Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Door #6

    It rained. How did Sayaka know that it would, Kirari thought. Sayaka had just finished her breakfast and the nurses were bathing her. After that, they changed her into new clothes and Kirari had been respectful to stay outside while they did their job. The clouds had obscured the sun and thick droplets of water started pouring down. Well, what of that. No horseback riding today, Kirari sighed and watched as one of the nurses combed Sayaka's hair after the other one had finished with the hair dryer and was busy stowing it away. The strong scent of Sayaka's coconut-infused shampoo and hair conditioner filled Kirari's lungs. Kirari told both nurses to leave the room. She picked up the brush and continued combing Sayaka's lustrous dark-violet hair, once more pretending to be Ririka in a mask.

    "You smell good, Sayaka," Kirari spoke, her voice distorted behind Ririka's mask, "What would you like to do today?"

    She wrote on her chalkboard, "Read."

    "Isn't that boring? How about a movie instead?"

    She looked at who she thought was Ririka in the mirror and wrote down, "Old movie only."

    "You don't like new ones? There must be thousands of new things to watch on 'Flix?"

    She wrote down, "Junk. Old please."

    Kirari laughed but she didn't feel like leaving the room to rummage through Ririka's movie collection. They were mostly horror movies anyway, "Well, we don't have a player in your room but we can go to the game room instead, there's a huge TV and a nice sound system there."

    She nodded. Later, Kirari sat her on the plush couch of the game room before going about to prepare the speakers. She set her phone on silent mode so as not to be disturbed.

    "Okay, so we have...lots of Kurosawa classics here, some old hollywood films, Disney classics, and some Hayao Miyazaki?"

    "Ponyo," Sayaka spoke. The first word she said for the day without using her chalkboard.

    "Okay, cartoons it is," Kirari said and put the blu-ray disk in. She went to join Sayaka on the plush couch as it started although Kirari sat back on the arm rest so she could watch Sayaka instead of the 98-inch wide TV they had in the game room. Sayaka watched with the same blank stare but Kirari noticed that her hands were fidgeting. Nervousness? Excitement? A part of her wanted to hold her hand. Instead, she took a gamble and lay on Sayaka's lap. At first, Sayaka lifted her hands, not knowing where to put them. They were awkwardly in mid-air as she looked down at Kirari in Ririka's mask. Kirari took her hands and placed them on her head, "You can play with my hair if you like."

    "Mary. Angry."

    "I don't see Mary Saotome here, do you?"

    Sayaka shook her head and placed her hands on both sides of her thighs on the couch. But somewhere in the first half of the movie, one of her hands had wandered into Kirari's loose silver-white hair and she played with the hair strands. Kirari was happy. Even if this was all they had to do, she was watching the best movie ever called Sayaka Igarashi. The music of the movie made her sleepy. Kirari drifted off to sleep in Sayaka's lap enjoying her smell while the other continued to watch TV and twirl at her hair strands. This was rare for Kirari, to have some form of complete rest. Her mind was constantly scheming and orchestrating deviant thoughts to amuse herself. She woke up several hours later to find that they had both ended up cuddling on the couch, the movie having finished hours earlier and Sayaka was once more holding her with her head tucked under the chin. Kirari checked her cellphone for the time. It was noon and she saw Ririka's text message regarding the NDA contract and what address it was to be delivered. Her next text message was Ririka's again saying that she had found the address by simply googling the renowned Doctor Soleste Sasaki. Kirari removed Sayaka's arms around her and stood to go down to the kitchen, checking what they would have for lunch. She brought homemade ramen noodles up with a tray, a chore she didn't remember ever doing having had househelp for so long. She shook Sayaka awake and fed her half of it and ate the other half.