“This must be Yan's mother.” Margret said to herself as she blushed fiercely.
“Yes O bachan!” she grinned enthusiastically, “We're getting married as soon as I graduate or she gets pregnant, whichever comes first!”
“Oh my!” she said, smirking as Margret blushed and looked at the floor dismally.
In her head, all Margret could think was, “Oh no, they ALL think this way!”
Ep 23, Chapter 5
About 3 pm, the atmosphere in the huge home changed.
The house suddenly became quite hushed.
Margret's hand was just now beginning to feel better as the throbbing was finally fading.
Unlike how Margret had imagined it, she had seen very little of Jacqueline because instead of clinging to her, the child was prancing around like the little princess she turned out to be.
Even without her newfound fame as a singer, Jacqueline already had a legacy.
She spent some time playing with cousins, nephews and nieces, but mostly, she had very serious talks with the grown-ups, especially the grandmothers, who despite coming from a distinctly male dominated society, were unquestionably the rulers of their houses.
So when Jacqueline came and led Margret by the hand into a large room filled with people all seated on cushions, she was quite amazed to find that Grandma Shunokoi was seated on what amounted to a throne, Grandmother Kanto was seated on what amounted to a footstool on her right hand, and their husbands sat on nearly normal sized cushions to each side of this.
She also noticed, there were no children here, unless you counted Jacqueline and herself.
“They must consider us adults now or something.” she thought to herself, “Well I AM eighteen now...although, looking at these people, not one of them looks to be under thirty...”
Jacqueline led her to the front of the room where two sparkling white cushions with bright crimson tassels awaited.
Doing her best to sit like Jacqueline, Margret knelt on the pad Jacqueline indicated, while Jacqueline then followed suit on the other one.
Margret soon realized by rotating the positions a hundred and eighty degrees, that she was definitely the submissive partner in this relationship.
“Oh well,” she shrugged, “I pretty much figured it would end up this way anyhow,” she consoled herself, quietly looking up at the ladies who topped everybody else in the huge room.
She continued to sit for some time, as it seemed as if for the longest time, they would simply sit there all afternoon or something.
After what seemed to be an eternity however, Grandmother Shunokoi finally spoke, and when she did, she spoke in Japanese.
“You stand at the threshold between earth, heaven and hell child.” she spoke, but it was uncertain to whom she spoke, apparently both of them.
“Hai.” Jacqueline responded with a brief, clean, crisp nod.
“This is a grave responsibility you take upon yourself Ja-chan.”
“Hai.” she answered again.
Margret had a very limited knowledge of Japanese, so she got the general idea what was being said.
“Which of you thinks to be the leader of the house?” she asked.
Margret looked to Jacqueline as she did not understand this completely.
Jacqueline leaned over and whispered to her what was being asked.
“Ja-chan, O bachan-sama.” Margret replied and bowed the way she saw Jacqueline do.
“Hai.” Jacqueline said simply.
“You make me proud Ja-chan.” the elderly woman said, and smiles subtly broke out all around the room, but Margret made every effort to keep looking only on the O bachan, as at this point forward in her life, this was the most important person in her life.
“When do you wish to be married Ja-chan?” she asked.
“As best befits the will of O bachan-sama.” she this time nodded, but then immediately fell prostrate with her arms to her side, palms to the smooth wooden floor, elbows up, her long thick braid sliding down to rest between her side and her left elbow.
“A wise answer Ja-chan.” she nodded, a pleased smile creased her timely face.
At this, Jacqueline slowly raised her face, then her body back to her original position and once again replied, “Hai.”
“I only THOUGHT she was mature before!” Margret nervously marveled to herself, “I wonder if there's a dragon secretly hidden in her!”
“Ma-chan.” the ruler called.
“Hai.” she responded with just a hint of nervousness.
“Do you agree with your Jōgi in her will in this matter?”
“Hai O bachan-sama.” she nodded and repeated the act of obeisance Jacqueline had performed.
“You will make a good Sobame Ma-chan.” she perceptibly purred at Margret's reaction.
Margret repeated the reverse actions, first looking for the smile, then slowly raising herself up, suddenly grateful anew for all those years of secret Kung Fu lessons she had taken from age eight until age fourteen.
“You realize there is a serious price to pay should you betray the family Ma-chan.” came a firm warning.
“Hai O bachan-sama.” she nodded sharply.
“You will this day enter into a binding contract with me, Ja-chan, and the whole house of Shunokoi.” she swept her hand and as if from thin air, a very ornate scroll appeared in her hand, apparently out of the sleeve of her kimono, “Do not take this lightly, or do not enter therein.”
“Hai O bachan-sama.” she nodded again.
With a subtle flick of her wrist, Grandmother Shunokoi released the seal on the scroll, and what rolled out was written in crimson, on top of what appeared to be gold leaf.
“This contract was written in Shunokoi blood,” she informed, “It shall be signed in Shunokoi blood,” continued, “and it will be honored with Shunokoi blood.”
At this exact moment, Grandmother Kanto in the same manner produced a gleaming tasseled dagger with a ruby dragon embossed on its serpentine blade.
“Hai O bachan-sama.” Margret nodded while she felt her heart climb into her throat.
Internally she thought, “Maybe human sacrifice was not that far off the mark!”
“Come forward.” she instructed, looking at both of them to make the order clear.
Jacqueline as the Jōgi came forward first, reached out to a ceremonial dagger that Mrs. Kanto held upright in both hands just above her knees and pierced her thumb on its tip, then after a second of rolling it around with her index finger to wet her entire right thumb print in blood, with the guidance of Grandma Shunokoi's left hand, pressed it into a specific empty space beside a character which represented the Jōgi.
As she was given a silken handkerchief to tie her thumb, she accepted it, nodded and then backed up with incredible grace to her knee cushion without disturbing its position in the slightest despite the obviously smooth floor it was on.
“Maybe they're stuck to the floor,” she speculated as the little blind girl backed up to her final position without even the slightest off movement.
As the O bachan nodded at her, she tried to hide her nervousness and not swallow the lump in her throat as she tried to imitate the movements she saw Jacqueline do, but instantly, her idea that the cushions were secured to the floor was debunked as it immediately tried to follow her and she almost fell flat on her face.
Summoning all of her innermost strength, courage, skill and focus, she ever so carefully moved her left knee to drive the pad back into place while resting her right knee ever so precariously on the very edge of her kneecap, which caused her excruciating pain, before she allowed herself to make the next move.
She then realized, that with each exacting movement, the trailing foot, shin and knee had to hold the pad precisely in place as the other side ever so carefully moved with an efficiency of motion, and that the reverse trip was going to be much more difficult.
Suddenly she realized a powerful lesson in this.
That to go forward in this situation would take e
xtreme grace, but to back out of it would take grace which was virtually superhuman.
This was not merely a test of will, courage, or even love, it was a test to see if she were worthy of the family!
As she ever so carefully approached, she also realized that going backward while kneeling in a kimono was going to be a severe challenge as well.
This thought, at least, kept her mind slightly distracted from the razor sharp tip of the dagger which already bore a streak of blood from Jacqueline's thumb.
As she got there, she steeled her nerves, took a deep breath, extended her thumb and pressed.
Suddenly she was grateful for the tranquilizer and pain killer medicines she was given earlier.
Still it stung and made the skin on her whole body crawl, but she could at least tolerate it. Otherwise, at this very moment, she might have vomited or fainted.
Slowly, she rubbed the stinging flesh as she saw Jacqueline do, and finally she accepted Grandmother Shunokoi's guidance to where to press her thumb as she was suddenly feeling quite nauseous and disoriented.
As this ritual was completed, she too received the same type of white silk handkerchief, which, to her surprise, upon contact with the wound, instantly numbed it.
“So there is a local anesthetic in the handkerchief.” she mused to herself, “This too must be a lesson.”
Backing up ever so carefully, she finally arrived at the cushion, only to be surprised to see Jacqueline was turned and holding both of the red tassels on the side of the cushion nearest her.
As she got a surprised look on her face, the matriarch of the family explained as if she knew her exact thoughts.
“As the Sobame dutifully follows the Jōgi, it is the duty of the Jōgi to help, lead and strengthen the Sobame.”
For some reason, Margret, for all of her relief to be helped, supported and instructed, she suddenly remembered her Japanese classes and wondered, “Shouldn't they be calling me Tsuma instead of Sobame?” but then she figured, “Well, since many royal families in Asia practiced polygamy, I suppose this is what they consider the proper terms, what the hell, I'm fine with it, its only words after all.”
“Hai.” she replied aloud.
With a single clap of her hands, two men from each side of the room dressed in white kimonos rose from their inconspicuous positions and came forward with pillows, one with a precariously balanced tray topped with a small ornate sake bottle and the other with a tray bearing three different sized bowls.
Some time in the ritual, between the second and the third bowl of sake, Margret suddenly collapsed.
Episode 24
“Coming To The Realization”
“I see you manged not to die on me,” Jacqueline smiled over the top of the respirator mask as Margret came to, eyes blurred, feeling quite dizzy, “But my prayers were answered.” as she fondly stroked the rocker's thick red mane.
“Huh?” she asked dizzily and feeling out of breath, “Where am I?” she asked.
“You're in the recovery room my love.” the child said with an even more intense level of maturity than she had ever exhibited before.
“Wh...why am I here?” she asked.
“Because, my love,” she said calmly, “You just had an operation.”
“I...” she began, feeling panicky and breathless, “I...what?”
“When you collapsed,” Jacqueline related the events, “You were rushed here to the company medical facility and they began running tests on you based on all the various medicines you have had in just a few short hours.
“It became apparent to mama that when you passed out from a sedative that even I can take, there was something wrong, but she could not say exactly what.
“They took a look at your blood for acute toxemia and although they did not find what they expected, they did find a problem, which was that you had internal bleeding in your abdomen.”
“Wha...what? Bleeding?” she groaned? “What would cause that?”
“When you were so tense on the flight over here, the pressure you exerted was enough to tear the placenta loose from your intestinal wall.”
“The whata from my whera?” her eyes were wild and she tried to get up but once again she found she was in restraints, so this time she just weakly collapsed.
“Be careful baby!” Jacqueline said, “You'll tear yourself open!”
“They...they operated on me?” she asked again in confusion and disbelief.
“They feel sure that they saved the baby,” Jacqueline tried soothing her, “But if you keep straining yourself,” she warned, “you'll tear her free and she will miscarry.”
“Oh....” she licked her parched lips, this was just too unreal.
The pulse rate monitor was rising, as was her blood pressure, and a nurse stepped in and injected a needle into her IV.
The room went cloudy then dark.
Ep 24, Chapter 2
Jacqueline refused to go any place.
Despite the fact that this was supposed to be a festive time, she had nothing else on her mind but Margret and the now 2 week old baby.
With precision robotic surgery and some very advanced medical devices, they had successfully taken the placenta, barely five millimeters across, and carefully implanted it in a tiny incision on the inside lining of her uterus.
Although the surgery took only an hour to perform, this is dangerously long in terms of the blastocyst. Thankfully, they had experienced similar situations in the past and had a specialized nutrient solution on hand for the baby, still less than the size of a grain of rice to live on while being transported and re-affixed.
Specialized optical filtration and correction programs with equally specialized laser illuminators allowed the surgeon to see the blastocyst as if it were floating in clear water despite the murky pink tint to the solution.
Yui reviewed the video of the surgery with bated breath five times while Jacqueline just sat patiently beside the hospital bed, holding one hand while stroking Margret’s hair.
“You think she will be okay for the show?” Yui finally turned from the silent screen and asked.
“I don't know.” Jacqueline answered, “I don't really care right now.”
“You really do love her.”
“Of COURSE mama,” she replied in desperate exasperation, “did you think this was just a silly game for me?”
“Well...” Yui began.
“I'm not the rocket scientist prodigy you and papa hoped for, okay?” she suddenly sounded harsh, “But I am smart enough and mature enough to know what real love is.”
“I-I...” she was at a loss for words now.
“Mama,” Jacqueline began, “if I had not met Margret here, in all likelihood I would not have lived to the age of eighteen.”
“Don't say th-!” her her mother began to cry in protest.
“Its TRUE mama,” she interrupted, “I'm sorry, but you and papa were smothering me to death! And I don't just mean figuratively either. There was no way I could ever live up to your expectations, and there was no way you were ever going to release me from them to live my own life. Eventually I would have probably found a way to kill my self.”
Yui gasped in shocked horror.
“So you better be thankful this wonderful angel came and rescued me from the pit you two had dumped me into.”
Yan had at some point managed to actually come up the hallway softly enough that even Jacqueline's abnormally superior hearing failed to detect and stood quietly by the door.
Just then Yui looked and saw him and cried, out, “Yan! Did you hear what she just said?”
“Most of it I suppose,” he said in a rather nonchalant sounding tone.
Although Jacqueline ever so slightly lurched and her heart leapt into her throat with the realization that she had failed to detect his presence, she kept a blank face and calm demeanor and said, “And I meant every word of it.”
“I believe you baby girl,” Yan came over and laid a hand on her shoulder, “And I apologize
for letting it it go on for so long. But you have to realize, little one, unless you speak out, you're never going to be heard.”
Tears began to form in Jacqueline's huge brown eyes, “But you never take anything I say seriously!” she sobbed.
Bunny Love ( Songs of Love Book 1) Page 22