Previous: The Valuable Package
I got up around sunrise, trying to avoid waking Teru, and slipped into the now dry furoba to change quietly into running shorts while dodging the hanging laundry. It only took a minute for me to change, but she was sitting up when I opened the door.
"Do I get to go run with you?"
"If I'd known you were awake, I'd have asked you to help me move the laundry to the veranda to get them in some fresher air and some smog-filtered sunlight."
"Smog?" She stood and opened the full-length windows. "It doesn't look that bad today."
"True."
"Well, hand me something."
It only took a couple of minutes to get the laundry hanging outside on the sao, and we were out the door and doing light stretches and warmups on the walkway outside.
"Race you to the bottom!"
"Hey!" I followed after her.
She was waiting at the bottom. "You didn't even try."
"Saving my energy."
"I should have asked if you're doing a 10K practice run this morning."
"Heh. No, just three. Fifteen minutes, plus or minus. Saving my energy for work."
"Oh. Good. Which direction?"
"Let me do some pushups first." I dropped and did ten easy pushups, and she dropped and matched me stroke for stroke, including the achilles tendon stretches I did at the end. We stood and did a few more stretches while I thought about the routes I had learned so far.
"A park with a pond?"
"Sounds good."
I started out, focusing on getting my muscles warmed up and working, and she settled into her own rhythm beside me. We passed a pre-school/kindergarten and its playground and turned, following a large open culvert for several minutes, then tuned off to run through a medium sized park with a flower garden and a large irrigation/fire reserve pond and lots of trees. Ducks and swans floated on the surface.
"Can we walk for a little?"
"Sure. If you look close, you can probably see turtles." I pointed out where the turtles tended to congregate, and, sure enough, there were about ten visible, their shells mostly hidden in the water.
Teru stepped close to me and tried to slip her hand in mine, but I reached around her waist and gave her a sideways hug instead. She resisted for a moment, then leaned against me.
"Teru, I want you and Jun to be happy."
She stiffened, and I let her back away.
"I'm not sure if I could really make you happy."
"I was feeling just a little happy a few seconds ago."
"Me, too." I was not lying.
We stood in silence for a minute or two.
"We need to get breakfast. What time do you go to your job?"
"The job starts at ten and ends at two. I should have lots of time to prepare if I leave about nine fifteen."
"I'm on the late schedule today, so I'll be starting at ten thirty and ending at seven thirty. I'll head out about quarter to ten, and I should be back to the apartment about eight. If you're not picky, there's enough food in the fridge for today."
"I can be not picky."
"Okay. I'll call around at lunch and hopefully things will start coming together to get you a real place to stay."
She didn't say anything.
"Probably you'll have to stay at my apartment at least tonight."
"I don't mind."
"I kind of don't, either." Again, I refrained from qualifying what I was saying. It was safer that way, even if some people might think it less honest. Shoot, I could easily have just asked her to stay with me on a permanent basis. It's not like we were strangers. But there is one kind of honesty that ignores tomorrow, and I think I know something about the limits of that honesty.
Teru's stomach growled, and we both laughed.
"Well, let's see what kind of breakfast you had planned, since it sounds like I'm invited."
I grinned, and we headed out of the park.
"Miso and Sanma?"
"Watered-down soybean paste and saury. Doesn't sound bad."
"Broth base. Soy broth. And I add a bit of fresh cabbage and celery."
"Weird, but I can give it a try. Rice?"
"Day-old I didn't use last night waiting in a sealed bowl in the fridge."
"Heat it in the microwave?"
"Of course. Unless you like it cold."
"Depends on whether you cooked it right and sealed it properly."
"Hah."
We listened to the rhythm of our feet for a bit.
"No leftovers for lunch. I can buy my lunch today. What about you?"
"Only four hours, so there's no break to eat. You were planning on cooking some stir-fry last night, right? I can see what I can do with it."
"That'd be great."
Back in the one-room, we cooled down with more stretches before we went inside, then did some more stretches on the tatami flooring. The close quarters was a bit much, but I quelled my hormones. It was really tempting to think about how sexy she was in my shorts and tee-shirt. Never mind.
I put on a small pot of water with shredded cabbage to simmer for the miso while Teru washed her face in the furoba. Then she put the rice in the microwave while I cleaned the sanma.
"I'll fry the sanma."
I laughed. "Don't trust me?"
She poked me in the ribs. "I'll take my turn."
Breakfast was good, and it was nice to have company, even in the tight quarters. I set aside my planned study for the morning and we cooked stir-fry together and put a fresh pot of rice in the rice cooker.
"I usually read a little scripture in the morning. Are you interested in reading together?"
"I can try it once."
"I guess I'd better find something interesting." I thought for a moment.
"Oh. I'm embarrassed that I have to look this up."
"I promise not to tell."
We shared a sloppy grin.
"Here it is." I read carefully and slowly:
Why waste your time thinking about your clothes?"It doesn't really say that." Teru blushed.
Look at the weeds in the vacant lot. The grow without hard work. They don't go to fabric stores or use fancy sewing machines, and they don't go to expensive boutiques.
But when they bloom, they are better dressed than any of the beauties of the Geinōkai, or of any country's entertainment industry. Or any country's well-dressed dictator.
If nature dresses the weeds in the vacant lots that well, when it just shrivels up in the heat of the day, why can't you have the faith to see that nature dresses you even better?
"I vouch for the translation."
"Let me see that."
She read the original passage carefully, and thought for a bit. "I think I like your translation. It helps me see what those ancient words say." And she kept reading.
"What's this mean?"
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."What is this 'kingdom of God'?"
"Well, some people seek for the kingdom of God by going on pilgrammages to holy sites. Some seek for it by building church buildings where people can get together to talk about God."
"What do you think?"
"I figure I should start looking for the kingdom of God inside me, by trying to be a good member of the kingdom of God. And a good example helps others to find the kingdom of God."
"How do you do that?"
"Try to follow my conscience."
Teru looked a little worried. "What if my conscience tells me to do something hard? I mean, really hard. Is that what the next verse means? Take therefore no thought for the morrow: -- Morrow is like an old way to say tomorrow, right?"
"Pretty much."
"-- for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." She wouldn't look at me.
"Something about the way you're asking that bothers me." And a thought came to my heart. "If your conscience is bothering you about you staying here alone with me, that's one thing. But if there's a voice telling you to do something like sneak out and sleep on the streets, that's not your conscience."
"No?"
"No. That would be even more dangerous for you. And I would have to take vacation that I can't afford to take to go looking for you."
"Would you?"
"Now you know I would, so don't test me, okay?"
"Oh. But if it's wrong for me to be staying alone with you, ..."
"It would be wrong for me to take advantage of the situation, wrong to take advantage of you, right? To make out when we haven't earned that right. We've got to earn that right first."
Now she looked at me with a bit of surprise and trepidation. "You do love me."
"Yeah. Love has a lot of meanings, and I love you in several of them." I had to think for a moment. "I guess I have for a while. Surprisingly, I love Jun, too, even if he tends to be a pain in the neck at times."
After another minute, Teru spoke. "Well, so I should quit trying to think up ways to get you to kiss me."
"Until we are not spending nights together, anyway."
"Oh. Wow. I'm okay with this. So I shouldn't be afraid of finding a more socially acceptable place to stay?"
"Yeah. And I have to be patient, too."
"Yeah. I think I can do this. What if I change my mind?"
"We'll worry about that if it happens, but that's part of why we should be patient."
"Sufficient unto the day ..."
"Is the good thereof, too."
"Is there a scripture for that?"
"I'm sure there is. I'll have to look for it."
She reached for both my hands, and we spent a few moments just holding hands.
I noticed the position of the sun and checked the clock. "Look at the time."
"I don't want to go to work, but I guess that's another temptation."
"Yeah."
So Teru went to her job and I went to mine. And I spent a good part of the morning trying to wrap my mind around what I had just admitted to her.
"You're kind of quiet this morning." The woman on the train looked at me inquisitively.
"Yeah. Too much to think about."
"Care to share your burdens?"
"Not today. It's kind of private."
She seemed a little disappointed. For some reason, I didn't think it was a good idea to admit to her that I was in such an ambiguous situation with my best enemy's kid sister.
At lunch, I went outside and called the police and the congregation leader at church. No progress on getting Teru a place yet. When I came back in, several of my co-workers crowded around to ask about the package. I told them it wasn't contraband, and it was valuable, but not in terms of money, and that was all I should say.
My boss looked worried, but let it alone.
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