Chapter 9

Authors Note:

The following chapter has not been edited. As soon as I get the edited chapter I’ll be sure to post it here.

And now here I was, six years later, nervous as a school boy on his first date.

It was the evening of Anna’s and my dinner date. I paced the small room feeling like a caged lion. Questions, so many questions streamed through my mind.

I was long out of practice in calming my mind. Working with contractors didn’t require the same discipline as dealing with heads of state. Old yearnings and pain flowed over me, wave after wave, destroying my piece of mind.

I was a mess. I wanted to hold Anna in my arms again. I wanted to feel her against me. I wanted to yell and scream at her too.

I also wondered about Risa. So many questions, questions that I would finally learn the answers to. At least I hoped I would learn the answers. I had no guarantee that anything would be resolved by our dinner. I just hoped.

Breath. Breath in and hold a second then let it all flow out. I wouldn’t be doing anyone any good if I let my emotions run wild. Breath. I did take a moment to consider wearing my thick leather belt, a half smirk on my face. I decided against it. It game me too many ideas. The amused thought did give me something else to focus on. The Idea that I could always spank her later if I didn’t get the answers I wanted loosened the tightness in my chest. I couldn’t stop the chuckle that built up in my stomach.

I dressed in my best suit. The trip to the restaurant was short and didn’t leave me much time to brood. I’d arrived early to make sure that our reservations were kept, and waited at the bar until Anna arrived.

I sipped my club soda trying to order my thoughts as my stomach did occasional flips when she walked in. She wore a little black dress with a half jacket. She’d filled out slightly, but still looked and moved like a ballerina, floating across the floor. Nearly every man, and many women, turned to look at her. She stood at the hostess station waiting until she noticed me, and her whole face lit with a smile that radiated joy.

OK, I thought to myself, I am still fucked.

I could only watch her. I felt ever bit the backwards boy in that moment, clumsy and oafish. Her beauty still seemed ethereal to my very mundane earthiness. She glided to me, a teasing smile on her lips as she noticed my nervousness. She took my hands in hers; her whole body seemed to pour out her love, washing me in her radiance.

“I told you I would return to you,” she said.

“That isn’t what the postcard I received led me to believe,” I replied softly, my voice thick and a lump in my throat. I didn’t realize just how much courage it would take for me to say that.

Anna nodded sadly.

“I ... I had to try,” she offered, “he was a good man.” I could only nod. But then caught the past tense of her sentence.

“Was?” I prompted.

“He died two years ago at work,” she answered. Such deaths are rather common in Japan, there is even a word for it, Karōshi. I felt numb at the news. I also felt a kind of ghoulish sense of hope.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I offered wondering if I really meant it. I think I mostly did.

“Why did you wait so long to contact me?” I asked after a moment, trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice. I mostly succeeded.

“Rachel,” she answered. I nodded, thinking. I had been dating Rachel rather seriously until recently. For some reason, I just couldn’t let Rachel into the dark places inside of me, and she could feel the wall between us. Rachel would never have been able to accept the part of me that slept in the darkness though. Her world view didn’t allow for such darkness to exist in the people around her.

“And now?” I prompted.

“And now, we talk. And hopefully, you agree to my plan,” Anna offered, hope in her voice. I nodded again.

We were seated at a table, our drink orders taken. Anna vibrated with restrained energy. I got the feeling that she was happy to see me again.

“You look so dashing,” she stated, “So handsome. It is good that you’ve kept taking care of yourself,” she smiled impishly. I felt myself blush. I hadn’t expected the compliment. It caught me off guard. I couldn’t help but laugh softly.

“And you are a tease,” I countered, a soft smile on my face. It felt good to be able to smile around her.

“I am going to be your tease,” she confirmed.

I arched an eyebrow. I didn’t know how I felt, but she seemed to be moving quickly.

“What of Risa?” I asked, stalling for time.

“Risa is still in Tokyo. She is waiting Eric. We have worked towards this for a long time now. There are only a couple of things left to do, and then we can be together,” she stated.

“You have a plan?”

She grinned an impish grin, “I’ve learned how to plan very well,” she grinned, “Did you think I would need you to rescue me?,” her head tilting a half smile on her face.

“I didn’t know what to expect. I rarely do when it comes to you,” I explained.

“Tell me Eric, do you think you are ready to have a strong woman, with strong ideas?”

“I’ve never been afraid of strong women, Anna, you know that,” I assured her.

“You were always so confident,” she grinned, “There is something about strong, confident men that makes my tummy go pitter patter,” she said. I remembered her telling me that, on the beach, all those years ago.

The conversation during dinner was kept light. Too many strangers, I thought, for Anna to explain things to me. We lingered a moment over dessert, sipping our coffee trading silly stories about our experiences in the business world.

Yes, Anna had made it into the world of business. Her father had tried to arrange another marriage, but between her late husband’s estate, and her degree, she was able to live comfortably on her own.

She suggested we visit the restrooms before we started the next part of our date. I had bought tickets to a local art show, but apparently my only input for the evening was to be dinner. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

She has a driver waiting for us. We were going for a walk. We pulled up to a park that had hundreds of fountains in a reflecting pool. Each fountain was lit giving the park a gentle, romantic atmosphere.

Anna had slipped into a pair of walking shoes, leaving her heals in the car. She took my arm, and we began a leisurely stroll down along the water.

“I need to tell you a story Eric, so you will understand why you became so important to me,” she told me.

“My mother used to be a model in Poland,” she began, “She was also used by the modeling company to act as a paid escort. That does not mean she was a whore, though she sometimes did that as well. The problem for her was it didn’t pay as much as she hoped. Her goal was to land a rich husband and she needed to appear the part.

“During her time at the agency, she received an invite to attend a party for out of country business men who were looking to relax after long hours of negotiations with a local company. To my mother, it seemed an ideal situation. My father was one of those business men. He has a very strong personality and that drew her to him. It wasn’t until two months later that my mother learned that she was pregnant. Her pill had failed, most likely because they were too old.

“She was scared. She originally thought about contacting my father for support, but feared that he would just take me away from her, and for five years she lived as best she could until I was five. I don’t know why things had become so bad, I only know that they had, and in desperation, my mother finally contacted my father and told him what had happened,”

It took time and resources to find him Anna explained. Things that her mother had trouble getting.

It took time and resources to contact him.

And it took time and resources to convince him that Anna was her father.

But Anna’s father was already married, and he had two sons. Still, he was not going to let his daughter, even one he never knew about become a product of the Polish equivalent of family services. Anna’s father had a strong sense of family duty and honor.

A small apartment was purchased in Tokyo where Anna and her mother could live. Classes were provided so that they could learn Japanese. And when Anna’s mother became comfortable with the language, she was given a job where she could translate information from Polish and German into Japanese.

Anna on the other hand didn’t do as well initially. She became angry with her mother for hiding that she knew who her father was. She had yearned for a father for years. He would visit twice a month during the weekends, and Anna did everything she could to impress him. His initial aloofness caught her off guard, and she feared that maybe he didn’t want her. She tried harder and harder to impress him, doing everything he asked of her.

When she was twelve, tears in her eyes, she asked him why he hated her. He explained that he didn’t hate her, but that he didn’t love her because he never knew her. He already had children. But if she wanted to be a good girl, he would have her take classes on how to be a proper wife, and make arrangements to find her a good husband.

Desperate to win his approval and have him love her, she agreed. And thus began three years of hell for Anna, and a discovery about herself that left her feeling ashamed.

In Japan, the age of consent is fourteen. And in a country where sex and sexuality isn’t hidden, it isn’t uncommon to learn of fifteen year old girls participating in “Compensated Dates” with men old enough to be their father. The school that Anna was sent to, one that had been suggested by a coworker who had seen Anna and thought of her as only a sexual object, was one modeled to train young girls to become escorts. For three years Anna was trained to deep throat rubber dildos, serve men, and how to move in as pleasing a manner as possible.

The training was harsh, bordering on brutal. They would eat bowls of rice, and then be told to vomit it up until their gag reflex all but vanished. They were beaten by rattan canes, careful to not mar the skin, until they could endure against the pain. They were taught to dance and pose in manners that were pleasing to men. Anna endured it all, never complaining, and received high marks in her performances all to please her father. And through it all, Anna learned something about herself that nearly crippled her with guilt.

The Catholic Church in Poland was one of the few places where Anna’s mother could receive help. This isn’t saying that the Polish government wasn’t willing or able to assist, only that the echoes of being a Soviet Bloc state reverberated though some of their government programs to this day. And the quality of the care was poorer than was the Catholic Church was offering.

So Anna spent every Saturday evening, and every Sunday morning attending Catholic Church. And Her Catholic guilt came out when Anna began to orgasm under the humiliating experiences at this new school.