Chapter 7

I sat on the edge of the bed for a bit while I cut through the fog. I know what happened. The evidence is there on my bedsheet, a spot, semen, tinged pink.

The pink is not mine.

Two virgins started the evening. A man and a maid mated. I felt a disturbance in my head and in my heart. Wrong. Or was it? I know the conventions of modern society and the conventions of the contemporary church and both of them pronounce significance to what I know happened last night.

My situation, though, lies outside those venues. Two creatures of flesh and blood, the deed is common. I’ve never heard of a mating across The Veil.

I muddled through a bowl of cereal for breakfast, dressed, noted the time, elected not to go to class and walk in late. A cup of coffee at the Student Union, maybe a little time alone to meditate and read my Bible, those presented themselves. Okay.

I walked down the stairs, waved at my great-aunt, greeting her, got into my little car, and off I went. Harrison makes a good cup of coffee, and today’s his day to take the early shift. He splits the schedule with a couple of volunteers from local churches, but half the time he’s there from open to close anyway. Says it’s just his ministry.

I park in back and walk in the back door. One of the regulars is in the kitchenette.

“There’s a girl here to see you?”

“Who?”

“Never saw her before. I’d remember.”

I’ve heard the term ‘hackles rose on the back of my neck’. Now I’ve had it happen. My pace quickened as I walked up the hall to the reception area.

“There he is,” Harrison said, directing her towards me.

The little form was dressed in athletic shoes, jeans, and a concession to the brisk morning of an unseasonable cool snap, a bulky coarse-knit brown sweater, turtle-necked up to her chin. The hair, the eyes, the PRESENCE was unmistakable.

“Sachiko!”

“Robert. Here you are!” She smiled demurely, eyes laughing, bowed from the waist.

I mirrored her.

“So formal,” Harrison said.

“I know. This is what I WANT to do,” I said, opening my arms wide. Sachiko stepped inside them, forming herself to me.

“For heaven’s sake, introduce me,” Harrison said.

“Sachiko, this is Harrison Beadle. He’s the minister for this place. Harrison, I present Kaga Sachiko, or American-style, Sachiko Kaga. Kaga is her family name. This is my Chiki.”

“And this is my Robert. I am honored to meet you, Harrison.”

“I am also honored.”

I grasped Sachiko’s tiny hands, backed away from her to look at her in the light of day. She’s exquisite, creamy complexion, the delicate eyebrows above sparkly, intelligent eyes, her hair short, framing her face. The bulky sweater concealed her shape but her jeans accentuated the long, slender legs I knew.

She looked down. “I feel guilty not removing my shoes, Harrison.”

“It’s not done here.”

“My last home, tatami, rice straw mats. Very good for feet. Not good with shoes.”

“I’ve heard of the custom,” Harrison answered. “The shoes...”

“Geta. Easy to remove. These shoes, very nice. Feel good. Not so easy to remove and put on.”

“I’m surprised you’re here, Chiki-san,” I said. “It was a long trip.”

“Yes. Perhaps I can tell you of it?” She flicked her gaze between me and Harrison.

“We can do that.”

“I am very pleased to have met your friend.” She smiled at Harrison. “I’m sure we will meet again.”

I led Chiki to one of the lounge areas. She shook her head. “So sorry, Robert. This is not private. For the things we must speak of.”

“I know a place where we can go.” I was thinking of a little coffee shop.

“I do also. Your home. Where I first met you.”

“Uh, Chiki...”

“It is proper, Robert. I am YOUR wife.”

“It’s like that.”

“It IS that, Robert. We married across The Veil.”

We drove back to the apartment. She watched the neighborhood passing by.

“It is all so different. I am glad I was the kitten. I saw. I learned.”

I’m thinking how much learning I’d have to do to jump eight hundred years in time and half a world in geography.

“Chiki, how did you learn English?”

“It was given to me, Robert. Many things are given to me. I cannot begin to understand. Just know that many things were given.”

“What kind of things?”

“I do not know all of them. Look at these clothes. I have never had clothes like this. Do I look correct?”

“Very much correct.”

“It is what other girls might wear?”

“It is, but it seems like it was made for you.”

“I could not appear in kimono and geta, Robert. I don’t know how I got these, but here I am with them.”

I pulled into the driveway at the apartment, noting that Aunt Doris and Uncle Gene’s car was gone. We walked together up the stairs to the apartment and went inside.

“It is our house,” she said.

“It is.” And I kissed her.

“You still wish to kiss me?”

I kissed her again, holding her close.

Smile. “You do. I know your heart, Robert.”

“Chiki, I love you. I will be yours forever. But I don’t even know where to start. In this world, you have no ... birth certificate. Identification. You’re real to me, but the world doesn’t even know you exist.”

That range of thoughts frightened me. I want to marry this girl, but I can’t even get a marriage license if she doesn’t have documentation.

She smiled sweetly, serenely, and my cellphone rang. I would have thought that the whole concept of a cellphone would be a surprise to somebody from eight centuries before, but there she was, smiling.

I put it to my ear. “This is Robert.”

The voice at the other end, somewhat accented, asked “Robert Richard?” He pronounced it “Richard”, the common pronunciation, not ‘REE-shard’, the Cajun surname.

I corrected him. “Yes, it is, How can I help you?”

“I am sorry for the mispronunciation, Mister Richard. I am Sochiro Takamura with the Japanese Consulate in Houston.”

Didn’t see that coming, did you, Bud?

“Yessir. How can I help you?”

“I am looking for a Japanese citizen, Mister Richard. Her name is Sachiko Kaga. I am told that you know of her whereabouts.”

“I do. Uh, she’s right here next to me.”

“May I speak with her?”

This completely baffled Cajun boy handed the phone to her.

I know absolutely NO Japanese and what transpired over the next few minutes was in Japanese, a rapid-fire two-way conversation.

Finally she handed my phone back to me. She was still smiling.

“Yessir?” I said.

“Mister Richard, I need an address where we might send a package for Miss Kaga.”

“How will it be sent?”

“Fed-ex,” he said. “Signature required.”

I gave him the address of the Student Union along with Harrison’s name, as well as mine, and of course, Chiki’s. “One of us will receive it.”

“Do you mind me asking how you know Sachiko?”

“Most unusual. A flurry of documentation by electronic means, with instructions that she was in immediate need for it.”

“That is a true statement, sir,” I said.

“She will have the documents in hand tomorrow afternoon.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Have a good day, Mister Richard.”

I looked into the bright, expectant face of my Sachiko. It foretold a very good day.

“Daylight,” she said. “We can see each other in daylight.”

“I know. You are even more beautiful.”

She stepped close. I took that as a sign, taking her in my arms, bending to nuzzle her neck just below the short hair.

She squealed. “Oh, you so much DO like that!”

“I like everything about you, my lady.”

She took my hand, gently leading me toward the bedroom. “Us ... on the bed in the daylight, Robert. Like last night.”

Except last night I could not see well enough to luxuriate in her nakedness, her slender form alluring in ways my imagination never could envision.

“You are manly, Robert. Your chest...” little bites. “You need to be eaten, like my meal...”

“Chiki, you have eaten me...”

Melodic titter. “Indeed I have. It was a horrible job I was given, but from the very first ... I loved it. I knew you were ... Not the victim ... First time, I was loving you...”

“You were a very bad succubus...”

She grinned. “I know. You were an equally poor victim. And when I found out you were never before with a woman and I was never before with a man, I am told that it set up conditions. I knew, Robert. I knew that us tearing my virginity would tear the veil that kept us separate.”

“You KNEW?”

“I did. I am a bad wife, then, that I did not tell my husband...” she faked sadness. “Of course YOU think that I was not yet your wife. I became your wife with our mating.”

“Why would I be angry? I wanted you, Chiki. I wanted you so much...”

Her hand wrapped my erection. “You want me now. We have only mated once. We will mate many times.”

She kissed me, pushing me flat on my back, then straddling me, her knees beside my hips. I enjoyed the view--perfect little coquettish face, tip of her tongue protruding just a bit between her lips. Her breasts were small but perfect, slightly rounded, the nipples hard. I let my hands course up her sides, then cupped those breasts.