Khoe; A Tale of Sadness & Joy Ch. 05

Kumiko took her son and he held him to her breast for a few moments, just because, and then she reached for the bottle before he could grow frustrated. They held him between their bodies after Kerry pulled the blankets up a little.

Kerry looked at the boy and then at Kumiko, whose tears had begun again just a little, still so happy that she’d been accepted.

When the little guy was done with the bottle, Kumiko sat up to burp him and she looked at the two males who she now belonged to, though by a different bond now – the same role that most women accept and want for themselves.

She took little Ciarraighe back to his crib then and he drifted off in a few moments. When she came back to bed, she found that the grown man wanted to hold her and so she settled into his arms and kissed him.

It came to her as the sweetest little thrill to think of when she felt him harden and not wanting to end the moment, she helped him to slip inside of her and she wrapped her leg over Kerry, softly telling him what she now knew as he fucked her very slowly, neither one of them caring if they came, though wanting the other one to, if possible.

He told her that he was at least a little certain that he could love her as well and she almost needed another tissue, but she managed to hold off her tears.

After a time, she heard the shift in his breathing and she lay there against him, very happy for the first time in her life that she could remember being happy to this degree as she thought about a few things.

She’d been absolutely forthright and honest with this man; telling him everything that she thought that he needed to know, answering his questions truthfully, and other than two small facts and details, she always would be that way.

But there were the two things.

Kumiko thought about that and she knew that likely every single woman who knows what they have - when they’re lucky enough to find themselves having it – has at least one small secret.

She knew that many had a whole lot of secrets, but that wasn’t her way. She didn’t even want to have one thing that she’d never tell Kerry about, but these ones couldn’t be helped.

She found a little thought in her which became a desire that she’d never had a thought of ever achieving, really. She now felt a little fire burning in her breast to hold and read a small document – any little thing which read Mrs.Kumiko Browne sometime in the not-too-distant future.

If marriages could be arranged the world over for thousands of years, then this had to work.

DNA testing – if it were to be needed for some reason, would tell the obvious; that the infant was Kerry’s son.

But only Khoe, Kumiko and a very few others knew of the other detail which marked Kumiko’s new joy and Khoe’s eternal sadness.

DNA testing of Kumiko - were it ever to be done for some reason, would yield some rather interesting results.

Kumiko was not the infant’s mother, quite obviously.

But she was his aunt.

The other detail was that she`d never been an orphan.

Kumiko was the second child that Khoe’s birth mother had given life to. Yukio had been the third and last. Kumiko hadn’t been born in Toronto, though she’d spent a lot of time there under her real name as she’d gone to school and had then been given over for use as a gift to powerful and influential businessmen passing through and later on, as a plaything to an old man with bigger eyes and hopes than his old manhood could ever hope to deal with.

This was all bittersweet to Kumiko. She’d likely never see her mother again and didn’t expect to ever set her eyes on the half-sister whom she’d never really known and had never met other than the one time when she’d come to help with the labor in a cabin on a deserted mountainside. Her knowledge of her sister had spanned only three months and then she was gone and Kumiko had been taken with the baby to meet her one chance at a life with Kerry.

She looked up at the man who held onto her in his sleep and silently promised him – once again – that he’d never regret his acceptance of her.

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Kerry was left with the rather daunting prospect of calling his family to invite them to his home so that they could meet what he was sure would be a surprise and a half. His parents and his sister all knew of what had happened to Lauren and had made a few attempts to stop him from turning into the hermit that he seemed to have become. The gasp that he heard from his mother over the phone told him that he’d done the wrong thing by staying apart as long as he had.

“So you have a child?” his mother asked.

“Well you can’t just pick one of those up at a convenience store as an impulse purchase when you go for eggs and milk, Kerry. I’d love to hear your explanation of why you didn’t think that your mother would need to know. If you think that a woman like me is happy with only the three grandchildren that I have, I can tell you that you’re wrong, you know.”

“I know and I’m very sorry, Mom. I should have told you before,” he said very apologetically as he considered how much of a shock it might possibly be for them to learn the rest of what he’d tell them, planning to only mention Kumiko and not Khoe.

But then he decided that he didn’t give a damn. He wouldn't mention Khoe, but they could either accept Kumiko or not. What was important was that he had.

He was more concerned for Kumiko’s feelings, so he added, “I uh, … I had a bit of help, you might say and I’d love to introduce you to the woman I’m thinking of marrying. Her name is Kumiko.”

There was a pause then and his mother said, “If you love her and you’re this far along to have a child, then I think I’d probably never forgive you if you’d left calling me to tell me the news any longer. When should we come?”

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Kumiko admitted to Kerry that she was a bit nervous, but in the event, she charmed his family easily and they were delighted with her. Kerry’s father was a little in awe of her and he didn’t really know what to do with himself during the letter-perfect tea ceremony that Kumiko presented for Kerry’s parents and sister – who’d managed to come on such short notice, happy herself to leave her husband and brood alone for the better part of a day while she was gone.

But little Ciarraighe held them all spellbound and Kumiko found herself with a new family which was pleased and happy to accept her.

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By the time that their young son’s first birthday rolled around, both Kerry and Kumiko had indeed fallen into love with each other and decided that they ought to become a little less hermit-like in the way that they lived. It had been a huge thing for Kumiko, but she now found herself with some acquaintances and even a couple of friends as she spoke of the vacation to a resort on a Pacific island that they were planning.

Little Ciarraighe was an active and fast-moving toddler who thought it was great fun to hug his mom and then run shrieking off to see if she’d chase him while Kerry did his level best not to laugh as he shot a video of the birthday party for his son.

Near the top of a nearby slope, there was a woman sitting behind a bush, making her own video of it through a long lens on a low tripod. She sat with her tears streaming down her lovely face as she watched. When the guests had all gone home and the little family had gone inside, Taeko packed up her gear and walked down the other side of the hill to where she’d parked her rental car.

She was on her way home after removing just another troublesome detail from someone’s life and the location had taken her a little nearby – if one could call the location of Vancouver nearby at over an hour away.

She drove to drop off the car and then she was waiting for her flight home to be called. She boarded without incident and arrived at her apartment a little over a day later when all was said and done.

The next day, she texted in and requested a little time off. With her request granted, Taeko set off again and didn’t stop until she stood in front of her parent’s new home, now that she’d finally been able to manage that miracle for them. She showed them the video that she’d shot a few day earlier and said that she’d never want to get that close again.

Her eyes streamed her quiet tears the whole time.

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When Ciarraighe was one and a half, they went to Fiji. Kerry paid for the airfare, since it was really all that Kumiko had allowed him to pay for. She just shrugged and laughed a little, “It’s my gift to my husband and son.”

They’d spoken of getting one of the little huts on poles out over the water, but decided against it, since Ciarraighe was plenty fast on his little legs when he wanted to be and there was a danger to that, so they went for the rental of a time-share apartment with a small kitchenette in a building not far from the ocean.

Here just as it was at home, Kumiko was so pleased when she went to sleep in Kerry's arms and though she'd been partially crushed a few times from his motions on his sleep, he was getting better.

Best of all, she loved to wake up there. It was something that she'd always wanted; a man who wasn't just there for himself.

Kerry was proud of his family as they walked with their son. He was a beautiful little boy and he already knew how to charm the socks off almost anyone who saw him and Kumiko in a bikini was a sight. She’d been approached with offers to model and endorse products from make-up to hair care, but she’d declined, knowing that there was something in her past which had to remain there forever.

One day in the middle of winter, Kerry found his wife crying quietly in the kitchen and he asked.

It took a little while for her to find the words, but she pointed to the screen of her notebook.

It was open to a page filled with Kanji characters which – though Kerry could now manage and comprehend enough Japanese to carry him through most conversations – he still couldn’t read any of it and didn’t intend to learn. It was a news site – the online component of a major Japanese news agency.

“I was looking at Ciarraighe-chan’s fund balance,” she said, “The only changes were what you and I have put in for almost half a year. So I could think of only two reasons for that to be and six months removes one of them.”

She told him of a small fuel transshipment facility which had been destroyed four months before on Sakhalin Island, the northern tip. “There has been controversy and all sorts of failed legal matters over environmental situations and the health of some residents for a long time,” she said.

She pointed to a paragraph which her husband could not read. “It says that this was the work of a lone terrorist; from the pieces of the remains found, it was determined that the perpetrator had been a female of mixed Japanese and Nivkh extraction. One tooth was found and it places the age more or less correctly.

Khoe grew up there. She had strong feelings over this.”

Kerry looked out through the doorway as his son as he played on the floor with a little yellow plastic truck.

He didn't know, but as far as he knew, the woman that he'd loved and lost was no fool and must have known her way around explosive devices. He didn't know everything and he never would, but he had a single sad thought before he hugged his wife while she cried.

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In a dark and wild corner of the taiga on Sakhalin Island, a woman made her evening meal.

She intended to live here for the next two years in solitude before she left for what would be the last time. A lot of that period would go to planning. The facial surgery was healing well.

What she knew that she would do one day was to allow a fair bit of money to fall into her half-sister's hands on behalf of her son.

But that would take a while to put together and anyway, Khoe thought, it appeared that so far, her ruse had been successful, and all parties seemed to be of the belief that she was dead.

She did her best to close off the part of her heart where Kumiko lived with Kerry and their son.

It helped if she thought of the personal cost of that as the price for her freedom.

The End