The Cold
by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

One morning, after a fall of snow.

Yasukichi sat on a chair in the physics teachers' lounge, watching the flames in the heating stove. The flames licked up yellow one moment, then fell to sooty ruins the next, as if they were breathing: proof of their continued struggle against the cold that filled the room. Yasukichi thought of the interplanetary chill beyond the earth's atmosphere, and felt something akin to sympathy for the brightly glowing embers.

"Mr. Horikawa."

Yasukichi looked up at the physicist called Miyamoto who had stepped in front of the stove. Hands tucked into his trouser pockets, the bespectacled Miyamoto wore a good-natured smile beneath his thin moustache.

"Mr. Horikawa. Tell me, are you aware that even women are physical objects?"

"I'm aware that they are physical beings."

"Not beings. Objects. It's a fact that I've recently discovered myself, after no small effort."

"Mr. Horikawa, you mustn't take Mr. Miyamoto too seriously."

This was the other instructor, a physicist called Hasegawa. Yasukichi turned to the desk behind him. Hasegawa riffled through some exam papers as a self-conscious smile made its way up toward his balding forehead.

"Why, the cheek - I know for a fact that my discovery is making you very happy indeed. Mr. Horikawa, are you familiar with the Law of Heat Transfer?"

"Heat transfer? Something to do with moving coal?"

"You literature fellows are quite hopeless!"

Even as he said so, Miyamoto tipped another pailful of coal into the mouth of the stove, which glowed as it reflected the flames.

"When you take two physical objects of differing temperatures, and cause them to come into contact with one another, heat transfers from the object with the higher temperature to the object with the lower temperature until their temperatures become equal."

"Isn't that simply common sense?"

"Well, that is what we call the Law of Heat Transfer. Now, say that a woman is an object. Agreed? If a woman is an object, then so - undoubtedly - is a man. In which case, passion must equal heat. If we now cause a man and a woman to come into contact with one another, passion must surely transfer like heat, from the more impassioned man to the less impassioned woman, until her passion equals his. Mr. Hasegawa's case is a perfect example."

"Here we go."

In spite of his words, Hasegawa looked delighted, and made a noise as if he was being tickled.

"Now, call E the quantity of heat that transfers within time T across a surface area S, when - are you following? - H is the temperature, X the distance in the direction of heat transfer, and K the conductivity of the material in question. Now, in Mr. Hasegawa's case . . ."

Miyamoto started writing what appeared to be a formula on a small blackboard, but then suddenly turned around and threw aside his piece of chalk, looking quite discouraged.

"It's no use trying to get a layman like you to appreciate my discovery, Mr. Horikawa. In any case, what matters is that Mr. Hasegawa's betrothed would appear to be warming up nicely, as per the formula."

"The world would certainly be a simpler place if such a formula really did exist."

Yasukichi stretched out his legs, and gazed aimlessly at the snowy view outside the window. The physics instructors' lounge being at the corner of the first floor of the building, he could easily take in the athletic field, with its sporting apparatus, and beyond that the line of pine trees, and beyond that, the red brick buildings. And the sea, too - the sea was visible between the buildings, sending up indistinct grey waves.

"But then the literature fellows would be out of a job. How is your latest book selling?"

"Not at all, as usual. It seems heat transfer doesn't take place between writers and readers. By the way, Mr. Hasegawa; it can't be long till your wedding?"

"Yes, only a month or so. There are quite a few arrangements that need taking care of before then - it's a nuisance not being able to get any work done."

"Too distracted to work, eh?"

"I'm not you, Mr. Miyamoto! For one thing, we need somewhere to live, and I simply can't find anything for rent. Just last Sunday I walked across most of town searching. But even when you think you've managed to find a house, it's snapped up before you know it."

"What about over by me? Provided you don't mind getting the train in every day."

"You're a little too far out. I hear there are houses for rent over there, and my wife would prefer it; however - Why, Mr. Horikawa! Isn't your shoe getting singed?"

It appeared that one of Yasukichi's shoes had somehow come into contact with the body of the stove, and was giving off a cloud of steam along with the smell of burning leather.

"There you go - that's heat transfer again."

Miyamoto, who was polishing his spectacles, peered up myopically toward Yasukichi, grinning.

* * *

Four of five days later - a frosty dull morning.

Yasukichi, trying to catch his train, was hurrying as fast as his legs would carry him past the outskirts of a seaside town. The path was on an embankment about six feet wide, with wheat fields to his right, and train tracks to his left. The deserted fields were replete with a very slight sound which he could only take to be that of someone walking between the rows of wheat; however, it seemed in fact to be the sound of needle ice beneath the ploughed soil, collapsing under its own weight.

Soon enough, the eight o'clock up-bound train passed by on the bank, keeping up its speed, and giving a long toot on its whistle. The down-bound train that Yasukichi needed to catch departed half an hour after this one. He took out his watch. For some reason, it was showing nearly a quarter past eight. He decided his watch must be at fault for the discrepancy. He even thought, with good reason: No fear of missing my train today. The wheat fields along the path gradually gave way to hedges. Yasukichi lit an Asahi cigarette and went on walking, feeling less hurried than before.

The cinder-laid path sloped upward to a level crossing. Yasukichi had come up to it just as usual when he noticed people gathered on either side of the tracks. Some part of him immediately thought: Someone's been killed. Fortunately, he spotted the butcher's boy with his laden bicycle propped beside the crossing railings. Still holding his cigarette, Yasukichi tapped the boy on the shoulder from behind.

"Hey, what's happened?"

"Got run over. Run over, by the last up train."

The boy spoke quickly. Under his rabbit-fur ear muffs, his features seemed to sparkle with a strange vitality.

"Who did?"

"The crossing guard. He was trying to save a schoolkid that was about to get run over. You know the bookshop called Nagai's, opposite the Hachiman Shrine? Their little girl."

"The child was all right?"

"Yes, she's the one crying over there."

The boy indicated the crowd on the other side of the crossing. Yasukichi saw that there was indeed a young girl, who was being questioned by a constable. Beside him, a man who was evidently the stationmaster's deputy put in a word from time to time. As for the crossing guard - Yasukichi spotted the corpse under a straw mat, in front of the guard's hut. He had to admit that it inspired curiosity in him as well as aversion. Even from this distance, he could make out the guard's shoes peeking out from beneath the screen.

"Those men moved the body."

Two or three railway men stood under the crossing's signal post on the near side, surrounding a small bonfire. The fire with its yellow flame emitted neither light nor smoke, and looked all the more chilly for it. One of the men was drying the seat of his knee-length trousers by the fire.

Yasukichi started over the crossing. This close to the station, numerous tracks intersected the crossing. Each time he passed one, he wondered just where it was that the crossing guard had been run over. But it was immediately evident. Blood on one of the rails told of the tragedy that had taken place only a few minutes ago. Almost reflexively, he looked away to the other side of the crossing, but it was no use. The image of the viscous red substance pooled on the coldly gleaming face of the iron had instantly etched itself onto his memory. The blood was even giving off a faint shimmer of vapor from upon the rail.

Some ten minutes later, Yasukichi was pacing on the station platform. His head was filled with the unsettling sight he had just seen. In particular, he vividly recalled the shimmer of vapor rising from the blood. He thought of the notion of heat transfer, which had been discussed only the other day. The life heat contained in the blood was transferring to the rail according to the law that Miyamoto had taught him - cruelly, and without a modicum of error. It made no difference whose life it was; whether that of the crossing guard killed performing his duty or that of a convicted felon, the heat would be transferring just as cruelly. He knew, of course, that these were meaningless thoughts. He tried repeatedly to convince himself that even a dutiful child must drown in water, even a devoted wife must be burned by fire. But the scene he had witnessed had left such a burdensome impression that it did not easily admit such reasoning.

Meanwhile, the people on the platform seemed for all the world contented, oblivious to his state of mind. That, too, upset Yasukichi. In particular, the loud chatter emanating from a group of Navy officers was viscerally offensive. He lit another Asahi, and walked to the end of the platform. From there, the crossing was visible a few hundred yards ahead. The crowds on either side of the crossing seemed to have mostly dissipated. Only the workmen's bonfire by the signal post waved its yellow flame.

Yasukichi felt something akin to sympathy for that distant fire. But being in sight of the crossing still made him anxious. He turned his back on it, and started back along the platform toward the mass of people. He hadn't gone ten steps, however, when he realized that he had dropped one of his red leather gloves, which he'd been carrying after taking it off his right hand to light his cigarette. He turned and looked back. The glove lay fallen at the end of the platform, palm side up. Wordlessly, it seemed to be calling to him.

Beneath the dull frosty sky, Yasukichi sensed the heart of the red leather glove as it lay left behind. In that moment, he knew that even this chill world would someday be pierced by the first warm rays of sun.

End of The Cold by Ryunosuke Akutagawa