Asleep in Nara (Short Story Series, Pt. 3)steemCreated with Sketch.

in #fiction5 years ago

Note: This is a continuation of the short story series about Sebastian, an American abroad and in over his head in Nara, Japan. I anticipate this story being at least five parts long, although it may go as far as eight. We’ll see what new ideas pop into my head along the way.

You can find the previous chapters here: Part 1 and Part 2


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Sebastian knew better than to ask how far they would be walking. This wasn’t Virginia, after all. You didn’t just hop in your F-150 and drive to the local funeral home. Wherever Jael was leading them, it was going to be a bit of a hike. Fortunately, Nara isn’t all that big of a town.

They had begun at a bar just west of Nara Park and were heading southwest. Jael took as many smaller streets as she could find, and she never once looked back to make sure Sebastian was keeping up. He was struggling, but managed to stay vertical and keep Jael in view at least. He couldn’t fathom how she was so sober, so steadfast, after so many drinks. But he wasn’t about to be outdone by a girl, so he leveled his shoulders and pursued.

After what must have been half a mile or so, Jael stopped abruptly. She was hiding in a sliver of a shadow and scanning the streets. Sebastian was thankful for the opportunity to catch his breath. Along the way, he had spotted a craft sake distillery that he hoped he could remember for later. He wouldn’t, though. He’d never see that street again.

As Sebastian approached, Jael grabbed him by the wrist and yanked him into the shadows next to her.

“Ow…”

She slapped him, put a shushing finger over her lips, and glared as he started to complain. He remained quiet, thankful the blow had been from an open palm, rather than a clenched fist, this time. He didn’t relish the idea of having a broken jaw to match his distorted eye socket. Jael motioned for Sebastian to follow.

There was absolutely nothing remarkable about the building they approached. If anything, it seemed a bit too normal, maybe a bit too Western. It was red brick, a building among a row of other buildings. Everything in Japan felt right on top of everything else to Sebastian. He longed for the expansive space of America.

Jael pulled Sebastian around the back of the building. He felt she was being overly-dramatic with all the sneaking. Not a soul was on the street to see them. Still, he didn’t feel like getting slapped again, and he was too curious at that point to turn around and leave.

Jael found a back door and tried the knob. Locked, of course.

“Party’s over?” Sebastian said, although he knew she wasn’t going to be dissuaded by something so trivial.

Jael produced a couple of bobby pins and inserted one into the lock. She bent the tip and then twisted the other end around into a makeshift handle. She fished around for a minute before inserting the second one and bending it downward. It took a while, and she shushed Sebastian often, but she eventually got the lock open.

As she quietly opened the door, Sebastian said, “It’s Japan. You’d think they’d spring for more high-tech locks.”

“Shh!” Jael hushed him. “It’s Nara,” she whispered. “It’s not a high-tech metropolis.”

Sebastian considered her point and shrugged. He’d never even seen Tokyo. Hell, he’d never been so far as New York back in the States. Everything he knew about high-tech metropolises came from whatever drivel Hollywood was pushing that box office season. Sebastian followed Jael as she crept into the dark building. She eased the door to behind them.

They sneaked down a darkened hall. Jael was crouch-walking, and Sebastian felt obligated to follow suit. After only twenty seconds or so, he realized how loudly he was breathing and wondered how long he had been out of breath. He couldn’t hear Jael at all. No breaths. No footsteps. He could barely keep sight of her in the dark.

As they rounded a corner, a faint light encroached from the far end of the hall. Jael paused there for along time, and Sebastian took to counting to pass the time. His breaths were still too loud. He focused on making them more shallow.

When Jael was satisfied no one else was in the building, she stood and walked toward that faint illumination. Sebastian straightened up, hearing what seemed to be every vertebra cracking in symphony.

At the end of the hall, they found a door separating them from a room decorated with white sheets. The sheets were draped from ceiling to floor like curtains. Sebastian was familiar enough with Japanese culture to recognize the room was prepared for the dead, only he thought it all looked tacky as hell.

Sebastian and Jael entered through the door, entering the room from the side. A few white-backed plastic chairs were lined up in rows, but even Sebastian wasn’t convinced anyone was coming to this funeral. There was a casket at the front of the room, draped in a white cloth.

The casket was closed. The only real decoration was a single fern with a few flowers attached to it. A few votive candles burned on a shelf just behind the casket. Upon further inspection, Sebastian realized they weren’t even real candles; they were battery-powered imitations. There was no picture of the deceased. Spare no expense, Sebastian thought sarcastically.

Jael approached the coffin and froze. She wouldn’t look away from it, and for the first time, Sebastian noticed her chest heaving. He could hear her breathing now. He couldn’t quite make out her whole face, but he could tell her eyes were closed.

Unsure of what to do or what they were doing here, Sebastian opened his mouth to speak. He tried several times, but couldn’t quite get the words to come out. He wasn’t sure what he had stumbled into it or why he was here at all, but he was here now.

“Did you know the...deceased?” Sebastian asked. He had almost said dead person but caught himself in time.

Jael nodded. “He was a friend. The closest one I’ve had in ages, really,” she said. She smirked. “It always comes to this, though, doesn’t it?” she said. Her inflection at the end sounded like a question, but it really wasn’t.

“Yeah, I mean...I guess…” Sebastian said. He thought of his grandfather and started to say something, but decided against it.

“Do you believe in Heaven?” Sebastian asked.

Jael scoffed. “Depends on what you mean by believe.”

Sebastian wasn’t quite sure what to make of that response.

“Do you know the official religion of Japan?” Jael asked.

“There isn’t one,” Sebastian said.

“How about in America?”

“Of course not.”

“But most of you are Christian, anyway, right?”

“Well, yeah, I guess. Almost everybody I know is.” He paused for a moment, thinking of the proselytizing rhetoric he’d heard all his life in every church and in most of his social circles. “I think a lot of people aren’t, though,” he concluded.

Jael nodded. She wiped a tear from her eye, and Sebastian pretended not to notice. He was ready to leave, but Jael clearly wasn’t done yet. He was stuck.

“Why isn’t there a picture of him?” Sebastian asked.

“Because he’s a John Doe.”

“But you know him?”

Jael nodded.

“So why don’t you claim him?” Sebastian insisted. “You could ID him for the authorities.”

Jael only shook her head and wiped away another tear.

“He died a stranger here. Tomorrow, he’ll be cremated, and his ashes will be added to the collective grave of the anonymous dead,” she said. “It wasn’t supposed to end this way. I thought he was the one.”

Sebastian’s head was reeling. So this guy was her lover? And she’s not even going to claim his body? He felt suddenly outraged. He would force her to claim him. He would force her to go to the police. He approached Jael.

“Jael,” he began, “we’re going to the cops.”

“No,” she said, slapping his hand away. It stung where she made contact. “Maybe it’s better this way,” she said. She snickered. “Maybe I’m losing faith after all.”

“We’re going to the cops,” Sebastian insisted again. This time, he reached for Jael’s upper arm.

She deflected his hand and slipped to his side. Sebastian, caught off guard, stumbled. She stuck out a foot and tripped him, then as he fell face-forward, she caught the back of his shirt and held him up--his face suspended a mere inch from the back of one of those white chairs.

Jael spun and slung Sebastian across the room. He toppled through the chairs and got tangled up in them. The side of his head cracked loudly against the hard floor. His vision blurred, and he was bewildered that she could move so quickly and even catch and hold his body weight in a free fall.

As he slipped from consciousness, Sebastian saw Jael approach the coffin, brush the white cloth aside, and lift the lid. She looked down at the man inside for a long while. Sebastian lost consciousness.

He didn’t see as she slid her hand down the length of the corpse, sneaking her hand down his leg and retrieving the item she had stowed away earlier. He didn’t see as she ran her open palm back up the inside of the dead man’s leg, along his torso, and rested it there on his chest. He didn’t see as Jael leaned over the coffin and planted one final kiss goodbye on the man’s lips.

***[The photo is my own, taken along the entryway to Wakamiya Shrine in Nara Park]

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