Don't Read in the Closet: Volume Four (9 page)

restaurant.

Right after lunch, he was fired.

He had been aware of Mr. Moreau’s heavy-lidded eyes fixed on

him all through the service of the meal. The moment the last guests

had left their table Moreau said, “You were late.”

“Only ten minutes,” said Takumi. “I had everything covered

before the first guests came in.”

The other staff were still clearing tables, looking for excuses to

come close enough to hear what was happening. Moreau raised his

voice as if he wanted them to hear. “You were late. And what were

you doing? You were on the beach fraternizing with a guest. I saw

you!”

“I wasn’t on the beach.”

“Then you were blatantly trying to get around the rules by

standing right next to it. Anyone could see you.”

“We were just talking,” Takumi said. “He asked to speak to me.

He knew my father. Are we supposed to refuse to even speak to a

guest? I didn’t go to the bar or to his room – where else could I go?”

“To his room! I should hope not.” Moreau, who was shorter than

Takumi, raised his chin aggressively and hissed, “I have worked in

hotels a long time, Mr. Sato. I know what goes on. Whether or not he

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 47

knew your father, I could see what type of guest that was and what

type of young man you are.”

“You think I –”

“What I think doesn’t matter. What the other guests think is what

matters. What they’ll think is that you were negotiating to rent out

your ass. First this morning at breakfast, then on the beach, for every

guest to see. You’re not allowed on the sand so you meet men on the

rocks. Don’t you have any idea what you could do to the reputation of

this hotel?”

“I’m sorry,” Takumi said. “I guess it was a mistake, but it was not

what you’re suggesting, and it won’t happen again.”

“It sure won’t. We don’t need your kind here. I don’t want to see

you in this restaurant any more. You will be paid your notice and I

want you out of the hotel within twenty-four hours. Is that

understood?”

Takumi was devastated. He went to the men’s room and just stood

there shaking. What did Moreau mean by “your kind”? Moreau was

gay himself, so it wasn’t that. Did he really think that Takumi was

turning tricks for cash? Takumi had never imagined somebody might

accuse him of that.

His future, which just this morning seemed to glitter with

possibility, crumpled like a used ticket. He wouldn’t easily find

another job in this resort with Moreau against him. Competitors they

might be, but the hotel and restaurant managers were like best buddies

when it came to hiring and firing staff. Never to swim from those

rocks again. Not to be here as he’d promised when Asai and Riku

returned.

He guessed he should tell Asai. He didn’t want to admit that he’d

been fired, but he didn’t want to just disappear, either. Maybe they

could still meet for a swim whenever Asai returned to this coast. So

after a few days, when he had found a worse-paid job at a hotel in

another resort, five miles from the nearest beach, Takumi sent a brief

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 48

message to the email address on the business card giving his contact

details, including his new address.

The reply came after three days.

Dear Takumi,

Looking at their websites, it seems to me that your new workplace

is considerably less attractive than the old. If the change is not your

choice, I can offer you work for as long or as short a time as you

would like it, as a companion to Riku. He does not live here in

Honolulu but on a small northern island with good access to the sea. I

visit as often as I can but if he is to learn safe behavior in the ocean,

he needs to swim more frequently. He should also be taught to swim

in the pool, which is fresh water in which he could easily drown. The

maid takes care of his other needs. It is an isolated location but

perhaps you would not mind that. You would have time for study or

other interests. Of course I would expect to pay what you were

earning at the hotel including tips. You could visit before you decide,

if you wish. Will you let me know?

Sincerely, K. Asai

Takumi read it three times to make sure that he hadn’t

misunderstood. A week later he had left his new job and was on

Asai’s private island.

He’d heard about Hawaii’s private islands, of course, but he had

never imagined living on one. It certainly was isolated: the nearest

town was on a bigger island a twenty-minute boat ride away, and the

only other people on this islet were Riku, the maid Victoria and her

husband Kenny who took care of the garden and the house. Victoria

was the woman who’d been feeding Riku breakfast at the hotel. She

took care of him along with cleaning and cooking.

The house was gorgeous. The living space and two guest

bedrooms were at ground level with a shady lanai running along two

sides. The master bedroom was upstairs. Takumi peeked in. It was

minimally but beautifully furnished in charcoal and pale cream, the

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 49

colors of the Pacific dolphin. There were two other bedrooms upstairs,

one of which had been prepared for Takumi. The color scheme here

was marine, with turquoise, jade and touches of coral. It was almost as

big as the master bedroom, with a view over the garden through

coconut trees to the sea.

There was a locked door on one side of his room. When he asked

Victoria why, she told him that originally there were two adjoining

walk-in closets, one for this room and one for the master bedroom.

Asai had combined the two and had the fittings stripped out to convert

the space into a gym.

“A gym on the second floor?” Takumi asked.

Victoria shrugged. “Because it’s near his bathroom, I guess. Easy

to shower afterward. I don’t have the key, but if you want to work out,

my husband has a bench press and stuff at our place.”

Victoria and Kenny had a separate house, fifty yards down the

path through palm trees. Riku lived with them. Takumi ate dinner at

their place when Asai was away, fixing his own breakfast and lunch in

the big kitchen of the main house.

He took Riku swimming in the sea in dolphin form most days.

The child loved it. All dolphins like to play, but young dolphins like

to play all of the time. It was hard for Takumi to obey Asai’s

instruction not to keep him out too long.

He also started teaching Riku to swim in human form in fresh

water where he couldn’t shape-shift. There was a mom-and-baby

swimming class at a pool in town, so he hired a boat to take them

there once a week and they practiced in their own pool on other days.

He had a hard time keeping Riku in the boat. The baby fretted and

wriggled all the way across the bay, trying to flop over the side into

the sea. But they couldn’t risk swimming across: too many questions.

Riku had a lot of trouble with human swimming. In some ways it

was harder for him than for the other babies. Kicking with his legs

came naturally – it was just like using his fluke – but any chance he

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got, he would drop down deep underwater and not be able to get back

to the surface in time to breathe. As a dolphin, he was used to going a

long time between breaths. In human form, that wasn’t physically

possible.

Several times Riku came close to drowning. He had to be pulled

out and held with his head down to cough up the water. The instructor

said she had never seen such a fearless baby and the moms called him

‘the kamikaze kid’. They practiced in the pool back at the house and

slowly Riku learned not to dive underwater. Still, Kenny built a three-

foot fence all around the pool to stop him ever getting in there on his

own.

It was clear by now that Takumi was Riku’s favorite person. The

baby would just beam any time Takumi walked into a room. He was a

little embarrassed for Victoria, but she didn’t seem to mind. She and

her husband figured that Takumi had really been hired to teach Riku

to speak Japanese – it was just too weird to think of a baby under one

year old having a full-time swim coach – and she had no problem with

Riku appreciating someone whose culture he shared.

They all got along fine, but Takumi felt Asai’s absence

everywhere, in the house, on the island, in the sea.

Then Asai would fly up for the weekend and everything moved up

a gear. On those weeks, as soon as Friday afternoon came around

Takumi and Victoria would both start listening for the sound of the

helicopter. Victoria would be cooking a special dinner in the main

kitchen, not in her own house; later, Kenny would come to eat with

her in back. Takumi would be dressing as if for a date, because he got

to eat dinner with Asai at a candlelit table overlooking the sea.

The first time Asai came home, Takumi had been there about ten

days. He was dressed and ready an hour before Asai arrived. When he

heard the rotors, he went into the guest room to watch the helicopter

settle down on the landing pad a quarter mile behind the house. He

saw Asai scoot down and head for the path with his weekend bag as

the pilot took off again and turned south. His heart started beating

Don’t Read in the Closet – volume four 51

faster and he stood back from the window, listening for the sounds of

Asai entering the house. When Takumi finally walked down the stairs,

looking the best that he could, his heart was thumping so hard that he

thought Asai must be able to hear it.

Asai stood in the entrance to the den watching Takumi walk down

the last few steps. Their eyes met. Asai looked Takumi up and down

and nodded. Just that nod of approval gave Takumi a rush of delight

and longing. Everything seemed to depend on pleasing Asai. Was

Takumi falling in love?

Over dinner, they began by talking about Riku but pretty soon

moved on to other things. Neither one mentioned the word ‘gay’ but

they didn’t need to. Half way through the meal Takumi was sure that

they would spend the night together; but an hour later, when they

were drinking green tea, looking out over the ocean, he knew that they

would not. The door had subtly closed.

He knew Asai was aware of every move he made and yet the more

Takumi tried to connect, the more disconnected he felt. It was as if

Asai was holding something back, as if he had a question that couldn’t

be put into words, a question that Takumi had no idea how to answer.

It wasn’t that he had failed some test: it was more as if he had missed

a cue somewhere and hadn’t found the test that he needed to take.

Six weeks and three visits later, they were still no more than

employer and employee.

They swam together, of course, sometimes with Riku, sometimes

just the two of them. In the water everything was simple. As dolphins

they rejoiced in each other’s company, Asai powerful and dominant,

Takumi reveling in his attention. But as soon as they came out of the

water, something was missing. Something was stopping them getting

together, and Takumi didn’t know what it was.

Asai had created a landing area that was screened from everything

else on the shore by a close board fence so that they could shift in and

out of human form without being seen. But inside, there were no

screens: they had no privacy from each other there. Like Adam or

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Eve, as soon as he was human Takumi would become aware of his

nakedness and feel ashamed. So he would try to surface first,

complete the change and grab his shorts while Asai was still shifting.

If he was delayed, chasing after Riku, he would nudge Riku out and

then stay in the water until Asai left for the house. To be fair, he was

careful to look away when Asai was shifting and never saw him naked