Chapter 22 - The Summer Freeza Disappeared
"He wanted her, suddenly and completely, with a desperate depth of feeling that felt like sickness. Everything he was and everything he had come for, it seemed, was secondary to her."
(Stephen King, Wizzard and Glass" The Dark Tower, Volume IV)
"A man so painfully in love is capable of self-torture beyond belief."
(John Steinbeck" East of Eden)
Officer Hitto was reading confusing reports about the sudden increase in criminal incidents between New Sadala and Vegetown when he heard the commotion in the antechamber of the police station.
"But I know him! And I think he'll be pleased to hear what I have to say, geez!"
"Young man, you can't just walk in here like this. This is a police station. Officer Hitto is an authority!"
Hitto stood up, wanting to laugh. He recognized Goku's voice. The young man was impetuous and didn't understand very basic concepts such as hierarchy and authority. But if he was coming in like that, from West Sayan, he might be bringing some relevant information.
"Let him enter!" Hitto said, and the policeman attending to Goku instantly fell silent. "Hello, Goku." He completed, when Goku entered.
"Good evening, Officer Hitto. I'm glad I found you still at the police station." said the boy cheerfully "It was a pretty rough trip. Some guys tried to rob the coach."
"Some guys?" asked Hitto, curious.
"Yeah, there were nearly twenty of them. But the thieves weren't very smart," said Goku "when I hit the hand of the first hone, the others got scared. I hit the second one's hand, and they started to run. But I managed to catch one of them. He is out there tied up, and he seems to have an interesting story to tell you."
"Did you bring a stagecoach robber alive? Do you know if he is really from Freeza's gang?"
"That's the thing...he says Freeza's gang is over."
The man's eyes widened at the news that seemed as impossible as finding gold in the Sadala River. He looked at Goku and asked:
"He said what?"
"That there was an uprising and the gang was disbanded. I think you'd better ask the man," Goku said, taking off his hat and scratching the back of his head.
Hitto immediately left and went to meet the boy, who looked miserable. He didn't look a bit like the menacing bandits who robbed the stagecoaches going to West Sayan, Vegetown, and Oozaru. He was more reminiscent of the homeless men who begged at the entrance to towns like Fierce's Land and New Sadala.
"What's your name, guy?" Hitto asked, and the man stared at him with lost eyes and gave a half stupid smile.
"Toobi, sir," the man shouted, and Hitto realized that he was a young man, although his teeth were yellow and quite bad, "and I was from Freeza's gang..."
"How do you expect me to believe that? Men from Freeza's gang that I saw and chased didn't look like you..."
"Because they were the big ones. The famous ones, you know? Dodoria, Zarbon, Ginyu... I wasn't like them. I was one of the poor fellows who followed the gang and helped in the robberies with more people... but we took a pretty big box of dynamite from the railroad construction site not too long ago. I helped load it! You must have heard about it, sir."
Hitto was sure he was telling the truth when he mentioned the theft, which had not been publicized. It was the kind of thing that attracted more robbers to a target that was difficult to protect.
"Right. So how did you and so many others end up trying to attack the West Sayan stagecoach?"
"Well," the man smiled his rotten-toothed smile, "it was the kind of thing Mr. Raditz did...and we all admired him. But he was right, sir, it's impossible to beat the stagecoach guard, the shooting demon!" he pointed at Goku, "I think only Mister Vegeta could be a match for him."
Goku huffed and scratched his head. For some reason, ever since he had heard about this Vegeta guy, he had wanted to know if he really was faster than him. Hitto continued with his questions:
"We know that Freeza sent very specific men to these raids. I don't understand how you guys..."
"Because the gang is finished, sir. It was destroyed, and the ammunition, guns, and horses were finally distributed fairly among all of us by our liberators."
"Liberators?" Hitto stared at him strangely, and the man replied:
"Yes, the two bravest men I have ever met in my life. Mr. Raditz and Mr. Vegeta. You must to take off all posters with the face of them, sir. Vegeta and Raditz are heroes, not buglars! They rebelled and inspired us to kill our tyrants! Zarbon, Nappa, Apur, Tagoma, Shishama, Garana, Sorbet, Litt... all dead! All of Freeza's elite but our liberators."
"Killed? So Freeza is dead?"
The man's face suddenly became saddened. He sighed and said:
"Mister Raditz fought him bravely, but that scoundrel managed to escape, however not without some damage! He was hit in the face and the flank, sir... and I believe that wounded as he was, he must be hiding somewhere near Vegetown."
"Vegetown?"
"Yes!" the boy said triumphantly, "that's where old Mac's farm is, which Freeza took over years ago."
Hitto couldn't hide his frustration, so many years looking for the damned hideout, and it was just a place on the outskirts of a less important town where he and others had interrogated residents thousands of times. And since no one had ever given up the hiding place, he could believe that the Vegetown residents themselves hid this location out of fear.
"How many men were in the gang?" Hitto asked for that was a curiosity he had always had.
"About a hundred. But most were like that, like me. We lived off the leftovers from the gang. We rounded up cattle on farms behind farmers' backs, robbed warehouses and warehouses in night raids... and lived full of fear. Freeza was ruthless."
"Arrest that man, Botamo," said Hitto to the guard who had witnessed the entire interrogation.
"Sir, sir..." the man asked, terrified," I'm not going to be hanged for being part of that damned gang, am I?"
"Hanged?" Hitto laughed and continued, "I don't believe I have any evidence of any serious crime against you, boy. Not even the robberies you foolishly confessed to. And you've delivered the most important information since we started chasing Freeza's gang and given the most important news... I'm going to hold you for a while while while I check your story and then, I'll release you on the condition that you get a decent job."
"Do you have food in jail?" the man asked hesitantly.
"Of course. We don't let any inmates go hungry. That would be cruel."
"Then it's better to be in jail than in Freeza's gang!"
The man smiled, grateful as if he had received a great gift, and was led by Botamo to a cell. Hitto had never seen a prisoner so happy. Goku handed him Toobi's gun, an old, rusty, poorly lubricated revolver that made him laugh.
"Was that the justice of Freeza's traitors?" Hitto laughed heartily "he was lucky that crap didn't choke and blow up in his face, don't you think?"
Goku nodded silently. He had been digesting Toobi's information for the entire trip. That meant that his encounter with his brother had determined the fate of many people. But perhaps it had been a good thing. That man would end up with a decent life, although he thought the rest of the gang would probably end up dead or committing new crimes.
And certainly, his brother didn't think about living a decent life from then on.
After a short talk with Hitto, he went to the Briefs' shed because he didn't want to abuse Professor Kami and Poppo's hospitality again, and there he wondered what life would be like now that Freeza's gang was no longer haunting the stage. Would he still have his job?
But the truth was, Goku was still needed. The news of the end of Freeza's gang ran like wildfire, and soon other adventurers appeared to try to rob the West Sayan stagecoach. But he never knew the whereabouts of his brother or Vegeta, for whom he felt an inexplicable rivalry. He came across other remnants of the gang, but none of them matched his skills. Meanwhile, his house was being built in West Sayan at a rapid pace, and he, with the eventual help of Kuririn and Yamcha, worked tirelessly on the construction while in West Sayan. On Sundays, he would attend Priest Ox's services, trying hard not to sleep, and then he would go for walks with Chichi, always taking her on the back of Golden Nimbus, who had quickly grown accustomed to the girl and was docile with her as well.
At New Sadala, Hitto was experiencing the bonanza of the end of Freeza's gang. The decrease in violent robberies and looting of warehouses and stores, which he now knew, was also the gang's signature. He satisfied society when he arrested thirty former gang members who insisted on robbing around New Sadala. In the middle of that July, he was promoted to Regional Sheriff, which expanded his jurisdiction beyond Fierce's Land, in addition to West Sayan and Vegetown, which were already his jurisdiction. With better pay and position, he took courage and asked for Suno's hand in marriage. When Goku went to him to deliver his wedding invitation, he let him know that Suno would go as his bride, and the boy embraced him as a friend.
Hitto found this weird, but it was typical Goku. For the young guy, there was nothing in the other's position or status that prevented his friendship.
A few days before their wedding, Goku and Chichi's house was ready, with furniture that came from New Sadala. It had a bathroom next to the couple's bedroom on the second floor, a dining room and another cozy living room, in the fashion of New Sadala buildings, and two other rooms upstairs, with balconies overlooking the square and the meadow. A pump brought water to the kitchen and bathroom, straight from a well in the backyard. This meant no carrying buckets up and down, and Chichi was overjoyed to see the large kitchen where she intended to make the best meals in the world for Goku.
After he showed the house to her and her father, the Priest came back to his house and the couple walked to the churchyard, as they sometimes did when they wanted to talk alone. Under the huge apple tree, the two sat down, with Chichi laughing at Goku's silly comments about how they would fill the house with children and how she would sit in the living room doing her sewing in the evenings while he told stories to the little ones, just like Grandpa Gohan did with him. Goku had not hidden from Chichi the story of his brother and his role in ending Freeza's gang, and she was happy that now there was no longer so much danger on the stagecoach route.
Suddenly, without warning, Goku kissed her. Perhaps think about the two of them in the house or the feeling they would soon be together excited and aroused him to the point where he was kissing her like that. Chichi wrapped his arms around his neck, and the two of them, without feeling it, slowly lay down on the soft grass under the apple tree. Chichi's lips parted, and, for the first time, Goku's tongue made its way across them, playing with hers, which timidly began to reciprocate.
Neither of them could realize how this was happening. All the couple knew was that it seemed impossible to stop. Goku's hand began to slowly move up from her waist to her left breast, and she still tried weakly to take his hand away, but her real desire was for his touch to continue, making her lose herself more in the sweet sensations that enveloped her.
Goku pulled his face away from hers for a moment. They stared at each other, panting. He leaned over her with his right hand on her left breast, full of confusing feelings in his head, wishing they were already married and could relieve that feeling of urgency he had. She pulled him in, and they kissed again, and this time Goku leaned into her, who jumped slightly as she felt his stiffness against her thigh.
That's when a scream interrupted them, and Goku felt small hands pulling him up, waking him stunned from the near trance that was his kiss on Chichi.
"This is obnoxious!" shouted an old lady, pulling him away from Chichi "there is no way they are doing this out in the open air! In daylight! In the churchyard! I will immediately tell Priest Ox about your absolutely inappropriate behavior, young people!"
Goku looked at that lady in confusion. He knew her by sight, but he couldn't understand anything she was saying, why she was angry, and what the two of them were doing so wrong.
"Lady Octagon," began Chichi, and Goku could see the panic in her voice," it was just a kiss... and Goku and I are engaged..."
"But that doesn't diminish the sin in your gesture! I saw it! I witnessed your lust here, so close to your house, Chichi, in the back of your church! What kind of girl are you that doesn't give yourself due respect?
"And... I..." Chichi began, with a note of insecurity in her voice, to which Goku replied:
"Hey Mistress Octopode, Chichi is a very good maiden! There is nothing sinful or indecent about her, she is my bride, and I will marry her as soon as I return from my next trip to New Sadala! You can't come and offend her just because we were kissing!"
"And your hand on her breast, do you think I didn't see it?"
"She wasn't complaining, was she?" he said. "What do you have to do with her breasts?"
"I have everything to do with the morals of this town, young man! Where will we end up if every girl gives herself the enjoyment..."
"Enough," said Chichi, with a pained note in her voice, "It is my fault, Lady Octagon." she lowered her eyes, sorry, I shouldn't have allowed it..."
"I'm glad you admit it! A girl must take care of her purity..."
Goku was confused. What had they done? Was it so wrong to touch his fiancée's breast? Was loving her desperately wrong? What had they done that was so sinful?
"I will watch over," Chichi said, and Goku felt, more than pain, something horrible in his bride's voice: guilt, "I promise that until our wedding Goku and I will no longer be... alone."
"That's not enough," said the old woman, with a vulture-like look in her eyes. "You will come to my house tomorrow for guidance on how a decent wife should behave, Miss Ox. And you, sir," she turned to Goku, "try to respect your bride until the marriage!"
Goku looked at the woman, still not understanding what that woman had to do with their lives, and then Chichi gestured for him to follow her and walked to her house. She stopped at the door and kept an awkward distance between them.
"Goku," she began, "It was all my fault. I shouldn't have..."
"What do you mean, Chi?"
"We shouldn't have... I couldn't have allowed you to go that far."
"Oh!" he said, with a worried expression, "so I did something wrong, something I shouldn't have done because you didn't want to... forgive me, Chichi."
"No, no, it's not that," said Chichi, "after all, you are a man, and..."
"What's wrong with me being a man? You didn't happen to feel the same urge as I did?"
"I did, but that's the thing, I shouldn't have felt it, Goku!" tears began to well up in her eyes, which exuded the saddest, most toxic guilt "I shouldn't have felt it, you... it's your instincts..."
Goku suddenly felt furious. And not at Chichi, but at the old Octagon.
"Where did you get that beastly idea from? Of course, you could feel... because it was good, Chichi, it was great... it was great, wasn't it?"
She lowered her eyes, confused. Everything she felt conflicted with everything she had been taught before by elder women: the woman, the one who tempts the man, the one who must hold back..., but she couldn't hold back. Not when she was with him... she knew something was driving her... and it was something good. But..., but she wanted to marry like a straight and decent girl, so she said:
"Come have dinner with us tomorrow, Goku. I... I can't be alone with you until we get married. And the day after tomorrow you leave for New Sadala, don't you? And when you come back, well, two days later we get married. And then everything will be all right, won't it?"
He stared at her, with a certain strangeness, and murmured:
"I think so..." he was about to lean in for a goodbye kiss, but Chichi stopped him, saying, almost in a panic:
"No kissing until the wedding!
He made an annoyed scowl, not at the denial of the kiss, but because he knew it wasn't her who didn't want the kiss. But the damned old woman, like all the people who had the horrible habit of meddling in other people's lives in that town.
Later, lying completely naked on his bed on the second floor of the Saloon, he began to think about Chichi. Although Goku was a virgin, he was not exactly a fool. His grandfather had told him what men and women did when they were married, and although he had found it disgusting when his grandfather had described it when he was 12, now he couldn't wait to do that with Chichi. Suddenly, he felt excited. It wouldn't be the first time he had done the "thing" that relieved thinking about Chichi. His hand held the stiffness between his legs, and he set himself to thinking of Chichi, a Chichi delivered and as eager for him as he had been that afternoon when he could feel it.
When the relief finally came in a burst of explosive pleasure, he thought he couldn't wait for this to be as good for him as it was for Chichi. And he fell asleep with a smile on his face.
The days until the wedding passed for him like an agonizing wait because besides the seven days away from Chichi, she barely approached him to safeguard her so-called purity when he returned. And when the day finally came, he was happy to see the square decorated, the residents and guests, even outsiders like Suno's family and his now fiancé, Officer Hitto. Arale and his parents had also attended, as had the whole town, even the taciturn Piccolo.
And when Chichi entered the church, resplendent in a dress that had belonged to her mother, he forgot how uncomfortable it was to wear a suit. It was a hot day, and he felt tight in his new clothes and boots, but the sight of Chichi so beautiful erased all discomfort.
It had been worth it that he had learned to dance to twirl with her around the square while a slightly altered Yamcha sang, guitar in hand, a song that Goku had never heard before, but that he liked immediately:
When you love a woman,
Tell her that she's really wanted.
When you love a woman,
Tell her that she's the one.
She needs somebody to tell her
that it's gonna last forever.
So tell me, have you ever really ...
Really, really ever loved a woman?
So tell me, have you ever really ...
Really, really ever loved a woman?
Goku could have sworn he felt the presence of his grandfather and even his parents watching the two of them twirling around the square, Chichi smiling at him, and he understood, as the song said, he really loved her and she was the only one he would have eyes for.
As the music took over the square, played by Yamcha and other musicians in town, Lunch smiled, arms crossed, looking at the bride and groom dancing in the square. It was an opposite choice to the one she had made, for very particular reasons, but it was beautiful to see the true love in the eyes of them. Lunch was a good observer, and she saw that among the couples, there was hardly any love as strong as that of Chichi and Goku, and this was something she admired, even though she knew it was not for her.
That was when she felt that she was being watched. She knew that feeling. She turned her eyes and could see her observer standing on the threshold between the city and the meadow, lit by the setting sun. Tien. She and the native had established a silent exchange of gifts. He left partridges, marmots, and, more than once, fat wild turkeys that she knew he could not have hunted there in the meadow. She, in turn, would leave fruit, bread, sweets, or prepared foods that she was sure he didn't usually eat and would probably enjoy.
It was a respectful distance between them. They never spoke, only exchanging silent and sometimes surprising gifts, like the day he left a juicy honeycomb. She intended to reciprocate with one of the apples from the large apple tree in the courtyard. After all, apples came from Europe and were probably not to be found in the wild. Looking at the native man standing at the edge of town, she felt impelled to go to him.
She approached him smiling and said:
"Hello, Tien." it didn't seem like it was the first time they had spoken since the night the prisoners had been killed. Somehow, it was as if they were acquaintances.
"Haug, woman of the Sunny Hair."
"My name is Lunch," she said, and he smiled."
"Woman will always be Sunny Hair for Tien. A better name. "
She smiled, blushed, and said:
"No one forbids you to come to the party, you know."
He shook his head and said:
"Goku calls Tien, but Tien shouldn't go in white people's places. White people get scared of him."
"You never scared me," she smiled.
He stared at her, grave. Then he said.
"Tien leaves today, Sunny Hair. The tribe needs him."
"Oh..." she said, not knowing why she felt sad. "Will you come back? Mean… it is not forever, is it?"
He didn't say anything. He gave a faint smile and completed:
"Beautiful woman... Sunny hair. Tell Goku that Tien wishes him and the milk girl well." he turned away and disappeared into the darkness that descended over the meadow. Lunch still watched him for a while, and when she returned to the party, she muttered to herself:
"I will owe you an apple, Tenshin. Come back, please."
Goku was waiting for Chichi nervously, standing next to the bed. She had instructed him to wear absurdly long pajamas that he could not wait to take off. He was not used to wearing pajamas, but he understood that perhaps this was because of the shame of their first time with any intimacy.
He scratched himself nervously: it was a hot night, so hot that it foreshadowed a thunderstorm by dawn, and in the distance, he could already hear the lightning. Chichi opened the door then and nervously entered the room. She was wearing a long-sleeved sweater, and Goku asked:
"Don't you feel hot, Chichi?"
She then said:
"That is the clothes I am supposed to sleep in, Goku...I must not expose my body, and we must not give in to lust."
"Give in to what?"
"Lust, the sin of sex only for the satisfaction of the flesh."
"What are you talking about?"
As if the situation couldn't be more absurd, she lay down on the bed and covered herself up to her neck, and said:
"Don't worry, I know what we should do. I'm not wearing any underwear. Lady Octagon and Widow Uranai have instructed me that I need to be prepared to give you the pleasure you are entitled to, Goku!"
He could in no way understand what was going on.
"Come, Goku, turn out the light and lie down with me."
He was about to start taking off his pajamas when she covered his face with both hands and said:
"We mustn't see each other naked."
Now, hell, what was going on there?
He went to the lamp and turned it off, then lay down, and she touched him over his pants, under the covers. Goku smiled, thinking that things would work out from then on, and leaned over to kiss her. But she said:
"Goku... I don't know if kisses are..." he ignored that and kissed her, the same way he had kissed her in the meadow, and, this time knowing that she had no underwear on, his hand crept under her sweater, seeking to touch Chichi's bare flesh, who gave a startled yelp when he lightly touched her intimacy:
"That's not right, Goku! It's lust!" she looked terrified, a far cry from the delivered Chichi of the churchyard. Goku stared at her in the dark and said:
"I am your husband. I love you."
"But... Goku..."
He kissed her again, and she moaned lightly at his touch on her intimacy, but she couldn't surrender. She felt, from everything she had heard from the two old women in the church, that this was a road to hell. She made him stop and said:
"I... I'm ready, Goku."
"But..."
"Lie on top of me," she murmured," and do what must be done," she commanded, and he retorted:
"But Chichi..." she touched him again over his pants, and he moaned. It was still pleasurable her touch "Chichi, please, I..."
"You are ready, Goku..." she closed her eyes and said, "and so am I."
Hesitantly he pulled down his pants under the covers, and, following her instructions, he positioned himself between her legs and slowly began to penetrate her.
Goku could feel that it was not comfortable for her and tried to stop, but she pulled him in and said:
"Do it, Goku, do it... I am prepared for pain."
"Chichi...I" he wanted to say that that couldn't be right, but she pulled on him and said:
"Please, my love... make me your wife." She closed her eyes and bit her lips to take the pain and put her hands on his back, pulling him deeper into her.
He felt the rupture of his hymen as she forced him to penetrate her and saw tears forming in her eyes.
"Chichi... this can't be right," he said, aware of how pleasurable it was for him to have their intimacy meet but tense and worried for her.
"Do it, Goku, please. I want you to do it!" she said, eyes closed, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"Oh, Chichi, Chichi," he said, moving in a mixture of guilt and anxiety, feeling at once the urge to follow and certainty that this was not right, that he could not allow her to feel pain while he felt pleasure. Then, even with Chichi pushing her hips against his, begging him to continue, he made an effort and pulled out of her immediately. It wasn't right, he thought, it wasn't right. If he continued, he would be a bastard, a dirty one.
He looked at her, who stared at him in amazement, her face still full of guilt and conflict. And he said, resolute:
"It can't be that way, Chichi. It's not right. Maybe you're not ready for it yet."
"But... what about you? What about your pleasure?"
"I ask you the same question," he stared at her in the dark. Her eyes resembled those of a startled doe. I'm sorry that our first time was like that, Chichi," he said, "but I didn't marry you for my pleasure. I married you to love you."
Chichi hugged him, crying, and said:
"It hurt so, so much! And I felt so afraid."
"Shhh," he whispered, "it's over, Chichi. We don't need to do anything."
"I-I was afraid that I was giving in to lust, that I was sinning. But I love you so much, Goku."
He snuggled her closer to his chest and said:
"I love you too, Chi."
He didn't say anything else. But he thought that the next day, or as soon as he could, he would take away from her those stupid ideas shoved into her head by people who didn't know and didn't understand their love.
And he promised himself that he would never feel that way with her again.
Notes:
1. Please don't wish me dead because of the disastrous first time of the two of them. I just wanted to show the harmful effects of sexual repression on people's lives.
2. I also wanted to show a first time that wasn't that unrealistic, idealized thing. Most people don't have a good first time...
3. Soon they will find a way... the next chapter is called "Love is Freedom."
4. And Freeza's gang went into space, and he disappeared. Does anyone wonder where he might be?
5. Tien and Lunch have this moment of dialogue before he goes away. He's not always in the meadow. But that can always change...
6. The quotes in this chapter are about extreme love, passion. I see that now, without obstacles and fear, much love can arise in this story... The story of the book "Wizard and Glass" is one of the most beautiful yet painful chapters of "The Dark Tower" series and tells a love story. It has already been quoted and will be several times here. The quote from "East of Eden" refers to a character who has a slightly more hopeful ending for love.
7. Until Freeza reappears, at least...
8. The song quoted in the chapter is "Have you ever really loved a woman," by Bryan Adams, from the movie "Don Juan de Marco."