Forest of Hungry Ghosts

DENOUEMENT

A flock of thousands of Disney bluebirds descended on the Riemannian valley, from which there is no (nonavian) escape. They picked up both Iso and Rei and flew off into the sky. As the two lovers looked down, the valley was covered by clouds so that its seemingly impossible non-Euclidean topology would not drive any aviators insane.

Their bluebird escort plopped them down unceremoniously in a lush green clearing in the forest abutted by a tall waterfall that was filled with luminous dragonflies. Music from an unknown source filled the air, and their avian escort festooned the naked couple with flowers.

Then a bunch of cartoon Mohammads sprung tuliplike out of the ground, and serenaded the buck-naked couple with a barbershop rendition of "Sweet Adeline."

The birds brought a gift to the happy couple: Volumes 1 and 2 of the Karma Sutra. Said happy couple ran through all their teachings in a single afternoon, and the out-of-breath birds brought them Volume 3.

"I didn't think there was a Volume 3," Iso said.

"Why did you think we are panting?" the lead bluebird said. "You think it is easy to write a sutra in a couple of hours.

"I don't know what this place is," Iso said. "But I'll tell you one thing, I'm not going to be eating any apples here. I want to stay here forever.

After a couple minutes' silence, Rei stirred in her Ainu lover's arms. "Have you noticed that we haven't run into any humans here in the Pure Land, except for Hafiz? And he came with us. Do you think we are just dream images like these tulpas around us, Iso? Do you think all this is a dream?"

He smiled. "If it's a dream, then I never want to wake up," he told Rei, and she snuggled more tightly into his armpit.

THE CRUELTY OF DAWN

Iso woke up, the words of Ohayashi Katsu, Rei's father, still burning in his ears. Rei-san had been missing three days now. If the Ohayashis refused to speak to him, he would go looking for her himself. He thought that best place to begin was unfortunately Aokigahara, the Forest of Death, the Sea of Trees, where so many came in this day of modern Japan to extinguish themselves in the old manner.

If he could find her before the act of self-annihilation that Iso was sure she was bent on, he would bring her back to Katsu-san and Mieko-san, even if it meant never seeing Rei again. He thought maybe he should enter Mieko-san's dream again, to comfort her and see if she knew any more about Rei's whereabouts.

He put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. Once more he gazed at the pale question mark formed by Mieko-san's delicate spine, punctuated by the dimple at the top of her buttocks. He put his hand on her shoulder and felt the silky blackness of her hair caressing his cheek.

Meiko-san placed her hand on his, as if to hold him with her forever.