Klara and the Sun

by Kazuo Ishiguro

but the next time I glanced their way, the Father had gone inside and Mr Capaldi was leaning in through the doorway, saying something. Then I saw Mr Capaldi move suddenly backward, and the Father came out and, though I couldn’t be sure through the frosted glass, he looked no longer ill but filled with a new energy. He seemed not to mind that he’d almost knocked Mr Capaldi aside, and started down the metal steps at reckless speed. Mr Capaldi, watching him, shook his head as a parent would do when a child has a tantrum in a store, then closed the Purple Door.

saw Josie there, suspended in the air.

‘Maybe Paul’s right. Maybe this whole thing’s been a mistake.’ ‘Chrissie. You mustn’t lose faith.’

‘It’s not a matter of faith, Henry. Why are you so fucking sure I’ll be able to accept that AF up there, however well you do her? It didn’t work with Sal, why will it work with Josie?’

‘What we did with Sal is no comparison. We’ve been through this, Chrissie. What we made with Sal was a doll. A bereavement doll, nothing more. We’ve come a long, long way since then. What you have to understand is this. The new Josie won’t be ...

‘But will I believe in it? When the day comes. Will I really?’

‘I’d like to say there’s a chance you’ll never need the new Josie. The present one may become healthy. I believe there’s a good chance of this. I’ll need, of course, the opportunity, the chance to make it so. But since you’re so distressed, I’d like to say this now. If ever there comes such a sad day, and Josie is obliged to pass away, I’ll do everything in my power. Mr Capaldi is correct. It won’t be like the last time with Sal because this time you’ll have me to help. I now understand why you’ve asked me, at every step, to observe and learn Josie. I hope the very sad day will never come, but if it does, then I’ll use everything I’ve learned to train the new Josie up there to be as much like the former one as possible.’

‘You’ve made your deductions well. And I’m grateful for what you’ve just said. But there’s something you need to hear.’

‘Klara,’ the Mother said. ‘We came here today, the main reason. It wasn’t so Josie could sit more. We came here because of you.’

‘I understood about the survey. It was to test how well I’ve come to know Josie. How well I understand how she makes her decisions and why she has her feelings. I think the results will show I’m well able to train the Josie upstairs. But I say again, it’s wrong to give up hope.’

Klara, we’re not asking you to train the new Josie. We’re asking you to become her. That Josie you saw up there, as you noticed, is empty. If the day comes – I hope it doesn’t, but if it does – we want you to inhabit that Josie up there with everything you’ve learned.’ ‘You wish me to inhabit her?’ ‘Chrissie chose you carefully with that in mind. She believed you to be the one best equipped to learn Josie. Not just superficially, but deeply, entirely. Learn her till there’s no difference between the first Josie and the second.’

it was never like that. I didn’t even know if I believed any of this would work. Maybe once I believed it could. But seeing that portrait up there, I don’t know any more.’

You’re being asked to continue her for Chrissie. And for everyone who loves Josie.’

‘But is that going to be possible?’ the Mother said. ‘Could she really continue Josie for me?’

she can,’ Mr Capaldi said. ‘And now Klara’s completed the survey up there, I’ll be able to give you scientific proof of it. Proof she’s already well on her way to accessing quite comprehensively all of Josie’s impulses and desires. The trouble is, Chrissie, you’re like me. We’re both of us sentimental. We can’t help it. Our generation still carry the old feelings. A part of us refuses to let go. The part that wants to keep believing there’s something unreachable inside each of us. Something that’s unique and won’t transfer. But there’s nothing like that, we know that now. You know that. For people our age it’s a hard one to let go. We have to let it go, Chrissie. There’s nothing there. Nothing inside Josie that’s beyond the Klaras of this world to continue. The second Josie won’t be a copy. She’ll be the...

I’m too tired to think any more. And I need to talk to Klara, talk with her alone. I’m sorry things got messy here.’

‘I’m really glad Klara knows,’ Mr Capaldi said. ‘In fact, I’m relieved.’ He was following behind the Mother, as if reluctant to be left alone. ‘Klara, the data may possibly highlight where you still need to put in a little more effort. But I’m glad we can speak more openly.’

‘We’re fine. But I need a break from it now.’

‘This is the place. They’re inside there.’ Then she said: ‘Paul does have a point. They need to be by themselves sometimes. Just them. They need that. We shouldn’t always be with them. You see that, Klara?’

‘Oh? You understand? You understand what I’m asking of you? And it is me asking. Not Capaldi and not Paul. In the end it’s me. That’s who it comes down to. I’m asking you to make this work. Because if it happens, if it comes again, there’s going to be no other way for me to survive. I came through it with Sal, but I can’t do it again. So I’m asking you, Klara. Do your best for me. They told me in the store you were remarkable. I’ve watched you enough to know that’s maybe true. If you set your mind to it, then who knows? It might work. And I’ll be able to love you.’

After Sal, he said we shouldn’t risk it. So what if Josie doesn’t get lifted? Plenty of kids aren’t. But I could never have that for Josie. I wanted the best for her. I wanted her to have a good life. You understand, Klara? I called it, and now Josie’s sick. Because of what I decided. You see how it feels for me?’

I’m asking you to do what’s within your power. And think what it’ll mean for you. You’ll be loved like nothing else in this world. Maybe one day I’ll take up with another man. Who knows? But I promise you I’ll never love him the way I’ll love you. You’ll be Josie and I’ll always love you over everything else. So do it for me. I’m asking you to do it for me. Continue Josie for me. Come on. Say something.’

If I were to continue Josie, if I were to inhabit the new Josie, then what would happen to … all this?’ I raised my arms in the air, and for the first time the Mother looked at me. She glanced at my face, then down at my legs. Then she looked away and said: ‘What does it matter? That’s just fabric. Look, there’s something else you might consider. Maybe it doesn’t mean so much to you, me loving you. But here’s something else. That boy. Rick. I can see he’s something to you. Don’t speak, let me speak. What I’m saying is that Rick worships Josie, always has done. If you continue Josie, you’ll have not just me but him. What will it matter that he’s not lifted? We’ll find a way to live together. Away from … everything. We’ll stay out there, just ourselves, away from all of this. You, me, Rick, his mother if she wants. It could work. But you have to pull it off. You have to learn Josie in her entirety. You hear me, honey?’

‘Until just now. I believed it was my duty to save Josie, to make her well. But perha...

‘I’ve never been good at, well, relating to your kind. You have to excuse me.

‘After that visit, I wanted us to have a relaxing time. A coffee, something to eat. But then she asks me. Since Capaldi is trying to help us, as I’ve been claiming, why do I hate him so much?’

So I guess I was, you know, prevaricating. And I knew she could see right through me. That was when Chrissie came in.’

We drove past a large creature with numerous limbs and eyes, then even as I watched, a crack appeared down its center. As it divided itself, I realized it had been, all along, two separate people – a runner and a dog walk woman – moving in opposite directions who for an instant happened to be passing one another.

Signs of Klara’s decay/fade?

‘I’m not certain. Even so, if Mr Paul could take us to the area, it would make me very happy.’

think Josie’s still largely in the dark. But I don’t know about you. How much you’d guessed before. How much you found out today. Perhaps you wouldn’t mind telling me what you do know.’

‘I’d suspected some things, but had been ignorant of many others. Now, after this visit, I can understand Mr Paul’s unease. And I can understand his initial coldness towards me.’

Do you suppose you can pull it off? Perform this role?’

‘It won’t be easy. But I believe if I continue to observe Josie carefully, it will be within my abilities.’

‘Then let me ask you something else. Let me ask you this. Do you believe in the human heart? I don’t mean simply the organ, obviously. I’m speaking in the poetic sense. The human heart. Do you think there is such a thing? Something that makes each of us special and individual? And if we just suppose that there is. Then don’t you think, in order to truly learn Josie, you’d have t...

‘And that could be difficult, no? Something beyond even your wonderful capabilities. Because an impersonation wouldn’t do, however skillful. You’d have to learn her heart, and learn it fully, or ...

‘The heart you speak of,’ I said. ‘It might indeed be the hardest part of Josie to learn. It might be like a house with many rooms. Even so, a devoted AF, given time, could walk through each of those rooms, studying them carefully in turn, until they became like her own home.’

‘But then suppose you stepped into one of those rooms,’ he said, ‘and discovered another room within it. And inside that room, another room still. Rooms within rooms within rooms. Isn’t that how it might be, trying to learn Josie’s heart? No matter how long you wandered through those rooms, wouldn’t there always be others you’d not yet entered?’

a human heart is bound to be complex. But it must be limited. Even if Mr Paul is talking in the poetic sense, there’ll be an end to what there is to learn. Josie’s heart may well resemble a strange house with rooms inside rooms. But if this were the best way to save Josie, then I’d do my utmost. And I believe there’s a good chance I’d be able to succeed.’

‘Mr Paul has spoken very frankly. Perhaps now he’d allow me, in turn, to speak frankly to him.’

‘Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.’

‘I think I hate Capaldi because deep down I suspect he may be right. That what he claims is true. That science has now proved beyond doubt there’s nothing so unique about my daughter, nothing there our modern tools can’t excavate, copy, transfer. That people have been living with one another all this time, centuries, loving and hating each other, and all on a mistaken premise. A kind of superstition we kept going while we didn’t know better.

I have … a kind of coldness inside me she lacks.

‘Is it possible Mr Paul has suggested this course not only to destroy the Cootings Machine, but also to damage Klara, and thus Mr Capaldi’s plan?’ ‘That very thought did cross my mind too. But if I really wanted to damage you, Klara, I think there are far simpler ways. Truth is, you’ve started me hoping again. Hoping what you say might be for real.’

I’d also realized the reason I couldn’t see so clearly through the sushi cafe’s window was because it was dusty and smeared, and not so much to do with what had occurred in the yard.

Unreliable narrator

‘Mum, how can this be spontaneous when it’s been so carefully set up and we’ve come in specially for it?’

‘Hey, animal. Did your mother happen to say something to upset you? This isn’t like you, sitting there so quiet.’ ‘I’m fine, Dad. I’m just not like a show, okay? I can’t sparkle and entertain all day. Sometimes I just want to sit and chill out.’

Indeed, for a moment, I thought the theater people were trying to circle around the streetlight in a previously agreed formation, but then their pattern dissolved and I saw that the crowd’s shape was shifting randomly.

She hasnt been in a crowd before

‘I don’t know what was said between Josie and the Mother,’ I said. ‘But I have very good news. The task that was given to me, that evening you helped me reach Mr McBain’s barn. It’s now been completed. It was a task I so wished to complete, but for a long time I couldn’t see how to do so. Rick, it’s really been done.’ ‘That’s wonderful. But I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.’ ‘I can’t explain yet. And I was obliged to give up something. But that doesn’t matter at all, because now we can have hope again.’

‘Paul’s distributed his brand of wisdom quite enough for one day, it seems to me,’ the Mother said. ‘And now look. They’re quarreling.’

‘First they take the jobs. Then they take the seats at the theater?’