One Whispering Night

“Where do you stay? I want to meet you and see what you look like…”

We met in my car under the shadow of the midnight moon.
His face looking at mine for the first time. And I loved it
how his smile was shining brighter than the moon’s light.
The moon was watching us, but I was watching him more closely.

His gentle gestures of planned lust were obvious.
We chatted in the car, the winds suddenly made their way home,
and we were left all alone
to mingle and bond and share our first moments together in peace.

He shared his milestones in life; I shared mine.
His face kept looking straight but his eyes focused on me
and I knew cupid was working hard that night,
because my heart felt that arrow shoot right through my flesh.
I knew it was love.

It was on this Whispering Night
that magic became reality and reality felt like magic,

Two guys in a car, in an enclosed space
that would have been perfect to turn his gentle gestures to lustful ones.
But we both acted cool and curious about each other,
as smiles and glances were exchanged for the next few hours,
no touch, nothing physical – not yet.
Maybe never.

Until finally it came, the moment to say goodbye,
because it was already 4a.m. and the sun was fighting to come out.

It wasn’t just the sun fighting to come out, but our hearts
were bursting into flames and we knew
that if we wanted to touch, it should happen soon.
But gentle it must be.

“It’s late”, we said. Hinting either to end our meet,
or get on with the kissing.
And touching.

Neither wanted to leave, but both of us knew it was just the beginning
and little did we know that the best was yet to come.
It was lust at first, but it turned into love,
and the night ended with a kiss, a long one, a gentle one.
And of course some touching.

Maybe a bit more than just ‘some’.

And that’s how two boys fell in love -
one dark sky and one bright moon
one kiss
all in one Whispering Night.

Haruki Murakami has written 13 books since his debut as an author in 1985.  ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’, the Yomiuri Literary Prize winner book sealed Murakami’s place among other great Japanese authors such as Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe or his Franz Kafka award-winning ‘Kafka on the Shore’ are some samples of his works.

In Sputnik Sweetheart, following Sumire’s journey of realizing, agonizing and suffering with her love for Miu, a much older women with a past, rewards the reader with a lesbian-themed twists and paradoxical plots unique to Murakami.  Throw-in an incidental a gay male couple along the Jack Kerouac obsessions and skinny-dipping in the clear waters of a secluded Greek island, the LGBT reader finds an almost irresistible book.

First of all, let’s set the expectations, the lesbian relationship is not the primary focus of the book nor does the book have a satisfyingly tangible ending for any of the potential couples (or for the book for that matter).

However, unlike the typical tease of Banana Yoshimoto’s books where the reader is left wondering if the protaganist and her close female friend are ever going to be lovers, Murakami’s Sumire declares from the onset of her encounter with Miu that she “must be in love with this woman.. no mistake about it. Ice is cold, roses are red. I am in love”.

Through humor, what  Sputnik Sweeheart reader will not want to think of “cucumbers in a fridge on  a summer afternoon” next time he/she feels sexual desire for another person?, and through utter relevant irreverence “Miu’s mind went blank. I’m right here [stuck in a Ferris wheel gondola], looking at my room with binoculars. And in that room is me..”, Sputnik Sweetheart makes the reader realize that the journey the reader undertakes following the plot that brought K, Sumire and Miu together is more important than bringing a K and Sumire or Sumire and Miu relationship into fruition.  Through Murakami’s skilled navigation, the reader cannot help but winch in pity for both Sumire and K in turns.

With the brief preface on Laika, the first dog and living being launched into space by the Russian satellite Sputnik II, Miu’s explanation of the term ‘Sputnik’ to mean ‘Traveling Companion’, the line uttered by Miu, “that we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own orbits”, the reader becomes the a companion detective alongside K in putting the pieces of plot together to determine the moral of the story. Just as Sumire reached to a conclusion at the end, the reader too will realize that relationships are journeys best taken together.

‘Confessions of the Mask’ by Yukio Mishima is a must read for the discriminate LGBT reader as well.