Chapter 1

Niomi Hawasawa hummed to herself as she arranged the flowers in the lovely hand blown glass vase. She was pleased with the results of her decorating throughout the small house (one they could better afford) which she, husband Arora and son, Hyota had moved into only months before. The hillside overlooking the village and shoreline below offered a peaceful setting to the small house and garden. Even inside she could smell the ocean and hear the faint breaking of the waves on the beach adding a soothing background which she hadn't realized meant so much until they had relocated from the city.

Lovely of face, delicate of features and diminutive, even for a Japanese, the thirty-nine year old was still strikingly beautiful despite being the mother of a twenty-one year old and now carrying the majority of the family's burdens. She dressed traditionally, in kimono, geta (traditional Japanese shoes) and upswept hair at her husband's request.

Arora, her husband, never a handsome man, was a retired civil servant and in poor health for the last dozen years or so. Despite the difference in their ages (his 62nd birthday was coming up in two months) he had asked Niomi's parents for her hand when she was only eighteen and they had consented. Niomi hadn't wished to marry, but her parents had been persuasive and she, never a daughter to disappoint them, had agreed. Hyota had been born the following year and Niomi had settled into a life of wife and mother with which she had become comfortable over the years. As time had passed and Arora's health had declined their sex life had become non-existent. They had not had sex in over three years. Niomi still yearned for the intimacy and pleasure they had once shared even though it had been seldom and conservative even then. Since she was a virgin when they were married and had remained naive as to sexual matters she had quickly exhausted her limited knowledge as to how to reinvigorate her husband's desires. At last she had given up and, with Arora's prompting, had ceased all efforts to attract him to bed.

Despite her embarrassment, several months ago she had been given a vibrator by a friend in the village and now used it when she could be sure she was completely alone. It served to bring her a certain amount of pleasure, but even when turned to the strongest setting it seldom brought her to orgasm. With both Arora and Hyota away at the moment she contemplated its use but there was something else on her mind, something far more important.

She worried about her son. Hyota had always been headstrong, but his recent relationship with Miori Masuru, a woman older than himself and with a reputation of bleeding men dry and then dumping them, was troubling. Quite unlike his father, Hyota was reasonably good looking and personable. With his choice of many girls to date, Niomi pondered why he had become so enamored of this Miori. He held a job with a small machine shop in the village but, even though he lived with them, most of his modest salary was spent on good times and lately, Miori. Niomi was also concerned that as time passed Hyota seemed to show less and less respect for both Arora and her. He wasn't necessarily insulant and sometimes showed genuine affection, but he was becoming more self centered and sometimes did not show the respect for his parents which he should, especially since meeting Miori.