by Mary Jaine
I was awakened in the middle of the night by a persistent light tapping on my shoulder. I turned to see Teruko standing there, looking 12 and adorable in her long nightdress. As soon as she saw I was awake, she clambered onto the bed next to me and huddled up against me, talking softly, probably telling me she'd had a nightmare. I let her talk until she began to nod off, and held her until I was sure she was fast asleep. Once she was sound asleep, I picked her up, amazed at how little she weighed, and carried her back to her room, putting her back in her bed and pulling the covers back up over her. I know she felt comforted by having me near her, I was the only relatively familiar thing in her life right now, but she was a young teenage girl, so it was definitely inappropriate for her to sleep in my bed, for whatever reason, when I was there too.
I woke early to the sound of voices downstairs, mum and Teruko chatting in Japanese, Teruko speaking slowly for her benefit. I wondered how school was going to work, or if we should maybe get her an English tutor, let her learn some of the language before unleashing the teeming metropolis that was Shrewsbury on her. I had a quick shower and shave, and dressed in tracksuit top and joggers, to go for my early morning run before the school traffic built up around the Meole Brace and Priory schools down the road from our house.
I ambled downstairs and into the kitchen to get a diet cola from the fridge, seeing mother and Teruko seated at the kitchen island with cereal bowls. As soon as she saw me, she slammed to her feet and bowed, intoning "Ohayo aniki."
Mum smiled. "She said 'good morning, Big Brother!" You should reply "Ohayo imoto."That means, 'Good Morning, little Sister'."
I grinned at Teruko, and did as mother asked. "Ohayo imoto." I sat her back down again, and took her hand and tapped my chest with it. "Jack" I said, smiling, and tapped my chest again and repeated myself. "Jack!"
"Jakku-san?" she tried, and I grinned wryly; it seemed I was stuck with Grandad's smelly dog's name. I nodded agreement. "Jakku-san!"
I looked over at mum.
"Mum, if you don't mind, I'd like to take Teruko over to Grandad's today; I think he'd like to meet his friend's granddaughter."
Mum agreed, and called him to say we'd be over later. In the meantime I went for my run, down through Kingsland and over the Kingsland Bridge, past St. Chad's and as far as the Severn Theatre in Frankwell. That was my half-way point, so I turned and ran back over the same route, to give me a solid five-mile run.
When I got in, I had a quick shower and dressed and, grabbing a bowl of cereal, I sat and watched the news channel to catch up with events while I'd been gone. I was absorbed with the England v New Zealand Cricket Test-Match highlights when I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Teruko offering me a mug.
" I made you some tea"
I smiled and took it, looked inside, tea, yuk. I thanked her and manfully drank the horrible stuff, trying to look like I was enjoying it, and touched by the gesture. Mum came in as I was finishing my breakfast, carrying a padded jacket for Teruko, and spoke to her in Japanese.
"Teruko, we are visiting my father today"
She handed Teruko her jacket, and helped her pull her hair out and rearrange it. As she did that her eyes had that faraway look I knew so well. She was about to reminisce at me.
"Oh Jack, if only you knew how often I wished you were a girl when you were small, just so I could sit and brush your hair! Now I really can, it's a little fantasy come true for me! When we get back, I'm going to make this little girl sit down and I'm going to brush her hair for as long as she can stand it, then I'm going to plait it!"
++++
All too soon I had to go down to London, to get my stuff set up in my room in the student hall of residence, get my books ordered and delivered, and familiarise myself with the campus in Kensington I would be based at. All this took time, and then lessons and lectures began, and once again I was in full-time education. My studies didn't leave me much spare time, and certainly very few weekends, and besides, I had a weekend job, answering phones in a mail-order warehouse. It was a massively tedious job, but it helped ease the financial burden on mum and grandad.
Teruko had been placed in as a day-student in an international Boarding School in Acton Burnell, a short way from Shrewsbury. Mum had chosen that particular school because a large number of the students were Japanese, both overseas students and the children of the directors of the huge Japanese electronics factories in Telford, so she would at least be among children her age with whom she could converse and learn from.
Father's estate had been proven, and mum had appointed two legal firms in Shrewsbury as trustees of the money she had inherited. It was a very large sum, easily enough to pay for her secondary and tertiary education, in case she decided to attend university.
Teruko and Granddad had hit it off from day one, and she liked to spend her weekends with him, playing with that bad-tempered scruffy mutt of his, helping him with his chickens and naming all the newly hatched chicks. They couldn't understand each other, but they communicated non-verbally through the medium of chickens.
What with one thing and another, I didn't get home until the Christmas break. It was a relief; uni was hard work, and working all weekends was mentally tiring, and I was looking forward to a little family time, to a nice festive family Christmas.
When I arrived home, Teruko came running out to greet me, first flinging herself on me and chattering in Japanese, then drawing herself up and bowing formally, saying "Welcome Home, Jakku-San!", heavily accented, to be sure, but definitely making progress with her English. She looked better than when I had last seen her, at the end of August, when she had been withdrawn, sombre, quiet, and shy. Now she was bright, cheerful, and happy, completely settled-in in her role as the teenage daughter of a new family. She really had a lovely, dazzling smile, it lit up her whole face; she was a very pretty young girl and one day she was going to be a real heartbreaker.
She insisted on helping me bring my stuff in from the car, although I made sure I grabbed the presents before she saw them. As we came in the house, I was greeted by the sound of barking, and a young black Labrador came bounding down the stairs to sniff and bark at me, smiling at me as only Labrador's can, as his tail wagged madly. I looked at Teruko, who grinned back.
"Senshi, be quiet, this is Big Brother, Jack!"
Mum came out of the kitchen, wiping her hands, and kissed me on the cheek.
"I see you've met the latest addition to the family. This is Senshi, Daddy gave him to Teruko because he's gun-shy, and the breeder was going to put him down, so he lives here now."
I hunkered down and like all good Labradors everywhere, he came and made friends, then scampered off into the kitchen, probably looking for food, again, just like all Labradors. I took my stuff upstairs and dumped it in my room, hiding Teruko's and mum's presents in my wardrobe, and stretching out on my bed for a luxuriant yawn and stretch.
I was just beginning to doze when 35lbs. of young Labrador landed on my midsection and zipper, occupying my attention fully. As I rolled over, gasping, there was Teruko, politely trying not to laugh. She came into the room and pushed the dog to make him jump off the bed, and sat down next to me, patting my back vaguely, trying to help me get my breath back.
"So sorry, Jakku-san, dog very naughty sometime, I tell him off next time!" she grinned, and I had to grin back; I was impressed, her English had come along in leaps and bounds in less than four months.
"Imoto, do you like your new school?" I asked her, and she smiled, nodding.
"Yes, Jakku-san, there are many Nipponjin, many Japanese there, I have many new friends, they help me learn English, my English is good now, but they teach me not good English words, moth-er tell me what good and what not good words to say!"
I had to smile; her friends, with all the innocent malice of school kids the world over, had probably told her some of the basest obscenities and told her it was okay to use them all the time, just to see what happened when she did. I'd done that myself, to some
of the more gullible overseas exchange students at school...
"Are you looking forward to Christmas?" I asked her, and she looked blank. I wracked my brain for the Japanese word for 'Christmas' I had committed to memory earlier. Ah, I had it. "Kurisumasu?"
She beamed.
"I have Kurisumasu no Okurimono, a gift for you; I will give it to you at...Christ-mas?" I nodded, and she beamed again.
Christmas was a happy family affair. Teruko's presence added something that had been missing, and with Grandad and the dogs, it made for a loud, noisy, boisterous time, a big success. Teruko surprised us by knowing a lot of the classic Christmas carols, sung in English, although she'd learned them phonetically, so she had no idea what she was saying. She had a sweet singing voice, and it was a nice touch to hear her sing them for us on Christmas morning.
We had all clubbed together and bought her a laptop and Rosetta Stone language software, to help her learn English faster. Mum and Grandad had bought me clothes, as they had both remarked before that I was looking a little threadbare. The best present I got, though, was a hand painted ceramic plaque from Teruko, with a well-known haiku, a poem with 17 syllables that she had written out for me in beautiful calligraphic Japanese ideograms.
Sugasugashii
(Refreshing)
Bofuu no ato ni
(After the gale)
Tsuki kyo shi
(The moon rises, shining)
I still have that plaque; it has pride of place on my desk and is a source of much interest from my friends and colleagues, even now.
I came home as often as I could over the next three years, always for the Christmas and summer breaks, each time Teruko spoke better English and had more to tell me. She and her dog had become a familiar sight around Copthorne; everyone was used to seeing her walking Senshi at all hours. The boys at the boarding-school were especially interested; she was a beautiful girl, I had to admit, and had been invited many times to Tudor Court, the private club inside the school for the older 6th Form boys.
It had taken a couple of calls and a word with the headmaster to drive home that she was off-limits, at all times. Any hanky-panky or wandering hands and I'd personally kick the offender's arse until his nose bled. As I had been a legendary, nay notorious prop-forward for the school's rugby First XV, I was taken seriously. Everybody understood that crossing me when it came to Teruko would mean a brief experience involving extreme pain before everything went dark; sometimes belated big-brother instincts have their uses...
When I was home, she'd spend her time exclusively with me, always no more than a few feet away from me, shadowing me, almost haunting my footsteps. If I went to the corner shop, she'd insist on coming with me, slipping her arm through mine, or holding my hand tightly, like she was afraid I'd float away. Many a morning I woke up to find her huddled against me, wrapped in a quilt, fast asleep, Senshi stretched out snoring on the floor next to her.
When she was 18, Teruko decided that she wanted to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics, and Economics) in London, so Mum asked me if I would find her somewhere to live, as Goldsmith's College, her university of choice, had only limited student accommodation locally.
I suggested she live with me. After I'd finished university, I had found a job with the Ministry of Defence DSG, the Defence Support Group, project-managing armoured-vehicle refits and maintenance. I had kept the flat in Lewisham I had been living in as a student for the previous two years as I was based at the Woolwich Arsenal, not too far from Lewisham.
Goldsmith's College, part of univ London, was local to Lewisham, and it solved two problems; I could keep an eye on her, and it wouldn't drain what money she had left from father's estate to shell-out for student accommodation in London, always costly and difficult to find these days. So with little or no fanfare, I suddenly had my little sister sharing my compact two-bedroom flat on Lewisham High Street.
Mum had warned me that Teruko had a few...quirks, and she wasn't overly body-modest, so I was advised to keep an eye on her (but not too closely!) and certainly not when she wandered around dressed in bugger-all.
We fitted-in well; she never dated, or brought boys over from uni, and I never brought girls back either. You're hardly likely to meet many girls when you're clambering around inside gutted Armoured Personnel Carriers or stripped-down Challenger battle tanks, so we mainly kept each other company in the evenings and at weekends.
Teruko was a good cook, and she enjoyed cooking for both of us, and we soon settled into an almost-married domesticity, although her habit of wandering around in a loosely draped towel or flapping-open bathrobe taught me to keep my eyes closed or concentrate on whatever I was doing in case I looked up and saw too much of what I really didn't need to see at all...
She still sneaked into my room and huddled up against me at night, though, and I tried telling her it was inappropriate, much to her bewilderment.
"Jakku-san, what is wrong with big brother making bad dream go away? I feel safe with you, I like to hear you when you sleep, it help me sleep, too; what is wrong with that?"
As she was usually bare naked underneath the throw or quilt she was wrapped in, I felt there was every possible thing wrong with it, but I couldn't explain to her because I couldn't explain my point in a way she could understand; skin meant nothing to her; western notions of body-modesty were a bit beyond my ability to explain, other than to insist it was wrong for her to be in my room while she was naked, which only hurt her feelings.
Plus, had to admit, I was getting to like it, which worried me not a little -- this was my little sister, for Chrissake!
And so it went on; I would see her out of the corner of my eye, bending over to take something out of the oven, her robe would flap open, and suddenly I'm unable to look away and catching an eyeful or 10 of her increasingly intriguing body.
Or she'd come out of her room to wish me good night, and slide down onto the sofa next to me to hug me, and I'd realise that under her short shorts she'd gone 'commando', and her baggy sleep top would slip down over one shoulder and all kinds of things would jiggle around. I began to argue with myself over whether she was doing it deliberately or was she really that unaware of the effect she was having on me?
Whichever it was, she was slowly cooking me, keeping the heat turned up to just the right degree, and I was unsure I wanted her to turn it down again; I was actually beginning to enjoy the flashes, the innocent (?) tease of her loose and almost-indecent nightwear, and her seeming blindness to the effect she was having on me.
It all came to a head (for me, anyway) when I walked out of my room very early one Friday morning, naked, half-asleep, and bursting for a pee. My morning glory was throbbing painfully, seven inches of uncontrollable flesh pulling me out of bed and into the bathroom with my eyes half closed and gummed up with sleep, no other thought in my mind than to drain the snake and flop back into bed.
I stumbled into the bathroom, to stand rooted to the spot, wide-eyed and stunned at the sight of my beautiful 18 year-old sister in the open shower cubicle. She was naked as a jaybird and soaking wet, towelling her hair vigorously, with all kinds of interesting bits jiggling around and glowing pinkly at me. I was literally frozen to the spot, erection suddenly even harder, my need to pee completely forgotten. When it came to feminine curves, either Teruko was atypically Japanese, or her Caucasian genes had kicked in, because suddenly there were more curves in view than a Swiss alpine switchback. I finally realised that my cute little sister was in fact tall, 5'8" or so, beautiful, incredibly well put-together, and wasn't really that little...
I was the first to move, my hands trying to cover-up what would have needed a potato-sack by now, my erection not even slightly affected by my own shock and embarrassment; if anything, it grew even harder. She, on the other hand, just looked me up and down, then down some more, and smiled happily.
"Not worry, Jakku-san, it normal!" she smiled, and passed me a towel, a small face towel, so hardly adequate to cover the stubbornly swollen
evidence of my reaction to her. As I couldn't get it around my waist, I resorted to holding it in front of me and backing away, for all the world like a clothing-optional matador, only this time, the big horn was on my side of the cape...
The whole time, Teruko had made no move to cover herself; in fact, she turned away as if the matter was forgotten, displaying the most magnificent bum I had ever seen, and I cursed myself for looking, no, ogling it as I (slowly!) shuffled backwards out of the bathroom. I knew then that I was going to hell for staring at my gorgeous sister's fabulous bare arse (and that's how I described it to myself; my gorgeous sister's fabulous bare arse. Oh yes, I was definitely going to burn, if I'd been a Catholic I'd have been catatonic with fear by now...)
Once safely out of the bathroom, I scuttled (really) back to my room to put some clothes on and talk sternly to my raging erection, who'd seen the rabbit and now wanted a bite, at the same time trying to get the image of her naked, wet, stunning body, with her long fair hair hanging wetly down her back, and her nipples and other things jiggling around delightfully as she towelled her hair, out of my head.
When I heard her leave the bathroom and close her bedroom door, I managed to wrestle my unruly erection into submission and finally took a pee, and only then, with some semblance of balance returned, could I venture out to knock on her door.
"Imoto, when you're dressed, can we talk please?"
Her door opened, and I immediately turned my back and shut my eyes, although a large part of me wanted to check out if she was still naked...
"What is matter, Jakku-san? What you want to talk about?" I heard her say, and I could swear she was grinning at me, I could hear it in her voice.
My mouth was dry, but I still managed to croak out a reply. "Imoto, I want to apologise for...for walking in on you while you were...were..."
"While I was in shower, Jakku-san?" she interrupted me. "Not necessary, you did not know I was there, I apologise to you for making you embarr...what is word?"
