[Summary] OreOre by Hoshino Tomoyuki (2010)
This is still ongoing. I am writing the summary parallel to reading the book. Check out the OreOre Masterpost for updates.
* I am not fluent in Japanese or English, so I might get some things wrong.
* At the beginning I am not using the protagonist’s name (Nagano Hitoshi) as his name has not been given in the book yet.
* This is actually a very detailed summary. I will probably re-write it after I finish the book (which I hopefully will :-)).
* I like the book so far. It has kind of a twisted humour (of course that could just be me :-)).
OreOre by Hoshino Tomoyuki (2010)
Chapter 1 - Fraud
[p5 - 16]
The protagonist describes the outcome of stealing a mobile phone.
He is at McDonald's one Thursday and a man sitting next to him accidentally puts his cell phone on the protagonist's tray. The protagonist doesn’t notice it at first, only after he gets up. The owner of the phone is talking with some others about eco bags and what is really 'eco', and doesn’t notice him. So the protagonist takes the phone with him.
He works at an consumer electronics volume seller (Megaton) and has Mondays and Thursdays off. After his visit to the McDonalds he spends his time reading camera magazines in a bookstore. He returns home after buying his dinner at a shop.
There he remembers the stolen phone and wonders why he even stole such an uninteresting thing. He thinks he should just throw it away but instead looks at the latest mail. He discovers that an old school friend of the owner of the phone had been involved in a drunken car accident and his fiancée had been seriously injured. He now needs money and his friends are going to help. The mail says that the sender and Daiki [the owner of the phone] will hand over the money when they come to visit.
Suddenly, the phone vibrates. The display says "Mother". He doesn’t pick up, but after the call he listens to the answering machine. The mother says she received a postcard for Dai-chan's high school class reunion [Dai-chan is her nickname for her son]. If it were important she can forward it, her son should also come visit her sometimes, and he should call her.
The protagonist can sympathise with Daiki because of the way the mother wants her son to come visit, etc. He thinks Daiki must be an overly spoiled kid, or that the mother is starved for contact. He decides to write a mail to the mother, but can only find the sister's number in the address book. The mother doesn’t seem to have a cell phone. He regrets that he can’t find a mail address because he wants to make her happy.
He just starts to imagine an imaginative phone call where he imitates Daiki, when suddenly the phone starts to vibrate again. It is the mother again. This time he picks up pretending to be Daiki but before the can even say hello, the mother starts talking. "Ah, Daiki, it's your mother, did you hear my message?...".
He replies that he has been busy and was not feeling too well. He also thinks that if the mother thinks his voice is strange he will say he has a cold. But the mother isn’t suspicious.
During the talk (which is about him eating properly) he accidentally uses an old expression for "mother". His mother says he never called her that. To smooth over that mistake he apologizes, says it's because things are going badly and he was just careless. He will call her 'mother' (okaasan) from now on.
He pretends to have some troubles which he can’t tell her. Of course she wants to know.
He tells her he borrowed money. He himself is surprised he said that. She wants to know how much, but he tells here it's OK she should forget about it. But he can't take his words back, and she wants to know. He tells her it’s 2.000.000 Yen. She asks for the interest rates. Which confuses him as he didn't think about that. So he says there are none. She wonders why and he tells her that he and a friend had a car accident and the insurance didn't cover it. So he borrowed money from a friend and because he wants to pay it back a soon as possible he also works in the evenings now and because of that he is tired.
The mother asks if he is hurt. He tells her he is already well again, but his leg is still a little painful. She tells him if it's about money he should have consulted her. She will lend him money, but she is still suspicious. She thinks there is more to it. So he tells here that the friend he borrowed money from has been arrested because of cannabis and lost the job and now needs the money for rent etc. The protagonist says he has to return 1.000.000 Yen until tomorrow and he is desperate and wants to borrow the money from loan sharks.
The mother can only sigh and asks for his account number. He tells her it would be better if she transferred the money directly to his friend’s account. He also tells her because he has some money himself 900.000 Yen would be enough.
She asks for the account number again. He thinks because it’s his real name it will be bad and he will be exposed and caught, but he is already too deep into it and gives her his account number. He also thinks that he really only made this phone call out of fun and good will. He just wanted to make the mother feel less lonely but now it ended up like this.
They end the call and the mother tells him she will call after she has made the transfer. The protagonist still feels weak and not like himself. He thinks that the real Daiki will by now know his phone is missing, and because the mother has his real name/account he will be caught.
The mother calls one hour later and tells him she transferred the money. She also tells him she was asked about the transfer because of the large amount of money. It might be a fraud. She says she felt shocked. The protagonist is also shocked (for other reasons of course) and wants to know what she told them. She wonders why he is interested and that she still feels he is hiding something. She wants him to visit. He promises he will try to visit next weekend. She also wants him to call tomorrow.
After the call, he immediately goes to an ATM and gets the 900.000 Yen. There is still no sign that he will be arrested. He thinks about thanking the mother once more but doesn’t want to tempt fate. On his way home he stops at a open sewer/river. There he turns off the phone, and cleans its surface from fingerprints. He realizes that this is useless as the mother knows his account (and name). He also thinks what a lonely guy Daiki must be, because there as no mail or call except from his mother. Then he thinks it’s probably natural because it’s a weekday during office hours, and isn’t he himself the lonely one, doing something like that with a stolen phone.
He breaks the phone and throws it into the sewer. Now he feels like he has truly returned to be “himself” and returns home.
He wonders what to do with the unexpected money. Maybe buy a digital single lens reflex camera? Use if for living expenses? To have some fun with (for a change) high class sex services? He thinks that if he had at least a girlfriend he could buy her an expensive present, but he has no girlfriend and wouldn’t know what to buy anyways. Donate the money as atonement? He feels it’s meaningless how he uses it. He probably should have thrown it into the sewer together with the phone. Or should he try to put his arrest off for some time by moving? Spend all the money on his escape? But a move would be trouble.
He has enough of thinking about it for now, and keeps 50.000 Yen in his wallet and puts the rest in his underwear drawer. Then tries to forgets about it. He really forgets about it, until three days later when disaster strikes.