Page 14 - WTP Vol. VII #1

The Thief’s Body (continued from preceding page)
soundly and reported no visitations when sleeping in the clothes of Yuki Araki. And Yuki sat up all evening wrapped in the cloak of Kane’s shirts. In one hand, Yuki smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes. All night the burning ember traveled back and forth from Yuki’s lips to the sardine tin of sand upon her lap. In the other hand, hidden beneath the cloak, Yuki held onto an iron pipe.
through. Furniture was slashed and rain-damaged. A crude, chaotic brush had slathered Joyful’s face in white paint along the side of the home.
“If this devil ends up showing himself,” Yuki said, “I plan to smash every tooth in his slavering mouth. I plan to rattle the eyes out of his face. I plan to whack every dirty, thinning patch of hair off his skull.”
The features Kane had described were prominent. The painted face was broad, the ears pointed, the nose flattened. The mouth possessed both buckteeth and fangs. A streak of white drool ran from its chin. In addition were the words, NO JAPS BACK HERE EVER. Yuki and Kashi Araki assembled buckets of soap and water and washed the caricature and words from the side planks of the house. Reverend Kenichi Toguri de- livered cans of fresh paint. The face of Kio Joyful was obscured in the second coat.
In 1946, the Araki family was given permission to return to their homes in California. It was back on the Central Coast they discovered their first worldly mani- festation of Kio Joyful.
Araki-Kawaguchi is a graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop.
He is currently at work on a novel called The Book of Kane and Margaret. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pleiades, The Southeast Review, and Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading.
The modest farm home of Kashi and Yoshi had been raided and vandalized. Windows had been smashed
Restless Moon
cold wax and
oil assemblage
with mixed media
12'' x 12''
By Gina Louthian-Stanley