Learning_About_Myself.12 THE MEGUMI STORIES 06/12 BY MEGUMI KATO AND FRIENDS VOLUME 06: LEARNING ABOUT MYSELF BY SAYAKA ONODERA AND BOB WILLIAMS FINAL REVISED EDITION Part 12 CHAPTER XII A Family Conference "What a wonderful woman!" I said to Reina as we travelled home on the subway. I had begged to be allowed to keep my ropes and clamps on under my dress, and she had reluctantly agreed, extracting my promise to take them off and get back into my school uniform ready for my mother's return the moment we got home. "Yes. She's had a great influence on our business. She started as just another sex starlet, like you will, but now she's running a big group of studios and promoting its products here and all over the United States. We're all a bit jealous of her, but proud of her too." "Why are you jealous? Just because she is so successful?" "Well, she married the man who then took over the company. We don't all have that luck! And he's an incredibly sexy man who makes her very happy. That's lucky too." "Will she really employ me, do you think?" "Oh yes. She said she would, so she will. So long as you are sensible and don't upset her. Once you're sixteen, in some of her associate companies, as she said. Work hard, and at eighteen you'll be making videos for Marucho. Lucky you." "Do you work for Marucho, Reina?" "Sometimes. I prefer to be freelance. You get more variety that way." I wondered if she meant more variety of work or of fucking, but thought it best not to ask. "Of course, being freelance means I need a really reliable agent," she went on, "someone who can negotiate fair contracts for me and make sure I get paid - and keep most of what I am paid." "What do you mean?" "Well, there are people who think they are entitled to claim a share of a girl's earnings in the sex industry. And I _don't_ mean the Tax Agency! A good agent can protect you against that, or at least do a deal for you. I prefer to pay my dues to ... well, to people like that ... in kind, if you see what I mean." She giggled in her delightfully girlish way. "Performing at one of their great events can be huge fun, or if I'm very lucky being ordered to look after a really big shot, hung like a horse and covered in tattoos ... oh, yes!" For a moment she seemed lost in happy memories, lips parted and eyes sparkling. "But if you are part of the Marucho empire they'll look after you and keep you safe. They're too big and too well-connected to be bullied. Especially with Mr Otani in charge." What a lot there was to learn about my new profession, I thought! I would have liked to ask more, but we were nearly home. I was delighted to see my mother again when she arrived from the station an hour after our return. It had been an exciting two weeks for me, but when the sliding door from the street opened and there she was stepping out of her shoes in the entrance hall and into the slippers I had ready for her I realised how much I had missed her. After her long journey she was more than ready for some tea, and then Reina and I prepared dinner while she took her bath. Of course she wanted to know that I had behaved well and given Reina no trouble, and Reina confirmed briefly that I had been good. "But I would like to talk to you about Saa-chan's future before I leave tonight," she added. "Yes, I suppose that would be a good idea," said my mother wearily. "Go to your room and get started on your homework, Sayaka. But Reina, keep it short, if you can: I'm very tired and I must make an early start at the office tomorrow." So I never had the tender farewell with my beautiful cousin Reina that I had been half hoping for. Of course she wouldn't be staying the night: there was hardly room for three in our little house, and - I thought sadly - she was probably looking forward to getting back to the modern comforts of her apartment. She just looked in as I worked to wave farewell; then my mother came in to say good-night. She was too tired to tell me what Reina had suggested, she said: it would have to wait till the following evening. So I passed the next day in a very anxious state. How much had Reina told my mother about my hopes and dreams? What a pity we had not been able to have a private word together so that I would know how to support whatever she had said! Was my mother at all sympathetic or was she about to put a stop to my plans? Worrying about all this I was unusually inattentive at school and was criticised by the teachers. When I returned home there had been a change in my small room. A new chest with three drawers had been squeezed in against the wall: there was just room for it between my desk and the sliding doors of the built-in closet where I kept my clothes and stowed my _futon_. Someone - my mother, no doubt - had decorated it with a woven cloth and a small vase of flowers on the top. "Thank you for my new chest!" I said at once. "I thought you needed something like that," said my mother with a tired smile. "You're old enough now to have new clothes for, you know, when you go out. And you need somewhere for your personal things ... that's your private storage space. Keep it tidy! No one else will look in there." I thanked her again, more formally this time. It was as if I had graduated to a new stage of my life, allowed to have privacy for the exciting new things that were happening to me. Would it be safe to keep sexual equipment like whips and clamps and ropes there? I supposed so: my mother had said no one would pry. I owed it to Reina, I was sure: she must have told her I needed something like that and was old enough to deserve it. What else had she persuaded my mother to accept about the changes which had come to me so recently? I was about to find out. "Now, Sayaka," said my mother as we sat over dinner that night, "I'm glad Reina is so pleased with you. She said you behaved well, were no trouble, did your homework and so on." I said nothing. There was more to come, I knew. "She has some ideas about what you should do when you leave school. I don't know if they'll work out. Of course, she's in the entertainment business. Quite successful in making movies and so on, I understand. And she seems to think you have a talent for that sort of work yourself." "Yes, mummy. She was very good to me. And it does sound exciting!" "Well, I don't want to stop you doing what you want to do. If it's something you really do want. But you must understand that it's a very risky business. Lots of girls want to get into it, but only a few are successful." "Reina's been successful," I objected. "And even those who are successful - it doesn't last long, you know." "But I think I'd like to try, mummy. I mean, if I could do it, but never even tried, that would be a shame, wouldn't it?" "Yes. I was like you when I left school. I started doing what Reina has done. It was fun, and exciting. I might have done quite well, I suppose, but, like I said, it didn't last long. I met your father, and you came along, and, well - in the end I got a steady job instead." For a moment I was shocked. Was my mother telling me that she too had worked in the sex business? I knew of course that I had been born only a few months after my parents had married. So my mother had worked as - whatever girls worked as all those years ago, had met my father, become pregnant, decided to keep me and married him. Then I thought: it's ridiculous to be shocked at this revelation about my mother. I am planning - longing - to do just what she did, and more. And thousands and thousands of Japanese girls start their adult lives working in the sex industry, even if only briefly and only on the fringes as hostesses or bath-girls. So that was what my mother had done in her day. But I still did not know whether she had decided to allow me to work towards my dream. I tried a little diversion. "Why did daddy leave? Were you very sad when he did?" "Oh, I was upset at the time. But it was for the best. He was a very handsome man. All the girls were after him. And he wasn't a family man. He tried for a while to be a good father to you but it didn't work out. So he went off, and I got a steady job, as you know." Of course, I thought privately to myself, I'll be careful. I won't get pregnant. That's easy nowadays. But I didn't say that to my mother. "What we - you and I - planned for you," she was saying, "was that you stay at school at least till the summer break next year, when you'll be getting on for seventeen. Then when you've left, you do a secretarial course. And after that, we try to find you a safe office job." "Yes, mummy. That was what we planned. Before Reina ..." She gave me a tired smile. "One thing that has changed - one other thing, apart from Reina putting ideas in your head - is that there will be a little money from Grandfather Isobe. Not much, and it will be a while before everything is settled and the taxes are paid. Of course most of what he had went on getting him into the old people's home. He was happy there, I think ..." "I'm glad." "But it does change things, a little," she resumed. "It means that if you really want to try for success in the entertainment business there'll be money to keep you going until you start to earn." "Oh, thank you! That's wonderful!" "However," said my mother looking at me severely, "I still want you to do a secretarial course. Maybe only part-time. Then if your dream doesn't work out - and for most girls it doesn't, you know - you'll still have a qualification. Do you agree?" "Yes," I said. What else could I say? "And you will work hard, won't you? With sincerity and commitment to those who employ you?" "Yes, of course!" She stretched and hid a yawn. I moved quickly round and started massaging her shoulders for her. "One thing about the entertainment industry," she said, rather vaguely between yawns, "is that a girl does learn things ... techniques ... how to please men ... you know, a boss, senior colleagues, maybe a husband one day ..." I said nothing. I was too busy working out what she meant. She seemed to be saying that by working in a strip-club, a bath-house, an AV movie studio a girl would acquire the sexual skills that men appreciated and that would be useful to her later. The same kind of thing as learning tea ceremony or taking classes in one of the _ikebana_ flower arranging schools. But before I could probe further my mother sat up straight and began to speak more clearly. "There's one other thing I have to tell you. I'm sorry, but we won't be going on holiday to Hokkaido this summer." "Oh ..." "They didn't exactly say in the office today that I had to regard my absence the last two weeks as my annual leave, but it's obvious that that's the way it will be. Are you very disappointed?" I thought for a moment. I was, of course. I had been looking forward to it. But that was in one of my lives and I had not considered how it would conflict with my other life. I would be busy - I hoped I would be busy - all through the summer with my assisted dating. I had promised Kato-san, and Reina, and even the man at the agency, to pursue that opportunity fully. "Well, yes ... but no, it doesn't matter. Of course you must show your commitment to the company, mummy." "Thank you, dear. I'm glad you see it that way." Mentioning my mother's commitment to her employers had made me see that I too was committed to mine. I must not fail to work hard and show sincerity. It suddenly occurred to me: in doing that, I shall be living up to my mother's expectations. My work and hers were very different, but that wasn't the point: the sincerity and commitment were what mattered. Thinking about it all in bed later - I could hardly sleep for excitement - I understood that my mother knew more than I imagined about the career I was dreaming of. After all, she had been there herself, all those years ago, even if only briefly. But so long as she could refer to it as the "entertainment business" and had no need to know exactly what work I would be required to do, what kind of establishments I would be sent out to work in and what kind of movies I hoped to make, there was no need for her to be shocked or upset. It suddenly occurred to me that my new friend Bob Williams would describe this sensible arrangement as "very Japanese". Thinking of him reminded me of the beautiful experience I had enjoyed in his secret room the day before. I slipped out of my flannel pyjamas. Stroking my breasts with one hand and sliding the other down to my crotch, I began to masturbate as I remembered it in all its delightful detail, the multiple lashes swirling round me with their loving kisses; and then at last drifted off to sleep, and to happy dreams. [Next in Part 13: Chapter XIII: My First Client] For complete series so far see /files/Authors/Bob_Williams