Thought Crimes by Tim Richards Read Free Book Online

dreaming.
    When Miuki delivered her second dead child, the obstetrician from Fukuoka told Tom that the resort’s water was contaminated. Neither man dared raise it with the bosses. ‘Time to get bolshie,’ Miuki said. ‘That’s what an Australian woman would do. There’s no one more daring than an Australian woman.’
    She was certain I’d make it, that fate had been astute when it sent me here. So why has fate chosen to treat her and Tom like shit? Despite everything that’s happened in Australia, they intended to live there as soon as they’d saved enough to retire. ‘Guests have their reasons for escaping to a place like this, but we think we can give something back.’

    Born in Stockholm to Australian parents, Missy looks the part, a statuesque blonde with an accent that could slice raw steak. Her great gift is making all her students think they’re her favourite. For this session she’s asked Hizu to instigate a role-play.
    In an unspoken nod to his friend Miuki, Hizu casts Shingo as the worker who requests three days’ leave to visit a dying parent in Perth. As the boss, Kobe will choose this moment to question Shingo’s dedication. When Kobe refuses the request, Shingo is nonplussed.
    â€˜That was excellent,’ Missy tells them, ‘but you left out the most important part. Should the boss have the last word?’
    The class mulls this over for a moment before Hizu suggests that Shingo would give his boss the bird.
    â€˜Absolutely! When the boss turns his back, the worker makes a one-fingered salute … You try that, Shingo.’
    Shingo jolts his index finger upwards.
    â€˜It might be more expressive to use the middle finger .’
    â€˜Wouldn’t it be better to do it to the boss’s face?’ Kobe asks.
    â€˜Possibly.’
    Missy then turns to Nobuko, who always has an answer, along with a deep, relaxed laugh that any Australian woman would kill for. ‘Why wouldn’t Shingo make his gesture to the boss’s face?’
    â€˜That would be unAustralian.’

    After class, Nobuko seeks Hizu out to ask why he never attends the Sunday evening staff parties.
    â€˜It’s a good turn,’ she tells him with a gleam in her eye. ‘Cheap grog. Drink till you chuck … With norgs like yours, you could win the wet T-shirt comp.’
    Nobuko is slim and pretty, and Hizu knows that his only hope of meeting a woman and making a family is to pair off with a staff member, as Tom and Miuki had, but grog’s the one thing he can’t get on top of. All his worst errors have followed a night on the piss.
    He tells her that after caddying fifty-four holes he’s knack-ered most Sunday nights. Truth is, he’d prefer to study and write.
    Nobuko doesn’t conceal her disappointment.
    â€˜Maybe you’d like me if my tits were big as Missy’s?’
    â€˜Maybe,’ Hizu tells her, and feels the wind of her raised finger the moment he turns his back.

    For the first three months, his mother wrote twice-weekly; now he’s lucky to hear from her once a fortnight. Her attitude has changed. To begin with, she was proud that her son had a job where he earned the same as a top surgeon. After losing Reiko, it was important to make a fresh start. Now, she says he’s rejected her and her culture. He’s so tainted he can’t see how offensive his thinking’s become.
    She misses her son, as he knew she would. It was too much to expect her to understand the dedication this work would involve when he hadn’t fully understood it himself until recently. You only see the point of no return after it’s passed.
    â€˜Your father never would have let this happen.’
    That might be true. He can’t say. He has few memories of his father. The most prominent has his father being summoned to school to approve their chosen punishment after Hizu, a gifted mimic, entered the principal’s