Chapter 1: All things have a beginning
…
Sapporo, Japan; 3th October 2022; 4 AM in an one-room flat.
…
The street lights illuminate their surrounding and shine through the jalousie of an one-room flat.
It's a simple flat with a kitchen area, a bedroom and a bathroom. The layout is practically a single corridor. Every piece of furniture looks like as if it has seen better days but it is still good enough for usage.
The street lights illuminate their surroundings and shine through the jalousie of the said flat.
A man in his late thirties lying in his rudimentary bed turns.
The doorbell rings and the man wakes up from the jarring sound.
He mumbles to himself: "Who needs an alarm if you have visitors in the early day." He stands up, changes quickly into regular attire - not minding his messy shoulder-length hair.
The doorbell rings again.
A feminine voice yells from outside: "Open up Michael! It's me, Magreth."
"I'm coming, so wait." The man, called Michael, replies. He walks to the door and looks through the loophole.
It's Magreth as he has heard. She is a fine women in her early thirties. He moves some steps backwards and opens the door.
"Good morning, Magreth." he greets her as he rubs the back of his head with his left hand.
"Likewise." she replies.
He invites her inside.
An old feminine voice yells from outside. "Silence down there!"
Michael shouts silently as if he is yelling. His facial mimic looks like as if he is denunciating someone. "Then go back to sleep! It's quiet as you can hear!"
He closes the door and mumbles. "Old hag."
"So what is your reason to visit me this early. Even one hour before my alarm." he starts the conversation as he takes of Magreth's mantle.
She pulls out an unopened letter from her mantle's inner pocket. "They have sent word again. Would you read it out for me?"
"OK, but with all due respect: start learning reading Japanese." he says as he takes the letter out of her hand and hangs the mantle on a hook next to the door.
She shrugs her shoulders and answers: "I'm just to lazy."
"Your voice has limits; you know that. You can't rely on me all the time. And stop yelling when you are in front of my door this early. My landlord hates it, he might kick me out because of you."
"I know." she says as she looks sadly to the floor.
"But you yelled at the old woman just now too." she continues with her face directed at Michael, still with a sad look.
"That was… an answer for a reaction you provoked. And I yelled silently. As strange is it sounds."
Michael pats her on her shoulder and says "Anyway. Don't be so down."
"It sounds so easy when you say it." she replies.
Michael opens a window to get fresh air into the flat.
They walk to the bed, sit down on it and lean against the wall.
"Get yourself some chairs or at least some pillows on that you can sit properly on the floor. This way your mattress will be faster worn out than it should be." Magreth points out.
Michael's neutral face changes into a thinking one. "Hmm... The last part can be easily misinterpreted."
Magreth tilts her head slightly forward and a chuckle leaves her mouth. "Let's stay with the letters okay. I pay you to do a job for a reason not to fuck around the bush."
Michael opens the letter and unfolds the paper. "Let's see."
"So what does it read?" Magreth asks while looking over his shoulder.
"Give me a minute if you please. Besides, the handwriting is pretty bad." Michael silences her.
"Fine." she answers in a grunted voice and stands up from the bed.
"You excuse me." she says as she heads for the bathroom.
"You know where to find the toilet." he replies without forsaking his sight from the letter.
"Concentrate on the letter; not my sense of orientation."
…
She comes back from the bathroom and asks Michael if he has finished his translation.
Michael looks up from the letter and tells her he has finished and asks her whether she wants it word by word or a rough translation.
"Rough is enough." she answers as she leans at the threshold to the bathroom.
"It looks like he is doing all right. They get food on the table by hunting in the wilderness."
"What do they hunt?"
"That is not mentioned but I bet all kind of small till big animals and green stuff."
Michael stands up to get a glass of water. Magreth follows him with her eyes.
"With what do they hunt?"
"I was coming to that. He is mostly hunting with bow and arrow and a knife and his supervisor hunts with firearms."
Magreth's face reads a moment of shock by hearing the last word.
Michael sees it.
"No need to worry; he wouldn't gain anything from killing the boy." Michael reassures her. "Besides the brat can also easily kill him with the first."
He takes a sip from the water.
"Not just that. I thought about how he would..." she says while having her head slightly tilt forward till Michael interrupts her in her sentence.
"Stop it. Neither you nor I can reverse time, all we can do is to make the most out of the things that happened." Michael lectures her.
"Yeah I get that but I'm allowed to dream. Am I not?"
"All in all I'd say he has the most necessary things to life." Michael says leaning over the sink ignoring Magreth's words.
"That he has something to eat is good but what about education." Magreth asks him still leaning at the threshold.
"That's not mentioned in any letters from him as far as I can remember."
"Anything else?"
"No that's all."
A short moment of silence.
"I'm tired." she says while yawning.
"And I have to get to work, Miss Sleepy." Michael says as he stretches his right arms.
"Can I sleep here, Michael?"
"Sure. Just lock the door once you leave. The spare key is next to the gun in the shelf." he says as he heads for the bathroom to make himself ready.
Magreth's eyes widened as she heard his last sentence.
"Better don't take the later with you if you don't want trouble at work." he says as he passes by.
"Thanks. I guess."
…
Michael grabs his jacket from the wardrobe and says: "Don't oversleep your shift."
"Sure." she says yawning.
He opens the door.
"I'll be back by eight." he tells her as he goes around the corner.
"Hey Michael." she says just loud enough for him to hear.
"Yes?" he replies as he moves some steps backwards back to the door.
"Forget it." she says with dropped shoulders.
"If you insist."
"Till evening." she thinks.
Author's Note: For those who didn't get the meaning of 'fuck around the bush'; it is a neologism of beat around the bush and fuck (context considered) therefore it is a sexual allusion.