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“Tucker!” Naomi whined. She wanted to be out of their limousine already.
Tucker and Naomi had been married only three weeks ago, and now they were
back in Japan; Naomi’s home country. Naomi was an attractive woman, clearly
of full Japanese descent with her dark hair and proud ways. In Tokyo, she
had been working for a modeling agency in Japan. Due to the ‘Lolita’ look
becoming popular of late, she had adopted a youthful, pseudo-gothic fashion. Tucker
laughed at his new bride.
“We’ll be there soon, I promise.”
Naomi sighed a little in discontent of the long ride. They were a long ways
from any of the big cities that Naomi was familiar with. She had always
lived a pampered, luxurious life in the comforts that all of her family’s
money could buy her.
“Can we at least have a drink when we get there?” Since the day she turned
old enough to drink alcohol legally, Naomi enjoyed the wide market
of fruity and colorful types of drinks. She also enjoyed an occasional
wine, since it went well with the image of a mature and independent woman
that she always tried to project.
“Of course, babe. I picked up a few wines when we were in Paris. All those
boutiques made a good distraction for you.”
Her eyes shimmered, glittering with good mood now. Naomi was easily read
when she was in a positive mood.
“Oh, Tucker!” She exclaimed. “You’re such a good hubby.”
Tucker smiled, glad to see his new spouse enjoyed the thought of the gifts
he had gotten her during their honeymoon.
Naomi still wanted to be out of the car, though.
As they approached some semblance of civilization; an old Japanese villa,
she calmed a bit. Her husband stepped out of the driver’s seat, carefully
sliding out and closing the door before he went to open the door for his
wife. He was even kind enough to give her a hand when she exited the
vehicle. Tucker was raised by his family to be a proper gentleman, and to
treat any lady with full respect.
Naomi gave her husband one kiss on the cheek before deciding to take
inventory of what was to be their new home together. She took a single look
at the lot, noting that the air was humid and that the cicadas were singing
their warm summer tune. It was barely a full minute before Naomi objected
to the old home. She hoped it was just some post-honeymoon joke, and that
their real home was somewhere else. Maybe in Sapporo, or something.
“You’re kidding, right?”
Tucker frowned at his wife’s so swift judgment of the place that he had
picked out for them to live in. He thought that this could make a beautiful
home for the two of them and their future offspring. Winters here were
blanketed by thick snow, and spring could bring the most wondrous pink
blossoms from the trees.
“What’s wrong with it?”
The newlywed wife continued to make her distaste known, listing her
reasons: The house was dated, dusty, and possibly infested with termites.
And the outside was probably just the beginning of any problems this house
might have. Naomi could, and would judge a book by a cover, just as she
would judge a home based upon the outside appearances.
“Tucker, there’s nothing out here. There isn’t any sign of life, except
maybe some wild animals coming out at night. It’s trash.”
He might have almost cringed if he hadn’t already guessed his wife wasn’t
going to approve long before he had taken out a loan for it. He knew his
wife didn’t appreciate history or culture. She wanted fashion, pizzazz and
the tangible. While the home did fall under the definition of tangible, it was far from the height of
fashion. It might have been once, but that would have been before either of
them was born.
“I know, it needs some work… but it reminded me of when I first came to
Japan. There was this old man who took care of me, since I had no money and
no place to stay.”
Naomi had heard about the old man before, and she didn’t care to hear about
it anymore than she had to. “Yeah, yeah…” She tilted her head, giving an
appearance of the mildest amount of interest in the domicile. “How long
would it take you to fix this place up and make it livable?”
He’d estimated that she wasn’t going to help with the revival, either. It
didn’t surprise him. “I’m not sure, really. I haven’t taken a live tour of
the grounds yet. The landlord said he only gets pictures for the website it
was for sale on once a year, and he tried to keep any visitors away. He
said the internet was a better place… apparently this place makes a better
story than a home.” Tucker shrugged gently. He wasn’t sure about telling
his wife that the landlord told him the place was haunted. She would likely
laugh uncontrollably.
Naomi looked back at him. “I bet. This place is so decrepit; no one in
their right mind would live here.”
Tucker moved to his wife’s side to view the home with him. “Come on, at
least take a look inside with me before you reject it so harshly.” He
pulled out the keys to the home, and unlocked the front door to expose a
wooden home heavily laden with dust. A mouse squeaked and scurried back
into a home he made beneath a grandfather clock, hiding from the sudden
burst of light. He breathed in the scent of a weak incense that still held
its power deep within the walls, mixed with dust and whatever the wildlife
may have done their.
“It’s certainly got a… unique scent, Tucker.”
He wrapped one arm around her torso. “I know, smell that mountain air.”
Tucker grinned like he was a mad fool.
Naomi pushed him away, not feeling up to his more playful moods right now.
She had wanted a beautiful home surrounded by other beautiful homes. A
manicured, full lawn where she could sit by the pool and sunbathe. Or an
ocean. An ocean would be nice to have. Instead, her husband had brought her
this; a dying old home with nobody around to socialize with, except perhaps
the rodent that had run away in fear. Naomi wasn’t sure she could live
here. Even if Tucker was at her side, it was just so quiet and far away
from the hustle and bustle of her busy life as a bachelorette in Tokyo. It
lacked the glamour of being a star in the big city.
“What are we going to do here, Tuck?” Tuck was her occasional nickname for
her husband. “Become the World’s First Asian Rednecks?” Being from America,
Tucker would know all about rednecks. He’d yet to see a redneck of Asian
descent.
“No, honey.” Tucker sighed. “You’re too pretty to ever be a redneck.”
She folded her arms, hips to one side, and nodded in agreement. “Right. So
what are we doing out in the middle of nowhere?”
Tucker would only continue to grin. “We raise a family, Naomi.” Since he’d
reached the ripe young age of sixteen, Tucker had decided that one day he
wanted a family with his girlfriend. Naomi and Tucker had been together for
a long time now. And now they could be together forever.
Naomi, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with children. As far as she
cared, children were only to be seen and not heard. But occasionally, they
would be seen on the mother’s hips. And as a model, she wasn’t going to
risk losing her flat stomach and dewy supple skin to a child, of all
things. They annoyed her, and it would give her a migraine just to think
about having a child.
Tucker knew that she didn’t want even a single child, which he’d grown used
to. He still wished that maybe one day he would be able to talk her into
the idea. He would still be in love with her, even if her body were marred
by the stretch marks of a pregnancy. Even still, Tucker had never been able
to talk her into sex without protection. Now that he’d thought about it,
they had barely any romantic time together when they were in Paris on their
honeymoon. It was their honeymoon and Naomi had been more interested in the
shopping than she was in her spouse. What was that all about?
With a little imagination, though, Naomi had managed to somewhat get into
the idea of living here. She pondered what the walls might look like if
they got dusted and painted, maybe a nice shade of light purple. Blue
curtains? Hum. “You know, honey... maybe we can make this place cute, and
livable. Is it okay if I invite some of my friends from Tokyo to live by
us?”
He had been hoping to live in peace with his wife for a few months before
they had invited a bunch of people to create a new city, but he told her it
was okay, if it were just a few. She would have done it anyways. He also
knew that by ‘we’ she meant ‘you’. Convincing Naomi to do any sort of
manual labor against her will was like getting a horse to drink from a
river when it wasn’t thirsty.
“What do you have in mind?” And this time, she didn’t reject his attempts
to have contact with her. It was probably because he’d said it was okay for
her to get the ladies from her bachelorette party to come see their home.
He knew she would want a house-warming party. He wouldn’t mind one either, really. Naomi’s friends were wealthy, and that meant expensive presents that could help him out with getting this home up to Naomi’s high standards.
“Well, first, we have to dust this place up.” Naomi might help with that
part. There was a lot of emphasis on the might part, though. “Then, we get
rid of the rat infestation, and any other pests this hole has.” There had
only been a single mouse, how could she safely say it was infested? Tucker
knew that his wife was far from a pest control center. “And then paint the
walls, and get some cute silk or velvet curtains.” Well, at least the
fashion center of her brain hadn’t gone kaput as soon as they left the area
covered by Wi-Fi. He’d fix that later, knowing Naomi might go legally
insane if she was left without her precious e-mails from her friends for
too long. She wasn’t an internet addict or anything, but Naomi was probably
closer to her laptop than she was to him. And her cell phone. He had to
admit, though, Naomi never lied once when she said her cellular was cute.
Naomi always had an assorted collection of phone charms that she would
change depending on her mood that day. Yesterday it had been a tiny Maneki
Neko, since she wanted good fortune on her marriage with Tucker. Today it
was a small strawberry shaped piece, since summer was bursting out now.
Naomi kept talking about different ways they might clean this main room up,
but then stamped her foot once when she’d yet to see the rest of the house.
While Tucker went upstairs to unlock the rooms to their new home with the
skeleton key, his wife stayed downstairs. She went into what appeared to be
a general social room, with a piano covered by an old sheet. The furniture
was all left there by whoever had previously lived here; the landowner
never touched it. Naomi removed the covering, and smiled. How quaint. Maybe
she could make something of this new place after all. She brushed a few of
the keys with slim fingers. When she let her hand off of the ivories, an
unnerving sound caught her attention. It was something between a hiss and
an angry sound. Quickly she turned around, looking left and right. “Tucker,
stop playing games with me! You know that I’m sensitive.”
The thing that had made that sound wasn’t Tucker, though. A decaying form was crawling forth at a full pace as it gasped and wheezed for air, bits of skin loose and falling off of its body. Mostly bone was the only thing left on it, save for a few scraps of flesh. It wheezed for air, and Naomi could see the thing’s heart beneath its ribcage. Not pumping, but with a worm wrapped around it. The being was quick, despite using only its upper half to drag itself along. Launching itself at the new bride made Naomi scream in fright.
As soon as it had come, it had gone. Naomi fell to her knees, short of breath. She wondered what she had just seen, but then chalked it up to new-home jitters. After all, marriage was a big commitment, as was a new home without anything nearby. All the same, she wanted her husband there with her, and began calling his name. “Tucker! Tucker!” He wasn’t on the first floor, and a squeak on the stairs while going up it had spooked her badly enough to keep her from going up them. Her choice, then, was to go back to the limousine. She sat outside in the hot sun on the front of the black vehicle for ten minutes, and then sat inside, since it was warm and the bugs were frightening her.
When she was inside the cooler air of the car, she relaxed a bit. Her husband was coming out of the home, and she had become rational again. There was a perfectly logical explanation for what she’d seen. It was probably the dust, or some wildlife that had made a home of the place she had been calling a hole less than an hour ago. Her husband came by the car, and opened the door. “Naomi, what’s wrong?”
She told Tucker that she’d been a little chilly inside, so she came to the car where it was still slightly warm. Tucker nodded and helped her back out. “Come on, I just checked and there’s power and water on now. Right on time, wouldn’t you say?” It seemed that Tucker really liked this place. And since her husband granted her permission to have her way, she thought maybe she could make it out here. Maybe…
Tucker carried in all of their luggage to the dusty home. Naomi got some clothing from one of her bags, and a few toiletries before casually slipping upstairs to bathe after their long ride. She wanted to stretch and pamper herself a little like she did every day. It was pretty much the reaction Tucker expected from his three week wife. Knowing she would be in the bathroom for a good while, he decided to unpack their things. Old Japanese dresses were still held in a trunk, and while some had been eaten through by moths, they were still beautiful and made of soft silk. He didn’t throw them out, but just stored them elsewhere. Tucker couldn’t bring himself to toss such beautiful robes, especially considering how old they might be. Multiple tenants had passed through this place, but it still looked dated, as if only the original family had ever lived here at all.
Tucker put away their clothing, and then brought up some wine for the two of them to enjoy after Naomi left the restroom. He set it on the bedside table and lit scented candles for her; Tucker was the kind of man who spoiled his lady. Since it was getting to be later and cooler now, he’d gotten a fire going in the hearth of their bedroom, and looked outside to the graying skies. He was sure they could make it together here. All
he wanted was for his wife to have a little bit of faith in him.
The husband would read, sprawled out on a comfortable sofa in their bedroom until his wife called him from the bathroom. Her hair was left wavy in two loose ponytails, corset-like top clinging and forming perfectly to her form, and a loose skirt, long enough to cover the essentials but short enough to make it interesting. “Honey.” She called, laid against the doorway. Tucker smiled at her, seeing how beautiful she looked before Naomi walked to her husband.
That night they would drink some wine, and do those things most people do on their honeymoon, but Naomi had been so distracted by all the lights and shimmer. She was more than happy to make a toast on a happy marriage with him, and then knock it back. For Naomi, it was always nice to have a drink nearby when they were in bed together.
By the time the pair was done, the moon had risen up into the sky, most of the bottle of wine was gone and Naomi was wrapped in her soft robe, asleep on the other side of the bed. He finished up that bottle of wine, drinking straight from the bottle itself and then slipped away. He had liked Naomi for a long time. He was happy that they were finally going to be together, and that no one could take Naomi away from him. The ring he had given her was made of Palladium, with a diamond in the middle that had a rose-like design surrounding the center gem. He never told Naomi how much he had to work and the extra jobs he had to get to pay for that thing, and how he’d lowered his standard of living for a long time to get her that ring. That lowering of standards had made Naomi angry, since Tucker couldn’t take her out on dates so much… and her parents. Her parents had made a huge fuss over Naomi marrying a lower class commoner, when there was a line of boys from well-off families wanting to court her. It had taken months until he could get that ring that he went to Naomi’s father to show him just how well he would treat Naomi like a goddess, and only then could he get her parents’ blessings. He thought about this as he walked down one hallway, lighting a few candles to burn away the darkness. Tucker could clearly remember what Naomi had looked like on the night of their wedding without the pictures. Easily recounting every detail of what she wore, all the way down to what perfume she had been wearing. A black taffeta dress with five layers on the skirt, three of which were lace, with a silvery-gray corset of leather on the outside as an accessory. Her hair was in ringlets, and held up by the same thick black ribbon that she had wrapped around one of her arms. Naomi’s perfume had been a womanly edition of a vanilla scent. It had made Tucker quite interested in having her that night, but she said she was too tire, so he would have to wait until much later.
His train of thought was broken when he heard footsteps.
“Naomi?”
They were very light; too light to be from Naomi’s weight. All the same, he didn’t know who else it could be. He saw a small girl then running down the hallway, no older than ten years old. She had dirt on her face, her red kimono dirtied and holding tears in the fabric. Her hair was fashioned as if it were once a tight proper bun, but it had fallen loose. She didn’t seem to be running in fear or anger, though. This girl looked quite happy, even. Her footsteps went out of his hearing range again, and she’d opened up the door to a garden in the middle of the home. Tucker stepped out to see her playing with a large dog, and the girl was laughing happily.
Then Tucker asked who she was, and how she had gotten in. The girl looked up, and their eyes met. There was a soundless minute, then two, when it was broken by the summer night’s breeze.
Her voice sounded, that of a strong willed young girl. “You… you can see me?” Her Japanese was thick, which gave him a little bit of a hard time, but he knew some of it because of Naomi’s family and culture.
He nodded. “As well as I can myself when I look in the mirror.”
And then she ran, screaming into his arms. Or right through them, rather. Tucker felt his heart rate go up, the thud gentle in his chest. The sudden shouting had surprised him.
“Heheh. Sorry. I got excited.”
Tucker nodded a little bit again. “I noticed. What for?”
The little girl smiled and stood herself up, the dog coming to her side. “I’m a ghost. I’ve been waiting here a long time for someone who could see me as how I really am. Not a zombie, or vampire, or whatever most people see. Because, really… there’s just one thing I want before I can move on.” The girl looked saddened, her indomitable spirit broken when she thought about this one thing.
The man sat on the edge of the home’s stoop. “What would that be?” Tucker had always believed in helping others, be they poor, rich, black, white, alive or dead.
She opened her mouth as if she was going to answer his question, but then she looked away. Another spirit, an older woman who looked down and depressed. The woman called for the younger, Momo seemed to be her name. “Mama!” She was happy, and ran over to the mother, the dog following closely behind, and they disappeared.
Was that what that little girl wanted?
 SuperOtaku · Mon Jun 08, 2009 @ 09:30pm · 0 Comments |
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