Tokyo, Roppongi Hills, Mori Tower
Scene 1
The loneliest place in this world is a party at which you know just a couple of the other guests, that too superficially. It's where you sidle up to your acquaintances with utmost diffidence, convinced they can see the anxiety in your eyes – the panic, the appearance of being in dire need of help, extra-eager. Your opening gambit is to make a casual observation or crack a joke that you hope will lure them to your side – but, all too soon you find you are losing steam, that it's time to give up and start all over again. Maybe you are able to find a second bridge on which you can rest for a few seconds, clutching on to the railing of your jokes. But sooner than later, you find you've slipped back into the murky pool of voices, in which no words are meant for you.
At some point you realize that you are standing on your own, looking like a totally irrelevant creature that is, for some odd reason, repeatedly sniffing into its glass of white wine, almost as though it hopes to discover something magical in the contents – a way out its predicament, perhaps. To its chagrin, the glass is too small for it to dive into. And, all of a sudden you become the focus of interest for all those standing around in small cliques. They look at you from the corner of their eyes, searching your face for signs of pimples before proceeding to give your person an extensive visual frisk – searching for reasons why something like that would never happen to them.
A fine film of sweat begins to form on the palms of your hands, and your glass begins to slip around dangerously in your fingers. You attempt to hold on firmly to the darned glass, causing the wine in it to grow warm, viscous and oily. Soon the Chablis begins to look and even smell like piss. In the midst of all these characters, you appear to be the only one that's walking around with his urine.
You wish to be on the English Channel where, during low tide, you can walk miles along the seabed until you lose sight of the shore and are entirely surrounded by water – in Normandy, for instance.