LOOK BOTH WAYS
17
Butterflies carried and cared for him. He could feel their bliss. He could smell the abundance of different flowers upon which they had visited before attending for him. His eyes opened to a white thatched ceiling above open brown timber rafters and larger bearers. He looked both ways, and it hurt, so he looked back up at the ceiling.
During his pain, however, he had seen three walls, one on either side of him, one past the bottom of his feet. White rice paper with thin brown timber bracing strips decorated all of them, but on the two to his side he knew without being told that their action was to slide and allow entry, and they would be called shoji screens.
His eyes closed gently down, but then opened as one of those screens swished quietly open and then closed.
‘Ohayo, gozaimus,’ said the soft voice of someone in native tongue he could not yet see; yet he understood her intended good morning.
Silently, she came to his side across soft, yet firm tatami straw matting and stood above him. Then he could see and was pleased. She was an angel, a Japanese angel, and, she was perfect, absolutely perfect.
He smiled weakly, but sincerely up at her from his place upon the floor matting. He watched attracted, as she suddenly clapped her hands firmly together, twice.
‘Kochira e, dozo,’ she said softly, a split second after he heard the same shoji screen slide open and then closed, and knew she had given instructions for another or more to come to where she stood.
Another Japanese angel and just as perfect, suddenly and silently materialised on his right, opposite the first angel. He watched the two angels glance at one another, then smile shyly. He smiled with them, but he did not know at what.
‘Hen na hito, des’ka?’ The new angel asked the first one in her native tongue, but he understood her asking for confirmation that he was the crazy man. He smiled, agreeing with the first angel, before he heard her answer.
‘Hai,’ said the first angel, and he heard her. Yes.
‘He is also awake. Is he well?’ The second angel then said in her native tongue, but he understood, and for the first time, wondered how that was possible?
He watched the first angel then look down at him, her face a mixture of joy and concern both. He smiled weakly up at them both.
‘Hai. Demo, wakara nai,’ the first angel acknowledged. Yes. But, I do not know.
‘Hello,’ number one said softly down to him.
‘Hi,’ he heard himself smile up at her in her native tongue and still wondered, amazed now, as his head began to clear of the fog that had surrounded him since his awakening. Number One seemed amazed, too, that he had spoken in the tongue of her own. He was no longer amazed. He accepted that status quo.
‘You speak Japanese?’ Asked number One.
‘I speak, human,’ he said quietly in her native tongue.
He watched number Two, as she glanced quickly at number One and raised her eyebrows. Number One just looked puzzled, and then looked back down at him.
‘Ima,’ number One said softly across to number Two. Now.
He watched her as she bent at the knees beside where he lay. Number two then did the same. Both then slipped their arms about his and straightened, lifting as they did so, at first gently and then strongly to easily lift him to his unsteady feet, despite his heavy weight and frame. The arms that held him while his mind and senses spun crazily were strong, and he was grateful when his senses cleared and he realised that.
‘Please accept our humble home, Master,’ number One said to him in her own tongue, her breath smelling of fragrant rose, and he understood her. ‘My family will help you get well. This is my sister, Yuki. My name is Shino.’
He smiled and puzzled at them both, and attempted to bow slightly, hoping they wouldn’t ask him something he knew he could not yet answer, but he became unsteady and swooned in their grip, yet their combined strength held him, until he became steady again.
‘Please come with us, Master,’ Shino said to him. ‘Our family will take care of you now.’
He looked both ways and saw Shino and Yuki both smiling with their hearts. He nodded and smiled and bowed and again became unsteady. Again their strength kept his balance until he did.
‘Why do you call me, master?’ He asked them in their own tongue and knew it.
‘Males are the masters of their houses in this country,’ Shino answered quietly, almost reverently, holding his eyes only briefly before glancing downward.
‘They are the chosen Masters in all families,’ Yuki added, as she lowered her eyes from his direct, yet soft gaze.
He allowed his two angels to slowly walk him along on unsteady feet toward the opposite shoji screen. Then Yuki held him strongly while Shino slid open the quiet paper door.
You call me your master and your Lord, he thought idly, as they stepped him carefully through to a natural rock-pool outdoor bathing area, and you are correct, for so I am.
Their caring for him in the way they were seemed right and natural to him, as they removed his light robe and giggled softly between themselves with their eyes downcast… at him. He stood naked before their gaze’. He could only smile and give thanks silently.
If I then, as your Lord and master, am willing to be your lowest servant in love, he thought curiously, and then you, too, will be willing to serve me, as you will, as well as one another.
Both fully clothed women in their late twenties then slowly lowered him down to sit on a small wooden stool. It was a relief to sit down. He felt balanced again.
In another place and another time I have given you an example, his mind recalled, without him searching, you will do the same as I have done for you then.
Slowly, tentatively, Shino released her firm grip on his upper arm and stepped away and to the front of him. Yuki remained, but stood now behind him, both her hands rested firmly upon his shoulders. Shyly, she delicately unwrapped the sash that bound the midsection and waist of her colourful kimono and gently folded it and placed it down upon a wooden bench.
She released her jet-black hair from the high full bun it had been tied high on her head with thin wooden spikes. Then she delicately allowed her kimono to fall gracefully from her body.
She was perfect, nude, and absolutely perfect. She walked over and around behind him, or, as it appeared to him, she glided, like an angel should. Her strong hands replaced Yuki’s upon his shoulders, who then stepped shyly forward and removed her kimono as well.
Yuki, too, then released her own hair from high on her head, as had done her sister. It fell to half way down her buttocks, as had Shino’s. Yuki was perfect, too, naked, and absolutely perfect. Then, she, too, glided back to stand beside him, and both angels then proceeded to wash and to bathe him from head to toe.
The water was warm and soapy. Soft sponges firmly rubbed him, until his skin felt as if it had been flayed raw in its divine cleanliness before their bathing mastery of him. His maleness had stirred to life at the very beginning and remained so, until the end and more even.
The two naked women then helped him to his feet and turned him to the left. In front of lay a natural rock pool bathing area. The steam from the crystal underground water rose from its surface in trails of scented flowers that filled his lungs with fervour and vitality.
His body remained alive and they saw. He saw them as they had seen and smiled softly; giggling often, while bathing him, but not a single word had passed their lips to each other.
Slowly, both women led him carefully down the rock slate steps, down into the hot steaming natural spring water. It was hot. They led him down further, until the steaming water reached the level of his chest.
They then tentatively and unexpectedly released him to his own balance now restored, and turning, they walked upward and out of the pool. Their firm buttocks jiggled only slightly. The temperature of the hot mineral water in which he stood half submerged quickly absorbed whatever natural feelings had thought of arising because of the sight of them in their utter and absolute female nudity.
I know where I have come from, and where I will go, he thought, as he languished in the rising heat of his body and imagined loving them both. You cannot tell where I have come from, or where I am going. You are from the earth. I am from above. You are of this world. I am now of this world. I have come to light a fire, and I will guard it until it rages.
‘Shigata ga nai,’ he said quietly and aloud. He looked both ways and grinned, then rested more deeply in the immersing liquid heat, to become well, quickly, in their loving care.