Previous: An Old Friend
On the train home, I considered my options again. I had called the police on lunch break, and several coworkers and my boss had overheard the conversation. When I explained, they offered to be character witnesses, in case I needed them.
The police had offered me some sympathy and told me to call immediately as soon as I knew if the package was something illegal. And they had advised me not to accept it if I couldn't examine the contents. But there wasn't much they could do without at least some specific suspicion of an actual crime being committed.
Which, while not reassuring, is quite reasonable. And correct. One of the costs of freedom is allowing the other guy room to do things you don't like.
They did say they would send an alert to the local police box, so that the soonest available officer could be assigned, if necessary. And they also asked me to let them know when I determined which it was, legal or illegal.
Some people think such an approach is both cold and nosy, but it did give me one more excuse to refuse.
I didn't think then to call the congregation leader at church. Not yet. Not sure why.
When I got to the entrance of my apartment building, Jun was nowhere in sight. I punched the passcode at the lobby entrance and entered.
Useless passcode. If you walked around from the bike parking area, you didn't need to pass through the common entryway to get to the apartments. Although, unless you knew to look for the back way in, you wouldn't necessarily see it.
I climbed the stairs to my one-room on the 5th floor and put the cardkey to the door lock. The lock clicked and I opened the door, and an unwelcome sight greeted me through the entryway.
Well, I'll admit some ambiguity in my feelings when I saw Teru.
Jun and his little sister were lounging on the tatami in my combination living/dining/bed room. A small suitcase was leaning against the wall beside Teru, who was wearing some of my exercise gear and an expression that shifted from relaxed to surprised to excited to unhappy as she saw me.
"You lied to me!"
"Did not."
"Did too!"
"What lie?"
I watched the exchange with more than a little dismay.
"But you didn't tell me it would be Ryō!"
"Din't tell ya it wou'n't."
I interrupted. "It won't. I was wondering what kind of contraband I was going to have to refuse, but --"
"Contraband? I'm contraband?"
I fixed Jun with a stare before turning to Teru. "I could probably make a case with the police that he in effect kidnapped you and is engaged in child trafficking."
"No, no," Jun raised his hands in protest. "Not what it is."
"Hey. I'm sixteen. I'm not a child."
"See, things've got really bad back home. I moved out 'n Angel got a new boyfriend. And the guy can't keep away from Teh-chan when Angel is at work, which is mos' nights. She hasta lock th' bedroom door. An' Angel jus' laughs."
Angel is their step-step-mother. Amanoko, but her nickname is Angel, spoken sardonically. She had been warned by the police on several occasions, and child custody assignment had been made probational since before I left for my two years of service. But the kumi had thrown some money and threats around, so that violations of that probation were mostly ignored.
Their natural parents had split up and both remarried just after Teru was born, and then both natural parents died -- under suspicious circumstances. And, except for six years of relative peace with their Aunt Fumiyo and Uncle Nozomu, Jun and Teru spent most of their childhood getting passed around -- along with their house -- in messy remarriages, divorces, and court proceedings.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I really am. But --"
"And Jun didn't kidnap me."
I looked at Teru with raised eyebrows. "You're here willingly?"
"No. Yes. No. Uhm," She pouted. "Not-a-fair question."
"Well, considering you're wearing my shorts and tee, I guess I could have a hard time convincing the police you were against the idea."
Her looks darkened, then she grinned an evil grin. "I could fix that." And she began to lift the bottom of the tee.
I rolled my eyes. "Never mind. I have extra. You can keep them."
She smiled happily and dropped her hands in her lap. "Why, thank you!"
I turned to Jun. "But this is not going to happen. Your kid sister just pointed out why it's a really bad idea. Why can't she stay with you?"
"You know why."
"Why don't you get yourself loose from that crowd?"
"That's easy fer you to say. Teh-chan's not the only one with no place to go. 'N I up'n drop out of the kumi, 'n they're likely to go lookin' for revenge 'gainst anyone close ta me. An' y'know Angel is one of the kumi. An' I don' trus' the police pr'tection."
He paused to give me time to think about the consequences, then continued, lowering his voice and dropping his usual slang. "I'm planning on making a break, but I have to put some space between me and Teru first. We had a very public argument while I was sheltering her from Angel, and she ran away, and in a couple of years they'll forget about her and then I can just disappear."
I shook my head. "I'm sure that's not going to work. But how about if I call the people at church?"
Teru looked very uncomfortable at that suggestion. I guess I knew why. It had once been a shock to me, to see the amount of prejudice some of my church friends had demonstrated towards Jun and Teru. That prejudice was part of what locked them into their relationship with the kumi.
"It's a different congregation here, and I'm sure we could find a family where they'll be willing to let her stay while she finishes school."
"You're planning on not telling them about her connection to her brother's connections?"
"It's worth a try, anyway."
"Maybe I don't think so," Teru muttered.
"And where does she stay in the meantime?"
"This apartment has only one room. No room for privacy, and definitely no room for a man and a woman who aren't married to each other to stay together. And I'm going to have a hard time working so I can pay the rent if I spend my nights avoiding rolling over on top of your sister in my sleep."
"Now I'm a woman?"
"Well, yeah."
"But I'm too ugly to touch?"
I sighed. "Remember, Teru, what my mom used to say about beauty?"
"She said beauty is as beauty does. I'm beautiful if I decide I'm beautiful. And it's still too hard to believe."
"How about what my dad said?"
Jun laughed. "I quote: 'Beauty is skin deep, but ugly is to the bone.' That's a lot of comfort to my sister."
"Well, he said some other things, too, but what that one means is that what videos on the big 'net call beautiful and ugly has nothing to do with real beauty. Real beauty is when people get to know each other deeply and still care about each other."
"See? And that's why I trust ya to treat Teh-chan right."
For a moment or two, I was stuck, and we were all three silent.
"How did you get in?"
"Told the apartment owner I was bringing yer girlfriend for a pro-longed visit. She was only too happy to let yer girlfriend in."
"Well, I'm going to have to have a talk with her. You know, I called the police."
Jun sat up with a start. "No."
"I wanted to make sure I could give evidence that I didn't know anything about whatever you had planned. They said they couldn't do anything until I knew that the package was contraband."
Jun stood up, his guard raised. "Are they coming?"
"Not unless I ask them to, but I'll need to tell them it wasn't exactly something illegal." I stopped and thought. "Uhm, let me check your suitcase, Teru."
"Open it up, Teh-chan."
I didn't really think about why Jun was suddenly cooperative.
Teru sullenly pulled the suitcase out into the middle of the room and opened it, showing me what precious little it contained.
While I was occupied with apologizing for having to look through her underthings, I didn't notice Jun edging toward the door. Suddenly he bolted through, leaving his shoes in the entryway. I moved as fast as I could and also ran barefoot down the stairs behind him while Teru yelled at him from the doorway, cursing him for abandoning her. And cheering him on, too.
He had clearly scouted the alternate route out ahead of time, and was through it and gone by the time I got to ground level.
Climbing the stairs back up to my apartment, I pulled my phone out and called the congregation leader. She had just answered the phone when I got to the apartment door, where Teru was watching me distrustfully.
Sister Asatsuki was sympathetic, and said she'd call around, but she thought the connection with the kumi was going to be problematic. When Teru overheard us discussing that, she muttered something about not being surprised.
I called the police, and they were very sympathetic. They even sent a couple of female officers to talk with Teru while I waited downstairs, so that they could be sure she was answering freely when she told them neither her brother nor I was coercing her, and determine how much need she had for police offers of protection.
Of course they checked her suitcase for hidden compartments.
Since my cooking schedule was shot, I used my cell phone to order take-out pizza and salad while I was downstairs.
When I went back up, we had a discussion with the officers about child custody issues and where she could stay.
Someone at the station had checked with the police back home, and it appeared that an officer there had recently been able to legally terminate Angel's status as guardian, but the officers could not find definite declaration of who now had child custody responsibilities. It appeared she would either be under her brother's care or be a ward of the state, and they couldn't clarify that without contacting her brother.
As to her brother's need to run, they had no idea. His association with the kumi was known, but he was not currently under any investigation.
They said, unless she was in immediate danger, there wasn't that much they could do until the morning. And what protection was available would put her in pretty bad company. And, since Teru said she trusted me, they asked me if I wouldn't be so kind as to put her up for the night --
Which left me to deal with the very valuable but unexpected package sitting in my room in my exercise gear, listening with varying degrees of patience as her fate was being discussed.
"How's the pizza?" Beyond my inviting her to join me for pizza, and my asking grace before we started eating, we hadn't had much to say yet.
"You know I usually like mine without tōfu, but it's okay."
"Yeah, but tōfu is good protein."
"Yes, Mom."
I chuckled at her barb, and she relaxed a bit.
"Hey, if you promise to finish your bath before nine, you can have the o-furo first. I'll step outside while you change."
Teru's face was unreadable, but she nodded. "Thanks. I'll step outside for you, too, if you promise not to lock me out."
"Deal."
We ate in silence for a moment.
"Got any plans for while I'm at work tomorrow?"
"Jun helped me get a job at a local supermarket. We've been living out of capsule hotels for a week, and I've been going to work from there. So I have a job to go to in the morning."
"Morning?"
"Just ten to two. I get off at the same time as the working mothers."
"I'm sure they asked for an address, what address did you give them?"
"Yours."
"And he didn't tell you whose it was."
"Nope. Just said it was somebody I could trust."
"Jun planned ahead on this."
"Yep."
While Teru took her turn in the tiny furo, I went back downstairs and across the street to explain things to the apartment owner. She smiled knowingly and gave me a spare keycard and some free advice about love while I protested that this was just a temporary solution, a favor to a friend. She would not be convinced, and I gave up protesting.
When I got back, Teru had finished her bath and was wearing another pair of my shorts and another of my tees.
"You know, I was planning on running in the morning."
"You don't want me to sleep in my undies, do you?"
I set my jaw and checked my washer. She must have put her work clothes in before I got home. My exercise gear was dumped in on top of that. Even including her work clothes, she still didn't have much. "So your clothes were a mess from working in them and you decided to wear mine?"
"I haven't had a chance to do laundry for a whole week."
So we ran a load of laundry, and I timed my fresh hot water use during my bath for when the washer was not killing the water pressure. When I was done, I pulled the plug in the yokusō so it could drain, and she stepped outside so I could put on my pajamas.
I got dressed quickly and turned on the dehumidifier in the furo room (Okay, it's a unit bath, a full bathroom/toilet in a very tight space with a square tub just barely big enough to sit and soak in.), and when the load finished, we hung the clean clothes there in the unit bath together and set the de-humidifier running, the way I usually do when the weather report says rain during the day.
"You don't mind having a woman's things mixed with your laundry?"
"Whatever. Remember, I have two older sisters. I'm used to it. And if either of them lived anywhere close, we'd have a place for you to stay, at least for a few nights."
Teru just looked at me with a bemused expression.
I rolled out the only futon I had. I was glad I had splurged and bought a double futon, but I thought I shouldn't mention that.
The late spring night was moderately warm, so we didn't need more than sheets for covers, and I had a spare sheet I got out for her. I also got out my summer kakebuton and rolled it lengthwise and put it between us while Teru laughed. I could fit my full frame in lengthwise, but I couldn't stretch sideways much.
Teru had a bit more room, but it was tight quarters for her, too.
"Better than the capsule hotels," she grimaced.
I said my prayers while she listened, and then we shut off the lights and lay down with the mound of kakebuton between us.
"Remember when you used to come for over-nighters at our house?"
"Yeah. Before your brother started trying to teach me how to fight and cheat." And I didn't want to talk about the other reasons the over-nighters had stopped at the moment, either.
"Fumiyo told me your mom stopped you coming over because we weren't good enough for your family."
Although their Aunt Fumiyo and Uncle Nozomu were also members of the kumi, they were one of their better guardian arrangements. Since she had taken care of Teru since she was two, Fumiyo was the closest thing to a real mother she had.
Well, Fumiyo and my mom. After Uncle Nozomu died, also under suspicious circumstances, their step-parents began claiming parental rights, and Aunt Fumiyo was compelled to give them up. Many times after that, Teru and Jun had taken temporary shelter at our house, and they both called my mother Mom.
"No, she didn't say you weren't good enough. When she still had you sleeping in the same room with us when we were eleven and you were seven, Mom thought that wasn't such a good idea any more. When you came to our house, you slept with my sisters, remember. At the time, I didn't really understand, either."
"I wish it could be the same now."
"Sometimes it would be nice to be able to go back to being children again, without having to worry about all the dangers in the world."
"Ryō, sometimes you can be so thick."
I had to think about that for a few minutes, listening to her breathing deepen on the other side of the kakebuton.
"There are just too many dangers."
She didn't answer, leaving me to wonder whether she were already asleep or just put out with me. Again.
Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/09/bk-sudden-roommate-2-valuable-package.html.
