Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Fiction
vr 3.00
2008-02-16
"When She Says, 'Osuwari,' Sit." by Abraxas | 2006-06-08
Chapter Two
“It used to be a temple,” explained Hojo. The history teacher drove slowly though the streets of the neighborhood he knew so well, so intimately, and related facts of the people and places almost like a guide entertaining a tourist.
Noguichi himself was distracted by the sights. The area was unfamiliar though typical, with its tight alleys and apartment buildings. Children played baseball while adults hung laundry about balconies. It was autumn but the air was warm and the trees were green – fragrant, soothing scents clung about like a fog. And he was so caught up by the freshness of it that he did not notice until too late that the man already parked the vehicle.
“When the old man died we removed the signs and shut the temple.” Bouncing the keys in his hand, he alternately looked at the boy and looked at the entrance. “Business was always sparse and by the end it was non-existent. Anyway, we decided it would be easier for everybody involved if we did it this way. And we didn’t want to risk a visitor stumbling into a place he did not belong.”
Noguichi nodded and stepped out of the vehicle. Hojo followed. The two – the man in a black suit wearing glasses, the teenager in red jacket with a fair and flawless face – ambled from the curb to the wrought iron gate. The elder of the two produced a new set of keys and spoke to the younger:
“If you accept the job you’ll be given a copy of these keys. You’ll need it as you’ll have the place to yourself most of the time. Actually. All of the time.”
Beyond the gate, that was locked as soon as they entered through it, the student stood by the ancient stonework under the un-kept foliage while the teacher lingered about the cage-like frame watching bystanders stroll by and police cars drive away. Suspicions were not to be raised, he explained; the environment ought to be watched, he added. Hojo helped Noguichi through the maze of uneven steps and entangled vines, from the street to the temple, a fifty-foot ascent.
“Looks like a ghost town,” Noguichi commented at the plethora of run-down sites within the walls of the holy-place. “Is that what scares the neighbors? Is that what keeps them away?”
“Keh, its look adds fuel to the fire, of course, but that attracts kids. One of the reasons it must be watched all of the time.”
Nearing the house proper – the most modern and run-down of the complex of structures – Hojo added: “I don’t want you to do any menial-labor out in the temple. No up keep or repair work is needed outside the house. Inside it, if you want to clean, that’s your call since you will be living there. Just please don’t contribute to the mess, you know what I mean, Noguichi? I’ve seen your locker.”
The teenager smiled and shook his head. “I’ll behave myself, teach,” he said.
“Also, I didn’t say it before but I’ll say it now. On top of the seventy-five hundred yen a day there’ll be an extra five thousand yen a week for you to buy groceries and supplies. You’ll find the basement is well-stocked anyway – that’s where the kitchen is nowadays – it’s the only, electrified part of the house and it’s where the light can stay on at all times.”
“Is that where it happened?” the youth asked, pointing to the shed beside the house. The shed near the trees.
“Keh,” the man answered, bowing his head and clutching his keys. “The old man never forgave himself for what happened. And for what we allowed to happen later.”
“Teach, is that what all this is about, really about? Just an old man’s wishes?”
Hojo laughed. “Just tradition? A twisted, dark tradition? I suppose. Once he covered for her. Now we cover for him.”
END OF CHAPTER
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