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!My cellphone pinged again.
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.
Ryō: Hold on, she just sent me an e-mail.I switched over to the e-mail app.
Fumie: Okay.
> Where did you get this computer?I sent the message and switched back to the chat.
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?
Ryō: I'm back.My boss was watching my expressions and laughing to herself. Then my phone pinged again. I checked the message from Teru.
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.
> If I have to date other people, you do, too.I sent that, and switched back to the chat session.
>
> 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.
Fumie: Maybe we could get together somewhere to"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.
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.
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.
Backed up at https://joel-rees-economics.blogspot.com/2019/10/bk-sudden-roommate-5-bad-date.html.
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