The Night Lines

"Who are you?" She finally asked.

"We're passengers on the Night Lines, like you. We've simply been here longer." The Lady said quietly.

"How much longer?"

"Oh, longer than you'd think!" Boku chortled. "They upgraded the train, so it's a lot better than it used to be. We've got air conditioning now. Nice, right?"

Mira stared at her. Air conditioning? How long had it been since these trains got AC?

"I don't know what's going on here. I mean, what's really going on. I don't know what the Night Lines are, or who runs these trains, what the black mat actually means. I only found out about it because a friend told me, and even she thought it was an urban legend." Mira finally admitted.

"Did you enjoy the ride?" Boku asked.

"Yes." Mira admitted.

"So does it matter what the Night Lines are, if we want to have you and you want to be here?"

Mira stared. It was almost exactly what that sly little voice in her head had been saying all along.

"No." She said. "I guess it doesn't."

"Well then, maybe we'll see you on the next half-moon, or the one after that. You know where to get tickets."

Mira nodded.

"Are you ok to stand up now?"

"Yes, I think so."

Mira stood up, still weak-legged, then impulsively turned and bowed deeply to both women.

"Thank you so much! It was amazing. I'll never forget this night."

"You're very welcome," the Lady replied, at the same time as Boku said "Hey, no problem."

"Go on, now. Take a cab if you can't walk home."

"I can walk. It's not far."

A chime sounded, and out on the station platform an automated voice announced the departure of the Night Lines train bound for Odawara. Only a few women remained in the train. Mira's car was empty except for Boku and the Office Lady. She bowed again, more quickly this time, then scurried off the train and onto the black mat on the platform. As the door closed, she noticed the imprint of her body's sweat and fluid on the glass, like a ghostly double of herself in ecstasy lingering in the car. The breeze of the train's movement lifted her skirts and played on the wetness that still clung between her thighs. As the last car pulled out of sight, she had the uncanny feeling that a piece of her soul had left the station with that train, and that if she rode the Night Lines long enough, she would become a part of it forever...

She shook her head. It was late, and she was still in a strange, drifting state of mind. She'd been on a wild ride that was still making her think weird things. It was time to go home, to bed. No doubt everything would be back to normal in the morning.

In fact, Mira slept so soundly that night that in the morning she might have thought her experience was nothing more than an erotic dream. She didn't have any ticket stub. There were no marks on her body. Besides a sticky pair of panties, there was nothing else to suggest her journey had ever happened. Still, she was sure that if she ever wanted to go back, all she'd have to do was buy a ticket for the Night Lines on the next full moon and look for the black mat. Just knowing that, Mira was able to start her day with a smile.

Translation Notes:

A few of the terms in this story are based on Japanese language, which is what the characters would be speaking if I was better at writing in Japanese than I actually am. Here are the meanings behind some of the words in this story.

-Hensha: In Japanese, this term would be written with the first character "hen" from "hentai" (please tell me I don't need to explain what that is) and the last character "sha" from "densha" (train) to create the rhyming pun hensha.

-Half-moon: In English astronomical terminology, there is no such thing as a "half-moon." The moon that looks like half a circle in the sky is called the "first quarter" or "last quarter," depending on whether it's waxing or waning. However, the black mat uses the more poetic Japanese term "hantsuki": literally, half-moon. So, that's how I've translated it here.

Another reason I chose the half-moon, besides poetic symbolism, is that it occurs twice month, unlike the full moon or new moon. A 28-day departure schedule would be terrible for women whose menstrual cycles happen to start near the full or new moon every month.

-BOKU:boku is a casual masculine first person pronoun. In anime and manga, the "bokukko" or girl who uses boku is usually a tomboy or gender-nonconforming character (thinkRevolutionary Girl Utena). "Boku" in this story is reappropriating the pop culture reference and using it as a sign of her butch lesbian identity. The word is written in "romaji" (Latin script) using an Impact-style font because Boku thinks "it looks more punk that way." Even if this story was translated into Japanese, her name would still be written in romaji, not kanji, to distinguish it from the regular masculine "I."

-Moonrise: In Japanese, this safe word is "tsukinode." Moonrise for the last quarter moon is at 12:45 am on May 23, 2022. If you're in Shinjuku that night, why not go to the station and look for the black mat?

-Mira: This name is pronounced "mee-rah," not "my-rah." I chose it deliberately because it could be either Western or Japanese (much like Naomi). In Romance languages it derives from the Latin for "wonder," as in miracle. In Japanese it can be written with many kanji combinations, including "beauty" (mi) and "to come" (ra). Did Mira move to Tokyo from rural Japan, or did she come from much farther away, maybe Europe or North America? It's up to you to decide how you want to imagine her.