COMPASSION

Chapter 31

The Confession

Tom exists his Host’s Body and realizes Sakura is gone. He borrows some clothes from his Host still lying face down on the bed next to his girlfriend. He lifts the blanket and sees the deep fingernail marks still bleeding from last night. The woman’s face is bloodied and bruised. Tom goes to the medical cabinet in the bathroom and removes some alcohol and bandages to dress both of their wounds. He looks at the clock and sees it’s 5:00 am. He works feverishly to treat the wounds as fast as he can and applies bandages to the shoulder and back.
 
Tom now moves to the young girl and is appalled at how he reacted to Sakura. The results are all over the girl's bloody face and he cleans her wounds and applies makeup to the girl to mask the damage. He sees now it is 5:55 and sees the alarm is set for 6:00 am.
Tom kisses the forehead of the couple and poses the two in a loving embrace. He checks the man’s wallet and the woman’s purse for their names. He thanks the pair in Japanese saying their names and bows to them as a way of thanking them for their gift.
 
Tom exists the hotel and gets in his Plymouth and heads for home to tell his wife about Sakura. The guilt he feels is overwhelming. He did not break his marriage vow because it said til death do us part. It never said he would be married for eternity.
 
Tom enters his house and Catherine is in the Library waiting for him.
 
“Hi,” Tom greets his wife. 
 
Catherine replies, “Where did you go?”
 
“I had a talk with Dr. Parmo about that girl. I told him she is driving our son crazy with desire but she will not tell him she is not interested.”
 
“What did he say?”   Catherine asks.
 
“He just listened. I asked him if that girl is a cock teaser? Then, I asked him if he had a romantic relationship with her?”
 
Catherine stunned from the question asked by her husband, “She was his girlfriend? He’s married!” 
 
“Not only was she his girlfriend but she Loves Him and he died from a Heart Attack Fucking her!”
 
“ If that girl does not release Joe she will haunt him the rest of his life.” Catherine gets out of her chair, “ Tom I am sorry I have been so obsessed with our  sons and ignoring you." Catherine outer appearance changes from a worn out woman in her sixties to the
beautiful young woman Tom first fell in love with. “ Tom please hold me.”
 
Catherine starts kissing her husband but he is so confused and guilt-ridden he cannot return her affection. Catherine asks, “Tom what is wrong. Don’t you find me attractive anymore?”
 
“We are two spirits. The only way we can feel the pleasures of lovemaking is to possess two people we have something in common with. Besides I have something I must tell you.”
 
Catherine appearance changes back to a mature woman and sits down in her chair.
 
“What is it?”
 
“I told him if that girl doesn’t release Joe and he kills himself I will Kill the girl!”
 
Catherine asks her husband? “You are joking?”
 
Tom lights his unfiltered Pall Mall and pours himself a whiskey and takes a seat at his desk.
 
Catherine asks again, “Tell me you are joking? Tell me you didn’t say that to the Doctor. I want an answer now!”
 
 Tom looks at Catherine and puts his drink down. Tom’s appearance changes from a concerned caring Father to a darker sinister figure. Catherine has seen Tom look like this before. When she tried to get him to stop drinking. Sometimes Tom would come home and hit Catherine. She started sleeping with a two by four under her bed to protect herself. The fights were over his drinking and how she paid all the attention to the children. Tom was being driven Mad over his younger Brother’s Billy’s Death and his inability to find the men who killed his brother. He begged God and Jesus to help him get revenge but they were silent. He begged Catherine for forgiveness and told her the demons do want him dead. They told him they can use a man like him.
 
Catherine has seen Tom like this before and goes upstairs to her coffin and closes the lid. She starts praying to God for Help. Tom rips the lid off the coffin and pulls her out of the casket.
 
Catherine trembling looks at her loving husband and sees the Face of the Devil. She has danced and fought with this Devil before and now she is ready to hear the Devil Rant.
 
“Am I joking? No, I am not joking. I will Kill the Bitch. Just like they Fucking Killed Billy and nobody did a Fucking thing. Just like you Killed me by ignoring me and driving me out of the house. Constantly nagging me about the boys. Those Fucking Vampires stole you from me. Marriage was great before those Bastards came. All four of you are the reason why I went into an early grave. Then my Fucking Boss at work said I wasn’t selling enough tires and batteries. He was going to cut my pay. I gave everything I had to that company. Would I kill her? Yes because if Joe dies and I kill her he can go find the Bitch and beat the Hell out of her like I am going to Beat you know. You ruined my life by coming here and now I think you are trying to kill me again.
 
Catherine reaches down into her coffin and picks up a two by four and strikes Tom on the head and he falls into his coffin. Catherine crawls in her husbands and turns on Tom’s Chanting music to relax him and the two fall off into a deep sleep.
 
Some time passes and Tom awakens with blood on his head and a terrible splitting headache. He sees his wife is in a deep sleep but has to wake her to confess his sin.
 
“Catherine wake up, I have to talk to you now. Please, honey, wake up.” There is a bed in the room now in front of the coffins. Tom carries Catherine over to the bed and she wakes. With tears in his eyes, Tom tells Catherine, “I have to tell you about Sakura. When I got here I was so lonely and confused and I was going Mad with grief. I begged God for help but the confusion wouldn’t go away.  
 
Catherine interrupts Tom, “What you want to tell me is you have a girlfriend.”
 
Tom is shocked by his wife’s reply, “How did you know?”
 
Catherine starts to cry and Tom embraces her, “I still love you with everything I am.” Catherine tearfully replies, “ I was not sure but the way you are acting what else could it be. Who is she?”
 
“Sakura.”
 
“The daughter of Mrs. Asaki! How did you meet her?”
 
“When I was discharged from the Navy it always bothered me I was responsible for shooting down the Japanese Plane Hiko was flying. Yes we were in a war and it was, kill or be killed but it was such a personal killing I had nightmares for years. Seeing his plane fly toward our ship, firing the gun at his plane, seeing it crash on deck and killing my shipmates. War is a horrible experience that no one should have to go through. I did not hate the enemy. I did not hate anyone but I had to survive. When I moved the bodies down to the ship's morgue I saw him on a table. He looked like a regular guy like
me. My brother Billy and I use to play Army when we were kids. We always played killing each other and the boys we played with. None of us knew the play would become real. When I died and after I got settled in I made a trip to Hiko’s grave site. I paid my respects.
 
His sister passed by and was wondering about the American praying at her Brother’s grave. She told me she knew I would come one day and she prayed to her God for the chance to kill me.
 
“How did she die?”
 
“Sakura loves her brother very much. In fact, as a young girl, she never liked the boys in her class because they were not as noble as her Brother or  Father. She developed a crush on her brother that she never got over. The two of them were experimenting sexually.    Hiko enlisted in the Japanese Army Air Force to get away from her.
 
When Sakura got word of her brother’s death she was devastated. She was working as a new reporter in Tokyo. Her parents lived in Hiroshima.”
 
“This poor girl has had a horrible life. This sounds like me when I lost you and both my parents died after you,” Catherine shakes her head in horror.
 
“Wait it gets worse. She was trying to deal with losing the Love her Life her Brother when she learned her parents died the bombing at Hiroshima. She decided then there was nothing left to live for and vowed To honor her family by joining them. She decided to take her life by Seppuku!”
 
Catherine asks, “What is that.”
 
“Harakiri.
 
Tom’s vision of how Sakura ended her life appears in their bedroom. She wanted to be with her brother as lovers for eternity. Hiko loves his sister but he puts honor and duty first. Mrs. Asaki has tolerated our affair because she has not desired her Brother since she has been with me. She wants Sakura to return home and be at rest but Sakura has an insatiable sexual appetite. She constantly is cruising bars and looking to find her true love. Until she finds that person she will never be at rest.  She felt by making the Ultimate Sacrifice she would be with Hiko.
 
Sakura is shown wearing a White Kimono Robe kneeling on the floor. She is eating her last meal. She takes a glass of Saki and drinks it down. She wraps a white ribbon around her knees and reads the Death Poem she wrote to her parents. She knows Seppuku is reserved for Samurai and not to be done by a woman but she follows no one. She is her own woman and intends to release her soul by disembowelment of her abdomen.
 
She removes her Tanto Blade from its sheath and raises it to the heavens. She places it on the floor and removes her robe and picks up the knife and plunges it into her stomach and screams out in agonizing pain. She regains herself and moves the blade across her stomach. Blood is pouring on her white robe and the floor. She makes one final pass with the knife and falls to the floor.
 
Tom and Catherine are horrified at the vision of Sakura’s Death they have just witnessed. They are still sitting on the bed looking at one another is disbelief.
 
Catherine tells Tom, “I understand you no longer Love Me and you want to be with this woman. Maybe I should find a new place to live?”
 
Tom grabs Catherine, “You are my wife. You will be my wife for Eternity. I Love You, not Sakura. It is just sex with her. Nothing more. I am just confused now. I need some time. Please, I can’t lose you again. I know I said some terrible things before but you know how I am the morning after I have been drinking. Let’s just go on with our lives and give me some time to sort my feelings out and we will talk again.”
 
Catherine gets off the bed and tells Tom, “I am exhausted after waiting up for you all night now hearing all this drama. I don’t know what to say but I have to rest.”
 
Catherine retires to her coffin and closes the lid.

Tom puts on his ear phones and puts on his new favorite song Tantric by Iio and drifts off to dream of Sakura.