Sudden Roommate (8) -- First Sunday

*** 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. Drifting at the edge of sleep, I watched Teru as she slept on the other side of my futon, with the rolled-up kakebuton between us.

Her eyes opened and met mine. She reached out, placing her hand on the kakebuton between us, and I put my hand on 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 again 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," I answered kind of randomly. "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 congregational choir if we want to join that. And sometimes there are activities to plan.

"Activities? Group dates?"

"Maybe. Probably. Planning. I'm sure there will be some planning for the dance on Saturday. 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 thought about getting up. "We could keep breakfast simple today."

"I want to make pancakes. I think we have the stuff to make them with."

"Simple pancakes," I yielded without a fight.

Teru laughed.

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

We nestled together for a minute or so, until I began to feel a bit of concern. "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. "But I need this." 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 real milk and eggs from the fridge, and started making pancake batter. I added kinako (roasted soy flour) to stretch the milk and improve the protein, over Teru's protests.

"It'll make them flat."

"A little apple vinegar and the 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, timid 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?"

"Dunked in water? Getting baptized?"

"That's where it starts."

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

I let her take back over at the burner 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 continued with 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?"

"Well, it's true that when things are hard and we choose to follow God anyway, that's when the Holy Spirit influences us most easily."

"Hmm. So if I tempt you and you refuse the temptation, 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?"

I watched her focus on the pancake in the pan and get it browned just right, and slip 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?"

"The Preacher, I think." I found it in Proverbs, and read it to her as she slipped the last pancake onto the stack.

She cut off the flame and set the pan down to cool.

"It's strange. 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 -- is deciding to wait deliberately testing each other?"

The inside of my mouth turned dry and my stomach twisted.

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

My stomach settled and my appetite returned. "No peanut butter in the fridge. We've got Nerigoma, how would that do?" 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 in both of mine. "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 Nozomu died, --"

"Was killed."

"Was killed. And then bouncing around between foster homes and ending up with Angel and her string of abusive boyfriends. Only bribes and extortion can explain what happened."

Teru looked down at her pancake and nodded.

I sighed. "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."

"Mmm, yeah. 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 too far. Too far to make up for."

"Right. Good. But, can God fix things for us?"

"Uhm, no? Wait. Yes?"

"Yes. Not only can God fix it no matter how far it goes, He does so."

"Really? He fixes it? When? Lots of people die tragic deaths." She put her fork down.

"In His own time. A lot of that has to wait for the next world. But this is why Jesus suffered and died for us. Because He did, He knows everything we can suffer, and He knows how to undo the damage. And He also knows which problems we need to experience to be able to grow in good ways."

"Feels like abuse to me."

"Jun's -- when Jun tried to teach me to fight and cheat, that felt like abuse to me. Aunt Fumiyo always 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, and eventually how to forgive everyone -- without just giving in to what they were trying to get me to do."

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 untangled, to get 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 got up 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 of that from me.

"Sympathy card?" she mumbled.

"It's only cheating if it doesn't really hurt inside. And I know there's no such thing as perfect freedom."

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

"We've found a good friend."

"How can I like my rival so much?"

"Love your enemies? Although I don't really think she's your rival. You know, even the people closest to us can be our enemies in some senses. And there's nothing unusual about that."

"Nothing unusual?"

"Look at me and my dad. But 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."

"Okay, 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." She sniffled, and I hunted for a tissue to give her.

She used the back of her hand before I could find one, so I wiped the back of her hand with mine. "Yeah, I know. And I'm trying to let you make your own choices, too."

"I need to 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?" Her voice was muffled by the door.

"Yeah?"

"This is embarrassing."

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

"Can you hand me my purse?" She opened the door.

"Purse?"

I picked it up from where it was lying against the wall and took it to her, being careful not to look in as I passed it through the door from the side.

"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 my lacies?"

"In your suitcase, right?"

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

"No. So, yeah, your suitcase. But you do need your own space to keep things like your feminine hygiene stuff, so you probably should take over some of my space. Well, do you care which pair of pants?"

"Which pair do you like? 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.

I heard her flush, and then I heard the sound of water running in the furo.

When she came out, she said, "It will be nice when you won't have to hide your eyes. Anyway, for now, I'll keep living out of my suitcase."

"We'll see."

"I washed them out." She held up the damp underwear for me to see.

"Oh. I guess we should run a load of laundry after all."

We put our laundry in the washer and finished eating breakfast, and then 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, and not big enough. She let me post them to the family Line group. And we hung out the laundry before we left.

Church was a twenty minute walk. We could have taken a bus, but neither of us thought it was worth the time to wait. 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 us as we went inside.

Since she was a youth advisor for the area, 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 and older youth. Teru was attentive, abstaining from communion until she understood it better, listening to the witnessing and lay sermons, sometimes asking questions.

Sister Asatsuki finished the main sermon, and then Fumie joined Teru in the youth class, for emotional support, while I stayed out of the way and went to the young adult class.  Some of the young adults asked me about Teru, and I explained that she was a friend's sister. I didn't mention where she was staying.

After the classes, the three of us talked with some of the other young adults and youth. Fumie unobtrusively redirected the conversation any time it got close to Teru's living arrangements.

Sister Asatsuki joined the group, and at a moment when the conversation was lively, she quietly asked me if she could talk with with Teru and me. I signaled Teru with my eyes, and then Fumie, and Teru and I slipped away while Fumie continued to talk with the others.

Sister Asatsuki joined us about a minute later.
 
Teru looked a little nervous as we entered her office.

"Teru, I'm glad you came today, and I'm glad to get an opportunity to get to know you a little."

"Uhm, thanks. It's a new experience, not as boring as I thought it would be. "

"That's good to hear. Now I have heard a little about you from Ryō and Fumie, and I trust their judgement. They have nothing but good to say about you."

Teru blinked and looked at me. I nodded in agreement and she smiled a little shyly. "Thanks, I guess."

I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Ryō's got a good head on his shoulders, so I'm willing to give both of you the benefit of the doubt, even in these unusual circumstances."

"I'm glad. I trust him, too."

"Now, I also want you know that most of the members would like to help in some way, but none of them feel they have room enough that you could stay and work and study without distractions. Now that they've met you, I'm hoping their feelings change. But I also took the liberty of taking the question up with the leaders of the area."

Teru just nodded.

I felt disappointed, thinking of Teru moving even farther away than to stay with a member of the congregation, but I didn't say so. "Okay, that'll be helpful. My boss at work is offering to ask around as well."

"What did you say to that?"

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

"Okay. By the way, how are the two of you handling things? 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."

Teru's expression showed she was not entirely convinced.

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

She looked at me again, and I nodded encouragingly.

"I guess I could."

I squeezed her hand again, then stepped outside, to find Fumie waiting in the hall.

"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."

Fumie smiled and wrinkled her brow, and then I remembered why I had thought on the train that she looked familiar.

"We have met, my first Sunday here."

She raised her eyebrows. "You seem to spend a lot of time on the trains in your own world."

"How many times did I fail to even notice you?"

"Who's counting?"

"Sorry."

She grinned. "Well, it was a small blow to my ego," she joked. "But I guess I can understand why, seeing what's happening with you and Teru."

"Er, thanks. It's good of you to come to watch after her today."

She continued to smile. "Glad to be able to help. Have you been looking into 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 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."

"She is very confident of her feelings towards you."

"With 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."

"And, at this point, I'm planning on asking her to enter my family registry once she turns eighteen. 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 -- effectively chattel. Still, love, that greatest of social engineers, manages to build paths around the law in good relationships. And bad relationships tend toward possessiveness, even in the west where love is said to be so free.

"That's what I wanted to ask you. But do you think it would be hard to get her guardian's permission, if there were reason not to wait?"

I responded with a guarded, "No. The police tell me that her brother is now officially her guardian. I have strong reason to believe he would be only too happy to give his permission."

"If 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. You could both lose something wonderful, while you're reaching for something perfect."

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

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

"Teru? Fumie?"

I puzzled over why she would be calling Fumie in.

They came in together, and Sister Asatsuki shut the door behind them.

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 at first she shook her head. "No, I don't want to do this. I've been hoping there wouldn't be anyone willing to put me up." She took a breath and looked 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, then?"

"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 own disappointment and turned back to Teru. "Then let's go meet her family today, if it's all right."

Fumie

TOC

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

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

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 re-reading the scriptures I had suggested to Teru. 

At lunch, Ms. Yamatani joined me at the kitchen window when I picked up the taster's tray. They had her tray ready as well, and we sat together 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 a side of 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?"

"Uhm. 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.

"My roommate."

> 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.

She's texting me. 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 my boss, who was observing my reactions, 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: I can understand that.

Fumie: Do you know her feelings?

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

Ryō: One thing I know, I'm not planning to make
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.

On the way to the train, I got a call on the cellphone from one of the officers who were taking Teru's case.

"We have been able to clear up the child custody issues for Teru Sumaguchi."

"Ahh, ...," I wasn't sure how to react.

"Enough evidence was gathered more than a year ago to allow the court order to be made permanent, and Amanoko Funamoto's custody and guardianship responsibilities for Teru Sumaguchi were permanently revoked. Unfortunately, there was no one the court could assign those responsibilities to until her brother Jun Sumaguchi achieved the age of majority, and the officers of the court were not able to contact him. Now that he is an adult, those responsibilities have been transferred to him."

"Well, that's good news, but what about contacting him to tell him?"

"We did, today, and he has signed the documents assuming responsibility for her and confirmed that she has permission to stay with you until his situation improves."

"Oh. Okay, would that allow me to find her a more suitable place?"

"If you do, please let both him and us know."

"I'll do that."

I sent Teru an e-mail with the news once I was on the train.  She did not reply.

Fumie texted me at 6:23 to tell me she had arrived. My train was still a couple of minutes away. As the train pulled into the station, I caught a glimpse of her waiting outside the gates with a bag over her shoulder.

From the platform, as I headed for the gates, I saw Teru approach the gates.

As I watched, both of them immediately took notice of the other, and they started talking. Introductions were complete by the time I had gotten through the gates, and they were already deeply engaged in conversation.

"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.

"How about I make 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.

"With haggis."

"Haggis?" Fumie stopped and looked at me.

"Where're you planning on getting that?" Teru was laughing.

I grinned. "Okay, you two are aware I'm here."

Teru rolled her eyes.

Fumie looked like her interest was piqued. "Haggis yakisoba. Might work." And we started walking again. But they slowed their conversation down enough I could sneak in a comment every now and then.

"By the way, Teru, your liaison officers called and told me that your custody responsibilities and rights have now been transferred to Jun."

"Yeah, great! I got the message." But that was her only reaction. I wondered whether the news had actually registered.

I had enough onions, raw ginger root, apple vinegar, soy sauce, prunes, and potatoes at the apartment, so I picked up just the yakisoba noodles, pork, tofu, more cabbage and carrots, moyashi, an apple, and couple of plums at the supermarket. No haggis.

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 serving God."

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 could 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. And quick to eat.

When we were done, 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, and we discussed 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. It has to do with the way God's power works."

Teru sighed. "Okay, save it for later. What's this 'just believe' 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, someday."

"If Teru had believed that, would it have helped her have the courage to leave?"

"Well, she can believe it as long as she's here and Angel is there."

Fumie shook her head. "Bad joke."

Teru gave me a dark look. "Not even funny." Then she sighed. "But true things happen even if you don't believe."

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

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

I nodded.

Fumie explained, "What Jesus is saying here is to believe in Him."

"What does that even mean? Isn't it like believing in Santa Claus? Or the Shichifukujin?" Teru shook her head.

I asked, "What good things can happen when people believe in Santa Claus?"

"Children behave themselves?"

"What else?"

"Uhm, waiting for presents seems like it could be either good or bad."

"How about giving presents?" Fumie suggested.

"You know, that seems like it could be either good or bad, too. Sometimes people give presents to bribe people to do bad things."

"Do you know about Nicholas, the bishop of Myra who is generally considered to be the historical origin of the Santa Claus tradition?" she asked.

"I think I've heard of him. He helped a lot of people. And he gave secret gifts, right?"

"Right."

Teru thought some more. "Okay, so the belief is supposed to help you do good things. I guess the Seven Gods of Fortune are similar, each represents a virtue that people are supposed to emulate."

I looked at Fumie and she nodded.

"That's good place to start from."

"So what about Jesus?"

This time, I yielded the response to Fumie.

"His name means 'God is help' in the original language."

"Oh-kay, so we should believe that God will help us, and that will motivate us."

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

Fumie nodded in agreement.

"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'. My dad, who has authority from God, met me in the water, said words of the covenant, and --"

"The Words?"

"Sort of. And he put me 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 especially good to be resurrected, right?"

Fumie responded, "Well, if we want to be resurrected with the Savior, to life, we have to follow His teachings, 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.

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

"Even Angel?"

"Even Angel's boyfriend." Fumie spoke in earnest. "But more important to you, 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 looked at Fumie, and Fumie just shrugged. "It is what it is. Sometimes, cheap allegories are not wrong."

Teru grumbled, but she and Fumie proceeded to walk with me through some setup procedures, and soon the PC had three work user accounts set up, one for each of us, in addition to the admin users. Then they set it up to spawn ephemeral user processes to run applications safely in, with template file systems that would keep the applications safe.

And then, while I watched, Fumie helped Teru adjust the template settings for the abominable mainstream OS so that any of the three work login users could start it in a jailed ephemeral user virtual machine. I did not follow half of what they did.

Then I logged in on my work account and started an instance of the abominable OS, 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. I started another instance, started a word processor document, and pasted the copied stuff in. It was a little clumsy, but it worked, and we could be fairly confident the vulnerabilities of the abominable OS would not allow malware to do damage, even to the login user's data.

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 manuals and documents for work and access them from VMs I started in my work user account, without making them accessible from other work user accounts. With that in place, I could finally use the PC for work for real, keeping the manuals confidential. I let them do this one, too, even though I understood what they were doing.

I had put off actually using the computer for working with my manuals, because I knew that the usual approach, using the abominable OS as the host OS and managing the files within it would leave it vulnerable to some malware I might pick up on the Internet, even if I set up the admin and work user accounts in that OS properly (which is still rarely done) and kept the anti-virus/anti-malware software up-to-date.

Anti-virus and anti-malware software always suffer from 0-day vulnerabilities. Teru had insisted I figure out why that is several years ago, and I had not forgotten.

We set up encrypted 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. Then we set it up to interface with Line, as well, and tested it by chatting with my family on the PC.

Dad was especially happy to meet Fumie; Mom, not so much. But they all connected with her via Line.

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

I thought I saw Mr. Inoshita there, but I wasn't sure, and then he was gone. If he saw us, he must have decided to stay out of sight.

On the way back from the station, Teru and I talked about Jun officially being her guardian, and about her having official permission to stay with me. She was quite happy about the permission to stay.

Teru and I had no problems with dreams or temptations that night, even though she asked for, and got, a goodnight kiss.

Next

TOC

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Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-7-woman-on-train.html.

Sudden Roommate (6) -- Night Horrors

*** Content warning: nudity, questionable education techniques, child abuse, inconvenient biological functions generally considered not appropriate for general conversation. ***

Previous: Bad Date

In my dreams, things their Aunt Fumiyo had said, both directly to me and in my hearing, and things she had arranged for us to do when we were much younger, came back to me.

I dreamed of the three of us playing in the Sumaguchi's bath house and attached meditative gardens before retiring under her watchful eye to the sleeping room. Jun and I were six and Teru was two the first time I stayed overnight with them, but the over-nighters continued for the next five years.

Among certain segments of this country, even in these modern days, people don't in general think 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 many old traditions, it is simply not cause for thought.

My dreams shifted, to one of the last times I spent the night at their house.

Mixing western and eastern traditions randomly can make a mess. In the neo-Victorian western tradition, there are things that should not be talked about in mixed company, in no small part because of the excitement, confusion, outright panic, and other forms of stimulation just talking about them can cause. In many far eastern traditions, it may be that they are usually spoken of in whispers and/or with amusement, but they are not really forbidden. Nobody even gets very excited about them, possibly because of the close quarters they traditionally live in.

I would not mention them here, but what happened that night altered our relationships significantly.

"Oh, how cute." Aunt Fumiyo examined 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, occupied as I was with the strange and unfamiliar feelings of the wash of what I did not know at the time were called hormones in my circulatory systems.

The evidence she claimed was before my eyes, floating in the water of the bath -- not that I understood why it was evidence or what it was evidence of. What I understood was that it was something I had not seen before that had somehow come from inside me, and it seemed to be associated with those strange and unfamiliar feelings.

"Married!" Teru was laughing happily, splashing playfully in the water in front of me, innocent of the meaning of what had happened, only marginally aware that her nearness had played a part. "But ya still have cooties. Ya can't kiss me!"

Jun honked a horse laugh from the other yokusō, where he was soaking in water hotter than I was used to.

Aunt Fumiyo scooped the viscous whitish droplet out of the water with a clean cloth napkin. "In our traditions, we should present this to the go-between, as evidence that you and Teru are compatible. But I'm not sure it would persuade your parents. I don't think they understand their own scriptures."

The traditions she mentioned are not universal in our country. They apply, in fact, in a rather limited cultural scope. And irony is irony, whether intentional or not.

Aunt Fumiyo did not attempt to embarrass me about it, nor did she even comment further on the subject that night.

But when I slept over the next week, Jun was told to take his bath early. Uncle Nozomu joined his wife and Teru and me in the bath house, and Aunt Fumiyo began her lessons. She was well organized and used correct terminology, and, I have to admit, her lessons were more instructive, both functionally and morally, than the lessons we would later receive in the public school system.

She and her husband did not demonstrate the sex act itself, but they did show us what would go where when it was time to start learning how to make babies -- and not before it was time. They were careful to make sure we understood the not-before part, although they did not specify how the appropriate time should be known. Aunt Fumiyo said it was better for a couple to learn technique from each other than to be taught by other people, or learn from such things as magazines designed to rob people of their freedom.

Uncle Nozomu mostly left the lectures to his wife, but, when she told us that it was not a good idea to have more than one partner in making babies, he put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye and said,

Son, at bare minimum, every woman you have sex with holds a new set of microflora and microfauna that you expose your body to, and a new set of cultural ideals and demands that you expose your soul and your freedom to. That's one more set of opportunities to get sick and one more set of opportunities to lose control over your life. And if she gets pregnant, there's a child you must assume responsibility for.  

And he turned to Teru and said, "Women and men are not equal in this. When a woman has sex with more than one man, the dangers to her health and her freedom are ten times as great."

Both Teru and I asked him what he meant, and he said, "Take too much freedom now and you end up losing it later."

Fumiyo shook her head and splashed a bucket of water over her husband's head, and said, "Just remember it's a good idea not to have sex until you make a proper commitment, and it's a bad idea to have more than one partner."

One more thing Uncle Nozomu said to me that night that left it's impression on me, sitting partially covered by a towel out in the meditative garden: "Son, when the time comes, Teru is going to need a good man. You're the best man I know of for her."

That was the last over-nighter, the last time my mother let their Aunt Fumie take charge of me. And it was, in fact, one of the last times I remember speaking with Uncle Nozomu.

My parents immediately took the time to correct any misconceptions I might have obtained from the experience, Dad apologizing for not being aware of the changes his son was going through, and Mom apologizing for just assuming that Fumiyo would have been having us bathe and sleep separately well before Jun and I reached puberty, and not checking.

My dreams changed again, and again I saw children playing together in the Sumaguchi's bath house and gardens under Aunt Fumiyo's watchful eye. But these four children and Aunt Fumiyo were all a decade older.

I now saw clearly that Aunt 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. That's where I saw her, 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 cast by the moonlight on my tee-shirt showed me things that I had been avoiding seeing.

"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 and arms 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 saying anything more, 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 sat in the swing beside her and pushed myself off, 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. "Nor me."

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 Jun and you. And then we weren't children any more in my dreams. And there was a fourth in the bath house with us."

"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 had us do."

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

"I did."

"What about now?"

I guessed at what she was asking. "You mean nocturnal emissions tonight?"

"You say that so casually."

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

"Oh." She took some time to think. "She's been trying to put us together since when we were pretty young, 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. And some other stuff. Then I woke up curled up against you."

I stopped. "Then that part 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 did not consciously move there, but I didn't want to move away, either. But then I could feel your body responding."

"Uhm ..."

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

I didn't know what to say.

"I 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 now."

Finally, there was something for me to say. "We'll both be giving up our right to choose before we make the formal commitments before the law. 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 apparently the way things get done. Promises, yes, but the legal stuff later."

"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 placing the rolled-up kakebuton between us again.

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

"We're going to be okay, but both of us need sleep."

"Can you pray for us?"

Teru's suggestion moved me back 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, until sleep took us again.

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 still bent awkwardly, and the partially flattened kakebuton underneath me 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 hidden allegory. Anyway, we haven't taken a chance on pregnancy, and we're still trying to give each other room to make decisions."

"There's something I can understand and agree with. So, should we go to the pond park again today?"

"I need something to work the kinks out of my legs and back, 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 railroad 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. And 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 revealed how tired she was.

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

We kept running.

"I've said, 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. We should call 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."

"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 my 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 were catty, but the tone was not.

"Nice to see you, too, Mom. Nice to see all of you." Teru wasn't put off by her words, either.

"So, Ryō, you move to the big 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." Or maybe she knew she wasn't really 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. You know 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 something about this." Misachi took a 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?"

"We 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 apologetic. "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 don't have a place I can offer you right now."

"It's okay, Dad."

It took a few moments for the rest of us to recover from Dad's change in attitude.

"So we need to figure something out for you." 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."

"I understand."

"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 graduates."

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. Yes, I asked the church where you were, Ryō." 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, Ryō."

"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."

Dad blinked.

"Probably not coincidence."

"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 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."

"Thanks, you guys. No matter which directions things go, having you guys as family has always helped us. 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.

The Woman on the Train

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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.

Sudden Roommate (5) -- Bad Date

*** Content warning: date violence. ***

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.

"I think we need to run another small load of laundry when we get back."

"Already? You want to look at my lacy stuff again?"

"My schedule will make laundry difficult tomorrow, and I'd rather not run laundry on Sunday."

"It isn't that much work."

"But it distracts me from thinking about God."

"Oh. You don't want to look at my lacy stuff on Sunday."

I coughed. "Whether I want to look at your underthings or not is --" I had to stop and think. "Well, it isn't the real reason."

She looked away from me, but I thought she was smiling. "Then let's get back."

Getting the load started only took a few minutes.

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 that way."

"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 really 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."

"Ah. And we need to hang the laundry out."

Hanging the laundry out only took us five minutes, and then I studied my manuals, stopping sometimes to watch as Teru prepared an SD card to boot openBSD from, to test the cheap computer's compatibility before actually attempting to install the more secure operating system directly on the computer.

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

"They're getting more IP and licensing problems in the kernel."

"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 those virtual monopolist twins do."

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

"Lots of systemd cruft now, too."

"Systemd?"

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

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

"I'm not as bad now as I was at twelve." 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 route and 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. Yeah. 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 then, 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. Sort-of covered by ishindenshin because of this overly strong culture we were raised in."

"Intuition and telepathy. Would it work for me if I tried to do this?"

"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 again 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.

"Oh. Minimum age twenty. I guess I can't do this kind of job yet."

"You could be cleaning staff."

"I'll pass."

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. Bah. But I've been explaining to her how everyone is beautiful to the people that matter to them, so she doesn't have to worry about who thinks she's pretty, 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. Your friends' 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 we accepted the friend requests.

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 my boss no, can I?"

"Of course you can. I can always eat in 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 and bring it. 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 or today, and I'm not behind schedule."

"It's the face time with the residents, not the schedule, I'm looking at. As your boss I can officially 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. Would you mind if I asked 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."

She grinned.

I pulled up the Line app and my boss 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: If it's about your roommate, I'm
sure he's worried.

Ryō: She is.
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 the abominable mainstream OS 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 sent the message and 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 my expressions 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 don't 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. 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. It turned out the congregations we attended were part of the same diocese.

We continued chatting when I got home, and 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, still sharp enough to penetrate the door.

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."

Lame. 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. It might be safer to stop him first, 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 his arm slapped against the door above 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 the wall was high enough to prevent him going over.

"Wh-who are you?" Blood dripped from his nose and beaded around the scratches from the cement against his face.

"Someone who is going to save your life or save your erstwhile date the trouble of ending it. The decision is yours." I let him think about the meaning of that while I reached inside for a bit of facial tissue to offer him for the blood.

He refused it.

"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 out here?" I squatted down opposite him and Teru leaned against the inner wall.

"What's to talk about?" He wiped his face, smearing the blood.

"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 really 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. Do you know what happens when you try forcing yourself on a woman who doesn't know how to defend herself, and she 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 relationships 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 sniggered, then laughed out loud. "Fergettit."

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

I guess that's true. One of us would always stop if the other was irrecoverably going down. It was another of Jun's plusses. But Mr. Inoshita didn't need to know that just now.

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," he continued.

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

I shook my head and laughed quietly.

Mr. Inoshita laughed, 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 understand."

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

"Group dates? What's that?"

"Get together in groups and go bowling or do service projects. Maybe even karaoke. No making out, because everyone is with everyone."

"That's weird." But he thought about it. "What groups?"

"Work, church, school ..."

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. There's a dance next Saturday, even. 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. I showed him where it was on the map, and wrote down the address on the paper Teru brought out and and gave it to him.

He looked at the paper doubtfully, but accepted it. Then he said he guessed he should leave, and we let him borrow the sink to wash his face before he said goodnight.

Teru and I prepared for dinner quietly.

The doorbell rang before we could sit down. When I opened the door, Mrs. Terauchi, the apartment owner, looked us over with concern.

"Your neighbor called me, wanted to call the police."

"That was nice of her," I said.

"What happened?"

"Teru had a date who wouldn't behave himself."

Mrs. Terauchi looked at Teru with very serene compassion. "A date? I've been inclined to think you were already living with the perfect guy."

Teru looked at me with a smirk. "The guy I'm living with is so wonderful that we are waiting until I'm eighteen to do anything about what we feel for each other, and I'm continuing to date guys closer to my own age until then."

I could see Mrs. Terauchi's serenity crack, ever so slightly. I was worried for a moment, but the corners of her mouth just twitched.

"Well, I wouldn't have thought you were just roommates. I hope you understand the rules, but if you are just roommates, I'll need to charge you both to live here, and ask you to move to an apartment with more rooms. Regulations, you know. I do have one opening up in a month."

I heard Teru take a sudden breath, not quite a gasp.

I replied. "That actually would be very helpful, if we can't find better arrangements for Teru before then."

Mrs. Terauchi put her hands on her hips and left her slippers in the entryway, crossing in front of me, to sit down beside Teru and take her into a hug. They whispered together for a few minutes, while I drew some hot water and mixed some tea, then she leaned back and stroked Teru's head reassuring before turning back to me. "Ah, but there's no need to rush things, really."

I'm not sure why I didn't think it odd that Teru relaxed with her. Except Mrs. Terauchi is someone who really cares about her renters.

She took the tea I had mixed for her, and we sat and talked about inconsequentiallities while she sipped at it. When the cup was mostly empty, she fixed me with a serious look and said, "I must say, I still expect you to take proper care of your friend's little sister." Then she bid us good night and left.

We ate dinner together quietly. And I didn't ask Teru what the whispering was all about.

As we cleaned the dishes, she commented, mostly to herself, "I think I need to learn a different way to behave on dates."

"How do you think you can do that?"

"Church."

"Church?"

"Well, I said I go, I guess I go. And you and I could dance next Saturday."

"I'm game."

"Can I have that kiss you were pretending to demand, 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." She breathed deeply.

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, watching each other over the end of the rolled-up kakebuton, not saying anything, until dreams overcame us.

Night Horrors

TOC

---

Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-5-bad-date.html.

Sudden Roommate (4) -- Ambiguities, Day 2

Previous: Running Mate

I threw myself into work, cleaning three of the residents' rooms in ten minutes before we started helping them get to the cafeteria for lunch. (Well, a quick clean of the porcelain surfaces, anyway.) While we watched them eat, several of the staff pressed me about the package. I just grinned a little ironically and said things were okay, it was not contraband after all.

At my lunch break, I went outside where I could make calls in private, and called the police and then the congregation leader at church. The police were still not encouraging about the options they could give Teru. She would be safer and they thought she would probably happier staying with me.

I mentioned that I wasn't sure of my own ability to deal with the situation, but they were not very concerned. They did say that it would change things if Teru thought I was a danger to her, and then they tried again to impress upon me how much better it would be for Teru to stay out of their system. And they said they'd drop by to check up on her.

Then I called the congregation leader, and she said she wasn't getting any positive responses. She was not telling anyone unnecessary details, beyond that Teru was my friend and needed a good family to stay with for a while, but everyone was too busy and had too little room.

I thought again about not being able to contact Teru as I went back inside to eat.

My boss was waiting for me in the break room.

"Are things really okay?"

"Sure."

"You've been a little distracted all morning."

I liked my boss, Ms. Yamatani. So far, she was a good boss.

Actually, I liked all my co-workers, although there were a couple who seemed to have interest in re-making me in their own shadow. If I'd just learn to do things their way, I'd be their perfect buka -- much like Jun's attitude toward me during middle school and high school had been.

Does everyone have to deal with this kind of thing? People who want them to be something they aren't? Who want to make disciples or underlings out of them?

I appreciated their desire to help, and I can deal, to a certain extent, with pecking order, but I am no mortal's disciple. I have to approach tasks the way I can understand them, or I make a mess of things.

Anyway, I'd learned that giving away too much of my personal life to the people I associate with every day is another way to leave me too much at the mercy of their whims. Maybe I could trust my boss. Or maybe her interest had ulterior motives I wouldn't be able to deal with down the road. I wasn't sure yet, so I hedged.

"Yeah, that package isn't contraband, but," I chose my words carefully, "it does incur some responsibilities."

She looked at me expectantly. "What kind? Can I ask?"

"I'd rather not say."

My boss looked worried. Just then my phone pinged. I checked, and there was an e-mail from my own gmail account. The subject said, "With apologies for logging in ..."

Teru.

"Excuse me, I need to answer this."

"No problem."

"It'll probably take the rest of my break."

"Okay, but if you need to talk, I'm here."

"Thanks." I nodded and smiled, distractedly, I'm sure, and she left.

I typed in my answers as I read the message.

> You're getting sloppy.
> Of course, you didn't expect to have a roommate,
> but you really shouldn't set any computer to autologin
> to your admin account.

As you say, I was not expecting it to be turned on while
I was out. And you're right. I should have already set up
a browsing and working account by now. But I've barely had a chance
to turn it on to even make sure it runs. This job keeps
me really busy.

> And why are you running the mainstream operating system
> that leaks like a sieve?

Well, I need to run those abominable mainstream office
applications, to read the manuals the company supplies.

So I got a cheap computer for it.

> Do you want me to set up some non-admin accounts to
> work in?

Go for it. In fact, if it'll run a virtual machine, go ahead and
install a proper host OS. I'll trust your choice.

But don't spend your money on the install media. I'll
buy that. There's a good shop near the apartment.

> Had to leave my phone, to avoid alerting Angel too
> early that I was leaving, and to make it harder for
> her to track me.

It sounds like we need to talk about that, too.

> So, there's this guy at work asking me for a date
> tomorrow night. Half of me says no, I don't want to
> be bothered. Another half seems to be saying it
> would give you some of the space you need.

Think about it with your mind, then ask your own
heart. If he's not a jerk, it could be a good chance to
make a friend here.

> Hope you don't mind too much.

Nah. I know you know what you're doing.

Yes, Teru was already something of a hacker when I went for my two years of service. She had taught me a few things about it before she left. What am I saying? Hacking was one of the things that the three of us did for fun. Hacking, not cracking.

When I got home after work, I climbed to the fifth floor of the apartment building and tested the air with my nose. It smelled like one of my neighbors had something unusually good cooking.

Teru was sitting in the open entryway reading my scriptures. She put my scriptures down and stood up, and took me into a hug and kissed me before I had time to react. Then she leaned back and looked into my eyes. "If we have to date other people, you are not going to just stand by and be my other big brother any more. I need something to compare them to."

"That's, uhm --" I was busy banking fires inside me. "-- poisoning the well."

"It sure is." She smiled. "But I know we can only handle so much poison, so no making out. Just a hug and a kiss when I need it."

"And I'm supposed to be Superman."

"Hi, Clark. But I'll be superhuman when you need it, too, okay?"

"Mmm. This is hard. We need to disengage and go shopping."

We untangled ourselves.

"No dinner first?"

I looked past her and noticed the kotatsu set up, with dinner laid out.

"That wonderful smell on my way up was my own apartment. You went shopping without me." I removed my shoes and stepped past her through the entryway, and she followed me. "Did you have the money?"

"Jun made me swear off shoplifting a year ago, and I did not mess with your stuff, well, other than your clothes."

"Woops. That wasn't what I meant. I meant, well, I hope you didn't spend money you couldn't afford."

She looked down, and I could see frustration leaking out. "So much of our lives is owned by the kumi. Even though I've been working part time for the last two years ..."

I reached out and lifted her chin and questioned her with my eyes.

"No, not on my back. I don't know how, but Jun and Aunt Fumiyo managed to keep me out of that."

I blinked and shook my head. "That was not what I intended to ask."

"I worked at a supermarket back home." She shrugged and looked away. "But even that money was taken by Angel when she chose. Jun suggested I salt a little away in a hidden corner of a drawer each paycheck. So I was able to get away with enough to pay my share of food until my first paycheck here."

"Okay, thanks for buying tonight, but hang onto it from now on, just in case." I set my pack against the wall and washed my hands at the kitchenette sink. "Say, if you really didn't know it was my apartment, why were your wearing my shorts and tee?"

A gaijin friend said the kitchenette was hardly worth calling a kitchenette, since it was little more than a cupboard and a sink in an extension of the entryway. His description was actually pretty accurate.

"I just was feeling really grungy after working a whole week in the same clothes, and I figured I could sweet-talk whoever I was borrowing it from. I mean, I kind of wished it could be you and I was scared it would be, but I was expecting Jun to arrange for me to stay with a girl. If I had known it was you, I wouldn't have borrowed it 'cause I know I can't sweet-talk you."

"And just what have you been doing the last day and a half?"

She smiled shyly. "What I've been trying to do for, like, six years?"

"Six years ago, you were still declaiming my cooties."

She grinned and gave me a sly look. "Young girls say things like that when they don't know what's going on inside themselves. I wanted to kiss you and I didn't know why, and it was scary."

I nodded and grinned and shook my head at the same time. "I guess little boys do some of that, too."

Dinner was simple, udon noodles with a fragrant soup. She had set aside some of the gu for Friday's lunches, so we had a little time to enjoy eating together before we went shopping at a nearby 24-hour mall.

As we walked to the mall, I asked her about the date.

"He suggested a lot of things I don't think I should do on a first date. I mean, things I don't want to do on a first date, knowing what people often do there."

"Such as?"

"Karaoke or movies or the planetarium or games at his place. Maybe for group dates."

"Mmm. I think I agree. I remember when you were twelve and convinced you should be doing all those things already."

She poked me in the ribs with her elbow. "Anyway, we settled on going to the aquarium before it closes. He works from two to six, so we could get in by six thirty, and we'd have a bit more than an hour to wander around and look at fish."

"I'm jealous. Do you want to take my phone?"

"I don't think it'll be necessary."

Enough food for the weekend was quick to purchase when we got to the mall. The SD cards for installing a secure OS were quick to find, and we passed a women's clothing store on the way out.

"You don't really have clothes for a date, you know."

"If you're offering to buy, you're saving for school so you don't have that much money, either."

"It would help members of our congregation think more positively about letting you stay with them if you came to church on Sunday. Let's see if we can find you something reasonable for a date and church in there."

It took me a bit more persuading, but she gave in and we found fairly conservative, but not too plain, jeans, a skirt, a nice blouse, and a tee shirt that weren't too much of a drain on my budget, and we went home a little better prepared for the weekend.

When we got home, the two officers from the day before were waiting, and again I stepped outside for a few minutes while they talked with her to make sure she was okay.

After they left, we did light exercises and went for a walk before baths, and between the exercise, the scriptures, and the prayers, and the baths, we both got to sleep okay. And Teru decided she'd pray, too.

I'll admit to sneaking a peek at her sleeping face as I drifted out. To the bone or skin deep, it was definitely not unpleasant.

Bad Date

TOC

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Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-4-ambiguities-day-2.html.