Chapter 3

What do I wish for? College graduation, a good job in a field I enjoy, being a source of satisfaction to my parents, an example of the Gospel in peoples’ lives, wife and family? Pretty good list.

I’m on track with a lot of that in my own estimation, but right now the edges of my path are ragged.

Example of the things I believe? I thought I believed in chastity and the sanctity of marriage but here I am walking in the sunshine of a fine autumn day longing for night so I can...

I can what?

I know it’s real, right? Sachiko? I can feel her, touch her, talk with her, and what she does ... Even she says that at first she did it because she was commanded. Now she says she enjoys. When she first came to me, I was unconscious of her activities. Now I’m very conscious, anticipating, and yet not, because at this point I think that when she finishes me for the night, she goes.

I don’t want her to go. But what do I do? A month ago Sachiko was a creature that, as far as my knowledge went, did not exist. Now I know she exists. I did not know I had a need. Now I know I have a need.

It’s a need that far surpasses the feelings that I get when her little dark hair is moving at my crotch, when her hands and lips and tongue and teeth are leading me through unknown space to ecstasy.

I want Sachiko. I ask myself why. Common sense tells me that first, I know little about her – snippets of revelation from our short conversations. Second, not only is she from an entirely different culture, medieval Japanese, which I know nothing of, but she was training to be a prostitute. Third, we’re in two worlds. I’m quite assuredly ensconced in everyday, normal reality. She’s from a spirit dimension that I never believed existed.

I found myself at Lady Ramona’s emporium.

“I had a feeling you would be back,” she said when she saw me.

“Of course,” I said. “You’re the only one I know of that has any insight into my situation.”

“Ah, it’s a situation, is it?”

“How many people come to you and tell you they’re cursed?”

“Quite a few actually. How many are REALLY cursed versus how many who’re told they’re cursed or how many are trying to blame a curse for the results of poor choices, those are all very different numbers.”

“How many of them do you help?”

“Robert. Bud. You came here the first time as a skeptic. I sense that you still are, but you’re shaken to your foundations...”

“I am.”

“I explained before, some of what I do is art, is placebo, is effective because the user needs a false cure for a non-existent problem. Your problem, young Bud, is real, made worse by the circumstances. Had our Sybil brought forth the creature she thought she was summoning, you would be screaming for an end. Sybil put about as much diligence into the summoning as she does with other areas of her life, and you become the only man I ever heard of who was in love with his succubus.”

“If you could see her ... She’s a very bad succubus. I want to scoop her in my arms, carry her to the altar, commit...”

“Be careful what you wish for.”

“You said that before. I take it to mean there may be a possibility.”

“I do not know. Nobody seems to know what may surround such a creature as Sybil has called into existence.”

“Kind of like Fleming and bread mold.”

She smiled. “Yes. I do know of that story and a myriad of other happy accidents. Fleming’s ‘accident’ benefited many.” She saw my bemused expression. “Oh, yes ... the young engineering study finds it amusing that Lady Ramona has knowledge beyond arcana and essential oils...”

“Sorry. It’s just...”

“Enough said, young student. I take your happiness as something I have brought into the day.”

“It is. But my problem...”

“Right now, I have no answer. You are safe.”

“Every night.”

“She is a summoned succubus.”

“Now, every night, we talk. Her words, they’re like one of the incenses you sold Sybil – they bring calm, happiness – except they leave me with longing.”

“And you, Bud, you are not one of those males who thinks only with his...” She paused. “One factor in why YOUR succubus is as she is. Also why Sybil is not beside you...”

“Sybil was ... interesting.”

“Interesting, for a start, then tending toward flighty, impulsive and tedious,” the lady said.

A customer, two, actually came in. Lady Ramona left me sitting while she tended to them. I overheard parts of the conversation. These girls were in the ‘experimentation’ phase of getting into adulthood. Lady Ramona came back smiling.

“A sale?”

“Very best for me. They are curious and happy and their needs are easy to satisfy because they anticipate good things. Herbal teas, incense, a couple of crystals...”

“None of those things connect,” I said.

“Oh, you think too much about it. Do you see that car across the street?”

I looked through the gap in the drapes. Somebody’s ‘ricer’, a Japanese car all decked out with spoilers and air dams. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Do you honestly think that the owner really drives that car in a manner where those appurtenances are any possible help?”

“Probably not.”

“Our two young ladies are like the owner of that car. They have good, even privileged, lives, and they want a stripe or a spoiler or an air dam to show others that they’re a bit more advanced. Different.”

“I didn’t want to be different, Lady Ramona.”

“Yet here you are.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“I am looking into things.” She smirked at me. “I won’t say ‘research’ because you’re a scientific young mand and you KNOW that we occultists don’t really do research.”

“I’m sorry. That was a poor thing to say.”

“And my pointing it out is your punishment for saying it. I will talk with people who know things different than what I know. Perhaps we may gain insight. In the meantime, I don’t think you have a choice. She will come to you. If you try to stay awake, you will fall into fitful sleep and she will still come to you. But you, young Bud, you WANT her to come to you, so I recommend that you simply enjoy her as the gift you think she is.”

“Sybil gave me quite a gift.”

“Quite by accident. And Sybil’s intentions apply measures of things to her karmic balance. She has that sword hanging over her head.”

“She played with something that she thought might kill me...”

“You ascribe a depth of thought to the girl...”

“She’s not stupid...”

“No, she’s not stupid. Just self-centered. No thought. You need to stop thinking about her. She has her path. You have yours. Your paths crossed. Now they go in different directions.”

“I see.”

“DO see, young Bud. And go in peace. Enjoy your Sachiko. Consider that many people live lives without the piece of happiness such as you enjoy.”

“Yes, ma’am. And thank you.”

I left the little shop of un-routine and went back to my routine world. Harrison was making chili in the kitchen at the Student Union. It might not be the best chili on the planet, but he’s proud of it and it’s the best chili to which I’ll have access tonight. The bowl marked the end of the day for me. I drove home, showered, went to bed, was reading and went to sleep with the lamp on beside the bed.

A voice. Sachiko. “Robert. Turn out the lamp.”

I did. Half awake. And when the lamp went out, she was there standing beside my bed.

“My beautiful Sachiko.”

“My Robert. My duty that is my pleasure. May I?” she asked, lifting the covers from me.

“Please, my lady.”

She giggled. “You are funny. I am no lady. Perhaps one day I might have become a lady, like Madame Sakura, but now I am only a maid from the inn.”

“You are the lady who enters my dreams.”

She fit herself against me, tonight leading with a kiss. “You like to kiss me.”

“I love to kiss you.”

“You love to ... everything about me.”

“This is true.”

Her hand reached down, gently wrapped around my erection. She smiled. “I love everything about you. We are together like that.”

“Sachiko...”

“You may call me ‘Chiki’. It is my little name, for my friends.”

“My Chiki. I want you to stay after you...”

“That is not possible for me. I am summoned, commanded, a boundary set. When I ... you ... then I am here no more.”

“But I want you here.”

She took my hand, put it over her breast, holding it there. “I know ... if there was a way, I would be here.”

I rolled to face her, sliding my left arm under her slight form, pulling her against me. This was new. First time. Face to face, nude bodies touching. And I kissed her.

I honestly thought my soul was leaving my body. Chiki offered not the slightest protest, moving to press as much of herself as she could against me. her hand between us gauged my hardness.

“I think that if I ... I so much enjoy gathering your essence, Robert. You are ... Tonight it will ... she smiled. “I will try to make it last.”

“You know to do that?”

“I was being trained, Robert. I was instructed that to prolong a man’s release is to prolong his glimpse of heaven.”

“Chiki...” I sighed as she slid down. A prayer of thanks for her trainers.

The next day between classes I ran into Darcy at the Student Union.