Elizabeth Armstrong is an Associate Professor of Japanese Language in the East Asian Studies Department at Bucknell University where she teaches all levels of Japanese language and courses in Translation Studies. In the course of her career she has worked in many varied contexts in Japan, from a large chemical conglomerate as a staff interpreter to a two-year women’s college as an instructor of comparative cultures. She has worked in the business world, made a living as a freelance interpreter and finally landed happily in academia. The story published here will appear in the forthcoming book The Crimson Thread of Abandon, Stories, by Terayama Shūji, translated by Elizabeth Armstrong and published by MerwinAsia.