Madao

The day had started optimistically. Hasegawa had gotten a job working construction on a damaged road just outside of Edo. It wasn't much of a job but it paid well, and, if everything worked in his favor he hoped that he could finally be able to get a permanent place to live. The park bench was comfortable enough but he wanted a place that Hatsu, his wife, would be able to visit so he could finally begin the long process of getting his life back in order.

The downward spiral of this particular day started with some asshole on a scooter throwing an empty carton of strawberry milk onto the side of the road. Hasegawa didn't get a good look at him, as the man sped on by, but, hoping to cure himself as the disease know as madao, he yelled a few choice curse words for the man's insensitive littering.

Muttering to himself, the middle aged construction worker dropped the flagger sign he was using to to direct traffic to go pick up the offensive trash. He had no more than bent over to pick up the white and pink container when he heard the loud rush of a vehicle speed past his post on the road. He looked up in time to see the car barely swerve to miss on coming traffic on the now one way lane and run right into a telephone pole.

The next sequence of events unfolded in a familiar fashion. He only listened to the barrage of insults and profanities that the foreman hurled at him with about one eighth of his attention. The other seven eighths wondered where his life went so wrong. It wasn't like he was a bad person so why was happiness so elusive for him. After the fateful conclusion, with out saying a word, Hasegawa just turned and walked off toward his forever home in the park.

After hours of walking he finally made it back to his bed in the park just in time for the sun to have set. In the trash can next to the bench he found a warm newspaper to wrap himself in so that sleep could end this day. As he laid there, he couldn't keep dark thoughts from plaguing his mind. A new day could not come fast enough.

.X.

When Hasegawa awoke all he could see was a bright light over his head in a dark room. He could hear the beeping and other sounds of medical equipment around him. He tried to get up but found that he was strapped prone to a cold, hard table. At this realization he also found that he was as naked as the day he was born. What in the hell is going on, he wondered.

Grunting with his efforts he started to struggle in a panic against the leather like bonds that confined him into place. However the straps held him securely. "Help! Where the hell am I?" he yelled hopelessly.

"Sir, Sir. You need to calm down," said a voice from the darkness. "Dr. Drakungnik, the patient's vitals are going berserk. We can't get a proper reading for the tests at this point." The voice spoke with a heavy accent. This person was not from Edo.

"Nurse Koriqik, we will have to hold off on the rest of the tests until the subject has calmed down." Came a similarly accented response from the other side of the table that Hasegawa laid upon. "I would prefer not to use a sedative if I could help it. I want natural results for this research."

"Who are you people and what am I doing here?" Hasegawa frantically asked.

"Nurse, I need to call my wife. Could you explain our research to this human? Computer, lights." No sooner had one of the accented voices finished talking the room lit up.

It was not a big room. The wall looked like they were made of some metal alloy and there were all kinds of gadgets and gismos that Hasegawa could only begin to guess as to their function. To his right stood what might be considered a woman in a white nurse's outfit. Her wide body looked to be about three and a half feet tall and her skin was as green as the leafy vegetables he mother used to make him eat. Three eyes lined across her face and the two antennae stuck out of her white hat bent forward over her forehead.

The other Amanto, as Hasegawa assumed they were, was almost out the door before his eye had become accustom to the rooms lighting. He heard the Amanto hit a control pad five or six times before the door opened to allow, who he assumed was the doctor, to leave the room. The door shut behind the similarly short green Amanto.

"My records say your name is Taizou Hasegawa and you are from the small island of Japan. Is this correct?" she asked in a clinical tone while checking the pad in her four fingered hand.

"Ahh, yes," he answered cautiously. Being able to see his surroundings allowed him to calm down a bit but he was still feeling very uncomfortable in this situation.

"You have been volunteered by your government to help us study the phenomenon that is known as madao. We fear that this madao disease may infect our people if we make further contact with you earthlings, so we are looking for a cure or a way to prevent it from spreading."

"What?" he asked her unable to keep up with this impossible situation.

"Regardless, no harm should come to you so just let us do our tests and we will have you off our ship in no time."

"Um...well it seems I have no choice," he answered reluctantly.

The next two weeks were actually some of the best Hasegawa had had since his separation from his wife. He got fed at regular intervals and the nurse named Koriqik was fun to talk to. They even played Shogi together. He didn't see Dr. Drakungnik around much, the medical tests were slightly invasive and he was naked the whole time, but all in all he didn't have much to complain about.

On the morning of the fourteenth day Koriqik entered the small room as she usually did. However she did not have her usual nurse uniform or tablet with her. "Today is the day we are sending you home," she informed him as she handed him his clothes and shoes.

"Um...I wonder if it would be okay if I stayed here?" he asked her tentatively. "I am sure I could be useful in some way. I mean we are friends right?"

"Friends? What are you talking about? You are just a stupid madao. There is nothing wrong with you and yet you can't live a life that anyone would find meaningful. A person like you can't exist on our world. Now go home you madao," she told him harshly.

A beam of light flashed around him and he found himself next to the same bench that he always slept on. The sun was just peaking over the horizon. On the bench there slept a figure. After quickly getting dressed he sat down next to the persons feet and placed his head in his hands and let out a sigh. It was true, he thought, The only thing I got right in this world was Hatsu.

The figure next to him started to stir and when she sat and looked at him he saw the most beautiful site his eyes had ever seen. She had short brown hair and beautiful brown eyes that shined bright in the morning sun. When she saw the man sitting next to her she quietly sat up on the bench next to her husband and reached out to grab his hand as tears streamed down her face.

"Hatsu, why are you here?" he asked her simply.

Almost in a whisper she answered, "I had not heard from you and I got worried. I have been sitting on this bench waiting for you for four days."

"Why are you waiting for me?"

"I will always be waiting for you," she answered squeezing his hand.