Chapter 9

It was during Hamako's third orgasm that Raleigh's hands pushed hard at Bob's shoulders.

"You're killing her!" she yelled.

Hamako's moans of happiness changed into high pitched laughter and her head came up.

"I would die this way a thousand times," she panted.

That little bit took too much strength, though and her head flopped back down, her neck limp again.

Bob licked her with the flat of his tongue one last time, splitting her vulva and ending with the tip of his tongue on her clit. Then he pulled back and looked at Raleigh. Her face was red. Her face was pulled into a grimace that made it look like she was in pain. Her hands formed frozen claws.

"Do that to me," she growled.

Hamako was too tired to help much, but she did bounce her hips sideways while Raleigh shoved, to make room next to her for her friend. As Bob got up to let her position herself, he looked at the doorway. Megan was there, with a look of post shock on her face. It was clear she had watched for some time. Her face showed elements of curiosity and understanding of what Hamako had just gone through. When Bob saw her, he stopped. Her eyes flicked to his and he wondered if they would survive this moment in time.

"Don't be too long," she mouthed. "I'll start breakfast." She blew him a short kiss and turned away.

He wondered if watching Hamako was one thing ... while watching her daughter was something entirely different.

It didn't matter. Raleigh hadn't seen her. Instead she had been looking at Hamako, who was still moaning happily. her right index finger was lazily circling her clit, not really masturbating, but more like an effort to keep the memory of her recent orgasms alive.

Raleigh, it turned out, was even louder.

Bob was in that pleasant place where Megan had worn him out, as far as getting another erection was concerned. But he wasn't planning on coitus with the girls anyway. It wasn't that he didn't want to go that route, but he wasn't going to ambush the girls when he did that with them. Assuming they had any interest in doing that with him at all. What he had done was plenty, and would give the girls something to think about.

So when he finished giving Raleigh her third orgasm, (just so things were equal, ) he got up off the bed and ducked into her shower to clean up. By the time he got out, Raleigh was getting dressed. Hamako was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't brought any clothing with him, and thought it was pretty funny that he felt a little uncomfortable being the only naked person in the room. After what had just happened, he thought he should feel normal. But he didn't.

"You okay?" he asked.

Raleigh looked a little shook up. "I'm not sure," she said. "I'm not sure about anything any more."

"You'll figure it out," he said. "See you at breakfast?"

"Yes." She seemed distracted, so he left her alone. He didn't go to Hamako's room. Instead he went to Megan's and got dressed himself. Looking at his watch he realized they'd have to hurry to meet Hiroto and Akio on time.

Hamako, as it turned out, was already in the kitchen. In the bedroom she had looked shocked, and a little scared. That was to be expected. Now, though, she simply looked like a happy, well-fucked young woman. She stood as he walked by her and gave him a hug. Megan came out of the pantry with a new bag of flour in her hand. She came and got a hug too. She added a kiss.

From that point on, everything was all business. The only difference in Hamako was that she seemed a bit less submissive, and a bit more confident than she had the previous few days. They met Hiroto and Akio and took them to the commercial real estate office Bob had chosen to start with. They were lucky. It only took them eight hours to find a property that was the right size, and the right price. Rather than lease it, Hiroto decided to buy it. That way he could lease it to the company and the money would come back to him, rather than going to a landlord.

Hiroto was in such high spirits that he decided to leave the planning for the renovation of the new factory to Bob and Akio. He was satisfied that, even if the venture failed, he could get most of his money back from the sale or rental of the property.

The last thing they did that evening before Bob and Hamako dropped them off at their hotel, was to make plans for all of them to go to a theme park the next day. The day after that, Hiroto and Sinho would return to Japan. Akio would rent an apartment. He and Bob would then supervise the renovation of the factory, the installation of the equipment needed to make The Stitch Bitch, (which still had no other name) and hire a work force.

Hiroto made it all sound easy, but Bob knew it would not be. But then Hiroto was going back home. And Akio was going to be pretty much dependent on the Tomlinsons, at least until he had a little experience in the U.S. So Bob didn't anticipate any huge issues.

Of course life doesn't always deliver what we anticipate.

Hiroto loved roller coasters. He especially loved wooden roller coasters, because of their rickety, clacking, about-to-fall-apart-at-any-second feel.

Unfortunately, his heart did not.

The coroner determined cause of death to be acute myocardial infarction. It was his opinion that the ride broke loose a section of atherosclerotic plaque, which then lodged in the heart. Akio was riding right beside him, but thought his father's screams were in response to the ride. Since Akio was also screaming, he didn't think anything was wrong. But his father was unconscious - and most likely already dead - when the ride was over.

Bob wouldn't have called his lawyer, except that the first thing park officials did, even before the cause of death was known, was to try to get Akio and Sinho to sign releases of liability against the park. That disgusted Bob, who had Hamako tell them not to sign anything until they had legal counsel. Then he called his own lawyer to get things started.

And so their celebration was abandoned, and Bob and Megan took the surviving Nakimuras home with them. Hamako got her things out of her bedroom and moved in with Raleigh. Bob and Raleigh got the key to the hotel room from Akio and went to get the Nakimura's belongings and check them out.

The mood in the house was, of course, subdued. Hamako contacted a Buddhist priest, who came to the house and helped Sinho make the arrangements for returning the body to Japan, where a traditional wake, cremation and burial would take place. One problem was that Sinho had no knowledge of the family finances, or access to funds. Any money she had needed in her married life had been given to her by her husband, or the purchase charged to one of his accounts. Hiroto had given the hotel a credit card upon arrival, so that expense was covered, but while Akio had been consulted as the eldest surviving son by the Buddhist priest, his status as new head of the family was not yet official. And the credit card was in Hiroto's name only.

So Bob paid for everything, including shipment of the body. This distressed Akio, until Bob said it was simply a loan, until things were settled.

Twelve hours after the last bureaucratic hurdle was cleared, the members of the Nakimura family, both dead and alive, left America and returned to the land of the rising sun.

The mood in the house was still subdued. Hiroto's death was hard to assimilate. Only a few days ago his blustery personality had been at work, making things happen, pushing people around. Even though death is around most of us on a daily basis, we are insulated from it. We don't know most people who die each day. And the ones we do learn about are rarely close to us. But when it is someone you know, and the death is a surprise, it's all but impossible to be prepared.

In one sense, there was no reason for Bob to remain in the house. But the primary reason he had moved in, was no longer the primary reason for being there. He had he entered into a complicated relationship with the three women who were currently inhabiting the house. But all that was on hold for the moment. Megan felt at least partially responsible for Hiroto's death, because he wouldn't have even been in America had it not been for her. She would get over that eventually, but until that process could be worked through, Bob felt like she needed his support.

Meanwhile, Hamako didn't want to move back into the dorm. Raleigh felt the same way. Their relationship, while relatively new, was close enough that they wanted to stay together... live together. And while the erotic component that Bob represented in that relationship was both unsettled and on hold, at the moment, both of them wanted to explore that more when the time was again right.

The same was true with Megan. While she wasn't interested in sex for a few days after Hiroto died, that didn't mean she didn't need closeness and intimacy.

So for two nights, while Raleigh and Hamako held each other in Raleigh's bed, and worked through their feelings about Hiroto's death, Bob and Megan did the same in her bed.

Eventually, though, life must go on. It was inevitable that, one morning at breakfast, Megan asked the question that had been on everyone's mind.

"So ... what happens now?"

Everyone knew what she was talking about. Contracts had been signed. Plans had been made. Property had been purchased and a lease to the company established. But all of this involved a man now dead, and most likely buried. They had heard nothing from Japan, but that didn't surprise anyone. After all, Sinho and Akio had only been in America and known the Tomlinsons for a few days. Most people would have assumed they'd never hear from them again. At least not about the business venture. The property would probably go back on the market, but that's all they would expect to happen.

And all the arrangements that had been made involved payment of funds at some point. When that money didn't appear, those arrangements would fade away as if they had never been. Assuming no one took legal action against someone else. Bob knew that Akio had consulted with a Japanese-American attorney before he left, but since the man spoke Japanese, Hamako had not been required to attend that meeting, so no one knew what had transpired there.

"We were so close," said Raleigh.

"We're still close," said Bob. "All that's needed is the money to finish things."

"No, Bob," said Megan, wearily. "We've been over this before."

"Things have changed," he said. "We weren't sleeping together the last time you turned me down."

"Are you trying to make me feel like a whore?" she asked. "I sleep with you, and you want to pay for everything?"

"Calm down," he said. "You know that's not what I meant."

"It's how I feel!" she said. "I wanted to do this on my own!"

"Okay," said Bob. "I get it. Offer withdrawn."

"Thank you," said Megan, heavily.

"So ... are you two sleeping together or not?" asked Raleigh, with a hint of a smile.

"Don't be impertinent," scolded her mother.

Raleigh changed the subject. "I want Hamako to stay here ... to live with us."

Hamako looked down, submissively.

"I had thought to make her a vice president in the company, responsible for coordination and communication with our Japanese cohorts, but only if she can learn to stop doing that submissiveness crap!" barked Megan, still unhappy.

"I'm sorry," said Hamako, looking up. "It's ingrained in me. I've had to do that ever since I was a little girl."

"Well you're in America now, and you're part of our family now, so you don't have to do it any more." Megan still sounded grumpy, but her countenance was almost smiling.

Hamako smiled timidly. "It feels good to belong. I'm still not used to it."

"A lot has happened," said Raleigh. She looked at Hamako and then Bob. It was her first reference to what had happened days before, in her bed. Everybody knew it.

"I suppose we should talk about that," said Megan. "With what happened, there were other things to think about, but eventually we'll have to settle how things are going to be."

"Can I ask a question?" said Bob. When no one objected he continued. "Is anybody unhappy with anything that has happened between us?"

The two girls looked at each other, and then at Megan, who was chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip.

"No," said Raleigh. She looked at Hamako again.

"No," said Hamako, her voice surprisingly firm.

Everyone looked at Megan.

"Why is everybody looking at me?" she complained.

"Because we all know how Bob feels," said Raleigh.

"He's a man!" barked Megan.

"Something for which I am quite thankful, Mom," said Raleigh. "But your feelings count. I can't be happy with things unless you're happy with them too. I'm sure Hamako feels the same way."

Hamako nodded.

Megan stood. "I am happy!" she snapped. "I just don't feel like I should be happy."

"Been there," said Raleigh. "Done that. Got two of those T shirts."

"Two?" asked Bob.

"One for you, and one for Hamako," she said, smiling.

"I see," said Bob.

Megan paced. "It can't work! Three of us? With one man?"

"I thought you had a theory," said Raleigh. "Isn't that what you said? A theory you wouldn't share with us?"

Megan stopped. She frowned.

"Yes," she said. "I forgot." She sat back down at the table.

"Well?" Raleigh leaned forward.

"I'm still not telling you," said Megan.