It was in the early hours of the morning when they took her. The pale, cold dawn had not even yet begun to slip its clammy fingers over the foothold of the horizon?the birds in the trees were stirring, but not yet singing. It had been a long evening at the tea house and Sakura had been entertaining a most discerning group of patrons. Now, exhausted and well paid after the night?s pretty exertions, she kneels in the courtyard of her ?mother?s? okiya. Changed from the fine silken confection of a kimono into a simpler, more comfortable one, Sakura now kneels before the spring, unpinning her long hair and washing the intricate makeup from her face.
If she had been a little less tired, just a bit more alert perhaps she would have heard them, or even seen the dark shadow in the waters of the spring, obscuring the dim light of the okiya?s lamps that flooded the patch of courtyard, diluted by the rice paper doors and reed window shades. But she did not, and without warning rough hands suddenly grasped the girl from behind, wrenching arms back. Even as she drew breath to exclaim it was knocked from her, with a heavy blow to the back of the head. Then all was darkness.
Shapes and colors swam before her vision, elusive, darting like koi beneath the deep, dark waters of her mind. Snatches of voices played like broken recordings, adding to the confusion. Gradually memories began to surface, disjointed at first, but then more and more coherent. The smile on the general?s face as he laughed at her witty remark? the glint of the candlelight off her buffed nails as she poured sake into the wealthy merchant?s waiting cup?The snap of a match to light another man?s cigarette?The envious glare of Harumi, another geisha, caught in a glance over her shoulder and the smoldering anger there in her eyes?
Her head rocked as she awoke, groggy, at first thinking herself blind for a panicked moment before realizing she was hooded. The sharp bite of rough rope told her she was bound, as did the pain that burned down her chest and back from arms wrenched to long backwards. Men?s voices, unfamiliar grunted and spoke in broken clippets overhead, and the lurch and churn of a cart?s wheels. But the darkness was descending once more, reaching out loving arms to pull her back to the bosom of oblivion and away from all pain or fatigue.
When next she woke it was to the feeling of soft grass under her bare cheek, wet morning dew clinging to each soft blade as well as to her eyelashes, hair and clothing. No longer was she hooded, and her wrists and feet, unbound, bore the red welts of long constricture. Slowly she sat up, blinking in the bright early morning sunshine. What had happened? As she rubbed tenderly at her chaffed wrists Sakura took slow stock of the situation.
A kidnapping, obviously. But to what end? Though she was popular as a geisha and gaining notoriety every day, she was not wealthy by any means. All her earnings went to the okiya and to ?mother.? She did not yet have a danna, or keeper, a patron who would have her all to him or herself and keep her like a mistress. No one would have paid for her return, and the sudden sour knowledge of it turned the pit of Sakura?s stomach heavy as lead. What then? Abduction by a group of brutes to be used as some sort of horrible plaything and then cast aside? But then why would they leave her unbound and unwatched by the side of a dirt road? None of it made sense. If they had used her as roughly as she imagined a gang of men would she would have woken, and certainly the traces of such abuse would still be evident on her body, as none were. Perhaps they figured she would still be unconscious and were still in the area. This idea was more then enough to galvanize her into action.
Her legs, though trembling with fear and anxiety, worked well enough, and she stood, absurdly relieved to find she had not lost her geta sandals in her travails. Glancing about she took in the scene before her: Grassy roadside running next to a long, winding dirt road pocked with puddles, stones and potholes. No buildings in sight to hide within or seek succor. To her right the path led into a wooded forest, to the left on and on through grassy fields. Not a thief, scoundrel or raping marauder in sight. How strange?to be abducted and then left out in the middle of nowhere unharmed and unaccompanied.
But blessing was blessing and Sakura was not a woman to query the boons fate fickly granted. Realizing that the woods may be providing either shelter or hunting ground to her abductors, it did not take much persuasion to encourage Sakura to take to the road that lead away from them, and towards gods knew where. As she walked along, she formulated a theory in her mind, trivial as it might have been it gave her comfort to make some small sense of her surroundings.
Perhaps she had been kidnapped, well yes she had been kidnapped that much was glaringly obvious, but by whom was unknown. There was no readily apparent motive for this action?so the next logical conclusion was that someone did not wish her to be around anymore, but whom? There were plenty of petty jealousies among the rival geishas, but would any woman ever stoop so low? Who could have benefited from her disappearance? She could think of no one, but then, it was not in her nature to be accusatory or even unkind. But someone wanted her gone?and now gone she was. Perhaps the men had been given instructions not to harm her, only deposit her as far from Tokyo as possible, leaving her to her own devices to run away, attempt return, starve, be accosted, assaulted or killed. This seemed the most likely case.
In any instance, Sakura was no idiot. The sun hung full, bright and ripe in the East. It could not have been more than early morning at the latest. Surely she could not have traveled far in just one morning?s journey, she would make her way back to the city and then set about discovering who had ordered her disappearance and why.
If she had been a little less tired, just a bit more alert perhaps she would have heard them, or even seen the dark shadow in the waters of the spring, obscuring the dim light of the okiya?s lamps that flooded the patch of courtyard, diluted by the rice paper doors and reed window shades. But she did not, and without warning rough hands suddenly grasped the girl from behind, wrenching arms back. Even as she drew breath to exclaim it was knocked from her, with a heavy blow to the back of the head. Then all was darkness.
Shapes and colors swam before her vision, elusive, darting like koi beneath the deep, dark waters of her mind. Snatches of voices played like broken recordings, adding to the confusion. Gradually memories began to surface, disjointed at first, but then more and more coherent. The smile on the general?s face as he laughed at her witty remark? the glint of the candlelight off her buffed nails as she poured sake into the wealthy merchant?s waiting cup?The snap of a match to light another man?s cigarette?The envious glare of Harumi, another geisha, caught in a glance over her shoulder and the smoldering anger there in her eyes?
Her head rocked as she awoke, groggy, at first thinking herself blind for a panicked moment before realizing she was hooded. The sharp bite of rough rope told her she was bound, as did the pain that burned down her chest and back from arms wrenched to long backwards. Men?s voices, unfamiliar grunted and spoke in broken clippets overhead, and the lurch and churn of a cart?s wheels. But the darkness was descending once more, reaching out loving arms to pull her back to the bosom of oblivion and away from all pain or fatigue.
When next she woke it was to the feeling of soft grass under her bare cheek, wet morning dew clinging to each soft blade as well as to her eyelashes, hair and clothing. No longer was she hooded, and her wrists and feet, unbound, bore the red welts of long constricture. Slowly she sat up, blinking in the bright early morning sunshine. What had happened? As she rubbed tenderly at her chaffed wrists Sakura took slow stock of the situation.
A kidnapping, obviously. But to what end? Though she was popular as a geisha and gaining notoriety every day, she was not wealthy by any means. All her earnings went to the okiya and to ?mother.? She did not yet have a danna, or keeper, a patron who would have her all to him or herself and keep her like a mistress. No one would have paid for her return, and the sudden sour knowledge of it turned the pit of Sakura?s stomach heavy as lead. What then? Abduction by a group of brutes to be used as some sort of horrible plaything and then cast aside? But then why would they leave her unbound and unwatched by the side of a dirt road? None of it made sense. If they had used her as roughly as she imagined a gang of men would she would have woken, and certainly the traces of such abuse would still be evident on her body, as none were. Perhaps they figured she would still be unconscious and were still in the area. This idea was more then enough to galvanize her into action.
Her legs, though trembling with fear and anxiety, worked well enough, and she stood, absurdly relieved to find she had not lost her geta sandals in her travails. Glancing about she took in the scene before her: Grassy roadside running next to a long, winding dirt road pocked with puddles, stones and potholes. No buildings in sight to hide within or seek succor. To her right the path led into a wooded forest, to the left on and on through grassy fields. Not a thief, scoundrel or raping marauder in sight. How strange?to be abducted and then left out in the middle of nowhere unharmed and unaccompanied.
But blessing was blessing and Sakura was not a woman to query the boons fate fickly granted. Realizing that the woods may be providing either shelter or hunting ground to her abductors, it did not take much persuasion to encourage Sakura to take to the road that lead away from them, and towards gods knew where. As she walked along, she formulated a theory in her mind, trivial as it might have been it gave her comfort to make some small sense of her surroundings.
Perhaps she had been kidnapped, well yes she had been kidnapped that much was glaringly obvious, but by whom was unknown. There was no readily apparent motive for this action?so the next logical conclusion was that someone did not wish her to be around anymore, but whom? There were plenty of petty jealousies among the rival geishas, but would any woman ever stoop so low? Who could have benefited from her disappearance? She could think of no one, but then, it was not in her nature to be accusatory or even unkind. But someone wanted her gone?and now gone she was. Perhaps the men had been given instructions not to harm her, only deposit her as far from Tokyo as possible, leaving her to her own devices to run away, attempt return, starve, be accosted, assaulted or killed. This seemed the most likely case.
In any instance, Sakura was no idiot. The sun hung full, bright and ripe in the East. It could not have been more than early morning at the latest. Surely she could not have traveled far in just one morning?s journey, she would make her way back to the city and then set about discovering who had ordered her disappearance and why.