate in the walled-in town, and considers for a moment that perhaps there, the boy will become “[t]he ultimate personal library” (323).