Book Excerpt: ‘Spring Snow Under The Cherry Blossom Tree Of The Sepulchred Mirror Hallway Geisha’ by HARUKI ISHIGAWA MITCHELL

Apparently taking his cue from the recent resurgence in popularity of Japanese authors at the local Peoria Plus Writers Workshop he haunts in order to flirt with different individuals, including the instructor Don Markenbaldi, Gorko Entertainment Editor and subleaser Mitchell Kennedy, writing as ‘Haruki Ishigawa Mitchell’, has been trying his hand at imitating the Kafkaesque Japanese authors Haruki Murakami, Sayaka Murata, and Kotaro Ishigawa. Below is an excerpt that fluttered from Mitchell’s open backpack as he hustled out the door, fly open too, so as not to be late for this evening’s PPWW meeting. We can only hope the fallen leaf was not a key part of his reading.

SPRING SNOW UNDER THE CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE OF THE SEPULCHRED MIRROR HALLWAY GEISHA

HARUKI ISHIGAWA MITCHELL

IV:

Just the bare necessities, that’s all he needs. Choosing which clothes to take is the hardest thing. He’ll need a couple sweaters and pairs of underwear. But what about shirts and trousers? Gloves, mufflers, shorts, a coat? There’s no end to it. One thing he does know, though. He doesn’t want to wander around some strange place with a huge backpack that screams out, Hey, everybody, check out the runaway! Do that and someone is sure to sit up and take notice. Next thing you know the police will haul him in and I’ll be sent straight home. If he doesn’t wind up in some gang first.

And that is as far as Haruki got with this one, though actually just an excerpt from Murakami’s Kafka on The Shore written in the third, not first person.