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Published by Richard James
Copyright 2014 Richard James
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Also by this author:
Peace Boat (a short story collection)
Bathtime at La Chapel Blanche
Serialised work on Jukepop.com
Into this World She Woke
Asami
The moon looks bigger than usual tonight. It hangs full and heavy in the deep purple casting faint traces of shadow on the rooftop. In the streets below the shadows are sharper but flicker in and out of existence at the whim of the flashing neon signs which create them. A purple curtain flutters in the draft as the sliding door behind it is opened. Two men spill out into the street and walk away while their ever courteous hostesses bow humbly from the step. Asami watches the women turn elegantly away as their clients hail a taxi and fancies she sees them grimace ever so slightly as they retreat back inside their premises, but from this height it is hard to tell. People often see what they want to see.
She suddenly becomes aware of a deep silence and realises the extractor fan on which she is perched has turned itself off. Slowly other noises rise from the city to take the place of the tired drone she hadn’t even been aware of until the moment it stopped. Taxis. Scooters. Her legs are dangling over the edge of the metal casing but she brings them up now and hugs them to her chest. A bicycle bell. A mobile phone. A light flicks on in a window opposite and she decides it’s time to move. Automatic doors. Exit music. She hops down on to the thin scattering of gravel which covers the roof and walks away.
The station was almost deserted and Asami’s clicking footsteps rang out clearly beneath the vaulted ceiling, the harsh white light making her straight black hair shimmer with an almost metallic sheen. She bought her ticket from a machine and approached the turnstiles where a pale young foreigner was attempting to find out from a bemused ticket officer which platform his train was leaving from. Asami spoke near perfect English but continued on her way. When her train pulled in she was the only one who boarded. She sat down opposite a sleeping salary man and crossed her legs. Although there were plenty of free seats two high school girls chose to stand by the door whispering. They huddled close together so they could both peer at the screen of the same mobile phone. The sleeves of their school jumpers were pulled over their hands which they raised to their mouths whenever they giggled. A recorded voice informed the passengers the train would now depart and the doors shuddered shut.
As the train pulled away an empty coffee cup began rolling haphazardly down the carriage. Asami followed its progress with narrowed eyes until it came to rest against the trainer of one of the high school girls. Asami’s gaze rose deliberately upwards from the coffee cup to the girl’s knee high cotton socks, up her straight legs, above her pleated tartan mini-skirt, her knitted jumper and loosened tie, up to the hanging, dyed, brown fringe behind which were hidden her dark eyes. The girl’s glance flicked momentarily, almost imperceptibly, to meet Asami’s before returning to the screen of her phone.
At the next station the girl’s friend departed and as the train moved off again Asami was aware of the remaining girl at the edge of her vision. Without turning to look she saw her approach her seat until she was standing just a foot to one side. Asami focused on the sleeping salary man opposite her whose head rolled softly from side to side with the movement of the train. She felt the cushion she sat on lower as the girl knelt upon it and leaned towards her. The salary man stirred and rubbed his nose but didn’t wake. The girl’s lips softly grazed Asami’s ear as she pulled aside her hair and whispered in to it.
“Tomorrow. Raison d’etre. Two p.m.”
Asami turned her head round slowly to face the girl. Their noses were almost touching and the girl smiled salaciously as she ran her tongue over her bottom lip. Asami stared hard into the girl’s eyes. She could see her own steely gaze returned to her in their depths. This close she could make out individual pigments of the girl’s green eye shadow. She hated her at that moment more than at any other. Hated her with an intense loathing she hadn’t thought herself capable of and when the time came she vowed to make her pay. Dearly.
When the train next stopped the girl unfurled her legs and backed out the carriage keeping her eyes fixed on Asami, who watched her go, her own stare following her all the way out on to the platform. She continued to watch her through the window until the train left the station and the darkness outside revealed only the reflected interior of the train. She stared at her own blurry image and behind her saw the salary man spying furtively from beneath half lidded eyes.
“You know why you’re here I assume?”
Chopin played softly in the background. The waiters and waitresses of the Raison d’etre continued to glide gracefully between the tables in their white waistcoats and pressed trousers. The gauze curtains hanging round the walls fluttered benignly in the cool spring breeze. Asami didn’t answer. The girl from the train stooped to light her father’s cigarette. He sighed and fingered his neatly trimmed beard while his daughter stared impiously at Asami before breaking in to a coquettish half smile. The same one she had used when she had searched her at the door.
“Tell me,” the father asked tracing a circle in the air with his cigarette before leaning back in to his seat and taking a sip from his wine, “why did you come? Really, I’m interested.”
Asami remained stoically silent.
The laughter began with someone on her left. Singular and stifled at first, it rose in volume as the others round the table took it up. She stood defiantly still and her stare never wavered for a moment. The others were mere faceless entities. She was aware of their presence, their tailored suits and made to order smiles but nothing more. Only father and daughter didn’t laugh out loud although both allowed their amusement to show plainly on their faces.
“Come now, come now. It’s okay. I can see you are in no mood for pleasantries. In that case they shall be dispensed with. It was never your conversational charm I needed you for anyway.”
The father stubbed out his barely smoked cigarette on the white tablecloth until the remainder bent and twisted then rose from his seat. His daughter placed another in her own mouth, lit it and passed it to him.
“I think we both already know you are going to do what I ask. It’s…inevitable.” He walked at a leisured pace around the side of the table until he was right next to her.
“Smoke?” he asked and looked behind her. Asami turned to see the daughter offering her an open packet. She eyed them disdainfully then returned her look to the father.
Inevitable? Yes, she thought, yes I suppose it is.
“No? Good girl, I guess. They’ll kill you in the end but….hmm!…they are just so good.”
Ha. Don’t worry yourself Taiyo. It’s not the cigarettes that’ll kill you. I’ll make sure of that you...
“Do you know - I bet I can guess almost exactly what you’re thinking! Something along the lines of - I’ll get you before they do you bastard! Am I right? Ha! Same old Asami. Silly little thing. One can but hope though. We can’t take that away from you now, can we?”
He began walking away from the table evidently expecting her to tag along but she merely glared at the solid back of his retreating figure.
“Father wants you to follow him.”
The girl’s breath was warm on the side of Asami’
s cheek as she leant over her shoulder to whisper the instruction. Asami did as she was told. Taiyo gestured to a pair of waiters standing, apparently waiting, next to an ivy entwined ionic column and they quickly raced to set up two giant sliding screens creating a small sealed off room in one corner of the otherwise busy restaurant. Taiyo clapped his hands twice and from a door two men dragged in a large green plastic box with a metal grille on the front.
Asami started towards it with a gasp but the girl was behind her again and had wrapped her arms around her waist, her slender limbs belying a hidden strength. Taiyo paced the floor in front of the box. It was dark inside, almost black, but Asami thought she detected occasional movement.
“Masako has the details for you. It’s nothing terribly difficult. Nothing I don’t know you can handle. When you are finished, and if it is to my satisfaction, then we shall arrange another meeting and by then you will be on a much stronger footing. Do you have any questions my little angel? No? Good. Well, until next time then.”
He strode from the room and Asami made another movement towards the box but Masako continued to hold her tight. Eventually the two men dragged the box away again and as the door shut behind them Asami allowed her body to go limp.
“No, please. Struggle. It’s so much