Part Six: Secret No Longer

Chapter Three: The watcher

It was Monday morning and Yuuko Kamiya had just finished cleaning up after breakfast. Her husband and both children had already left and so, like almost every day during term time for the last twelve years, she found herself alone in the apartment. Except today was not like the majority of those that had preceded it. No, today her mind was buzzing with memories, observations and what-if scenarios, to the point that she had not even formed her normal to-do list. Truth be told, she'd been feeling the stress from all these dark and worrisome thoughts since the tail end of the previous week.

After she had received the phone call the previous Monday, Yuuko had entered immediate denial about there being any sort of improper relationship between her children. The only brief blip had occurred the following morning when she had called the telephone operator to get the number of the mysterious caller. It had been a mobile number and so not one she could find in her address book. What she had intended to do with it, she had not known, but by the time she had hung up the phone, her hand had already scrunched up the piece of paper. However, by that evening, the first minuscule drops of fear had started to seep into her mind. At dinner, she had caught herself doing as the caller had advised; watching her children. Both had been somewhat quiet, but she had not detected anything out of the ordinary. She'd retreated to denial for the rest of the evening, while Tai and Kari had spent it inside the former's room.

Wednesday had been much the same, except her children had gone to Kari's room this time. However, she had simply put it down to the fact that they were both grounded and that Tai no longer had to study. Thursday too had seen denial continue. That was until her son had come home and she had witnessed Kari give him a hug at the door. She'd watched covertly from the kitchen, with her mind telling her that it had a) gone on too long and b) that Tai's hand seemed to have been several inches lower than it should have been. Friday had then been spent in a virtual wrestling match between what her eyes had seen and what her brain wanted to believe. Then her children had come home… together. This alone was no cause for concern, but even though he denied it, Tai looked like he had been involved in a fight. Kari had quickly shepherded him into her bedroom and then snuck into the bathroom for the first aid kit. They'd spent another evening together in her room.

On Saturday morning, she had made the decision to rescind her children's punishment, to see what would happen. They'd left to go out late afternoon, Tai apparently heading to see Sora and Kari Yolei. She'd watched them from the window as they had left the apartment building and headed off in the same direction together. While it could simply have been the case that Tai had lied to her (they'd headed in the general direction of Yolei's), a small voice in the back of her head said no. This was made worse when they just so happened to arrive home within ten minutes of each other. By the time she went to bed on Sunday night, the fear had properly taken root; Tai and Kari having spent the day playing video games in the lounge. It was like they were living in each other's pockets. She had barely slept that night.

Yuuko finished boiling the kettle and poured herself a mug of strong coffee; her second of the morning. After adding milk and sugar, she went and sat on the sofa, mind still whirring. Surely it was just her imagination, she tried to tell herself. Tai and Kari had always been close siblings and had played with each other a lot when they were younger. Why should that relationship automatically change, just because they were now in their mid-teens?

"But it did change," a voice in the back of her head whispered. "You noticed that Kari was spending increasingly more time alone in her bedroom over the past eighteen months. How many times did she sit and play video games with her brother, or go out with him during that time?"

Yuuko thought back to when Kari had broken up with TK. She had been spending increasingly more time by herself during that time. But surely that had been because she'd chosen to focus on her studies. Her grades were certainly testament to that. But had that been the only reason? She closed her eyes as she intensified her search. Kari had stopped spending time with her brother during that period. Not once could she recall them spending any length of time in each other's bedrooms, having sat together on the couch playing video games or indeed having gone out together. At least not until…

"Until that weekend when she dyed her hair," the voice finished for her. "Even though Tai was studying more, you noticed the shift in their relationship after that weekend. How much happier Kari seemed. Her greeting Tai at the door with a hug whenever he came home. Them starting to play video games again. That time they went out to the movies..."

Yuuko took a long drink of her coffee and wished it was a glass of wine. She didn't drink excessively but felt the need for a large glass of sauvignon blanc. It was all true. Bar the few weeks after Kari had supposedly broken up with the Takato boy, it was like her children had turned back the clock a few years. However, that was hardly a crime. If they wanted to spend time together, that was their choice to make. And it certainly didn't scream incest.

"But what about two weeks ago?" the voice said. "You know what you saw…"

"No," Yuuko thought firmly, "I didn't see anything. It was just a trick of the light."

"Are you so sure about that?"

"…" She took another drink of coffee.

"Think back. Think back and you'll remember."

"I don't want to remember," she said out loud, desperately trying to force the memory from her mind. Only she couldn't. Inside her head, she could see the front door of the apartment. Her hand reaching for the handle and pulling it down. The door opening in front of her. The wooden floor stretching out across the main living area towards the sofa. The head of bright orange hair above…

The coffee mug fell from Yuuko's hands and hit the rug with a low thud; spilling the remains of its contents all over it.

"You saw it, didn't you?"

"No," she snapped internally, "I did not see that!"

"Yes, you did. You saw…"

Yuuko clasped her hands over her eyes and shook her head. "No, no, no!" she said aloud. Unfortunately, she was powerless to stop the memory from playing over and over inside her mind. The front door of the apartment. Her hand reaching for the handle and pulling it down. The door opening in front of her. The wooden floor stretching out across the main living area towards the sofa. The head of bright orange hair above naked breasts. It had only lasted a heartbeat and at the time she had shaken her head and put it down to it being a trick of the light, but now she was certain. Kari had been topless. Now it started to make sense. The thuds of her children hitting the floor, followed by the apparent wrestling match and the hammy excuse of Tai having eaten his sister's cookie. She'd thought there was something suspicious about the whole thing at the time, but chose to ignore it. Well, she couldn't ignore it now. Her daughter had been straddling her son, topless. She was certain of it.

No, Yuuko thought defiantly, there is nothing untoward going on between my children. Whatever that was. Whatever silly game they were playing. It was just that, a silly game. Her children were not involved in an incestuous relationship!

"But what if they are?" the voice whispered. "What if, under your very nose, Tai and Kari have been…"

"Stop it!" Yuuko yelled, rising to her feet and starting to pace around the main living area; the coffee mug forgotten for now. She took a deep, calming breath. Ok, she said to herself internally, trying to sound rational. If Tai and Kari are doing something they shouldn't be, what do I do? I can hardly confront them just because I thought I saw Kari topless when they were on the sofa together. They'd simply deny it and make sure they covered their tracks. I need something more concrete.

She paced back and forth a few more times, then suddenly found herself standing outside the door to Kari's room. Without thinking, her hand reached down and took hold of the handle. She paused. Am I really about to do this? Am I seriously about to search my children's bedrooms for evidence that they're doing something indecent? The answer transpired to be yes, as she opened the door, stepped inside and closed it behind her. Her eyes scanned the room, not knowing where to start. Yuuko walked over to her daughter's desk. On the surface she caught sight of a slim glass vase that held a single red rose; it was dead. It must have been a gift Kari had been given several weeks ago and from someone important to her for her to have kept it this long. No, not just a gift from someone important. A gift from an admirer or lover. Only they gave a single red rose as a gift. Kari must have a new boyfriend of some description. It was the only logical deduction.

A quick search of the desk drawers revealed nothing but notebooks, school supplies and a sketch pad containing drawings of various outfits Kari had created. She looked under the bed next and rummaged through boxes of old toys and junk; finding nothing. On finding a box containing a large number of CD's, Yuuko flipped through them. They were all by either Pink Floyd or Mike Oldfield. She did a quick count and multiplied the number by the average cost of a CD. It amounted to a not insignificant sum of money, especially when factoring in the fact that they had all been bought in a period of eighteen months or less. This led her straight to her next port of call; Kari's wardrobe. Neat and well organised, it was a fairly easy task to figure out what clothes her daughter had bought for herself. However, it was not so easy to estimate the cost of it all and in the end, she'd had to do a fair bit of guesswork. Regardless, she added it to the value of the CD's and quickly deduced that it probably exceeded the sum of Kari's allowance over the last eighteen months by a not-insignificant amount. Meaning that someone had been giving her a lot of gifts. Unfortunately, it proved little else. While Tai certainly had prior for buying his sister expensive gifts, her lit-match hair chief amongst them, Kari had claimed to have had a boyfriend, so they could easily have come from him.

After returning the boxes underneath her daughter's bed, Yuuko turned her search to the bedside cabinet. It was there she found Kari's diary. However, a quick flick through revealed that she had not written in it for over two years. She set it aside along with a volume of manga and pulled out the last item; a small wooden box. Opening it up caused her to gasp in horror at the sight of condoms and a bottle of lubricant. Her mind immediately tried to protect her by saying that Kari had probably been given them at a sex education seminar and kept them in case she ever needed them. Only the open bottle of lubricant, which was clearly not full, put pay to that illusion. Her sixteen-year-old daughter was or had been, having sex with someone. It was a stark revelation and one she wished she had not discovered. However, it still did not prove anything indecent between her children. She closed the box, put everything back where she had found it and hastily left her daughter's bedroom.

Ok, she breathed, taking a moment to steady herself. My sixteen-year-old daughter is having sex. But at least she's doing it safely. And if that's all I discover today, it's certainly the lesser of two evils. As Yuuko walked the short distance to Tai's room, part of her mind screamed at her that it was not ok. That her daughter should not be having sex with anyone, regardless of whether she was doing it safely or not. In normal circumstances, she would have agreed. Would have stewed over it all day and when Kari came home, given her the riot act and demanded to know everything. Except there could be much worse to come.

Entering Tai's room, she went through the exact same process as in Kari's, finding nothing of interest in his desk, wardrobe or in the boxes under his bed. However, a search of his bedside cabinet revealed the same thing she had found in his sister's; condoms and lubricant. Great, Yuuko thought as she shook her head in dismay, just great. Both of my children are having sex and most likely doing so under my own roof. At least Tai's old enough… that notion did little to calm her. Her eyes stared at the condoms and lube. They were the same brand and type as the ones she'd found in Kari's room. Coincidence, possibly. Except she could feel the fear bubbling away inside her. And as much as she wanted to deny it, she could feel that something was very wrong here.

Putting the contents of Tai's bedside cabinet back, she stood up from where she had sat on his bed and went back to his desk. Maybe she would find something on his laptop. She knew that instant messaging was all the rage and if her children wanted to talk in secret, it would be an easy way to do so. Sitting down in the chair, she lifted the lid of her son's laptop and pressed the power button. The screen flickered into life and once it had booted up, she was greeted with the welcome screen and a request for a password. Damn, Yuuko thought as she began wracking her brain for ideas. First, she tried the J1 league soccer team he supported, FC Tokyo, but had no luck with any combination of spaces and capitals. Taking a moment to think, she next tried his English team, Manchester United. The computer let her in when she tried it with capital M and U and a space between the two words. It took her a moment to find the messaging program and then another to look through the list of contacts. Unfortunately, few of the screen names contained the user's actual name, so she was forced to look through several conversations before stumbling upon one with someone called Digital Punk. A quick read of some of the latest messages between them was enough for Yuuko to close it in disgust. Tai and whoever this girl was, had been roleplaying sexual acts online. She shut the laptop down and closed the lid over. Could the girl he'd been having such amoral conversations with be Kari?

As Yuuko hurried back to her daughter's room, something about the name Digital Punk nagged at the back of her head. She'd come across that name before but could not place where. Putting it to one side, she sat down at Kari's desk and opened her laptop. Again, she was greeted with a screen asking for a password. Unfortunately, nothing she could think of worked. She even fetched the CD box from underneath her daughter's bed and started trying names of the albums it contained, but to no avail. She had no choice but to give up. Instead, she searched her brain for where she had seen the name Digital Punk. Only her mind came up blank. Shutting down Kari's laptop, she left the room.

Yuuko returned to the main living area and started to clean up the mess she had made with the coffee mug earlier. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her bones. However, she had no proof of it, at least not yet. If she could just get a glimpse of her daughter's laptop while she had the messenger program open, it would tell her if Kari was Digital Punk or not.

It had been a difficult morning for Yuuko. She'd learned that both her children were having sex. Which would be enough to drive any mother crazy. However, she had a deepening fear that there was an even worse secret just waiting to be discovered. This one thought stayed with her throughout the remainder of her day.