by India Millar
I lowered my eyes and muttered agreement. I could see that Kiku was right. Still, the thought of having to smile and pretend to enjoy myself with total strangers made me feel sick.
Satisfied they had convinced me, the other girls resumed their normal chatter. When Kiku said she had heard that the Boys were to be present tonight, even I began to wonder who we were entertaining.
Auntie had decided that I wasn’t to wear a wig. My own hair was simply piled up and allowed to curl. The evening was very warm, and I felt quite smug as I saw Kiku immediately begin to run with sweat beneath her huge wig.
The men were waiting as we bowed our way in. Three screens had been pushed back to make one huge room. Looking from under my eyelashes, I counted six men lounging about on the matting. The sake was already warming, and from the level of noise I guessed that a lot had already been consumed.
We all filed in, heads bowed, and kneeled on the mats. The noise level rose immediately. Some of the girls were already acquainted with the patrons. One of them called out Kiku’s name and she hid behind her fan and giggled respectfully. I stared at the customers carefully from beneath my eyelashes. All of them were prosperous, obviously. Three were middle-aged, verging on fat and looking like successful merchants. Two were much older and my heart sank as I realized they were both looking at me with undisguised interest. The last man I could hardly see as he was right on the edge of my field of vision.
But I felt him. I could feel him in my bones, my skin, my stomach. He had an aura about him that reached out and demanded my whole attention. I felt tranquility radiating from him, peace and gentleness. And power. All that before I had even seen him! Please, please, please, I shouted silently. Choose me! Me! I wanted him. Wanted him to stroke my skin. Touch my hair. Fondle my breasts. Part my black moss with his fingers and – yes! – put his tree of flesh in me. I didn’t care that there were other men in the room or that my sisters were here. I just wanted him, this stranger.
This man I had not even seen.
I was suddenly worried that I would be disappointed when I did see him. What if his aura was completely at odds with his body? What if he was old? As old as my danna? What if he was so ugly I could hardly bear to look at him? What if he was fat and bald? My heart was wrung with disappointment as quickly as my body had been roused. It was nonsense, of course. How could my senses betray me like that? But still, I would look, I decided. I must know!
Before I could peep out from behind my fan, the Boys made their entrance and the moment was lost. Unlike us girls, who crept in as if we were afraid of disturbing our audience, the Boys tumbled in with as much noise as they could manage. They shouted. They whooped. They whistled. And to add to the show, they did somersaults and walked on their hands and pretended to kick at each other.
The patrons loved it. They applauded and laughed and the Boys turned to each other and grinned before they sat down and clapped their hands for sake, just as if they were paying customers themselves. I glanced at Auntie, expecting her to shout at the Boys, tell them to behave themselves, but no such thing. She was smiling and nodding her head in encouragement. The Boys were male geisha. They were not at all the same as us girls.
The Boys had been around the Hidden House – and the Green Tea House – for as long as I could remember. When I had been much smaller, they had puzzled me greatly. They seemed to have the run of both establishments and were Auntie’s pets. I had asked Carpi about it – Carpi being the fount of all knowledge – and she had laughed at me. They were, she explained, geisha. Same as we were. I frowned at her, frightened to disagree but at the same time sure she was wrong. Geisha were girls, not men! But Carpi had insisted.
“Hundreds of years ago, the first geisha were all men,” she said firmly. “They didn’t do the same sort of things as we do now, but they were still entertainers. They did acrobatics and juggled and sang, and I suppose they entertained the men who liked other men and not women.”
I gasped with my hand to my mouth. Even at that age I knew that matching the bird to the nest between men was not only against the law but was frowned upon as socially unacceptable. Carpi just shrugged and continued.
“I know, it’s not supposed to happen these days, but it does. Sometimes Auntie gets clients who like something a bit different. That’s all it is, you know. The same thing, but different. Some men like girls, some men like other men. Some prefer dogs or even sheep. Other men don’t want to know about any of it and just keep themselves for themselves. It’s the way of the world.”
I nodded, but I was still doubtful. I knew to keep well clear of the Boys, though. They might call themselves geisha, but they also had other functions.
None of us knew what their real names were. They were just called Big and Bigger. At first sight, the names might have sounded ironic, as neither was particularly tall and both were slim. But I had seen them in the bath and knew that their slimness disguised wiry muscles. And that was not all I had seen in the bath. The Boys always bathed together, and we girls bunched to one side to give them plenty of room.
The Boys would nod at us disdainfully and then set about the process of cleansing each other. Just as they did for us girls, the maids soaped and rinsed them carefully before they got into the water. However, that was not enough for the Boys. They each took a large sponge into the bath and as soon as they were comfortable, commenced washing each other. Or at least, that was what they pretended to do. Actually, they used the sponges and their hands to excite each other, rubbing and caressing each other’s bodies, all the time ignoring us girls who chattered like sparrows as we pretended not to watch them. Especially when they got to work on their trees of flesh. At that stage, it became obvious where the Boys got their names from. Bigger was perhaps an inch or so larger than Big, but both of their trees were gigantic. Just like us girls, the Boys were freaks. They were so large we all wondered whether they would one day faint from the amount of blood that passed from their body to their tree. They never did. Or at least, if they did, we were never there to see it.
When their act of dew mingling was obviously near, one of the girls would decide we had had enough of the bath and we would all climb out. We made sure that no part of our naked bodies got close to the Boys. The Boys had been known to reach out and spitefully pinch any female flesh that came close enough for them to grab.
And the Boys were not just feared for their physical attributes.
Auntie used them as correctors, to administer punishment to the geisha.
Normally, even the threat of the Boys was more than enough to cure an advanced case of the sulks or a disinclination to perform. Yet every once in a while, one of the girls in the Hidden House or even the geisha in the Green Tea House would go too far and the threat of punishment turned into reality.
I stared at the Boys now, trying not to think of the last time they had meted out punishment. Bigger was leaning against one of the plump merchants, tickling him under his chin and laughing. The man was trying to pretend he wasn’t happy with Bigger’s attentions, but he clearly was. He was chuckling and only feigning pushing Bigger away from him. The more he acted as if he wasn’t interested, the more daring Bigger became. As I watched, I saw Bigger’s hand snake into the merchant’s loose robe. I looked away quickly before he caught me looking.
Big I could not see. He had not left the room, so I guessed he was with the man who had excited me with his very presence. Even the idea of Big being close to him made my stomach clench. I had to know what they were doing. Greatly daring, I used my fan as a screen and swiveled my eyes past Auntie, who was scolding poor Suzume about something, and so missed my insolence, to seek him – them – out.
I was right. Big was curled up beside my stranger, his head on the man’s shoulder. Oddly – for the Boys were usually unerring in their choices – the man was paying no attention at all to him. In fact, Big might as well have not been there.
Instead, the man was staring across the room. At me. I was so shocked, I almost dropp
ed my fan. For a moment, I didn’t care if I had or not. I gave up all pretense at flirtation and simply stared back. He smiled, and my world changed.
He had a pleasant, open face. A gentle expression. He was slimly built beneath his loose robe and I thought he must be quite tall when standing. Not young, not old – perhaps in his early thirties. I thought I heard Big hiss with anger, so I dragged my gaze away quickly, pretending a sudden interest in one of the other men.
As soon as I looked away, I could not have told you what the man looked like. Considering the emotions and physical excitement he was causing me, this was beyond strange, but at that moment I thought nothing of it. Would I know him again if I saw him in a month, or six months, or even a year hence? I would. I would recognize his presence in an instant. That was all that mattered to me.
Well, not quite all. I wanted him, quite desperately. I couldn’t understand it for a second. He hadn’t even touched me, had done no more than look at me, and yet if he had signaled to me, I would have crawled across the floor on my belly and prostrated myself in front of him, ready to do anything he asked of me. And whatever it was, I would have loved it and begged for more. I wouldn’t have cared if everybody else in the room had stopped to watch, I would still have wanted him.
Quite suddenly, someone – and I think it was Big – clapped their hands and called out “Statues!” As if the word was contagious, all of the other men laughed, and also began to chant, “Statues! Statues!” Bewildered, I followed the other girls’ lead. Kiku signaled that she wanted to be helped up, and Naruko and I went to her aid. When she was on her feet, we formed a line in front of the men and began to dance as Auntie struck up her samisen.
So far, everything was going well, but then the music stopped suddenly and I was the only one that continued to dance. The men howled with laughter and slapped their legs with glee.
“Off!” someone shouted. “You were last. Off!”
I stared modestly at the floor, totally uncomprehending. My confusion seemed to delight the men, as they all began to chant, “off, off, off!” together.
Kiku tittered behind her hand and took the opportunity to hiss at me, “If you’re the last one to stop when the music finishes, you have to take something off as a forfeit. Quick!”
I flushed as red as my black moss and fumbled quickly with the knot on my obi. It seemed to take an age to get it undone, but as soon as it came loose, Suzume darted forward and took it away for me. All the men applauded wildly.
After that, I was ready for it. As soon as Auntie gave any hint that she might stop, I froze. Very quickly, Naruko was down to her under-robes and Masaki had also lost her chemise. I was congratulating myself on my quickness when I suddenly realized that at this rate, I would be the only one dancing. That all eyes would be on me alone as I finally stripped naked. Horrified, I mended my ways as fast as I could and was the first to disrobe for the next three pauses.
That got rid of my under-sash, my kimono, and my under-skirt. At that point, I made an attempt not to be last again, and before long it was Kiku who was naked except for her tabi. At that point, she subsided gracefully to the matting, and one of the men promptly grabbed for her, putting his arms around her and pretending to pant with the effort of enclosing her. Kiku giggled charmingly; I wanted to go and kick him as hard as I could in his tree of flesh. Masaki was the last person still dancing at the next pause, which rendered her naked, so she too was grabbed by one of the men, who perched her on his knee like the doll she was.
So it was down to Naruko and me. As if the men sensed that there was suddenly some competition going on, they began to clap and shout, hissing their pleasure. I clenched my teeth to keep the smile frozen on my lips and glanced at Auntie. She was clearly delighted, nodding and smiling happily.
One of the men reached into the sleeve of his robe and produced some money.
“A hundred yen on the red-haired Barbarian to win!” he shouted. Auntie played on. Naruko and I continued to dance. After a beat or two, the man who had clutched Kiku threw some money on the pile.
“Match you on the other one!” he yelled.
When the music stopped again, Naruko and I froze at the same moment. The room exploded. All the men were shouting at once, a couple of them getting to their feet in their excitement. More money went on the pile. Auntie’s smile expanded into a grin; of course, she would take her share from the pot.
Over the chaos, I heard Big’s mocking voice. “Come on, what do you say we make this really interesting?” A couple of the fat merchants mopped their faces and turned to look at him eagerly. “Whichever of them is last next time, the money’s shared between those that bet on the other one.” The men looked at each other. What was so interesting about that? “And just to add a bit of sauce to the dish, what do you say to me taking the one who loses? You could all take bets on how long it takes before I make her scream.”
If I thought the men had been excited before, it was nothing to the chaos that ensued at Big’s words. More money was flung onto the pile. I exchanged a glance with Naruko and thought I saw the fear in her eyes. I looked pleadingly at Auntie, begging her to stop this game before it began, but she was caught up in the excitement and was laughing as loudly as her customers. Not that she would ever have taken any notice of me anyway. She began to play again.
I felt as if I was moving with the grace of a wooden doll. I was sure I could hear my joints creak. Naruko would win, I knew. She had to. My hands felt as if they were being pricked with needles. Big. Big was going to have me. Here. On the floor in front of everybody. In front of him. Even the pain would not be worse than that.
And there would be pain. Oh yes. More pain than I was capable of imagining.
I realized the music had stopped while my thoughts were still focused on what was to come. My hands fumbled at my chemise, but I stopped as I saw that Naruko was already naked, her last garment lying on the floor at her feet. A couple of the men who had bet on her stood up and lurched across, both of them laying claim to her, as well as the money in the pot. I stood helpless, hardly able to breathe.
“No.” Just the one word, but said with such authority! I turned my head slowly – slowly was all I could manage – and stared at the man who had enchanted me. He was getting to his feet, tugging his robe around him. He moved with a grace that was almost feline, and – even in the extremity of my fear – I wanted him. Without meaning to, without even realizing I was doing it, my body swayed toward him.
There was a mumble of disappointment from the other men. Bigger tutted and I heard Big snarl a profanity.
“Danjuro! No, you cannot spoil the gentlemen’s fun!” Big said.
The man raised his hands, put them together at chest height, and then parted them slowly, palms pointing down. Such was his presence that the whole room instantly became quiet.
“Get the young lady a robe,” he said, his voice level. Neither angry nor amused, just…masterful. Suzume instantly darted over and helped me into a loose, comfortable robe. I stood, having no idea what I was supposed to do.
For once, Auntie helped me. “Midori No Me, what are you thinking of, girl?” Her voice was a strange mixture of scolding and simpering. I stared at her in shocked surprise. “Danjuro is waiting for you. Get a move on.”
Hardly able to believe what was happening, I moved across to the man she had called Danjuro. He patted me gently on the arm and gestured for me to sit down beside him.
Big was still sitting on the floor, but as I sat, he rose. He made a stiff bow to Danjuro and sneered at me. I was too happy, too relieved, to even react. Danjuro put a protective arm around my shoulders and for a long moment he and Big stared at each other. I shivered. Overjoyed as I was, both to be rescued from Big and to be actually caressed by Danjuro, worry made my stomach go cold as I tried to interpret the look.
Big shrugged and turned away, and every bone, every muscle in my body relaxed.
The noise level rose suddenly as the tension broke. Kiku laughed, and a
t her signal the rest of the girls began to chatter and giggle. Auntie resumed playing her samisen and Suzume began to circulate with the sake flasks. All at once, normalcy resumed.
I leaned against Danjuro, trying to get as close to him as I possibly could. His body was warm, and I could feel the muscles beneath his robe. He patted my shoulder almost as if he was patting a little animal. Either following my instinctive longings or because I had been trained so very well for so many years, I slid my hand inside his robe and groped for his tree of flesh.
He was erect, I discovered. Quite beautifully so. Nowhere near as large as the Boys, for which I thanked my ancestors, but still substantial enough to be thrilling. I circled my hand around his tree and began to rub the hardness up and down, slowly at first, and then a little faster. My heart was beating so fast, I felt that it must be rocking my entire body. It would, I thought, have been so much better if we had been together in a private room, but no matter. By this time, there were knots of bodies all over the room, tumbling together like autumn leaves tossed by a playful breeze.
For the first time, I found myself sexually aroused. I had never even considered that watching people enjoy each other’s bodies could be stimulating; in the past, I had simply tried not to think about it. Perhaps it was the strangeness of the evening, coupled with my sudden feelings for Danjuro, but now I felt lust flow through me like hot lava. The more I watched the play in the room before me, the more aroused I became.
One of the merchants was taking Kiku from behind. His tree was completely hidden in her bulk, yet still he was thrusting at her until I thought that most of his lower body might disappear. Kiku was either a better actress than I had given her credit for or she was truly enjoying herself. Certainly, the little yips of sound she was making were far removed from the giggles and assumed noises of pleasure she usually made.