***Hmmm, a little bonsai tree, a little um, manure-spreading, some light conversation, ...

What could go wrong?

0_o

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Taeko was looking for a regular job. She found herself wandering in the aisles of a business supply store, gradually working her way to the front with a small shopping cart which by then contained a laptop PC, an all-in-one printer, scanner and FAX, some art supplies, a graphics tablet and a couple of blocks of plain white paper.

It felt strange to her, this business of trying to build a semi-disposable life for herself. For most of her adult life, she'd been very self-reliant to her way of thinking. To a person born in most cultures and societies, that degree of self-reliance was not even possible. Most humans have other humans in their lives, people who they interact with, live with, love with and care for.

All that Taeko had on this side of the planet were contacts, people who she could get in touch with in order to obtain documents, money, even vehicles or weaponry. They were not the same thing. To meet one of her contacts in any social way would be very awkward indeed, the other person waiting silently to be told what was wanted or needed so that they could reply with a price. There was no friendship to be had there.

She was almost at the cashier for her short line when her attention was drawn by the presence of a man behind her. She didn't look much, other than to get a glimpse of his overall clothing peripherally as a form of shorthand in the art of quick recognition. She didn't need to see his face then in most cases, and in this case, she didn't look that far.

She pretended to be interested in a bin of bright highlighting pens for a moment, but she didn't understand the pricing. The cashier explained that the price was for three of the pens and Taeko smiled then and chose three different colors to add them to her purchases.

Just then, another cashier looked over and said, "I can take you here, sir," and the man walked past Taeko and set his purchases down on the counter. Taeko looked at him then from behind.

He was dressed in slightly dirty clothing and after a second, she knew that it was from working, so that got her interest a little. Taeko had never really known a man in much of any social context. The ones which she'd known had been superiors, mostly, and the ones that she'd been to bed with had mostly been targets for her in her unusual line of work. Sleeping with someone was an age-old way to get close enough to do what she'd been sent there to do. In the present day, it almost always worked as a means to get to a fool who couldn't pay his gambling debts and had managed to evade the other forms of contact.

She thought about that as she looked a second time, taking in details now. He wore workboots which were clean, though dusty, and his shirt looked to have been washed recently and he wore it with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. She thought about the dustiness on him and it came to her that he might be a farmer. From what she'd seen, farming here was a little different from what she'd seen elsewhere in her travels, though not all that much. He didn't look more than a little dusty to her.

Any other woman might have looked at him for the shape of his body, and Taeko did as well, but her gaze -- as well-concealed as it was -- lingered for a few seconds. She wondered if other women saw him as only a laborer or someone of a lower social stature. What she saw was a man who worked for a living and to a girl with hard-working fishermen in her upbringing, that wasn't a bad thing, necessarily.

He was a little broad-shouldered and she could see that by the sleeves over his upper arms, he was fit and she noticed his narrow waist. If she had to guess, she'd have put his age at somewhere in his early thirties, but then she hadn't seen his face. It was just what came to her.

That was when she noticed the hair on his forearms.

It caused her to look elsewhere on him, as much as his position allowed. He was about two meters tall and the skin that she could see was tanned, so he spent a lot of his time outdoors, she guessed -- probably being a farmer.

It was her turn with the cashier then and she paid and was ready to leave in only a few minutes. She glanced at him as she turned to go and she saw his face in a rearward profile. It was then that she knew what it was about his hair. It was golden.

It wasn't as though she'd never seen a blonde man before -- she'd seen many of them in her travels -- especially here. They didn't do much of anything for her. Not many of the men here did.

But this one ... his hair wasn't really blonde. It looked to be more of a light brown, and yet, it was as though the hair on his arms and what she could see curling out from underneath the ball cap that he wore was trying to be blonde, as though it wanted to be, but had been cast into the role of being brown and rebelled whenever it had the chance for it.

It almost made her smile as she walked past and out of the store.

By this time, Taeko had been here long enough to have seen the need for saddlebags for her bike, so now it wore a set of hard fiberglass bags which were fine for some things and not enough for others -- such as her printer. But she'd thought about this and had tons of bungee cords to tie it down with. She was in the process of that when she saw the man walk out and head toward a pickup truck. He got in and drove away long before she was done securing her printer.

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The next day was Saturday. Taeko had gotten her housework done and a bit of yardwork as well, just wanting to clean the place up a little. The old farmhouse had never had much of any pretense to it, but it was where she lived for the moment so ....

There had been evergreens planted around it many years ago and as they'd grown taller, the lower branches had died from being in perpetual shade. Some previous owner or resident had sawn them off to clear things a little. Taeko found a rake and went a little further hoping that if she removed a lot of the dead pine needles, the thin grass might have a chance at life. Somewhere in that, she'd seen the little seedling.

There were lots of them around here and there, but this one had a nice shape to it, so she dug it up with care and looked until she found a little oval pot. One thing led to another and before she knew it really, she was sitting on the old front porch in the thin rays of whatever sunlight could make it through the pines. She'd found some cast-off copper wire in a cable and a little work yielded her one of the conductors stripped bare.

That was how Kerry found her as he came up the long driveway.

She saw him coming after he'd parked his truck out on the road, but she gave no sign that she was aware of his approach. She recognized him as the man in the store and wondered about it, but she reasoned that she'd find out what he was here for soon enough. Besides, she was enjoying her tea and her little pine tree.

He stood in a bit of amazement as he watched her pot it and press the soil down. She'd moistened the roots and the soil, so her fingers were a little muddy. She didn't seem to notice it at all as she lifted her cup to sip her tea thoughtfully as she turned the pot this way and that to regard the slightly bent and twisted sapling there. He watched as she moved a little of the dirt to reach in carefully and lift one root a little and then replace the earth so that the 'knuckle" of that root would one day show as though the tree was ancient and weathered.

"Hello," he said, "Is Mr. Nakatami at home?"

Taeko looked up and smiled after a moment, "Yes," she said with an accent which was at the same time both pleasant and unreadable to him, "I think that he must be by now. He was here on business for a time before I arrived, but he had to return home. I am his niece. How can I help you?"

"I'm Kerry Browne," he said, "Your uncle rented this house from my uncle late last year. My uncle has passed away and I'm trying to clean up his affairs. I wanted to tell Mr. Nakatami that I won't be renting this property much beyond the end of September. I'll be selling the land."

"Oh," she said, "Am I being ... ev... evicted?"

"No," he smiled, "but before that time, you should think about finding another place to live, that's all. If I was going to be living in the area, I'd probably keep renting the place to him -- or you or ... somebody."

He looked around at the place for a moment, "And if I was, I think I'd want to do a little work on it too. This place is pretty tired."

She nodded as she looked at the sapling again. "I am Khoe."

He looked at her, "I'm sorry, but I didn't -- "

"Khoe," she smiled, "K-ho-eh. Would you mind holding this little wire for me for a moment? My little friend here needs her branches shaped and I don't have enough hands for everything."

"Sure," Kerry smiled as he stepped forward, "Show me what you need."

She reached for his hand and positioned it for him before she began to carefully wind the wire around one of the branches, "This is some wire that I found in the garage," she smiled as she worked, "it's much too stiff for this, but it will have to do for now."

"I think I saw you at the office supply place yesterday," he said as he watched her.

She smiled a little again as she looked up for a moment, "You think that you saw me? You are not certain that you saw me, or you are not sure that you were there? I can help. I saw you, so you were there."

He looked a little flustered then and it made her laugh a little, "Sorry. I have trouble with some phrases in English sometimes. A normal turn of phrase sounds strange to me. I know what you meant."

"Do you do this often?" he asked, "I mean bonsai? It's an old art."

"I have, but not lately," she said, "I am an artist and I use many forms of expression. If I was going to go on living here, I would ask if I could make a garden, but this is not the best place for that."

She told him that he could let go then and she cut off the excess wire and sitting down with the pot on her knees, she reached over to a little tray and held a piece of moss over the soil in an experimental way for a moment. When she had it the way that she wanted it, she took a pair of scissors and cut it to size, pressing it down before she took a few small pebbles and pressed them down around the edges of the moss. In that setting, they looked like boulders.

"I have always liked to create little scenes in gardens. Zen gardens are my very favorites." She held up the little tree and decided that she liked it for the moment, "You like bonsai?"

"I've never had any," he said, "but I admire them."

She held it out to him with a pleased smile, "Then you have one now. Keep this in a place out of hard sun for longer than an hour at a time and when you water it; be sure to carefully brush a little water into the moss with a finger. Moss can be very hard to please and it may die regardless of what you do. If it dies, I would suggest that you leave it. It may surprise you and come back."

"Thank you," he smiled, "very much. This is beautiful; more so because I saw it being done." He looked a little uncomfortable for a second, "I'm afraid I only know a little of Japanese manners. I ... I think I ought to bow a little right about now, right?"

It made her laugh and she nodded a little, "I suppose that might be correct if it's what you wish to do, but this isn't Japan, and so it isn't necessary."

"But you are Japanese, aren't you?" he asked and then felt immediately foolish. "Please forgive me. I didn't mean to pry. It just came out."

"Why do you ask?" she inquired, "And by the way, I'm not offended. It opens the door for my own questions."

Kerry smiled in thanks for the way that she'd gotten him out of the gaffe, "You look Japanese to me, but I hear something else in your voice. I just don't know what it is."

She laughed then and it came to him as a thrill before she looked up, "I have heard it said that to most of the people here that, outside of their communities, all Asian people look alike. So you can spot a Japanese person when you see her?"

"Not always," he said, "Asia is a big place with many nationalities in it. But I can usually pull a few of them out based on mannerisms, speech and things like that. For example, I'd have been surprised to hear a Chinese accent from you."

His jaw dropped then as she recited a little poem in flawless Mandarin, and she chuckled to see the effect on his face. "I can speak several languages, though English is not my best. You are partially correct, however. I am partly Japanese. We can leave it at that, because you will never guess the rest. Well you might," she said thoughtfully, "but I have only a little while left to live here from what you have said."

"I'm sorry," Kerry said, "I've been trying to reach your uncle to tell him. I tried sending a registered letter, but..."

"I have been forwarding his mail," she lied, "I do not open what is addressed to him, or I'd have known of this before. You don't need to look so saddened; I have nothing to tie me here. I am on a long vacation. I've spent some time here and it is enough. I have many photographs to paint from, if I wish. They're nothing much by themselves, only bits and pieces of grass or little flowers that I have found, but from them, I can work and that was the purpose."

"You said that you like Zen gardens?" Kerry asked, "To work on them, I mean."

"Yes," she nodded, "Do you have a little one in your truck or something?"

"I have one," he grinned, "believe it or not. I've got a house out west and it has a garden, but it needs a lot of work and I don't have a clue. How do you pronounce your name again?"

"Khoe," she grinned, and she spelled it. "I can spell 'Kerry' or any of the variations for that name."

"No you can't," he smirked a little, "my name is pronounced that way, but I'm named after a long-gone people, not a person. My dad's a stickler for history." He winked at her, "I'd almost like to see you try, though. It starts with a 'c'."

She tried as many of the variations that she could think of, but he only grinned.

"Fine," she smiled giving up, "How is it spelled?"

Her mouth opened as he spelled it out for her, "C-i-a-r-r-a-i-g-h-e."

"What sort of name is that?" she asked, "I have always loved the way that things make no sense in English until you find the little key in yourself and then it is easy. This ... a name like that..." she shook her head.

"It's Irish," he smiled, "a Gaelic word for a people who were older than they were. "It means 'the people of Ciar", some big warrior guy somewhere back then, I guess. Where will you go? I mean after you leave here?"

"West," she shrugged, "I love mountains and forests. I want to see what is there. Tell me of your garden. Maybe I can meet you and tell you what it needs before I wander off to see the mountains."

"Well, it's in some mountains," he laughed, "Not miles in, but it's about an hour from the nearest city and about twenty minutes or so from the closest town."

"Would you like some tea, then?" she asked, "It sounds interesting to me already, and if I am correct in the feeling that I have, it will need some telling."

One tea turned into several over the afternoon and she sat looking at him over the kitchen table as he worked to sketch her a map of his garden and how he remembered it. She was looking at the pencil in his right hand. As she watched, she wondered a little about the callouses that she'd felt there in that first touch as she'd taken his hand to guide it so that he could hold on to the piece of wire for the little bonsai that she'd made for him.

Aside from the callouses which she expected to be there on the hands of a man who worked with them, there was a thick line which ran along the inside from about the middle knuckle of his thumb, along the web and most of the way along the inside of his index finger. She was trying to think of a plausible reason for it to be there in the work that he did running the farm implements or doing the chores of the occupation. She couldn't think of one, other than what would have been on the hands of many men in a long bygone age. She knew how a man might come to develop callouses like that.

She knew that because she had one there herself, but on her, there was one on each hand, the right one being a little more pronounced, though neither was especially noticeable.

Her gaze drifted to his face, listening to him as he spoke during his struggles to make the map clear to her, as if there was no way that it could convey what he wanted to describe to her of his garden's features. He was wrong, but Taeko held her tongue. She wanted to hear the way that he felt about it and what he wanted. His hair had her attention again for the moment, the way that the errant curls peeked out at her with their golden tips. She was having thoughts that caused her to wonder what it would feel like to touch it for a moment. To her, the hair of most westerners was fine and soft to the touch.

She was about to give her head a little shake as she caught herself, but then he raised his head to look at her as he tried to emphasize a point that he thought he wasn't stressing properly enough to get the feeling across. He was, but that didn't matter. It was the first time that he was looking directly into her eyes as he made his point and Taeko found herself lost in the light of those blue eyes.

She remembered reading accounts of the infrequent arrivals of Caucasian men long ago during the feudal period of Japan. To the people of that time, they were seen as barbarians, large, loud and crude - and really hairy. When the Americans had arrived to force trade, it was perhaps the first time that people with skin, hair and eyes such as his had been seen there by a lot of people. Those barbarians were considered to be demons by the locals, for the way that the light green and gray and blue eyes could hold a person's gaze, and it was a warning to never look into their eyes or there was a risk that one's spirit could be stolen by them.

When the Russians had arrived to claim the other islands in the area, the type became a lot more known, but then of course, a lot of it had been about conflict.

Now, in the little kitchen of the worn-out old farmhouse where she lived for now, Taeko was sitting with one of these demons only inches away from her. She'd seen them before, she'd just never felt the pull like this. A part of her wanted to push her fingertips through the hair which wished to be golden so much. She wanted to remove that ball cap and run her fingers through that hair, knowing full well that she'd also feel the dampness there since it was summer.

She had a strong urge to do that if she could and look into the cerulean eyes which now regarded her and hid whatever dark urges might lie far down behind their open friendliness. Taeko had control -- just as she always did. But a little part of her wanted to throw that control away as her fingers felt that hair and she brought her face closer to those eyes and glanced now and then at lips like she had never seen this close up before in her life.

She didn't do any of those things, of course; instead, she reached over and took the pencil, pointing to a few of the features in his garden as he's mapped it out and she asked a few questions, pointing to one thing in particular. There was a little stream which ran through the yard and there was a pond, beyond that was a pair of lines which crossed the line of the stream and it was what she indicated now.

"It's a small bridge in a stand of trees," he said, "and it's one of my favorite things there. It's made of stone somehow and it arches -- well, here ..." he began to sketch quickly and in a few moments, she was looking at a small causeway, as he'd said. There were no handrails or anything, just the structure. "I don't even know how it was made, but the whole thing is covered thickly with moss and grass and you can walk on it."
"You draw well," she said with a smile, as she reached across to take his hand and turn it over. "How did you manage to get such a set of callouses? This one here has drawn my attention for a time. The rest are all what I might expect from a man who works with his hands, but ... what is this?" She didn't let go if his hand for a long moment. It was summer, but she liked the warmth that she felt there.

He shrugged, "I don't do it here, and I'm going to pay the price for stopping, but I lift weights. This right here, ..." He looked down and smiled a little in some embarrassment, "I found some work one fall as an extra in a movie that was being filmed when I was about to go to Police College for the winter semester. I'd just gotten back from here and helping out my aunt and uncle for the summer, so I guess the work of that must have shown to somebody and they pulled me out of the hundreds of hopefuls.

I was chosen to play one of the bad guys and they wanted a guy who was built like me, I guess. That was all good, but the role needed somebody who could use a sword. All of the regular guys that they would have called had all turned it down because they already had other commitments, so somebody looked at me and the next thing I knew, I was being taught.

The man and woman who taught me were only supposed to teach me just enough for the scenes that I was going to be in, but they saw that I had an interest -- which is an understatement. Whoever gets the chance to learn things like that these days? I jumped in and learned anything they taught me. They saw how keen I was, so they kept teaching me and I took in all that I could.

I sure didn't mind, since it turned a two week job into a couple of month's work. I had to get up at like three in the morning for the whole time. By the time that it was over, I nearly had pneumonia, since I was always in not much more than a ratty fur over my shoulder and the final shooting for my part was in early December. Anyway, I made a bit of money and when I asked, they let me keep one of the fake swords and the couple let me have one of the real ones that we never used during the fight scenes."

He smirked and it turned into a laugh, "Looking back on it now, if I had a brain -- and an agent, I might be working in the movies. I still practice what I learned. The sword is heavy, since I was like one of the bad Vikings in the picture, and swinging that around for an hour every other day, sure helps my wrists and my arms."

"So you had to fight with the sword in the movie?" she asked.

"Yeah," he nodded, "and of course, since I was one of the bad-asses in the bunch, I had to die a rather spectacular death, though not as bad as the big boss bad guy. I had a few lines, but they weren't much more than grunts and yells. The fights were choreographed pretty much like a dance."

"I would like to have seen that," Taeko smiled, "What was the name of the movie? I would like to rent it sometime so that I can see my landlord in action."

"I have a copy, or uh, ... six, "he laughed as he told her the name of the picture, "but they're all at home out west. It wasn't a huge hit, so most people have never heard of it."

"Then I will try to rent it when I return home, "she smiled, but then she frowned a little, "I have never heard of it. I don't mind that, but I hope that I can find a copy of it in Japan.

Are you hungry? I'm very happy that I met you and, "she looked down a little shyly, "perhaps it shows that I don't know anyone here, but I am hoping that you might allow me to buy dinner -- that is, if it is alright with you and if you don't have any more people to evict today."

He looked at her and he just couldn't help himself as he grinned a little, "I'd like that very much, Khoe. Where were you thinking of going?"

"Well I don't have anything very fancy to wear, so it should be someplace where casual dress is permitted."

- After locking up and reminding him not to forget his little bonsai tree, they were off. Kerry was a little surprised, but Taeko pointed to a Wendy's and asked what the food was like there. After his brief explanation, she asked if they could eat there.

"You said that you went to a Police College," she said, "You are a farm policeman? Do they have such things here?"

"No," he said, "I used to be a cop. I went through a bad episode a while back, and afterwards, I found that I just didn't have it in me anymore to want to come back. "He related a little of what had happened and Taeko apologized for troubling him with the question.

"It's alright, Khoe," he said, "No harm done. These days, I don't know what I really want. I suppose that I could stay here and run everything that my uncle left to me. The soil is good enough, but the city keeps growing northward and soon, all that I'd see around me is little boxes everywhere. If I could get used to that, the best thing would be to stay and work the land until some developer comes along with a fist full of money and sell then. But I haven't got it in me for that either.

I guess I'll just pocket what I get out of all of this and invest it, so I can go back home and fix my place up. I'll figure out what I want to do with my life sometime during all of that -- I hope."

"I have an idea," Taeko said, "But I don't know if it would be of use to you. I have no fear of work and I know a little about farming. Let me work for you to help you finish and in exchange, you take me with you when you go to your home. I will help you to know what must be done for your garden at least, and then I will go back to Japan when my visa runs out."

Kerry blinked at her, not really comprehending, so she went on, "You would not have to pay me. I see it as a partnership to go west, and I have not spent much of my traveling money at all, so I could contribute to what we eat."

He was about to shake his head.

"It will be a very different summer and maybe fall," she smiled, trying to coax him a little, "I know no one here and I have just met someone who I wish to know, so unless you have a girlfriend who would be jealous, we might each have a friend from somewhere else."

He looked at her and in his expression; she saw that what she was saying was not really in any frame of reference for him, so she put a little more into it and it came out of her as a question, "I could start at any time?"

Kerry threw up his hands then, since despite having feelings to the contrary, he just couldn't see a reason not to try it. He found himself liking her a great deal and she seemed to be full of little surprises, so he gave in. Taeko was pleased, since this gave her a way to go slowly west and leave the country at a different point, see some of it at the same time, and maybe have a little fun with a very attractive man whom she liked.

She knew deep down that she shouldn't be doing it this way, but her life was always full of strategy and tactics; the handling of the unforeseen problems which sometimes crop up, no matter how well something is planned out with contingencies along the way. She was usually as cold as ice, but she was still a woman at the core of her. This was a chance for a bit of careful fun before she had to leave.

They saw each other a few times during the next week. Kerry decided after that evening that he had more than what might be termed a polite interest, and if the question had been asked of him that way, he'd have laughed and nodded. She was a rather gorgeous enigma to him and he was fascinated.

He was so fascinated that as he drove home that first night, he'd almost stomped on the brakes when he was about a block away from her home, wanting to beat his head against the steering wheel.

He'd forgotten to ask her out.

He couldn't believe that he'd been so stupid, but then after a moment, he had to grin to himself. She was just that kind of girl, he told himself.

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She couldn't believe it at first. Taeko had been doing a little explorative clean up and she'd stumbled upon a child's yard pool in a shed. The sort where you just put it someplace and fill it up before you turn your kids loose and plug your ears while they have fun.

It took her a little while to figure that out, not knowing all that much about children and their habits. She was going to put it back when she suddenly wondered if it might still hold water. It was the semi-rigid kind, made out of plastic, but that meant that you didn't have to blow anything up to use it.

She carefully dragged it out into the dappled sunshine to look at it. It hadn't gone brittle, so she guessed that it had lived almost all of its existence in the shed, knowing that things like this don't last in open sunshine for all that long. The sunlight attacks the plastic and the whole thing becomes brittle, as inflexible as a pie crust. But this one looked fine, not even faded. It gave her an idea.

Five minutes with the hose, a little scrubbing, and she had a pool to lounge in; out of the heat of the day. She almost laughed.

The weather had turned hot and humid and her home had no air conditioning. She began to fill it on the spot.

Then again, she thought as she watched the water level rising, she had no bathing suit. She looked around and decided that this place was remote enough. She just had to keep an eye on the long walk. Where she'd placed the pool wasn't in plain sight very much and it was in about three-quarters shade. It would do and it beat the heck out of sitting in the bathtub.

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Kerry spent most of the morning working in one way or another, but he did have to go to town for a couple of things, so he planned to maybe stop by to ask Khoe out if she was at home. The trick of it was that it was sweltering hot today, and he had no AC in his truck. So he was a little mindful to hopefully not get too sweaty by the time that he drove over.

It didn't work out as well as he'd hoped but he didn't really want to wait another day. So he drove over when he could, working up his question in his mind and wondering why. He was long past the point where a man might feel a little hesitant over something like this, but well, ... He didn't want to blow it.

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She heard the truck slow and then stop.

Taeko didn't know who it was as she lay in the cool water with her eyes closed in a bit of bliss, though she did have an idea that it might be Kerry. She liked him. It surprised her to realize that she liked him quite a bit. She was normally never like this toward any man. Well, usually toward any person, as far as that went.

She opened her eyes, knowing that she had a few more seconds.

What didn't surprise her much was the knowledge that she'd been right. It was him. She could guess what brought him here and she didn't mind. There was just the issue of her present state of dress.

Well, he was a man and she knew how to play this, so she waited, knowing that the situation presented her with the opportunity to set one of the many hooks that it took to land a man in this culture. She knew that she shouldn't really be having these thoughts, but she was faced with a long stay in this country somewhere. It might as well be with a man who was as likeable and attractive as this one.

What surprised her was the pace of his approach. He was walking quickly, though the expression on his face gave no indication that anything might be wrong. It didn't change much for her, other than move up the timing of her next move.

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Kerry looked up as he walked and then he stopped dead in his tracks.

He suddenly saw the kiddie pool there in the dappled shade of the yard and he saw, ...

Holy ...

He watched as Khoe got to a sitting position and then stood up out of the water, rising from a cross-legged position into a standing one like some oriental version of that 'Birth of Venus' painting that he'd seen once .

He was maybe fifty feet away as he saw her get to her feet, absolutely naked, facing away from him. From her body language, he doubted that she was aware of his presence, so now he had a problem, not wanting to be rude or ungentlemanly.

He kicked himself, wishing now that he'd had the presence of mind to whistle as he'd walked up unannounced. It would have saved what just had to turn into something really, really awkward. He thought about turning right around and walking away.

That would have been what his mother would have told him would be the right way to handle this. He knew it, and he found himself mentally agreeing with the voice of his mom in his ear.

But then as he was still standing there a little transfixed in shock, she bent over to pick up a towel.

And this girl had the ability to seize up his ribcage when she was fully clothed, he remembered.

Holy Mother of Toilet Seat, ... he thought. She was ... well, she sure was, for damn sure.

She lifted the towel and covered the front of her body, using one hand to move her long, wet, black mane so that it almost, though not quite covered the most lovely ass on the continent as he saw it, telling him with the motion that she was quite unaware of his presence.

Kerry spun around to look in the direction of his truck and he told the two chickadees and the sparrow on the tree branches nearby that he was sorry. They didn't appear to be impressed at all, but he knew that she'd hear him.

"Hello, Kerry," he heard, guessing from the sound that she was approaching him, "you can turn around now. I'm very sorry if I shocked you, but it's hot and I have no swimsuit. I thought that I could keep an eye on the road and the walk, but it felt so nice that I must have closed my eyes."

He was looking down at the moment, considering the toes of his workboots and wondering how the hell he was going to pull himself out of this fire. "I should have called out or whistled or something. I'm the one who should apologize, Khoe. I came to, um, ..."

She walked around to the front of him then, walking into his field of view like a vision holding the towel around her, her head tilted in a hopeful little smile, trying to put him at ease at least a little.

"You came to forget what you came for?" She laughed a little nervously, but it offered him the chance to move past the point where he was presently stuck at.

"I wanted to ask you last night if you'd like to have dinner with me again this evening," he said, still in a little agony at the embarrassment that he must have caused her.

"I can't this evening," she said, "Tomorrow evening?"

He nodded, "That would be fine, Khoe. Can I pick you up at say, seven or so?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "I'd like that. And please stop blushing, Kerry. I'm the one with only the towel on. It was my fault."

He nodded, noticing the feeling of heat on his face for the first time. "Ok," he smiled down, "Thanks."

"Thank you, Kerry. I will see you then, alright?"

He nodded, smiling and then he began to walk away. Taeko did as well in the opposite direction.

She knew that she shouldn't be doing this, but, ...

Kerry walked off slowly, thoroughly confused over nothing, still feeling the aftereffects of his embarrassment, still needing to, ... will himself not to look back.

He looked back.

Taeko knew that he would. She didn't look back herself. She didn't need to. When she was in the edge of the shade as she neared the pool, she took the towel away from herself, walked the last thirty feet to the pool, and laid the towel on the ancient webbed lawn chair that she'd found with the pool and stepped back into it, sinking back down to lie back, never once looking back as though she trusted him to have continued on back to his truck.

And knowing that he wouldn't; not until she was she was done with this little show for him.

She felt a little guilt for the way that she'd set the hook and told herself -- once again - that she shouldn't be doing this. It wasn't as though she was trying to catch this man for herself to make a great love with him for their lives. The tactic would have worked well in that regard and he appeared to her to be so worth it though they didn't know each other all that well yet.

She thought about it, wanting suddenly to leave her life behind and have THAT life and love with this man. She didn't know everything about this culture, but she knew that it was possible with him and he was so different from what she'd have expected in a man from around here.

He was worth it. A man like him was worth a lot to someone like her.

But she knew that it wasn't possible for her to have him and that life with him. It made her a little sad. There was no reason that she couldn't have gone to dinner with him that evening. She had nothing planned at all. She'd only been setting the hook in a little deeper, that was all.

She sighed a little. Sometimes she just hated her occupation.

Kerry finally found his brain and began to walk back to his truck. He made it the whole way without tripping or stumbling once and then he got in, slipping the key into the ignition. He looked back up the walk and saw nothing of the pool or the mysterious woman who would now occupy his thoughts.

He liked what he'd seen, but it wasn't just that. He really liked Khoe. She never saw anything as a big deal. He realized then that he wanted a woman like that.

He turned his head to look out over the steering wheel at the road ahead for a moment, but he wasn't seeing that. He was seeing a replay of her incredibly pretty bottom walking away from him.

"Please God," he smirked to himself, "If I promise to be a really good boy and go to church, help the poor and save the whole fucking world, I don't give a damn about taking up any more space in Heaven. Just let me have the love of that woman and I'd die happy in those arms. I don't give a rat's ass what happens after that."

He heard the engine rev a little and remembered that if he was going to go anywhere now, he had to put the truck in gear first. He drove off a little slowly.

Taeko heard it as well as the sounds of him driving off. She smiled to herself -- not for doing what she'd done -- just because she liked him.

=================================================

The following Tuesday when he drove over to pick her up as agreed, he found her sitting amid her meagre belongings and they loaded up his truck and she followed him on her bike to his uncle's house. Kerry had weighed things in his mind and her argument that the few weeks of rent were of questionable benefit in light of a possible sale of the property during the interim. Taeko said that she'd continue to pay him rent until her had a serious offer.

By that afternoon, the realtor called and said that she had an interested buyer, so he listened to her and agreed tentatively to their offer.

He pressed the disconnect button on his cell phone and went looking for her. He found her belongings in the room that he'd given her for her use, but she wasn't there. She was in the barn, unwrapping four wooden practice swords.

"What are you doing?" he asked, amazed.

She laughed and held out her hands, "You are not the only one with a need to swing something. I bought these at a martial arts supply store yesterday. Sad to say, they didn't have anything like what you must be familiar with, but we can have fun with these." She set them down and walked over to him, "but first, I think there must be something here which the farmers must attend to, isn't there?"

"Yeah," he laughed a little as he glanced at his watch and then looked out toward the road, "but neither of us is going to like it much."

He pointed to a tank truck which was grinding slowly up from the road, "For the next few hours, things are gonna smell a little ripe around here. I pulled one early harvest out of that field over there and I ploughed what was left under before I tilled and disked it a few times. It's not the right way to do it, but I want to try to get a second harvest out of that one if I can."
He handed her a cardboard box. The picture on it looked as though it contained some sort of gas mask. "This one's new and it's for you. I'm going to give you a quick lesson in driving a tractor, and then we'll be fertilizing to our heart's content all afternoon."

Kerry was a little surprised that she didn't back away then. Hell, she looked interested, he thought.

Taeko wasn't someone who backed away from the unfamiliar, and she'd operated many sorts of machinery in her life, so driving a tractor which was hauling a manure spreader was no stretch. He asked her about it and she smiled, "I have run a trawler with a full net before. I think that this will be only another challenge."

But sitting in the cab of that tractor with the cab closed and the ventilation on full was a chore, since the air conditioning wasn't the greatest and she sat in her own sweat all afternoon as she maintained her set distance off to his right side. They got it done, returning to the tanker over and over to have the two spreaders re-filled and hating the slow trips when the breeze was at their backs, since all that the ventilation did then was suck in the stench, so they ran in that direction with the fans off.

As good as the mask was, she still caught whiffs of what they were spreading and the one time that she'd moved it to adjust the way that it fit, she'd forgotten and inhaled only once.

She was careful never to do that again.

By the end of it, she couldn't tell if it cleared her sinuses or just killed off her sense of smell for a while, but the shower at the end of the day was one of the more welcome ones in anyone's life. She inquired about dinner and he pointed to his truck, "I'm not eating here until it rains at least once," so they went to a little family restaurant that he knew and she amazed him by the amount of food that she ate.

"Where are you putting that?" he asked, "I've never seen a girl eat so much."

Taeko grinned, "Before, I was just doing little things, so I needed little. Now I think that I must work more, so ..." she shrugged.

It was pouring rain by the time that they left and Kerry was glad of it. "I can handle the smell, since it had to be done, but I've never been thrilled over the first day. You need to have a good day's sunshine on a fertilized field or you need rain to scrub the smell out of the air."

"What will you do this evening?" she asked.

"I dunno," he answered, "I don't watch much TV. As a matter of fact, I had the cable disconnected after my uncle passed away. What have you got in mind?"

"I was thinking of watching a movie," she grinned, "I think that you can guess that I went to Chinatown for more than a couple of wooden swords. There are people there who will sell you all sorts of things -- little-known movies for example."

Kerry's mouth began to fall open in surprise as she looked at the dessert menu, still talking with a little smile, "Oh, the first three places that you go to might not have it, and even if one of them think that they might, you have to wait while they send a young relation off to the basement to even find it. It requires patience," she said, "but patience often yields rewards -- if you really have it in your heart to see a movie with at least one bad Viking in it."

"You didn't -- "he said.

"I did," she laughed, "Would you please watch it with me? I would love to have your insight so I might know what is going on in the plot. If you have no way to play it, we can use my laptop."

"Fine," Kerry chuckled, "but I get to cover my eyes at some parts."

Taeko was surprised and she laughed, "But you know the plot. You were there for some of the filming. You can't tell me that there is anything in it which frightens you."

"Oh there is," he groaned, "that was my acting debut, and in all likelihood, it's also my swan song. It's been a few years, and even I'm not used to the crap that they made me say."

As they watched the thing, Taeko sat up expectantly the first time that she could see his character come into view -- even though he was in the background of the shot. When the scene had moved on with nothing much from Kerry, she looked a little disappointed.

"Hey," he smiled, "try to remember that I wasn't even one of the central characters in this. I was just an extra."

She shook her head, "I understand that. But there are the stars of this out in front of you and they would have trouble opening a ... a carton of milk like they sell here."

She frowned, and indicated herself with her hand, moving it up and down, "All that I see on them is air-brushed bellies. They even have trouble holding them in, one of them."

He was surprised that she was that discerning in an instant.

"They should have given them leather armor with the muscles formed in them. It would have saved a lot of bother for nothing. And you were air-brushed too, weren't you?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "I used to drive the make-up ladies crazy. Every day, they'd spray that onto me about four times. After a while, they didn't even look happy to see me coming toward the trailer in the morning."

"Why so much?" she asked and he shrugged, "I did my best to hold still, but ... well, I'm a little ticklish there."

There was a scene where his character was right out front in a battle, beating down the defenders and she watched it intently.

"They told you to do that, didn't they?" she asked, and he nodded, "I can tell," she said, "There would be no purpose to those motions unless it was for show. I have never held one, but I imagine that a Viking-style sword was a heavy thing, and if you were busy fighting all day, you would not want to flourish or embellish the motions at all. It's just too much work."

"That reminds me," he said, "why did you buy those wooden swords again?"

"I practice too," she smiled, "though it is a ... holdover? I don't know if that is the way to say it. It's something left over from the past. On the Japanese side of me, there is a history of a little samurai background."

In fact, there was none of that in Taeko's background at all. Her people were commoners all the way back on both sides, but she wanted a plausible-sounding reason, "I trained a little in Kendo," she said, "but mostly I use it for fitness by using a real sword all alone for the weight and the work of it. I find little in all of the padding to endear the art to me in its current form."

The next day, they were done by a little after noon, since they'd gotten up at dawn. "Free time?" Taeko asked, "So soon? What sort of farmer are you?"

"Well about all I can think of on this section is to plough the manure under a little more, if you want," he smiled.

"Does it need that?" she asked, a little surprised.

"Oh, probably not," he grinned, "but if you're as eager as all of that, hey, go on ahead."

"I think that I will go and play with my wooden swords," she smiled over a little hopefully.

"Hey, can I watch?" he asked and she laughed.

"Of course," she grinned, "but you will not have much time to watch if you pick even one of them up. You will be fighting for your life then."

Kerry wasn't weighed down with much of an ego at all, but her remark made him smile just a little. He was taller than she was and likely twice as heavy. "Ok," he said.

She gave him some time to get used to the lightness and the different shape and when he indicated that he was at least a little ready, she picked up two of them and he backed away.

"Hey, why are you using two?" he asked.

"I am warming up," she smiled, "Most warriors used only one sword at first. After a while, the more wealthy learned to adapt themselves to the use of two -- the Katana, which these are supposed to mimic and the shorter Wakizashi

There was one master who pioneered the use of two katanas at the same time, though he was fond of the Wakizashi as well. I have read that he often liked to throw the Wakizashi, but I am not wealthy enough to wish to try that. I have learned to follow his teaching as much as I can."

She paced around him as he tried to limber up, and he began to feel something like a mouse in front of a cat. When he finally gave it a try, she came out on top in their stilted little competition as they'd set the rules, since wooden or not, they could cause quite a lot of pain if one of them really put much more into it besides the motions.

"I'm having trouble believing what I'm seeing, "he said, clearly impressed, "Every time that I move, you're somewhere else and it's usually a place where you end this the next second. How do you do it?"

Taeko had been enjoying this so much that she'd let herself slip a little uncharacteristically for her. The methods that she'd been taught were all about engaging if it had to be and then finishing an opponent to make good her exit. She'd have to ease off a fair bit.

Besides, she was having so much fun with Kerry that she didn't want it to end anytime soon, so she had to be careful not to let him get too discouraged.

"I'm sorry," she smiled, "It is just the way that my favorite teacher taught me. Let's try it again and I will not do it that way this time."

They sparred on and at times, it would have been worth it to have a video camera there, because it was all technique and a lot of things were held back by them both. She saw some similarities, though not in how he was fighting. She could tell that it was about finishing quickly as well from his side of things -- as he'd been taught -- but in his case, it was much more about brutal force to kill or severely injure an opponent before moving on to the next on an ancient battleground. It required someone who had far better than average speed and strength. She rather doubted that Kerry knew of this.

She knew that he was using a sort of Katana-shaped practice sword and he was trying to use it like the old European skull-crushers, hacking and slashing to advance and never give quarter. The swords wouldn't have stood up if he put much into it. As well, he quite obviously had his own measure of control, never putting much into the motions out of his want to not hurt her.

She really did like the smile on his face, though, even though she was holding back so much and she knew that he knew it as well, and didn't seem to mind. She could see that he was as into this as she was.

And of course, she knew that she could end this at any instant. There was no doubt at all who was the better swordsman between them.

When they finished, Kerry was shaking from fatigue and the effort of holding back. He was so out of shape in this one thing, not having practiced for a time now. But the woman that he knew as Khoe looked plainly thrilled with his efforts as she bowed to him in thanks for the match and as the slight formality of the moment passed, she hugged him very briefly and he stood stunned, not having been prepared for that at all.