Through twelve evocative tales of longing and loss, Exiles Incorporated depicts a volatile world of hostile landscapes, where humans strive to belong amid the cruelty of conquest, the madness of desire and the transience of love. In the eighth story Genjo, a retired samurai in 17th century Japan embarks on a fantastical adventure to save his master from a strange madness gripping the land.
“Master is gone,” screeched the monkey as it danced around the well’s mouth between the encroaching weeds.
Genjo spied the unwelcome guest from his tatami mat on the veranda. He kept his eyes open during morning meditation. Embittered rivals could easily slip through the crumbling garden walls and slit his throat, their vengeful laughter rattling through the cherry blossom trees.
“Master is gone. Master is gone.”
The monkey flitted and bobbed; a whirling apparition of grey amid tangled green. As head gardener, Genjo was obliged to tend all parts of Daimyo Keiko’s estate. Letting it descend into an overgrown mess was unbecoming of a samurai, even a retired one. These days, keeping his affairs in order was like trying to carry the ocean in the palm of his hand.
“Master is gone. Master is gone.”
Keiko had indeed gone. Sankin kōtai required all daimyo to reside in Edo for six months every year. Genjo managed the land in his master’s absence: a mighty exponent of bushido reduced to dealing bushels of rice and timber.
To relieve the boredom, Genjo often gazed across the landscape from Keiko’s hilltop estate and envisioned his younger self, galloping through a sea of red and yellow banners scything down his enemies. Sometimes he sketched his past glories onto canvas, transforming the halcyon scenes swamping his mind into feeble charcoal shadows he could gift to servants.
“Invasion. Abduction. Violence,” screeched the monkey. “Your master has gone, I tell you. Your master has gone.”
A talking monkey.Of all things. But these were unusual times. Rumours bubbled up from the valley’s peasants that a strange madness had gripped the land, the source of the poison unknown. Japan expelled foreigners years ago yet remained tormented by ghostly sightings of fantastical beasts. Bearded men with bodies of dragons wallowing in rolling red fog. Flying fish attacking birds. Squid-like creatures squelching through woods, eyes glowing in the dark.
The monkey hopped and squawked. Genjo contemplated snatching the irritant’s tail, twisting its neck and tearing it in two like a sheet of paper. Rising from his knees with a grimace, he wiped the saliva from his chin and watched the garden sway like a ship’s deck in a storm. He placed his palm on the marble statue of Lord Buddha and let the dizziness pass.
“Mind your head,” hissed another voice. “Mind your head.”
Startled, Genjo scanned the length and breadth of the garden. A faraway ripple of queer laughter, then stillness. Apart from himself and the primate, the estate was empty of sound, save for the dripping of residual rain from the roof shingles.
Not bothering to tie his maroon silk robe across his sagging belly, Genjo strode to the well. It resembled one from a queer folk tale he once read as a child. A hole in the ground from which strange monsters might slither, their slimy tails curling off the page to encircle his mind.
“Monkey man, you imbecile,” he scoffed as he parted the waist-high weeds. “I know your kind. A sly devil. A symbol of foolishness. A weedy string of an animal. Yet you attempt to worry a samurai. And most heinous of all, you disturb him while in meditation with Lord Buddha.”
The monkey stopped dancing. Standing on its hind legs, tail drooping between its feet, the visitor waddled to Genjo’s side of the well. The creature pushed its face to the samurai’s nose and yawned, a damp stench wafting through grimy yellow teeth.
“Oh you must worry, my gentle Genjo,” it said. “The realm you cherish is possessed. Your daimyo has been captured while journeying back from Edo. An evil spirit has claimed Keiko.”
Exiles Incorporated is available to buy on Apple Books, Amazon and Google Play as an e-book, plus on Amazon and Barnes & Noble as a paperback.
PHILIP PARRISH 