Backup: Sudden Roommate (8) -- First Sunday

Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/10/sudden-roommate-8-first-sunday.html.

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*** Content warning: inconvenient biological functions generally considered not appropriate for general conversation. ***

Previous: The Woman on the Train

Dawn filtered in through the veranda window curtains. Over the end of the rolled-up kakebuton, Teru's eyes met mine. She put one hand on the kakebuton between us, and I put my hand over hers.

"Run today?" She didn't look enthusiastic about the idea.

"I think we need a down day. It's Sunday."

She smiled in response. "Tomorrow, we conquer the world."

"Again."

She was quiet, and I drifted out for a bit.

"Ryō?"

I drifted back. "Hmm?"

"So what do I do at church? I hope we don't just listen to o-kyō all day."

"Well, there are some sermons, and sometimes they are similar to o-kyō, and there are classes to participate in, where we discuss what scriptures mean and how to follow Jesus and things like that. We have a congregation choir if we want to join that. And sometimes there are activities to plan.

"Group dates?"

"Maybe. Probably. Anyway, some of it is boring, some is fun."

"Fun just doesn't sound like church. But I guess I just tag along today and see."

"Good idea. If it gets too boring, we can go for a walk or something."

"Okay."

Again we were both silent for a bit.

"I was thinking we'd keep breakfast simple today."

"I wanta make pancakes. I think we have the stuff to make 'em with."

I yielded without a fight. "Simple pancakes."

Teru laughed.

We talked kind of randomly for about a quarter hour, and then Teru kicked the kakebuton out of the way and scooted over to cuddle.

"But this is cheating, because waking up and cuddling in the morning with another date is something that will never happen. We need things we can compare."

Teru smiled. "I need this." And she gave me a peck on the lips before getting up.

I got up, too, and we dug flour and powdered milk out of my small cupboards, and milk and eggs from the fridge, and started making pancakes. I added kinako (roasted soy flour) to stretch the milk, over Teru's protests.

"It'll make them flat."

"A little apple vinegar and real milk will help that."

"If we use all the milk there won't be any to drink."

"Stupid small fridge. We need a bigger one."

Teru looked at me with a small, sad smile.

"In a couple of years." I swallowed hard.

She brightened and nodded in partial agreement as we mixed things together.

We got some pancakes cooked, and I took a turn with the pan.

"So, did you understand what being born of water is?"

"Getting baptized?"

"That's where it starts."

"I'll take the frying pan back, you read to me."

I let her take back over and got out my hardcopy scriptures, turning to Acts.

For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

"I guess I can see a connection."

I contnued in the first verses of the next chapter.

... And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, ...

"I guess I know the expression 'baptism by fire' from somewhere. But it usually means going through some hard test, doesn't it?"

"When things are hard and we choose to follow God anyway is when the Holy Spirit influences us most easily."

"Hmm. So if I tempt you and you refuse the temptations, you get this spirit thing?"

"Deliberately testing each other is usually against the rules."

"Darn. Is there a scripture for that?"

"I'm sure I can find one, but which should I do? Refuse or give in?"

She focused on the pancake in the pan and got it browned just right and slipped it onto the waiting stack before she answered.

"You know, maybe I want both."

I laughed. "Time and season for everything."

"Is that a scripture?"

I found it and read it to her as she slipped the last pancake onto the stack.

She cut off the flame and set the pan down.

"Something in my heart makes me feel happy to hear that verse. Is that your holy ghost?"

"Not just mine. Yours, too, responding to God's Holy Spirit."

"But -- isn't deciding to wait deliberately testing each other?"

The inside of my mouth turned dry.

"Never mind. I know." She turned and faced me resolutely. "When we're following God, it's not the same. Let's eat."

My appetite returned. "No peanut butter. Nerigoma in the fridge, did you have that in mind?" Nerigoma is sesame paste, like tahini but with only the natural sesame oil.

"Uh huh. Apples and plums from last night, too?"

"Of course."

As Teru ate her second pancake, she asked, between bites, "Do you trust God?"

I put down the knife I was using to spread nerigoma on my third and took her free hand. "I know Jun says he doesn't think you guys got a fair deal, losing your real parents before you ever knew your real mother and having Aunt Fumiyo and Uncle Nozomu rescue you from your original stepparents, and then being taken away from Aunt Fumiyo when Uncle Nozome died, --"

"Was killed."

"Was killed. And then bouncing around and ending up with Angel and her string of abusive boyfriends. Only bribes, blackmail can explain that.

"At least Aunt Fumiyo and Uncle Nozomu cared, in their way."

"So why should I trust your God? Why did I need to be born into the Sumaguchi family? If he exists, he must have let that happen."

"You tell me this: why should we be careful when testing each other?"

"What? Why ... because it can go too far."

"Too far?"

"Can't fix it far. Too far to make up for."

"Right. But, not only can God fix it no matter how far it goes, He does so."

"Really? He fixes it? When?" She put her fork down.

"In His own time. But this is why Jesus suffered and died for us. Now He knows everything we can suffer, so He knows how to undo the damage. And He also knows which problems we need to able to grow in good ways."

"Feels like abuse to me."

"Jun's trying to teach me to fight and cheat felt like abuse to me. Aunt Fumiyo's trying to put you and me together sometimes felt like abuse to me. But when I learned to talk with God about it, He showed me how to learn things I needed from the experiences."

I guess I wasn't paying attention to Teru's reactions as I continued. "My two years of service was my opportunity to get myself emotionally free."

I realized I had explained one thing too far as Teru's face froze and she tried to keep from crumbling. So I reached across the tatami with my foot and tickled her knee with my toes. She swatted my foot away, so I slid my legs out from under the kotatsu and crawled around it, and sat beside her, wrapping her into a hug.

She resisted, and I relented, leaving my arm across her shoulders. She didn't fight that.

"And here I am trying to drag you back." Tears welled up in her eyes and she closed them.

I kissed the corner of her eye, registering the salt in her tears. And I kept my mouth shut. She'd heard enough from me.

"Sympathy card?"

"It's only a problem if it doesn't really hurt inside. There's no such thing as perfect freedom."

After a few minutes, she said, "I really like Fumie."

"We've found a good friend."

"How can I like my rival so much?"

"Love your enemies? You know, even the people closest to us can be our enemies in some senses. There's nothing unusual about that."

"Nothing unusual?"

"Look at me and my dad. We work things out."

I kissed her forehead.

"Are you really so okay with me manipulating you?"

"You could say I'm manipulating you, too. But we are really just negotiating. Manipulating is when there are no options allowed."

"You're not letting me think."

"I'll shut up now." I moved away, but she pulled me back, and we just sat quietly for maybe five minutes.

Finally she picked up her fork and took another bite. "I'm just being silly."

"Silly? Maybe ... but silly is okay sometimes."

At that, she burst into tears and buried her face in my chest, and I just held her until the tears subsided, and a minute or so after.

"I'm trying not to manipulate you."

"Me too."

"I need fo go to the toilet."

I chuckled, and she stood and ducked into the combination unit bath and toilet, and shut the door behind her.

I picked up my fork to finish my pancake, sliding my plate over from the other side of the kotatsu.

"Uhm, Ryō?"

"Yeah?"

"This is embarrassing."

"What? I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Can you hand me my purse?"

"Purse?"

I picked it up from where it was lying against the wall and took it to her, being careful to hand it in from the side where I wouldn't be looking in.

"Wait." After a moment she handed it back out to me. "Thanks."

"Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just spotting early. Maybe that's why I'm being so silly."

"No worries."

"Can I ask another favor?"

"Sure."

"Could you get me another pair of lacies?"

"In your suticase, right?"

"Have I taken over any of your closet space or drawers?"

"But you need your own space. Well, do you care which?"

"Do you have a favorite? No, I shouldn't ask you that. Whatever's on top."

I took the pair that was closest to the top in the suitcase and handed them to her through the door again, still being careful not to look in.

When she came out, she said, "It will be nice when we are legally married. For now, I'll keep living out of my suitcase."

We finished eating and prepared for church. I took a few pictures of Teru in the outfit we had bought for her, so she could see how it looked again, because the mirror in the unit bath was not in the right position or big enough. She let me post them to the family Line group.

Church was a twenty minute walk. We could ride a bus, but neither of us thought the wait was worth it. As we approached the meetinghouse, we saw Fumie get off at the bus stop coming the other way. She saw us and waved, and joined as we went inside.

She was a youth advisor for the area, so she knew the members Teru's age and introduced her to many of them before the organ music announced the beginning of communion and sermons. The three of us sat together with some of the other young adults.

Teru payed attention, abstaining from communion until she understood it better, listening to the witnessing and lay sermons, sometimes asking questions.

After Sister Asatsuki finished the main sermon, Fumie joined Teru in the youth class, for emotional support, while I stayed out of the way and went to the young adult class. After the classes, the three of us were talking with some of the other members, and Sister Asatsuki joined the group. Fumie unobtrusively redirected the conversation any time it got close to Teru's living arrangements.

At a moment when the conversation was lively, but Teru and I were not directly involved, Sister Asatsuki asked to talk with Teru and me privately. I signaled Fumie and then Teru with my eyes, and then Teru and I left quietly while Fumie continued the conversation. Sister Asatsuki joined us about a minute later.
 
Teru looked a little nervouse.

"I want you to understand, Teru, that I think I have reason to trust Ryō's judgement. He's got a good head on his shoulders, and anyone he trusts, I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, even in circumstances such as yours."

"I'd feel more comfortable if Fumie were with us."

"Okay, I'll see if she is willing to join us."

Sister Asatsuki returned with Fumie shortly.

"First, Teru, I want you know that most of the members would like to help in some way, but none of them feel they have room so that you could stay and work on your studies without distractions. Now that they've met you, I'm hoping that changes. But I have also taken the question up with the leaders of the area."

Teru just nodded.

I was disappointed, but I didn't say so. "Okay. Do you have any suggestions? My boss at work is offering to ask around as well."

"What did you say?"

"I asked her to wait until we found out how things look here."

"How are you two handling it? Ryō, you indicated that you felt some romantic attachment to Teru, and that you felt it was returned."

Teru looked at me sideways, eyes questioning my sanity.

"I think we can trust Sister Asatsuki."

"Would you mind talking with me alone, Teru?"

"I guess I could."

Fumie and I stepped out and talked in the hall while we waited.

"Are you wondering why I came today?"

"Yes and no. Half wondering why we never met before last week, but I guess you're busy in your own congregation and with the youth programs in the area. It's good of you to watch after Teru today."

She smiled. "Glad to be able to help. Have you been getting information on getting her into a school yet?"

"Let myself get too busy."

"I don't know if I'd say that, but let's see what we can find out now."

We took out our phones, and together we looked up information on school programs that would allow her to work and finish high school.

I was beginning to wonder what was taking so long when Sister Asatsuki stepped out and asked to talk with me alone. Teru was looking much more comfortable as we traded places.

"So, how confident of your feelings towards Teru are you?"

"Wow. That's a surprise question."

"Teru is very confident of her feelings towards you, and thinks you return her feelings."

"I do. But her situation, growing up within the kumi, I'm pretty sure she needs some time to be free before she takes on the burdens of making her own family."

"That's important, but it's not what I'm asking."

"We've known each other pretty much all our lives, and I've had a pretty big crush on her for as long as I remember. I was kind of planning on trying to contact her without tangling myself up with her older brother again, if I could, once things got stable here."

"That's also important, but it's not what I'm asking."

"At this point, I'm planning on asking her to let me enter her in my family registry once she turns eighteen and no longer needs Angel's permission. She knows I could not enter her family registry." That's the way the laws in this country work. One will enter the other's family registry.

"That's what I wanted to know."

"And?"

"Worst comes to worst about getting her a safe place to live, I'm inclined to tell you not to be so idealistic about her needs to experience freedom."

I thought for a moment. "If it comes to that, I probably won't need you to tell me."

"Good." She stood up and opened the door.

"Teru, Fumie?"

Fumie and Teru came back in, and Sister Asatsuki shut the door.

Fumie looked at me. "Ryō, would it be okay with you if my family offered to accept Teru while she finishes high school?"

I looked at Teru, and she bit her lip and shook her head. "No, I don't want to do this. I've been hoping there wouldn't be anyone else willing to put me up." She took a breath and loked at Fumie before continuing, "But it may be a good idea. Can I meet your family first?"

I looked at Sister Asatsuki.

"Yes, Fumie did mention this to me."

I turned back to Fumie. "You've talked it over with your parents?"

"We had a family council last night. Everyone prayed, and we decided we should offer."

"They know she has connections with the Sumaguchi family?"

"Yeah."

I suppressed my disappointment. "Then let's go meet your family."

Next

TOC

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Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-8-first-sunday.html.

Backup: Sudden Roommate (7) -- The Woman on the Train

Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/10/sudden-roommate-7-woman-on-train.html.

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Previous: Night Horrors

I wasn't sure whether I was relieved or disappointed that Fumie was not on the same train as me Saturday morning. There weren't any messages from her on Line before I got to work.

I spent the time on the train reading the scriptures I had suggested to Teru. 

At lunch, the boss joined me at the kitchen window when I picked up the taster's tray. They had her tray ready as well, and we sat in the cafeteria to eat. The menu for the day was one I liked, baked saba (Japanese mackerel), rice, miso, and a steamed salad of moyashi (bean sprouts), string beans, carrots, leek, and myōga. Desert was a fresh fruit salad, with an optional sweet sauce which I gave to my boss.

"If I didn't know better, I'd guess you and Teru had sex last night."

"Huh?"

"You're work is really loose today."

"Am I making mistakes?"

"No, no, actually, I like your work better this way. You're paying more attention to the residents. So how was your first time?"

"No."

"No?"

"Teru had a bad date with a guy from work yesterday."

"And you had to comfort her."

"You have a one-track mind."

"Okay, you didn't have sex, but fighting the temptation left you short of sleep."

"You have a one--"

"--track mind." She chuckled. "Are you sure you don't want me to ask around for you?"

"Maybe. I need to check my phone."

There was an e-mail from Teru and a message from Fumie.

> I read the first five chapters of John before
> work.

Great. I read them on the train.

> I want to talk about them when you get home.

Let's do it.

> I'm thinking it might be good to invite Fumie.

I'll see what she says.

I sent that, then read the message from Fumie.

Fumie: Sorry I couldn't meet you on the train.

Fumie: Can we meet sometime soon?
Maybe with Teru?

I prayed in my heart, then replied to Fumie.

Ryō: Teru wants to study from John tonight, and 
then we're planning on setting up my computer
properly. Interested in joining us?

I looked at the boss and she raised her eyebrows.

"The woman on the train."

"No comment."

I took a bite of the saba. "A little salty, isn't it?"

"Put that in your report."

I had finished about half the tray when my phone pinged.

Fumie: Okay. Where?

Ryō: My place.

I sent her my address and she replied immediately.

Fumie: I see it on my map.

Fumie: If you're at lunch and with other people,
there's no need to answer now, but do you know
what your feelings for Teru are?

Ryō: I know enough to be confused.
It doesn't seem fair, but I think what both she
and I need is non-romantic friendships, like the
single adult activities at church.

Fumie: Actually, that's the answer I was hoping
for from you.

Fumie: Do you know her feelings?

Ryō: I'm not sure she needs to know her feelings
yet, and I sure don't.

Ryō: One thing I know, I'm not going to be making
any commitments to anyone besides her until she
graduates from high school and can make up her
own mind about what she wants to do.

Fumie: Good. What time should I be there by?

Ryō: Are you interested in fixing dinner
together?

Fumie: Sure.

Ryō: How about if we meet at my station at 6:30?

Fumie: Sounds good. See you there.

Ryō: See you there.

I sent another message to Teru.

So, Fumie says she's good to come over. I invited
her to meet me at the station at 6:30 and join us
in making dinner, too. Is that okay?

By the time I could check my e-mail after work, Teru had replied that she would meet us there, too. I hurried to clean up, change out of my uniform, and get to the train.
 
Fumie texted me that she had already arrived when I got to the station at 6:25, and I caught a glimpse of her waiting outside the gates as the train pulled into the station. From the platform, as I headed for the gates, I watched Teru approach the gates.

They seemed to notice each other, and started talking. Introductions were complete by the time I had gotten through the gates, and they were already getting to know each other.

"Uhm, Tada-ima?"

"Ah, Ryō, o-kaeri."

"Hi." And they continued talking with each other.

"Uhm, should we shop for some ingredients on the way?"

They stopped talking long enough to nod.

"Sure."

"Good idea."

And they kept talking.

"How about my special home-made yakisoba?"

"Great."

"Sounds good."

So I started walking to the supermarket in the mall and they followed, deep in conversation that was too fast and thick for me to keep up.

I had enough onions, raw ginger root, apple vinegar, soy sauce, prunes, and potatoes at the apartment, so I picked up the yakisoba noodles, pork, tofu, more cabbage and carrots, moyashi, an apple, and couple of plums.

Fumie was impressed, but not necessarily positively. "This is going to be an interesting yakisoba."

"He always makes things that taste better than they sound."

"It's a recipe I worked out while I was doing my service."

We passed the electronics and small appliances store where Teru and I had bought the micro-SD cards.

"Say, Teru, are you on Line?"

"No phone."

"She had to leave it behind."

"Jun helped me cancel the contract, to avoid leaving clues about where I'm at."

Fumie looked concerned. "Ryō said it was a bad situation ..."

"It was."

"But you need a phone," I insisted. "I'll be your contract guarantor."

Fumie pointed to the store. "They should be able to order you a libre phone over there."

"Not tonight, anyway. Maybe later."

Between the three of us, dinner was quick to put together. Fumie got her notebook workstation PC out of her bag and hooked it to an open connection on my router, so she could monitor the traffic on my cheap PC, and we were able to satisfy ourselves nothing was phoning home with any regularity.

Then Teru rebooted the PC and stopped the boot process in the host operating system. After some planning, she and Fumie restructured the formatting of the internal SD persistent store and started a download-and-install script to get userland tools for the host OS from the Reiisi Kenkyū mirrors.

Then we got out our scriptures and started reading. Teru was full of questions, so we answered a few.

"What's this 'Word' thing?"

Fumie and I looked at each other.

"You want to take this?"

Fumie shook her head. "I think you should."

"The quickest answer is that it's a metaphorical name for the Savior."

"It means something?"

"Yeah, but it's hard to explain."

Teru sighed. "Okay, save it for later. What's this, 'just belieave' business?"

"If your big brother hadn't believed Ryō would help you, would he have brought you to him?"

Teru thought for a bit. "But if I just believe Angel will quit being bad, I don't think that will change her."

Fumie nodded. "Yes, you have to believe true things."

I added, "But it sure couldn't hurt to believe she might change."

"But true things happen even if you don't believe."

I took Teru's hand. "If Jun hadn't believed, he would not have brought you here. On the other hand, if he said he believed and didn't bring you here, ..."

"Then I guess it would mean he didn't really believe that it was worth doing."

I nodded.

Fumie added, "What the Savior says here is to believe in Him."

"What does that even mean?"

I answered, "His name means something like 'God is help' in the original languages."

"Oh. So we should believe that God will help us, and that will motivate us."

I gave her a sideways nod. "Something like that, maybe it's good enough for now."

"Being 'born again' is fundamentally changing your attitude, I guess," Teru turned her palms up. "But what is this being born of the water and spirit?"

Fumie explained. "When I committed myself to believing in the Savior, I got baptized. 'Baptize' means 'submerge'. Someone who had authority from God met me in the water, said words of the covenant, and --"

"The Words?"

"Sort of. And he put my body under the water and brought me back up. It represents the old person dying and being brought back to life as a new person."

I found the scripture in Romans 6 and read it.

Therefore are we buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 

"Resurrection means to live again, doesn't it? But you have to live right to be resurrected, right?"

Fumie responded, "Well, if we want to be resurrected with the Savior, to life, we have to do what He says."

I added, "But in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he said,

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

"Everyone lives again, but we don't all live again with God."

"Even Angel?"

"Even Angel's boyfriend." Fumie was earnest. "More important, even you and your big brother. And if you believe and do what Jesus teaches, you can live with God again."

"I'm sure I'm not ready for that."

I looked at my PC, which had just finished downloading and installing the userland toolset. "I don't know how ready I am for this split-stack operating system, whatever that means, but I believe you and Fumie when you tell me I can get ready."

"That's cheat logic."

"Cheap allegory, but it's true."

Teru and Fumie proceeded to work through some setup procedures, and soon the PC had an admin user and three work users, one for each of us, and was set up to spawn ehpemeral users to run applications in. Then Fumie helped Teru move Microsoft's abomination virtual machine to a jailed ephemeral user template while I watched. I did not follow half of what they did.

Then I logged in on my work account and started an instance of the abomination, spun off a web browser and looked around on the web, took a copy of something random, and shut the instance down saving the copy buffer. Then I started another instance, started a word processor document, and pasted the copied stuff in. It was a little clumsy, but it worked, and the VM was not burdened down by anti-malware/anti-virus software.

I logged back out, and the two of them conferred for a few minutes, then set up a place in the file system where I could store the manuals for work and access them from VMs my work user started, but not from other work user accounts.

We set up internet relay chat for the PC and for my phone, and checked that Teru could use it to chat from the PC to Fumie and me on our phones.

"What about Line?" I asked.

Teru logged in to her work account, started a VM instance, installed the Line client for the abomination, and imported it into a linked template. I have no idea what that means, but she was able to run a full Line app from the PC, and we chatted with my family some more, and introduced Fumie to them. Dad was especially interested in meeting her.

I think it was close to eleven when the three of us walked back to the station.

I thought I saw Mr. Inoshita at the station, but I wasn't sure.

Teru and I had no problems with dreams or temptations that night.

Next

TOC

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Backed up at .

Backup: Sudden Roommate (6) -- Night Horrors

Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/10/sudden-roommate-6-night-horrors.html.
*** Content warning: nudity, questionable education techniques, possible child abuse, inconvenient biological functions generally considered not appropriate for general conversation. ***

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Previous: Bad Date

Things their Aunt Fumiyo had said, to me, and in my hearing, and things she had arranged for us to do back then, came back to me in my dreams that night.

In my dreams, I saw the three of us playing in the Sumaguchi's bath house and attached meditative gardens before retiring in various stages of dress under her watchful eye to the sleeping room. Jun and I were eight, and Teru was four.

In many parts of my country, no one thinks twice about young children of separate families bathing or sleeping together. Children are children, and exploring is natural. And there are still public baths which are not segregated, even for the adults. In the old traditions, it was not a problem.

My dreams shifted, and we were older.

Mixing western and eastern traditions randomly produces random results. In the Victorian western tradition, there are things that should not be talked about in mixed company, because of the excitement and confusion they can cause.

But I am not trying to appeal to prurience, in telling about the dreams.

"Oh, how cute." Aunt Fumiyo looked at the water in the tub. "Did you know, Ryō-chan? According to your Bible, you and Teh-chan are now married."

"Married?" The eleven year-old me was doubtful, but the evidence she claimed was before my eyes, floating in the water of the bath.

Teru was laughing happily, across from me in the medium-hot tub. "Married! But you still have cooties. Don't kiss me!"

Jun laughed a horse laugh from where he was soaking in the hottest tub.

Mrs. Sumaguchi scooped the whitish droplet out of the water and laid it on a clean napkin. "In our traditions, we could present this to the go-between, as evidence that you are Teru are compatible. But I'm afraid it would not persuade your parents. I don't think they understand their own Bible."

My dreams changed again, and again I saw four children playing together in the Sumaguchi's bath house and gardens. But these four children playing under a decade older Aunt Fumiyo's watchful eye were not children any more.

Fumiyo had been deliberately working to bring me under the influence of their family -- into their kumi -- for a long time. It was not yet clear to me why, but it seemed clear I had been chosen by their family as Teru's o-miai aite from a rather early age.

I assumed Jun didn't intend it that way, but he was helping Fumiyo Sumaguchi's plans when he brought Teru to me for protection.

Once again, my dreams shifted, and Teru was sleeping curled up against me, the scent of her hair in my nostrils, her body warm against mine. It felt like a very real dream, and the way my body was responding was very inconvenient.

Part of me wanted to stay in the dream, but part of me struggled to wake up.

My eyes opened, and I saw my room bathed in the light of the full moon.

But I did not see Teru.

She was not curled up with me, but she was also not lying across from me on the futon. My body felt cold where the memories of the dream said she had been.

There was no place in the room for her to hide, so I checked the veranda. I saw her out there, standing with her back to me in the moonlight, looking out over the darkened city.

"Something wrong?" My voice felt strange in my ears.

She half-turned, and her silhouette in the moonlight through my tee-shirt showed me things I had been avoiding looking at.

"You're awake." Her voice was little more than a whisper.

"So are you." I looked away, distracting myself with the clock on the floor. One thirty. I tried getting up, but my legs wouldn't obey my will.

She turned my question back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. Rough dreams. How about you?" I mentally kicked myself for repeating the question.

"I had some dreams, too, dreams that kind of scare me. I think I want to go for a walk."

This time I was able to get my legs underneath me and stand up. I joined her on the veranda and we stood together looking out across the city lights shining in the dark instead of at each other.

I broke the silence. "So, do you want me to go for a walk with you?"

"Better than walking alone. Maybe."

I turned, and she followed me to the entryway without further comment, grabbing her cardkey as we left. We descended the stairs in silence and walked aimlessly for ten or more minutes until we came to a park with a playground.

"I haven't seen this park before." Teru went to the swings and sat in one, kicking herself back. I followed and caught the swing, then gave her a gentle push. She swung away and then back to me and I caught the chains again.

She leaned back into my arms, and we stood there for a moment, giving each other warmth. Then I pulled the swing back and pushed gently again, and she took over, swinging under her own power.

I took the swing beside her, and we raced to see who could get the highest arc, until both of us were flying horizontal at the peaks, synchronized with each other in the moonlight. Then, as if mutually hypnotized, we both left off pushing, letting the swings slow down naturally.

Before the swings stopped, Teru jumped out of hers. "This is not helping me get my balance back."

I used my feet to stop, and stood up. "Me, neither."

She turned to me. "What are you doing out here in your pajamas?"

I looked down at what I was wearing. "You're right. Let's go back.

We held hands as we walked.

I spoke hesitantly. "I dreamed about when we were young and I would spend the night with you and Jun. And then we weren't children any more in my dreams. And there was a fourth."

"Who was the fourth?"

"I didn't see her clearly."

She stopped and leaned back into my arms, shivering. I wrapped both my arms around her and hugged her until the shivering stopped, and we resumed walking.
"And I remembered things that your Aunt Fumiyo said. And things she let us do."

"Did you dream the time when Aunt Fumiyo said we were married?"

"I did."

"What about now?"

"Nocturnal emissions?"

"You say that so casually."

"It doesn't matter, but, no. Although I was kind of on edge when I woke up."

"Oh. She's been trying to put us together since we were children, hasn't she?"

"Apparently so."

"Why?"

"Why? indeed." We continued to walk in silence.

As we neared the apartment, Teru spoke. "I dreamed the same things. Then I woke up curled up against you."

I stopped. "That wasn't a dream."

She came to a stop too, and turned and pulled me to her, with a fierceness in her eyes that should have scared me. "I didn't want to move away. But I could feel your body responding."

"Uhm ..."

"It's only natural." She smiled, and the fierceness changed to tenderness, and the tenderness made my heart pound. "But I know you want to wait. And if I hadn't gone to the veranda, I dont think I could have waited any more."

I didn't know what to say.

"I still want to kiss you, but if I do, ...."

The silence dragged out and I fought my own impulse to close the remaining gap between us.

"If I do, I'm pretty sure you'll have to put me in your family registry."

Finally, there was something for me to say. "We'll both be giving up our right to choose before we make the formal commitments. Dad told me he and Mom made that mistake, and that's what he thinks is driving them apart."

She looked down, deliberately breaking the connection between us. But the connection didn't really break. "In my family, that's the way things have always been done."

"Well, we can't stay out here all night. We both have work today." I was the one who said it, but it was Teru that moved first, and we returned to the apartment still holding hands.

We lay down on the futon, carefully replacing the rolled-up kakebuton between us.

"Are you going to be okay?" Her voice was almost pleading.

"We're going to be okay, but if we don't get back to sleep, I'm afraid we'll be making love even if we don't touch each other."

"I feel like we already are. Can you pray for us?"

Teru's suggestion moved to my knees, and she followed suit, kneeling in front of me and taking my hands. And we both prayed, in words and in our hearts.

For the first time in several days, my alarm went off before I woke up. I reached to shut it off, trying to reorient myself from the jumble that we had fallen asleep in. Teru was lying across my chest, my legs were bent awkwardly away, and the partially flattened kakebuton underneath us felt lumpy.

Teru rolled off of me and reached my phone first. She handed it to me. "Did we make it through the night okay?"

"I think so." I shut the alarm off.

"I was lying on top of you."

"Crosswise. But we have avoided deliberately getting each other excited. That's enough that the devil can't legally tell us we are bad."

She looked at me in confusion.

"Yeah, that's bad analysis and bad allegory. Anyway, we haven't creaetd the possibility of a pregnancy, and we are still trying to give each other room to make decisions."

"That much I can agree with. So, should we go to the pond park again today?"

"I need something to work the kinks out, even if you don't."

"I think I do, too."

"Want to try a new route?"

"Got something in mind?"

"We could explore some of the roads along the tracks past the mall."

"Okay."

So we ran a different direction, around the mall to the tracks and past the station.

"Your woman on the train ..."

"My woman on the train?"

"I've done one date. It's your turn. I'm ready to meet her now."

"Okay, I'll see what she says."

"Is this a park?"

"Huh? Yeah. Just a kids' playground, mostly."

"Exercise stations?" Teru stopped by a situps board.

"And I guess it has exercise stations. Want to try it?" I jogged backwards to where she was reading the instructions plaque.

She sat down on the board and swung around, hooking her feet under the foot pegs, then leaned back and did twenty situps. "Feels awkward."

"One size does not fit all."

We traded places, and I leaned back. My head and shoulders hung off the top of the board. "This will be a slightly different exercise for me." But I did twenty myself before we started running again.

"I don't know if I can get through another night like that." Teru's voice finally revealed how tired she was.

"I'm going to have a hard time staying awake on the train."

We kept running.

"I've said that, if my mom or my sisters were close, they'd let you stay with them. Maybe we should actually ask if they've got room."

"Good idea. Maybe we should call them when we get back."

So when we returned to the apartment, I sent them texts via our family group on Line:

Ryō: Need to do a conference call.

We ate breakfast while waiting.

"You're on the early shift today, right?"

"Regular shift, starting at nine. Don't know if I'll have time to run before the early shift when they let me start that. Oh, and the night shift is a killer."

"No time to make lunch together today," Teru said wistfully.

"Yeah. But we'll have time after work to do something."

"Set your computer up for real?"

"That'd be useful."

"I can buy something from the sōzai corner for lunch. What do you plan to do?"

"It's my turn to be the lunch taster, so I've got lunch covered."

"Is it good?"

"Generally pretty good, but not really to my taste."

My phone pinged, and I checked it.

Haruo: I've got about thirty minutes I can give
you. What's up?

The phone pinged again while I was trying to think where to start for Dad.

Misachi: I can join the call anytime within the
next hour. Dad, if Ryō says he needs a conference
call, I assume he wants to talk with us all at the
same time.

I figured it would be good to make myself explicit.

Ryō: Yeah. And I'm sure I don't trust this to
text messages.

Haruo: Okay, I'll wait.

Finishing breakfast, I pulled out my scriptures. "Are you up for some of this?"

"I'm not going to be a good listener this morning."

"That's okay. Sometimes I get my best instruction when I read even though I don't feel like listening to the Spirit."

"Okay, I'll try."

"There's this guy named Nicodemus, and he's a rabbi among the Pharisees."

Teru gave me a blank look.

"He's like a teacher and a priest."

"A sensei?"

My phone pinged again.

Horoyo: I'm here whenever. Now we just need
Mom. Should I ping her by phone?

Fuyuko: I have a premonition this is a call
I don't want to be in on.

Horoyo: Mom, Ryō is your son.

Fuyuko: I have no son. There was some little
boy ran away to be with God for two years when
I needed him most, but I have no son.

Ryō: I love you, too, Mom. And I need you to
be in on this call, even though I'm sure
you'll think you didn't want to be.

Fuyuko: Hmph. I assume her name starts with
Teh.

I ignored Mom's intuition and her bait, and initiated the video call session in the group. Mom did accept the connection and the screen divided in four.

Teru moved to sit beside me, so she would be in the camera range.

"Hi."

"Oh, Teru, it's so nice to see you." For some reason, my mother's voice did not betray the cattiness I expected. "Awfully early in the morning, though." The words could well be catty, but the tone was not.

"Nice to see you, too, Mom. Nice to see all of you."

"So, Ryō, you move to the city and spend the spring dating your nemesis?"

"Dad, just shut up and listen to your son." Horoyo took my side.

Misachi chose an inappropriate time to tease. "And to your daughter-in-law-to-be." Maybe she knew she wasn't teasing.

"Have you betrayed your covenants to God?"

"Haruo, just shut up." Even with the change in tone towards Teru, my mother's sharpness took me by surprise.

"Angel got a new boyfriend who would not keep his hands off me. Jun brought me here because he knew Ryō would take care of me."

"Ryō still needs his freedom."

"So does Teru, Haruo."

My father's expression visibly darkened at my mother's words.

"Okay, let me tell you what is before we start arguing about what should be. I needed to be where Jun couldn't find me, and that's why I didn't stay when I got home. You know how he used to try to take over my life. I've been working here about three and a half months in elder care, with no contact with the Sumaguchi family."

"But there you are with Teru." Dad interjected.

"Three days ago, Jun caught up with me and brought Teru, for her safety. It's the first I've seen either of them in over two years."

"Dad, I know about this." Misachi took her turn. "What I have heard about Angel's new live-in boyfriend is anything but good. Jun was right in getting Teru out of there."

"And who put Angel together with this new boyfriend, I wonder."

"Yeah, Dad, I know." I swallowed. "Believe me, we know. Sometimes you have to play through check to protect your queen." I shut my eyes at the slip. "Or king or whatever."

Dad chuckled. "So, your queen is in your apartment. It looks like a really tiny apartment. Is there even a second room?"

"No."

"How can you maintain your covenants and your freedom in this situation?"

"I know, Dad. I'm doing what I can to help him."

"That's a bit hard to believe, Teru."

"Things have changed for me. We know staying together is not going to work, but I need a place to stay so I can finish high school."

Dad's expression loosened and lightened.

"That's, true, Teru. You needed a place to stay a long time ago." Suddenly his tone become apologeitc. "Both you and Jun. I should have let Fuyuko offer you a permanent place years ago, even though I knew what Fumiyo was up to."

Mom and both of my sisters were as surprised as I at Dad's words.

"It's okay, Dad, it really wasn't our place to ask."

"You shouldn't have had to ask. I'm sorry." Dad's face suddenly crumpled. "I've been arguing with God about this for too long. I'm really sorry. Unfortunately, I can't offer you a place now."

"It's okay, Dad."

Mom's face showed her concern. "I'm staying with my parents, and I'm not sure it would be wise to have you come here, honey, but I'll talk it over with them."

"Teru, you know we'd love to have you, but I don't think having you sleep with the boys would be good." Horoyo's two oldest were boys. "The baby sleeps with us, and that's all the rooms we have."

Misachi looked distressed. "Tomu and I only have one room and the kitchen. It's not much bigger than what you have with Ryō."

"Well, thanks. Just knowing you guys know what's going on will help. Anyway, I'm talking with the congregation leader here. Teru's coming to church tomorrow. Hopefully she'll make friends and we'll find something for her."

"Teru, please don't judge me wrong for this, but, Ryō, there's a woman there you need to meet."

Teru didn't wait for me to answer. "I understand about that, Dad."

"We both understand. We are trying to keep things open so that, if we are both still free when Teru graduates from high school, we can get together of our own free will. And we know that we have to keep dating others until she does."

Dad looked down. "Well, now I feel like a heel for interfering, but her name is Fumie Masamichi. I understand she attends a congregation near there." He looked back at us with a bit of a helpless expression. "From what I've heard about her, you would understand each other implicitly."

"Starting with the same opinions, Dad, is not always the best course." Horoyo came to Teru's defense.

"I think I've met her, Dad."

"If it's the woman Ryō has been talking to on the train, I'll meet her, too, soon."

"Teru, I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I'd almost tell you to just take my son now, but I guess that wouldn't help."

"Mom!" My sisters were practically in unison in their objection.

"I'm not sure I disagree with Fuyuko about this."

How silence across a conference call line can be deafening, I'm not sure, but no one but Mom seemed was expecting Dad to say such a thing.

"She did say almost, you know."

"I did," Mom agreed. "Go meet this Fumie and trust God."

"Thank you guys. No matter which directions things go, having you guys as a proxy for the family we don't have really helps me. Jun feels the same way."

After we said goodbye and cut the connection, I wrote some scripture references down for Teru and ran for the train.

Next

TOC

---

Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-6-night-horrors.html.
Earlier draft backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bka-sudden-roommate-6-night-horrors.html.

Backup alternate-A: Sudden Roommate (6) -- Night Horrors

Alternate path backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/10/sudden-roommate-6-night-horrors.html.

---

[[JMR201910110720: Partial re-write of dream portion:]]
[JMR201910110216: (version 2) Ryō's psyche seems to have been hijacked by a sixty year-old hyperphilosophical geezer in this chapter. I am in the process of rewriting most of this, but I'm keeping notes for later amusement.]

Previous: Bad Date

Things their Aunt Fumiyo had said to me way back when, and things she must have deliberately said in my hearing, came back to me in my dreams.

In many parts of my country, no one thinks twice about young children of separate families sleeping or bathing together. Children are children, and exploring is natural. There are still public baths which are not segregated, even for the adults. In the old traditions, we see no problems with that, either.

My dreams shifted, and I saw the four of us playing together again in the Sumaguchi's bath house and attached meditative gardens before retiring to the futons in the sleeping rooms. But the four children playing under Mrs. Sumaguchi's watchful eye now were not the three pre-teen children playing in my memories.

Fumiyo had been deliberately working to bring me under the influence of their family -- into their kumi -- for a long time. It was not yet clear why, but it seemed clear I had been chosen by their family as Teru's o-miai aite early in elementary school.

I assumed Jun didn't see it, but he was helping Fumiyo Sumaguchi's plans when he brought Teru to me for protection.

My dreams shifted again, and Teru was sleeping curled up against me, the scent of her hair in my nostrils, her body warm against mine. It felt like a very real dream, and the way my body was responding was very inconvenient.

Part of me wanted to stay in the dream, but part of me struggled to wake up.

My eyes opened, and I saw my room bathed in the light of the full moon, but I did not see Teru. She was not curled up with me, but she was also not lying across from me on the futon. My body felt cold where the memories of the dream said she had been.

There was no place in the room for her to hide, so I checked the veranda windows. She was out there, standing with her back to me in the moonlight, looking out over the darkened city.

"Something wrong?" My voice felt strange in my ears.

She half-turned, and her silhouette in the moonlight showed me things I had thought I didn't want to see.

"You're awake."

"So are you." I looked away, distracting myself with the clock on the floor. One thirty. I tried getting up, but my legs wouldn't obey my will.

She turned my question back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. Rough dreams. How about you?" I mentally kicked myself for repeating the question.

"I had some dreams, too, dreams that scared me. I think I want to go for a walk."

This time I was able to get my legs underneath me and stand up. I joined her on the veranda and we stood together looking out across the city lights shining in the dark instead of at each other.

I broke the silence. "So, do you want me to go for a walk with you?"

"Better than walking alone. Maybe."

I turned, and she followed me to the entryway without further comment, grabbing her cardkey as we left. We descended the stairs in silence and walked aimlessly for ten or more minutes until we came to a park with a playground.

"I haven't seen this park before." Teru went to the swings and sat in one, kicking herself back. I followed and caught the swing, then gave her a gentle push. She swung away and then back to me and I caught the chains again.

She leaned back into my arms, and we stood there for a moment, giving each other warmth. Then I pulled the swing back again and pushed gently, and she took over, swinging under her own power.

I took the swing beside her, and we raced to see who could get the highest arc, until both of us were flying horizontal at the peaks, synchronized with each other in the moonlight. Then, as if mutually hypnotized, we both left off pushing, letting the swings slow down naturally.

Before the swings stopped, Teru jumped out of hers. "This is not helping me get my balance back."

I used my feet to stop, and stood up too. "Me, neither."

She turned to me. "What are you doing out here in your pajamas?"

I looked down at what I was wearing. "You're right. Let's go back.

We held hands as we walked.

I spoke hesitantly. "I dreamed about when we were young and I would spend the night with you and Jun. But then we weren't children any more in my dreams, and there was a fourth."

"Who was the fourth?"

"I don't remember."

She stopped and leaned back into my arms, shivering. I wrapped both my arms around her and hugged her until the shivering stopped, and we resumed walking.

"And I remembered things that your Aunt Fumiyo said. And things she let us do."

"She's been trying to put us together since we were children, hasn't she?"

"Apparently so."

"Why?"

"Why? indeed." We continued to walk in silence.

As we neared the apartment, Teru spoke. "I dreamed the same things. Then I woke up curled up against you."

I stopped. "That wasn't a dream!"

She came to a stop too, and turned and pulled me to her looking into my eyes with a fierceness that should have scared me, but didn't. "I didn't want to move away. But I could feel your body responding."

"Uhm ..."

"It's only natural." She smiled, and the fierceness changed to tenderness, and the tenderness made my heart pound. "But I know you want to wait. And if I hadn't gone to the veranda, I dont think I could have waited any more."

I didn't know what to say.

"I still want to kiss you, but if I do, ...."

The silence dragged out and I fought my own impulse to close the gap between us.

"If I do, I'm pretty sure you'll have to put me in your family registry."

Finally, there was something for me to say. "We'll both be giving up our right to choose before we make the formal commitments. Dad told me he and Mom made that mistake, and that's what he thinks is driving them apart."

She looked down, deliberately breaking the connection between us. But the connection didn't really break. "In my family, that's the way things have always been done."

"Well, we can't stay out here all night. We both have work today." I was the one who said it, but it was Teru that moved, and we returned to the apartment still holding hands.

We lay down on the futon, carefully replacing the kakebuton between us.

"Are you going to be okay?" Her voice was almost pleading.

"We're going to be okay, but if we don't get back to sleep, I'm afraid we'll be making love even if we don't touch each other."

"I feel like we already are. Can you pray for us?"

Teru's suggestion moved to my knees, and she followed suit, and we both prayed, in words and in our hearts.

[[JMR201910110720: End partial re-write of dream portion.]]


[JMR201910110154: Ryō's psyche seems to have been hijacked by a sixty year-old hyperphilosophical geezer in this chapter. I need to rewrite most of this, but I'm keeping notes for later amusement.]

Previous: Bad Date

Things which their Aunt Fumiyo had said to me, and things she must have taken care to say in my hearing, came back to my mind in my dreams, and calculations in my nether consciousness presented their results to me in difficult metaphor.

In many parts of this country, no one thinks twice about young pre-teen and early teenage children of separate families sleeping or bathing together. Children are children, and learning about the body naturally is learning about the body naturally.

And there are still public baths which are not segregated, even for the adults. What would be the problem? -- in the old tradition.

My dreams shifted, and I saw the three of us playing together in the Sumaguchi's bath house and attached meditative gardens before retiring, without properly dressing, to the futons in the sleeping rooms. But the children playing under Mrs. Sumaguchi's watchful eye in my dreams were not the pre-teen children they had been.

Fumiyo had been deliberately working to bring me under the influence of their family -- into their kumi -- for a long time. Although it was not yet clear why, it seemed clear that I had been marked by their family as Teru's o-miai aite from shortly after the time I started elementary school.

Whether he realized it or not, Jun was helping further Fumiyo Sumaguchi's plans by bringing Teru to me for protection. My dreams shifted, and Teru's immediate presence filled my senses, as if she were sleeping curled up against me, the scent of her hair in my nostrils, the pressure and shape of her body against mine. I knew I was dreaming, but it felt real. And my body was responding in ways that were not convenient. Part of me tried to remain in the dream state, part of me struggled to regain consciousness.

My eyes opened to take in my room bathed in the light of the full moon, and my body felt cold where the memories of her body against mine said she had been in my dreams. I looked for Teru, but not only was she not sleeping curled up against me, neither was she lying on the other side of the kakebuton.

As there was no place in the room for her to hide, my eyes went to the veranda. She was there, looking out over the darkened city, her back silhouetted against the moonlight.

"Something wrong?" My question felt strange.

She half-turned, and her moonlit silhouette showed me things I had been being careful not to see.

"You're awake." She remained half facing away from me.

"So are you." I looked away, at the clock on the floor. One thirty. I tried getting up, but my legs wouldn't obey my will.

She turned my question back to me. "Are you okay?"

"Not really. Difficult dreams. How about you?" I mentally kicked myself for repeating the question.

"Dreams I don't know how to handle, too. I think I need a walk."

This time I was able to gather my legs underneath me and stand. I joined her on the veranda and we stood together, not speaking, looking away across the city lights shining in the dark instead of at each other.

I broke the silence. "Should we go for a walk together?"

"Better than walking alone. I think. Maybe."

She followed me to the entryway without further comment, grabbing her cardkey as we left. We descended the stairs in silence and walked aimlessly for ten minutes until we came to a park with a playground.

"I haven't seen this park before." Teru went to the swings and sat in one. I followed and pulled the swing back a little, then let her swing away from me. She swung back to me and I caught the chains.

She leaned back into my arms, and I pulled her back, ten pushed gently as I released her. I gave her a few more swings until she was moving in a medium arc, and she took over, pushing and pulling the chain herself.

I sat in the swing beside her and started swinging, and we raced to see who get get highest, until both of us were flying horizontal, synchronized in the moonlight. Then, as if mutually hypnotized, we both left off pushing, letting the swings slow down naturally. My swing had more friction and slowed quicker.

Before the swings stopped, Teru jumped out of hers. "This is not helping me get my balance back."

I used my feet to stop, and stood up too. "Me, neither."

She turned to me. "What are you doing out here in your pajamas?"

I looked down at what I was wearing. "You're right. Let's go back.

We held hands as we walked.

I hesitated. "I dreamed about when we were young and I would spend the night with you and Jun. But we weren't children any more in my dreams."

She stopped and leaned back into my arms, nodding worriedly and shivering. I wrapped both my arms around her and hugged her until the shivering stopped, and we resumed walking.

"And I recalled things your aunt Fumiyo said and did."

"She's been trying to put us together since we were children, hasn't she?"

"Apparently so."

"Why?"

"Why, indeed." We continued to walk in silence.

As we neared the apartment, Teru broke the silence.

"I woke up curled up against you."

I stopped. "That wasn't a dream!"

She came to a stop too, and turned and pulled me to her. She looked at me with a fierceness in her eyes that should have scared me. "I really didn't want to move, but your body was responding. If I hadn't gone to the veranda, I think I would have taken you in your sleep."

I didn't know what to say.

"If I kiss you now," she continued, "you'll have to put me in your family registry."

"We'll both be giving up our right to choose before we make the formal commitments. Dad told me he and Mom made that mistake, and that's what he thinks is driving them apart."

She looked down, deliberately breaking the connection between us. But the connection remained. "In my family, that's the way things have always been done."

"Well, we can't stay out here all night. We both have work today." I said it, but it was Teru that moved first, and we returned to the apartment still holding hands.

We lay down on the futon, carefully replacing the kakebuton between us.

"Are you going to be okay?" Her voice was almost pleading.

"We're going to be okay, but if we don't get back to sleep, I'm afraid we'll be making love even if we don't touch each other."

"I feel like we already are. Can you pray for us?"

Teru's suggestion moved to my knees, and she followed suit, and we both prayed, in words and in our hearts.

For the first time in several days, my alarm went off before I woke up. I reached to shut it off, trying to reorient myself from the jumble that we had fallen asleep in, Teru lying across my chest and the partially flattened kakebuton underneath both of us.

Teru rolled off of me and reached my phone first. She handed it to me. "Did we make it through the night alright?"

"I think so." I shut the alarm off, checking my body. "Well, my body did not betray me, if that really matters."

"What do you mean?"

"We have avoided deliberately getting each other excited. That's enough that the devil can't legally tell us we are bad."

She looked at me in confusion.

"Oh, that's bad analysis or bad allegory, or both. Anyway, we aren't physically mated, and we are still trying to give each other room to make decisions."

"That much I can understand. So, should we go to the pond park again today?"

"I need something to work the kinks out, even if you don't."

"I think I do, too."

"Want to try a new route?"

"Got something in mind?"

"Learn some of the roads along the tracks past the mall."

"Okay."

So we ran a different direction, around the mall to the tracks and past the station.

"Your woman on the train ..."

"My woman on the train?"

"I've done one date. It's your turn. I'm ready to meet her now."

"Okay, I'll see what she says."

"Is this a park?"

"Huh? Yeah. Just kids' playground, mostly."

"Exercise stations?" Teru stopped by a situps board.

"And some exercise stations. Want to try it?" I jogged backwards to where she was reading the instructions plaque.

She sat down on the board and swung around, hooking her feet under the foot pegs, then leaned back and did twenty situps. "Feels awkward."

"One size does not fit all."

We traded places, and I leaned back. My head and shoulders hung off the top of the board. "This will be a slightly different exercise for me." But I did twenty myself before we started running again.

"I don't know if I can get through another night like that."

"I've told several people that, if my mom or my sisters were close, they'd let you stay with them. Maybe we should actually ask if they've got room."

"That might work. Maybe we should call them when we get back."

So when we returned to the apartment, I sent them texts via the Line family group:

Ryō: Need to do a conference call.

We ate breakfast while waiting.

"You're on the early shift today, right?"

"Regular shift, starting at nine. Early shift starts at 7:30. Don't know if I'll have time to run before early shift when they let me start that."

"No time to make lunch together today," Teru said wistfully.

"Yeah. But we'll have time after work to do something."

"Set your computer up?"

"That'd be useful."

"I can buy something from the sōzai corner for lunch. What do you plan to do?"

"It's my turn to be the lunch taster, so I've got lunch covered."

"Is it good?"

"Generally pretty good, but not really to my taste."

My phone pinged, and I checked it.

Haruo: I've got about thirty minutes I can work
with. What's up?

The phone pinged again while I was trying to think where to start for Dad.

Misachi: I can join the call anytime within the
next hour. Dad, if Ryō says he needs a conference
call, I assume he wants to talk with us all at the
same time.

I figured it would be good to make myself explicit.

Ryō: Yeah. And I'm sure I don't trust this to
text messages.

Finishing breakfast, I pulled out my scriptures. "Are you up for some of this?"

"I'm not going to be a good listener this morning."

"That's okay. Sometimes I get my best instruction when I read even though I don't feel like listening to the Spirit."

"Okay, I'll try."

"There's this guy named Nicodemus, and he's a rabbi among the Pharisees."

Teru gave me a blank look.

He's like a school master and college president and police officer and priest and judge, all rolled into one. And

My phone pinged again.

Horoyo: I'm here whenever. Now we just need
Mom. Should I ping her by phone?

Fuyuko: I have a premonition this is a call
I don't want to be in on.

Horoyo: Mom, Ryō is your son.

Fuyuko: I have no son. There was some little
boy ran away to be with God for two years when
I needed him most, but I have no son.

Ryō: I love you, too, Mom. And I need you to
be in on this call, even though I'm sure
you'll think you didn't want to be.

Fuyuko: Hmph. I assume her name starts with
Teh.

I ignored Mom's intuition and her bait, and initiated the video call session in the group. Mom did accept the connection and the screen divided in four.

Teru moved to sit beside me, so she would be in the camera range.

"Hi."

"Oh, Teru, it's so nice to see you." For some reason, my mother's voice did not betray the cattiness I expected. "Awfully early in the morning, though." The words could well be catty, but the tone was not.

"Nice to see you, too, Mom. Nice to see all of you."

"So, Ryō, you move to the city and spend the spring dating your nemesis?"

"Dad, just shut up and listen to your son." Horoyo took my side.

Misachi chose an inappropriate time to tease. "And to your daughter-in-law." Maybe she knew she wasn't teasing.

"Have you betrayed your covenants to God?"

"Haruo, just shut up." Even with the warning, my mother's sharpness took me by surprise.

"Angel got a new boyfriend who would not keep his hands off me. Jun brought me here because he knew Ryō would take care of me."

"Ryō still needs his freedom."

"So does she, Haruo."

My father's expression visibly darkened at my mother's words.

"So do I, Dad. We knew staying together is not going to work, but I need a place to stay so I can finish high school."

Dad's expression loosened and lightened.

"That's, true, Teru. You needed a place to stay a long time ago. Both you and Jun. I should have offered."

Mom and both of my sisters were as surprised as I at Dad's words.

"It's okay, Dad, it really wasn't own place to ask."

"It wasn't your place, it was mine. I'm sorry." Dad's face suddenly crumpled. "I've been arguing with God about this for too long. I'm really sorry. Unfortunately, I can't offer you a place now."

"I'm staying with my parents, and I'm not sure it would be wise to have you come here, honey, but I'll talk it over with them." Mom's face was a mask of concern.

"Teru, you know we'd love to have you, but I don't think having you sleep with the boys would be good." Horoyo's two oldest were boys. "The baby sleeps with us, and that's all the rooms we have."

Misachi looked pained. "Tomu and I only have one room and the kitchen. It's not much bigger than what you have with Ryō."

"Well, anyway, I'm talking with the congregation leader here. Teru's coming to church tomorrow. Hopefully we'll find something. Just knowing you guys know what's going on will help."

"Teru, please don't judge me wrong for this, but, Ryō, there's a woman there you need to meet."

"I understand, Dad."

"We understand. We are trying to keep things open so that, if we are both still free when Teru graduates from high school, we can get together of our own free will."

Dad looked down. "Well, now I feel like a heel for interfering, but her name is Fumie Masamichi. I understand she attends a congregation near there." He looked back at the camera with a bit of a helpless expression. "From what I've heard about her, you would understand each other implicitly."

"Starting with the same opinions, Dad, is not always the best course." Horoyo came to Teru's defense.

"I think I've met her, Dad."

"If it's the woman Ryō has been talking to on the train, I'll meet her soon, too."

"Teru, I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I'd almost tell you to just take my son now, but I guess that wouldn't help."

"Mom!" My sisters were practically in unison in their objection.

"I'm not sure I disagree with Fuyuko about this."

How silence across a conference call line can be deafening, I'm not sure, but none of us could speak for a moment.

"She did say almost."

"I did. Go meet this Fumie and trust God."

"Thank you guys. No matter which directions things go, having you guys as a proxy for the family we don't have really helps me. Jun feels the same way.

After we cut the connection, I wrote some scripture references down for Teru and ran for the train.

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Backup: Sudden Roommate (5) -- Bad Date

Backup of https://joelrees-novels.blogspot.com/2019/10/sudden-roommate-5-bad-date.html.

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Previous: Ambiguities, Day 2

When I woke up at daybreak, Teru was watching me from across the kakebuton. She smiled. "Run?"

"Yeah. Same park or someplace new?"

"I want to learn the route."

So we ran the same route and stopped again to watch the birds and the turtles.

For breakfast, we boiled eggs and made salad, enough to cover breakfasts over the weekend. And of course we got some rice cooking.

After breakfast, I picked up my scriptures and asked, "Anything you want to read about?"

"Sufficient unto the day is the good thereof."

"Okay, let me think." And a verse came to mind. "'Cast your bread upon the waters.' Let's see what the search engine brings up." I typed it into my cell phone's search function. "No, the preacher, and vanity of vanities isn't exactly what I'm looking for. Let me see. Ah. Let's try 'Give and it shall be given unto you.'" Again I searched the web. "That's it."

But I had to back up a few verses.

... Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.
Bless them that curse you ...

"Huh?" Teru started reading with me. "'Give to every man that asketh of thee.' This is hard stuff."

"Sort of."

"I mean, if a guy asks me to sleep with him, ..."

"Well, there are other scriptures that tell us not to do that. I think it's talking more about money and food and such."

"That's better. Maybe I could even accept it."

"There's also a scripture about not running faster than we are able."

"Jun thinks you help him because you think you owe him something, but you're just doing what this scripture says."

"Well, yeah, sort of. Let's keep reading."

Love your enemies.

"Is that why you love me?"

"It's part of why I haven't just turned my back on Jun. But I've never thought of you as my enemy. And I like you, erm, and love you for lots of reasons."

She looked at me sideways and smiled. "Such as?"

I blinked and thought for a moment and hedged. "Lots of reasons."

"You're turning pink under the ears."

"Let's keep reading."

She leaned against me and I put my arm around her and we returned to reading. Suddenly she sat up.

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, ...

She finished reading to herself.

"Okay. I see what you mean. Your God doesn't want you to always not have enough."

"Us. He's your Father, too. And now that you put it that way, I can think of more references, but I think that's enough scriptures for today."

"Yeah, I want to see about installing openBSD on your cheap computer."

So I studied my manuals and watched Teru prepare an SD card to boot openBSD from, to test the cheap computer's compatibility before actually attempting to install a secure operating system directly on the computer.

"OpenBSD?" I asked. "That's pretty serious, isn't it? Wouldn't a Linux OS good enough?"

"They're getting IP and licensing problems."

"Intellectual property. Some say the term is an oxymoron."

"Jun calls it intellectual paucity, and I tend to agree. Lots of people aren't sure the GPL works for Linux kernel OSses any more. You know what Microsoft and Intel do."

"Use every excuse they can to hide that IP in it everywhere they can, I suppose, so they can claim the right to impose their tarriffs and controls."

"Lots of systemd cruft, too."

"Systemd?"

"Let's save that for when you have time to listen to me rant." She laughed a little ruefully.

"I have to learn how to handle your hystrionics."

"I'm not as bad now as I was at thirteen." She gave me an innocent smile. "Usually. But ..."

"Okay, I guess I'll take your word for it today."

Her smile broadened into a grin, but then error logging messages on the computer screen took her attention. I went back to the manual I was reading.

After a few minutes, she asked without looking around, "Is your job hard? Jun was surprised you'd take a job like that."

"Well, I guess if he tracked my apartment down, I probably shouldn't be surprised he knows what my job is, too. Hard? It's not loading trucks at the docks, but it is pretty physical at times. And it can be both mentally and emotionally demanding, too."

"Like?"

"Helping an elderly person get from bed to wheelchair requires both strength and leverage, wrestling style."

"Wrestling?"

"Gently. If you try to just pick them straight up, you can hurt both them and yourself. And when they need to go to the toilet from there, it can get a little stressful, because they can become unable to use their own muscles."

"You have to help the ladies to, uhm, do their business? Not just the guys?"

"Yep. Sometimes I have to help them stand while I help them get their underwear down and up. And sometimes I have to clean their bodies where they can't."

She digested that for a moment. "That would be really hard."

"I just see it as taking care of things that need to be taken care, and it doesn't really bother me. And I use rubber gloves, of course. Don't want to spread all sorts of skin conditions."

"Hmm." Teru was thinking, but she didn't say what she was thinking.

I continued. "Then there are the times somebody just doesn't want to get up to go to the cafeteria to eat, and you have to figure out whether to encourage him to get up or take his vital signs and call a nurse."

"Wow. So you have to learn to read their minds a little."

"Heh. And times when one of them will be asking where his room is and another will be trying to convince you that, this time, she's got a real good reason that you should just let her go home alone instead of having her wait for her family to come another day."

She let out an ironic laugh. "It's a little like a prison, isn't it?"

"Well, if a resident insists on leaving, we actually can't keep them there, but we also can't let them put themselves in danger."

"What do you do?"

"Often, talking to someone in charge gets them settled down. Or if family is available to come talk, that usually works even better."

"Hmm. Is it insecurity? Everything they knew is gone, so they want something familiar, or at least something reassuring?"

"I think that's usually what it is. It helps when family members can regularly visit and take them home for a little while, too. But sometimes family can't come, and we have to do things that are a little hard on my conscience, like convincing them to take sedatives."

"Yuck. I couldn't do that."

"Fortunately, it's the nurse and the facility manager who take care of that, not me." I showed her the section in the manual where it described the decision processes. "Unless I'm on night duty, but I don't have the training for that yet."

She read the manual section I pointed out. "Good thing that's not a computer system. I can see lots of, uhm, vulnerabilities."

"Incorrectly and incompletely specified procedures. Covered by ishindenshin because of this overly strong culture we were raised in."

"Intuition and telepathy. Would it work for me?"

"I think the cultural stuff that makes it work is actually derived from the bōryokudan culture."

"The kumi." She sighed. "It must be hard for you."

"Sometimes I have to make myself think like Jun."

"Sorry."

"Not something for you to apologize for. Not a decision you made."

She bit her lip and focused on the screen.

I considered talking about the freedom taught in the Christian religion, but didn't feel like pushing that path any further just then. Too much going on between us.

With the SD install started and nothing to do for a while, she started reading over my shoulder, and we talked about random things from the manual. Having someone to discuss it with helped me study.

We were able to test boot openBSD from the SD card before Teru left for work, but that was all. Installing the better OS would have to wait.

The woman on the train seemed to have been waiting for me when I got on.

"Hi again."

I gave her a smile while I wondered whether God really wanted me to look any further than Teru.

She smiled back, then must have read my hesitation. "Lot on your mind again?"

So I decided to tell her about Teru. "Sudden roommate problems."

"That guy you were talking with the other day?"

"Actually," I hesitated, "his little sister."

Her eyes widened, and she shrank back. "No way."

"It's not like we're shacked up or something like that. Just until we can find her a better place. I'm kind of hoping someone from church can help."

"How old is she?"

"Sixteen."

Her eyes widened. "Well, if he's there, too."

"He isn't.

Her expression narrowed. "That's the most dangerous age for a girl to be alone with a good looking guy."

"Good looking. Hah. But I've been explaining to her how everyone is beautiful to the people that matter to them, and she seems to be understanding."

"Okay, now it's official. You are just too weird." She laughed, but she seemed to relax. "Doesn't she get mad at you when you talk like that?"

"It's a subject that she used to talk about with my parents."

"Okay, they are friends of the family. Couldn't she stay with your parents?"

"My parents have separated. But if my sisters or my mom lived close, one of them would definitely have been a better option."

"Sorry to hear about your parents. Their parents died or something?"

"A long time ago, and their stepparents have not provided the best homes for them. Just recently, things have gotten impossible. Seriously abusive."

"Maybe I can understand this, then." She seemed to debate something with herself, then said, "Your station's coming up. You know, we could share Line IDs."

"You would trust a weird guy like me that far?"

"Safer than my phone number, and something tells me we should keep talking."

"All right."

I got my cell phone out of my front jeans pocket, and she took hers from her purse. She brought up her QR code first, so I read it into my phone and accepted the friend request.

At work, my boss dropped in at the break room at lunch again.

"Get something solved? You're less distracted today than yesterday."

I just grinned and said, "I think things will work out okay."

That seemed to satisfy her, partially.

"I've shifted my lunch schedule today. Mind if I eat with you?"

"Can't very well tell you no, can I?"

"Of course you can. I can always go to the cafeteria."

"No, I don't mind."

So she went to the cafeteria and brought back a tray for herself. Lunch for the staff from the cafeteria is cheap, but I usually prefer to cook for myself. My body's needs are different from the residents' needs.

"So, how are things here? Are you getting along okay?"

"So far, yeah. I think I'll be ready to take the certification classes pretty soon."

"Good."

I could tell by her response that certification was not what she thought she was there to talk about. "You want to ask me about the package."

"I'm a little worried, although not as much today as yesterday."

I nodded. "My best frenemy's little sister."

"What?"

"I have a new roommate."

She looked at me, trying to probe my thinking. "I wouldn't have thought you the type to just start living with a girl."

"She's sixteen, and we aren't having sex."

"But you're apartment is a one-room. You can't avoid each other."

"We've managed to give each other enough privacy so far, but it's only a temporary situation until we can find something more appropriate. I won't let it affect my work."

"Sounds like excuses, and you already have let it affect your work."

"I didn't make any mistakes yesterday, and I wasn't behind schedule."

"It's the face time with the residents, not the schedule, I'm looking at. As your boss I can complain only if it seriously interferes with your work. But it still worries me."

"I'm having the congregation leader ask around at church, but so far no one seems to be willing to take an unknown girl in. Maybe after I take her to church on Sunday things will open up."

"Well, you do have Sunday off this week. Do you mind if I ask around, too?"

"There are a number of complicating factors. I'm not sure it would be a good idea, at least, not now."

My cell phone pinged.

"Is that her?"

I checked. "No, this is a woman I met recently on the train."

My boss slowly started grinning. "Okay, maybe I should keep out of this."

"Whatever you're thinking, it's probably not what you think."

She laughed. "Okay, I won't start any rumors. I'll just tell everyone you have several good reasons to be distracted."

"Thank you. I think."

I pulled up the Line app and she focused on eating.

Fumie: Hi!

Ryō: Hi! You caught me on lunch.

Fumie: Oh, good.

Ryō: and saved me from talking with
the boss.

Fumie: I'm sure he's worried.

Ryō: She.
And how is it everyone knows what's
happening to me?
;-)

Fumie: Women can read men like a book.

Ryō: Yeah, right.
Heh.
What's up?

Fumie: I was thinking that,
well, maybe I could meet
your roommate sometime.

My cellphone pinged again.

Ryō: Hold on, she just sent me an e-mail.

Fumie: Okay.

I switched over to the e-mail app.

> Where did you get this computer?

That small appliances shop in the mall where
we bought the SD cards.

> It already has a libre host OS in it,
> Reiisi Kenkyū's split stack OS.
> That's like cutting edge stuff.
>
> And Microsoft's abomination is running in 
> a VM, as a hosted OS.

No kidding?

> Saves us a lot of work.

Great.

> Also gives us a lot of options. I'll tell you
> more when I get home from that date tonight.

Sounds good.

BTW, there's this woman I've met on the train. She
says she's Christian, and I told her about my
suddenly having a roommate.

I didn't tell her everything, of course.

I'm chatting with her on Line, and she says she
wants to meet you.

I think she's trying to figure out how involved we
are.

What do you think?

Are you okay with me possibly dating other women?

Are you interested in meeting her?

I switched back to the chat.

Ryō: I'm back.
Asking her if she wants to meet a woman I met on
the train.

Fumie: Already?
I was thinking _sometime_.

Ryō: I was too quick with that?

Fumie: Yes.

Ryō: Sorry.

My boss was watching me and laughing to herself. Then my phone pinged again. I checked the message from Teru.

> If I have to date other people, you do, too.
>
> But I dont have to like it.

Agreed. I'm not finding this comfortable.
At all.

> I'm not ready to meet her. Yet.

Gotcha. Not yet.

> And maybe it's not fair, but I need you to be
> here tonight when I get back.
> And I won't need other people there.

I'll be there, alone.

Gotta get back to work pretty soon.

I sent that, and switched back to the chat session.

Fumie: Maybe we could get together somewhere to
talk.

Ryō: I would like that. I need to get back to work
now.

Fumie: Okay. Can we chat after you get off?

Ryō: Sure. Ping me around 7:45.

"Whatever you're up to, don't let it interfere with your work." The words were harsh, but the tone was humorous. And my boss was laughing with me, not at me.

I hurriedly ate the rest of the lunch Teru and I had prepared together, thinking about how much easier life would be if I just gave in to Jun's apparent intent to get Teru and me together.

I got a ping from Fumie while I was walking to the station. I was expecting her to ask when we could get together, but we chatted about church instead, about experiences and beliefs and the congregations we attended. We were still chatting when I heard Teru and her date stop outside the apartment door. I told her I had to go, and we promised to chat more the next day.

"No. I don't want to give you a goodnight kiss, Mr. Inoshita. And you can't come in. I shouldn't have let you walk me home." Teru's voice was quiet, but insistent.

I quietly stepped into the entryway and looked out the security peephole.

"Oh, come on. I know you want it, just like I do."

It was hard to see all of what was happening, because her date was leaning against the wall, mostly outside the viewing range of the peephole.

Blocking the keycard reader.

I could see Teru's face clearly enough to watch her expression shift from firm to dark. "You got your share of lip while we were standing in front of one of the jellyfish exhibits."

"Was that where it was? I was distracted."

Without thinking, I slapped the side of my head lightly. At the edge of the visual field, I saw Mr. Inoshita start and look for the source of the sound, amplified, muffled, and distributed as it was by the door my forehead was leaning against.

"What was that?"


Teru glanced at the security peephole while he was distracted and winked.

"What?"

"I heard a thump."

"You're hearing ghosts because you're being a bad boy?"

I had been the target of her sarcasm often enough when we were younger, and I had learned how to trade barbs and when not to. This poor guy was now trying to decide whether she was flirting or warning him off. I hoped for his sake he got it right.

Yes, I could open the door and stop her if necessary, but I knew he'd take damage first. I could stop him now, but I knew she wanted me to let her handle it.

I saw his arm reach out and immediately heard the slap as she deflected it, and felt the impact as the arm slapped against the door below the peephole.

"Wow. That was not necessary."

"It was a warning."

He made his final move, and I quickly opened the door to find him hitting the cement face down and rolling. Teru had backed off, relying on my presence to save him from further damage to his person and dignity.

He rebounded, but came to an abrupt stop when he saw me, bracing himself in a squat against the outside wall to keep his momentum from sending him to the ground again. Fortunately it was high enough to prevent him going over the wall.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Someone who is going to save your life or save your former date the trouble of ending it. The decision is yours." I let him think about the meaning of that.

"I told you my big brother is mean, and he has mean friends." Teru was fully in control of herself. "I'm sorry I misjudged you, and I'm just as glad Ryō is here, so you don't have to make a fool of yourself any more tonight. Promise not to make a fool of yourself at work, and I'll let you go with just this warning."

His dignity was hurt, so I thought quickly. "Mr. Inoshita, it is rather unfortunate that this misunderstanding has occurred. Would you like to come in and talk about it?"

Teru gave me a sharp look, and I gave her an imperceptible shake of the head.

"Uhm, I don't guess it would help."

"Then should we talk here?" I squatted down and Teru leaned against the inner wall.

"What's to talk about?"

"Wouldn't you like to know where you went wrong? You were lucky this time, but the next time there might not be someone to stop you."

"Huh?"

"Listen to him."

Mr. Inoshita looked from Teru to me and back. "Are you saying she could have killed me?"

"Teru is intelligent enough not to cause herself problems with the police, but she knows how to make you wish you were dead, without leaving evidence." I paused.

"But. That's not the point. What happens when you try forcing yourself on a woman who doesn't know how to defend herself, and can't stop you?"

He was caught, but his guard was still up.

"Okay, what happens?"

"Life-changing things happen. If you're lucky, the woman's parents find out and you have to face prosecution for rape."

"That's lucky?"

"It gives you a chance to decide if that's really the way you want your relatioships in this life -- forced."

His guard finally dropped, and his face registered confusion, then anger. "My mom told me I had to take what I wanted or I wouldn't get it."

I turned to Teru and kicked my head back, demanding. "C'mere Babe."

She snickered, then laughed. "Forget it."

I turned back to Mr. Inoshita. "Am I less of a man because she turned me down, or more of a man because I let her?"

He was now thoroughly confused. "How tough are you?"

"Ryō and I spar," Teru said gently, "and I can only beat him when he lets me. Jun says he's never beaten Ryō."

I decided to try the doctrinal approach. "Strong people are strong because they have learned not to take what is not given them."

Mr. Inoshita slid down to sit on the cement and took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm sorry I kissed you without asking back there in front of the jellyfish, and I'm sorry for being such a jerk the rest of the time."

"Apology accepted, conditionally."

I looked at Teru and raised my eyebrows. She gave me the same expression back.

"I bragged to some of my friends about tonight."

"Now you can brag about living to tell about it."

I shook my head and laughed quietly.

Mr. Inoshita did, too. "I guess that's true."

"I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you not to ask me out again."

"Well, yeah. I guess, now that I've cooled down a little, I undestand."

"But I'll be okay with it if you come along on group dates, if you behave."

"Group dates? What groups?"

"Work, or church."

I concealed my surprise at Teru's suggestion.

"Church? I don't go to church. Do you?"

Teru looked at me, and I read her intent. "Let me give you the address where we go to church, if you're interested. But you really have to behave yourself with the people there." I looked the address up on my phone while Teru ducked inside for some paper and a pencil, and I showed him on the map, and wrote it down and gave it to him.

He looked at the paper doubtfully, but accepted it. Then he said he guessed he should go, and we said goodnight.

Teru and I ate dinner together quietly. As we cleaned the dishes, she commented, mostly to herself, "I think I need to learn a different way to behave on dates."

"Church?"

"Well, I said I go, I guess I go now. Can I have a kiss now?"

I turned and leaned over and gave her a light peck on the lips, and she closed her eyes.

"I am satisfied with that. I have to be satisfied with that."

I put the pan I had in my hand down and wrapped my arms around her and we sat down together and just hugged for something like five minutes, until she said, "Okay, I can handle this."

When we were done with baths and the lights were out, both of us lay awake, looking at each other over the top of the rolled-up kakebuton, not saying anything, until sleep overcame us.

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