*Hey you guys, I am taking some liberty with the food here. I am not sure if they have hot pot in Japan, but its what I know. Thank you guys for reviewing. I giggle like a little girl when I read them. It means a lot. Its filling a void in my heart writing this fanfic. I loved Nobu from the start.
When the morning came, I felt the coolness that comes after the night of breaking a fever. It was a delightful and yet a tiring sensation.
When my dresser had finished tying my obi, I immediately went to check on my make-up and apply more. When I had insured that my cheeks were rosy red, I went downstairs in search of Nobu.
He was kneeling at the dinning room table, eating a bowl of rice with nato and okayu, a type of porridge made from rice. I said my good morning to him and bowed.
"You should be in bed still," he said, without looking up from his bowl. I told him that I was feeling quite well.
He insisted that I eat and called the maid and told her to bring me a bowl of rice porridge.
When she placed it before, the steam rose up in front of my face. I was not hungry, but I ate few spoonfuls to please Nobu.
At last Nobu pushed away his bowl and reached for the newspaper that lay in front of him. A quick look at the front told me that it was a business newspaper.
I cast about in my mind for something to say but came up with nothing. The weather I could not remark about. It would bring him back to his bad mood of yesterday.
The rain had stopped, but it was still an overcast day. From the window, I could see that everything was sill wet and moist from the rain. Stones in the garden appeared to be glittering with the water drops.
I wondered how the rabbits fared.
Nobu coughed and looked at his wrist watch.
"The Doctor will be here soon."
"Oh, Nobu-san, please do not go through so much trouble! I assure you that I am quite well."
"You are my responsibility, Sayuri. I have told you this before."
"I have been sick before Nobu. People do not die from colds."
"No matter." He turned his face back to his paper and ceased to pay me any mind.
Just like that,the decision was out of my hands.
When the maid came and told Nobu that the doctor had arrived, he got up from the table and motioned me to follow. Helplessly, I followed him.
We went into one of the sitting rooms and he told me to sit. The maid brought in the doctor.
It was not the same tired young man from last night. This was an older doctor.
Hidden behind a mop of white hair and spectacles, he examined my face, touching my neck , feeling for a fever.
He assured Nobu of my returning health. Nobu made a dismissive sound but on the whole looked satisfied.
After the doctor had left, Nobu turned to me and demanded that I not leave the house. Now was the time, I decided, to tease him back to a good mood. It was dangerous on my end, but I knew that Nobu tolerated many lapses in obedience and endured much teasing from me in the past.
And only me.
I had forgotten my power in the months that he had been my Danna.
"Certainly, Nobu-san. I will not leave the house through the door."
"Sayuri..." he growled, but I could tell it was just a low annoyed bark.
"I think I will take a chance and go out the window instead. Maybe go out on the roof?"
"Enough, Sayuri. Do not tease me."
"But that is what I am here for. To tease Nobu-san back into a better mood. Consider it a part of my geisha repertoire."
"Hmph..."
"If you continue to frown like that, you will have a wrinkle in your forehead the size of my thumb!"
Nobu relaxed his forehead but did not stop frowning.
"In order to relax, Nobu should play cards with me."
'I told you I do not have the time. I have business matters to attend to!"
"Everyone needs time to relax. Geisha, shop keepers, even business men!"
"Not this business man."
"Only for a little while, Nobu-san," I soothed, "Since you have forbidden me to go out on the rooftop and through the front door, I am without diversion."
"I was not aware that I was here for your diversion!" he said sarcastically, but I noticed that he did not look unhappy.
I had the maid fetch a pack of cards. Nobu and I settled at the dinning room table.
We played a two person card game. I was not very good at cards, but I played managably well. I had much practice as a geisha because some of customers would want to play cards instead of the usual drinking games. Nobu was quick to think and to calculate ratios. Many games, he beat me effortlessly.
"Sayuri, how many years of schooling have you had?" Nobu asked, as he shuffled the cards for a new game.
"It depends on how you look at it. Formal schooling? Maybe one year, perhaps two. As a geisha, several years."
"I suppose mathematics is not a part of your geisha repertoire?"
"No, it is not," I laughed. "I can count and divide and do other simple things."
"Would you like to know how to play cards better?" he asked.
"Certainly. Though I must warn Nobu-san, I am a slow learner." Nobu scoffed.
"Come here," he ordered. I went from my side of the table to his.
One by he laid the cards out and explained that I should be able to count my chances at having a certain card by the number given in a pack. He dealt the cards between us.
He picked a card and told me the probability of it being in the hand that was shuffled to me.
"With two people, it is much easier to guess what the other person has. When the game gets bigger, it gets more complicated."
Just like in life, I thought to myself. The more people involved, the messier it gets.
We played cards for the next hour. Nobu kept testing me, trying to make sure I understood the reasoning behind knowing the card ratios. I won't say by the end of our games that I was as good a player as Nobu, but I improved, if only on a minuscule level.
Nobu for his part, remained true to his competitive nature and did not let me win. There was a charm to that, I suppose. Most men would have let me win as a way to flirt or be kind. Nobu was different.
His challenge was kindness. I had not expected him to be so patient and to not laugh at my ignorance. Earlier, I had thought that I played passably well for a geisha. But now I knew that just because I could play the game, did not truly mean that I could play the game.
Each time I lost, he would give me a look. His look meant that he expected more from me.
We played until it was time to eat.
The maids brought in a hot pot, with tender slices of beef to be dipped in the boiling broth and cooked. While they brought in bowls of steamed rice and pickles, I folded back my sleeves to prepare Nobu's beef.
"One of the maids can do that," he told me. I shrugged helplessly and let one of the maids take Nobu's bowl. She dipped his beef and then the noodles in the pot and then put them in Nobu's dish. Nobu waited until she had finished preparing my dish before he started to eat.
"Tomorrow, the guests will be arriving," Nobu said. "The maids have seen all the room preparations as well as the meals."
"Mameha will be pleased to be finally seeing your estate." Nobu looked amused.
"I suppose everyone in Gion thinks I sleep in a cave, or under some sort of rock?"
"I think they think you sleep in your company office, or that you do not sleep at all," I answered carefully.
"You do not make money or build a successful business sleeping," Nobu said. He took another bite of his beef.
"I could think of people that do," I said.
Nobu raised his eyebrows.
"Prostitutes?"he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I do not think they sleep all the time," Nobu joked. I smiled at him.
"No, and even their sleep must be strenuous." I said this all with a demure face, while stirring my rice bowl. Nobu laughed harder.
"From such a pretty mouth, I did not expect a lewd statement,Sayuri. You keep surprising me."
"I'm hardly a mystery, Nobu-san. Everything I am is expressed on the outside. My eyes...what I say, as well as what I cannot do. As you saw earlier today. It is Nobu-san that is a mystery."
"Nonsense," Nobu said. "I have nothing to hide."
"I was not implying that you were hiding anything, Nobu-san. Rather, there are so many things that I do not know about you, for all our years of acquaintance."
"You may ask me anything you wish. I may not choose to answer." I smiled.
"Then I see there will always be things that I do not know about you."
"You know more than most people."
"I am not most people, Nobu-san," I laughed. He gave me a small smile.
"What do you want to know," he asked, reaching for a water glass. I quickly handed it to him.
"Where you ever married?"
"I was engaged before I left to Manchuria. It was an arranged marriage between our families. The girl was pretty, and I suppose pleasant enough. The engagement broke off when I returned." He pointed to his face.
"How unfair," I murmured.
It was her choosing. Her family was still willing to go through with it. They liked that I was a war hero and had burgeoning business prospects. Still, the girl found it so distasteful, and I hated the idea of forcing her."
"I"m sure she was quite young and foolish," I said. Nobu shrugged.
"I find most women foolish. Aside from you, and Mameha on occasion, I have no use for them."
"Strange that you occupy the teahouses of Gion much of the time," I mused.
"That was the Chairman's doing. I went along because he was my partner and much of it was for business functions. When I met you, I had more of a desire to go to Gion."
"And now?"
"And now I have you." I waved the maid in and had her serve Nobu tea. She placed a small dish of rice cakes and sweets in the middle of the table.
Inwardly I reflected what Nobu has just said. It felt strange hearing his sense of possession stated so clearly. I was a geisha. Many men paid for my time, and it was expected that I entertain them all. No one man could claim that he owned me. Even my Danna. Because there would always be a tomorrow where I would be expected to charm and engage another man aside from Nobu into conversation. It was my income.
Unless Nobu paid Mother an extraordinary amount of money, I could not abandon my trade.
It was going to be hard fine line to walk, having Nobu as my Danna. I began to understand what Mameha meant when she said he would be challenging.
