Twilight Express Ch. 13-21

"After what you've told me, and what Mel told me in her e-mail, I'm as confused as you are. It's not like her. My only guess - and it's just a guess - is that it might have been that truck pulling out in front of you. It was a lot like what happened to her parents."

"What do you mean, her parents?"

"Mel never told you about them?"

"Nothing at all."

Cathie was silent. "So she never told you how they died."

He leaned against the wall. "I didn't know they were dead."

Melina had been visiting her parents one winter weekend, during her second year of college. She was packed and ready to catch the Sunday afternoon train back to school, but her parents eventually decided to drive her back. She had been suffering from migraine all day and the train's bright lights would make it worse.

Shortly after they began their journey, it began to snow. As the flurries turned into a blizzard, Melina's headache became almost unbearable. She lay down in the back seat of the old car. Her mother covered her with a blanket.

Less than a minute later, a container truck skidded and ended up sideways across the freeway ahead of them. Their car crashed into the truck's heavy freight container. More vehicles crashed into them, pushing the car under the truck's container and killing both of her parents instantly.

Melina's decision to lie down on the back seat saved her, as she ended up on the floorboard still wrapped in the blanket. But she was trapped for over an hour before firemen were able to free her. The paramedics had first thought she was seriously injured, only to realize that she was covered with her parents' blood, not her own. She escaped with a broken arm and a concussion. She was 19 years old.

"I'm so sorry to have had to tell you all this. But I hope you can understand why Melina didn't tell you. It's pretty painful for me to talk about, and they weren't my parents."

"Mr. Sakakura? Are you still there?"

"I'm here." For once, he was glad he was alone. "I'm sorry, but I have to ask you this. How did she cope with losing her parents?"

"She was like she's been all her life. Stoic. She never let anyone see her cry, not even me. The college offered her a semester off, but she decided to stay in school. She said her parents would have wanted it that way. I think it kept her from going crazy."

Cathie excused herself for minute, then returned.

"But I still can't tell you why she's disappeared like she has. Maybe it's something to do with being Catholic. I think she still wonders why she lived and her parents didn't."

She promised to call Shinichi if she heard from Melina.

"Otherwise we may just have to sit it out until next week. I can't see her walking away from her job. Until she met you, it was pretty much all she had."

Shinichi suddenly remembered something. "Did you try calling her cell phone? I don't have the number, but she has mine."

"I tried calling her before I called you. She's either switched it off, or the battery's dead."

Chapter Eighteen: The Reunion

Cathie gave Shinichi the number of the Sapporo office and Melina's cell phone number. As he hung up, Shinichi dreaded the night ahead of him. He could do little except hope that Melina called or returned, and he knew that sleep was out of the question, even though he was worn out by worry and sadness.

Worst of all was the knowledge that he was still unsure of her reason for leaving. It was like preparing to fight a battle without knowing what weapon the enemy carried. He spent most of the night searching the Internet for her without success and periodically dialling her cell phone, which remained switched off. Eventually he lay down on the sofa to wait for dawn; the bedroom was too lonely.

Finally the sky began to lighten. Shinichi decided to take a hike in the woods adjacent to the house. Leaving the front door open, he walked faster and faster in the hopes he could tire himself out. After a few minutes he spotted what looked like a row of tiny artificial flowers on the gravel path. It was strangely familiar. He picked it up, turned it over.

It was the hair barrette Melina had been wearing during their last trip into town.

He broke into a run, telling himself that it had to be hers, couldn't possibly belong to anyone else. After several minutes he slowed down. He stood still, breathing hard, looking and listening for her. There was nothing. Leaning against a tree, he slid to the ground slowly, feeling totally defeated. He wondered if the barrette really belonged to Melina after all, or if he simply wanted to believe that it did.

Eventually he drifted off to sleep, the barrette still in his hand. He dreamed that he was walking through an Osaka red light district. Everything seemed normal until he realized he was wearing a rented wedding tuxedo. He eventually entered a soapland favored by some of his friends. He looked through the catalog, chose a girl. He went into her suite's shower room, took off his wedding tuxedo and waited.

A small Japanese girl with dyed red hair came in, bowed politely. He paid for the body bath but decided against sex. She bathed him, covered him with lotion and slid herself against him. As she continued, she realized his body was not showing the slightest reaction to her skills. She tried different techniques; still, nothing.

As he turned to leave, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned. The Japanese girl had disappeared; in her place stood Melina. She looked hurt but said nothing.

Shinichi woke, still thinking of the small hand on his shoulder. After a few seconds, he realized that the hand wasn't a dream. He opened his eyes and saw Melina leaning over him, her sorrowful face framed by tangled hair. She dropped to her knees.

Chapter Nineteen: North of Niigata

They held each other for several minutes, saying nothing. Shinichi felt weak with disbelief, then relief. He thought he could feel Melina's body trembling before he realized that he was the one with the shakes. Eventually he realized that she had spent the night outdoors; her clothes held traces of earth and leaves.

"I want to try to explain," she finally said.

"It can wait." He didn't want to release her, fearing she might disappear.

"Please. I feel so awful." He looked down, realized her face was wet.

After the near-collision with the truck, the renewed memory of the loss of of her parents, combined with unresolved grief and guilt, took over. She had gradually become overcome with fears about the relationship, about her own self-worth. Convinced that Shinichi was better off without her, she packed her things and boarded the train to Sapporo. But she ended up spending the night in a dingy hotel north of Niigata instead.

"I was sitting there looking out the train window, and it just hit me. I couldn't make a clean getaway that day, or any other day. I already loved you."

She'd boarded the southbound train yesterday afternoon, arriving at the house late last night - probably during his conversation with Cathie. But she couldn't bring herself to enter or even knock, as she was ashamed of her cowardice and hated herself for running away. She was so sorry she'd hurt him.

He held her closer. "You thought you were doing the right thing. Just please, please, come talk to me the next time you're ... feeling unsure of anything." The pain of the last day and a half was floating away from him, dissolving into the blue sky.

"Let's go home." He took her hand and led her down the trail.

After a few minutes, she detoured into the woods and found her overnight bag hidden underneath some low-growing shrubs. He realized that she had spent the night there.

As he took her bag, Melina asked him to stop. She took some vines from a tree and wound them clumsily around her wrists before holding them toward him. The vines were thin but tough, with thorns.

"Tie me, please," she whispered.

He hesitated. "Are you sure?"

She nodded.

To find a lost treasure, especially one that had seemed to be gone forever, brings a unique sense of elation. This is how Shinichi was feeling, even though he also knew he was as unwashed, crumpled and vulnerable as Melina. He reached for the vines, cutting them shorter with his penknife before tying them in a knot.

A bright, thin line of blood appeared on the back of her hand. He reached over and tasted it with his tongue. Now she was inside him.

He dragged her down with him to the ground, pulling off her shoes and jeans before turning her over on her elbows and knees. She cradled her face in her forearms, her bleeding wrists in front of her. Kneeling behind her, he spread her knees wide apart. Her shirt and camisole slid down to her armpits.

With a minimum of undressing he pushed himself into her, his need to possess her taking over. He dug his fingers into her soft skin as he watched his angry cock sliding into her. He could hear her crying out but it was a faint sound, as if she were standing a hundred yards away.

Finally he slowed, slid his hands over her. He pulled out of her slowly; he was shiny with her wetness. He moved upward and slid himself against her ass in preparation to sodomize her. As he began to push into her, he felt her body stiffen. He stopped.

"Have you never ...?" he whispered.

She shook her head. "But I want you to do it."

He slid one wet fingertip into her ass, then reached underneath and massaged her clit until he could feel her beginning to relax. He continued until he sensed her orgasm beginning, then pushed his finger entirely inside her, fascinated by her grip on him as she came. She fell forward, breathing in ragged gasps.

After several minutes he gently pulled her back onto her knees. He had found a small tube of sunscreen in his trouser pocket and now he applied half of it to his finger, the other half onto the tiny flower of her bottom. He pushed his finger inside her ass, forcing the lotion in.

After covering his cock with lotion, he entered her ass less than an inch before pulling out. He repeated the action until she felt fully relaxed, then began to push inside her further in tiny increments, watching for her reaction. If she could take his cock head comfortably, she could take all of him.

As he continued, she suddenly pushed backwards, allowing about half of him inside. He could feel her sphincter tighten deliciously around his shaft.

"I'm ready," she whispered.

He began fucking her ass carefully, going deeper inside her with every third or fourth stroke.

Her wrists still bound, she marveled at the new experience. It was darkly taboo yet intensely, surprisingly erotic. She could feel Shinichi pulling her ass cheeks apart with his thumbs, inspecting his act of deflowerment, his cock completely inside her.

She reached toward her clit with her bound hands, her face on the soft earth. She touched his balls with her fingertips, and realized that she could stroke them easily. She heard him groan like an animal, felt his balls suddenly harden and draw upwards as he began to come.

Chapter Twenty: Sapporo

Melina sat in her small office surrounded by moving boxes. Her assignment in Sapporo was over and she was attempting to separate the business and personal items as she packed. As usual, she was regretting her pack rat housekeeping methods.

She finished emptying one drawer of her desk and pulled the next one open. She smiled to herself when she saw its contents. This drawer contained six months of souvenirs of her relationship with Shinichi.

She took out a battered ski pass, thinking of their visit to Furano. Sapporo was near several popular ski resorts, so they had booked a weekend at the Furano resort in January. Most of their time was spent helping each other up after yet another fall, as neither had skiied in years. After three hours of ending up like what Melina described as "yard sales" - their skis and poles scattered around them - they gave up and spend the rest of the afternoon drinking Irish coffees before retiring to their room early. For once, they had both been too worn out for sex.

The drawer held a collection of boarding passes and rail tickets. There had also been plenty of weekend stays at his country home - the venue they both preferred. It had a nostalgic value; it was where they had discovered each other, fallen in love. Their sexual encounters were almost always more intense when they met there.

However, their weekends in Osaka had not gone entirely to waste. Shinichi told Melina of his fantasy of fucking her on his desk, which led to the fantasy becoming near-reality one Friday afternoon after she arrived from Sapporo. After she spent several minutes on her knees sucking his cock, he had bent her over his desk face down, her ass in the air, before pulling up her skirt. He had just finished pulling her panties down when his office manager suddenly came in unannounced, looking for a report. Both women had screamed in unison, with Melina diving under the desk and the office manager running backwards out of Shinichi's office as he stood red-faced, both hands over his wilting penis.

She found a large brown envelope and carefully poured the contents of the desk drawer into it before sealing it with masking tape. She put the envelope in her briefcase. It was time to get dressed for her farewell dinner.

When she arrived at the restaurant, the head of the Sapporo office was there, together with several other senior colleagues. There was also a dinner guest she hadn't expected to see. Hitoshi Miyahara, the head of her company's Japan operations, sat at the head of the table. He rose, pulled out her chair for her.

"You're looking very well, Miss Reilly," he said. "And, as usual, your reviews have been excellent."

Dinner was a tasteless blur. She couldn't imagine why Mr. Miyahara would have traveled all the way to Sapporo to attend her going-away dinner. She began to wonder if she was going to be unofficially chastised for her relationship with Shinichi, although she had never asked for a single day off during the last six months, and had even been careful to never call him using the company phone.

Finally the dinner plates were taken away and the men started in on the cognac. She decided to play it safe and ordered coffee. After everyone had finished one drink, Hitoshi stood. He did not need to tap on a glass for attention.

His speech was mercifully short. He thanked the Boston office for their assistance and support during the in-house research project. He quoted some quarterly sales figures that received a polite round of applause. Finally he turned to Melina.

"I think everyone here will be pleased with the contents of this envelope, especially Miss Reilly," he said. He handed her a plain white envelope with her name typed on it.

She bowed, thanked him for what she was sure was a bonus check. She sat down and put the envelope in her handbag, only to realize that Hitoshi was still looking at her.

"I think we would all prefer it if you opened the envelope now, please," he said.

She tore the envelope open, pulled out a single sheet of business stationery. It was a letter.

She read it twice before she realized that the permanent position of Vice President of Research was being offered to her, that it included a generous salary and benefits, and that she would be based in the company's Osaka office should she accept the offer of employment. The letter was signed by Hitoshi Miyahara.

She stood up, trying not to sniffle. "I would be most honored to accept your offer, Mr. Miyahara. Thank you so much."

During the last months, Melina and Shinichi had been plotting, discussing and discarding several methods of remaining together after her assignment in Japan ended. But there had always been a sticking point. Although Shinichi was willing to marry Melina, he did not want to schedule his proposal according to a deadline imposed by the immigration authorities. Melina was willing to bring Shinichi to Boston and help him settle there, but they reluctantly agreed that he probably wouldn't be happy, especially since she had come to prefer Japan to the United States. And Shinichi had just recently made amends with his father, who to everyone's surprise, had taken an immediate liking to Melina when introduced to her.

She was leaving Sapporo next morning to join Shinichi at his country house. He had arranged two weeks off to spend with her. She couldn't stop smiling when she thought of showing him the letter. It was the perfect solution for both of them.

As she returned home in a taxi, she decided she couldn't wait to share her news. She pulled out her cell phone to call Shinichi, but stopped in mid-dial.

Had Shinichi gone to Hitoshi and asked him to make the job offer?

She tried to convince herself that he had nothing to do with it. Shinichi was well aware that she took her job seriously. Certainly he knew that she wouldn't be happy with a job that only existed as the result of a personal favor.

Melina took the letter out and read it again. There was nothing out of order; it was as cut and dried as any standard offer of employment. Finally she took out her phone, realizing that she couldn't postpone the call.

"Mr. Miyahara? I apologize for calling you this late."

"It's no problem, Miss Reilly, just be glad the karaoke hasn't begun yet." He sounded a little drunk.

"May I ask you one question about the job offer? I'm afraid it's rather personal, but I have to ask."

"It's no problem, dear, go right ahead."

"Did Mr. Sakakura have anything to do with this job offer?"

Hitoshi paused. "Not really, no. Except for one thing ..."

Her heart sank to the floor.

"Before I met with my senior staff to discuss your job offer, I asked Shinichi what the odds were that you would accept the job. You see, there were several people I had to convince of your worth to the company before making you the offer, and I didn't want to go through all that if you weren't interested in the first place."

She felt her heart shift into reverse. "So he didn't ask you to offer me a job?"

Hitoshi snorted. "Of course not. You heard how much money we've saved going in-house with research. Bringing you in full time will save more. I'm a banker, not a mi-ai. Shinichi can find his own girlfriends without my help."

She giggled, thinking of Hitoshi working as a professional matchmaker, or who the locals referred to as a mi-ai.

"Thank you, sir. I'm looking forward to being your employee."

He wasn't quite finished. "One last thing, Miss Reilly."

"Yes?"

"I may be a cranky old man, but I'm very pleased that Shinichi and you are, well, a couple. I've never seen him happier."

Chapter Twenty-One: Twilight Express

Sleep was out of the question that night. After the movers arrived, Melina walked to her favorite café carrying her overnight bag. She tried to stretch out breakfast but only ended up drinking too much coffee. Several times she almost dialed Shinichi's number, but she decided it would be more fun to show him the letter in person.

She took a taxi to the train station, settled into a coffee shop, ordered a decaf, ate a small lunch. Finally the square blue train cars of the Twilight Express pulled into Sapporo station.

As she settled into the salon car with a book, the conductor approached her. "Miss, why aren't you in your suite? There's no need to you to come here for a drink."

She found her ticket and showed it to the conductor. He compared it to his notes.

"Come with me, please."

He led her to the most luxurious suite on the train and stopped. "This is yours, miss." He took her ticket, handed her another. Slowly, she opened the door, half-suspecting to walk in on a stranger.

There was no stranger. Shinichi rose as she entered, dressed in his best suit, a rose in his lapel. He bowed. "Will you join me?"