Rose
Spin the rose. Watch her twirl. The lovers merge. When they are spent, the heart sighs with joy.
In the cold light of day, the rose derives as much nourishment from sadness as she does jubilation; and why?
Ah, my child, listen to the winds and these shall reveal all....
Minako sighed. It had been a difficult shoot. First, the house, on the outskirts of Tokyo where they had been filming was perched atop an emerald hill with tufts of weedy trees that looked emaciated and bereft of life. The landscape resembled clumps of unkempt hair on a balding man’s head; the setting positively rustic. She hated it with a passion.
“Welcome to Art House Tokyo style!” she grumbled, and rubbed her gloved hands together against the cold.
Minako especially detested the mud and the rain that decided to add to the miserable ambience of the setting. She just wished she could go inside and prop herself in front of a warm fire and thaw out before going to work. But they were unable to get indoors until the crew arrived. She was bristling.
Sitting on the bonnet of her car, she applied some lip-gloss. Her lower legs were bare and covered in goosebumps. Minako shivered.
Thunder, lightning and lashing winds were carrying bulbous anvils of black storm cloud towards them; these dominating the dreary horizon as belts of rain ran over the countryside-laying siege to the ramshackle homestead.
“Yucky, Artemis,” she breathed, her shoulders slumping, “You’re lucky you stayed at home with Luna.” She blinked and looked up at the huge light poles and other scaffolds to elevate the lights and camera equipment and hugged herself against another gust of wind and made ready to open her umbrella with its heart and kitten motifs.
“Minako! Come under the carport,” Aki cried and Minako nodded, slipped off the bonnet and ran towards the girls.
The film was called, Ninja Roguish Tiger Girls. Martial arts weren’t exactly her forte, but when she was Sailor Venus, it came to her naturally. She had to admit, the guy playing the leading man was hot. “But Takehiko is hotter!” she whispered aloud, her words torn from her rosy-red lips; stolen by the impetuous icy winds. Aki and her companion hadn’t heard her, and even if they had, she couldn’t have cared less.
The tech people due to set things up were more than ten minutes late. Katella Yomahoti, and Aki Neisuri, two of the female actors were chatting either on their cells or to one another in a rapid-fire conversation under the carport. Ironically, the recently constructed appointment on the premises aside from the office outbuildings that looked more like a row of display homes where the director lived and worked on the estate he had inherited and converted into a music and film studio for cutting edge pop cultural fair made her feel a little more at home. He even had an anime and manga production unit stationed here. But it was a weekend and a public holiday and that didn’t help matters.
Minako looked towards the vivacious Gothic Lolita’s, trying to catch wisps of conversation to amuse herself from the gesticulating young women, but most of it went over her head. Techno babble was lost on her. She giggled.
Earlier, they had ordered takeaway. She smiled politely, declining the half-dead looking pizza that, in her humble opinion, had seen better days. Instead, she decided to chomp on an apple stored in her bento box she had packed into a cane basket on the back seat with other goodies, amongst these treasures, some of Makoto’s muffins: banana, chocolate, blueberry and apricot. Also, the inevitable thermos of hazelnut coffee. She certainly needed it to stave off the wind chill; it was freak’n cold.
The afternoon hadn’t gotten off to a good start. At first, warm and sunny, she was all smiles. Donning a pretty yellow mini dress with rose motifs, showing off lots of cleavage, and leg, she was a picture of cuteness, her customary red bow tied to her hair that fell in a loose curtain to the backs of her legs got her plenty of wolf whistles and admiring gazes.
But the weather had turned nasty. Lucky she had a warm jacket in the boot of her car. Then as if Adonis’ curse had returned after said hex was banished by a pixie-mage from Mau several months earlier; things just got worse from there. Next, her car’s tires were flat, and that took her the best part of the free time she had left calling Mamoru to come change these.
~*~
“All set to go?” Mamoru said, wiping his hands with a towel.
“Oh Mamoru, you’re a lifesaver! Thank you both for helping me out, I really appreciate it a lot!”
“Oh, by the way, I think this will cheer you up," Mamoru produced a Tux rose, and it was beautiful. "For good luck.”
“Thanks Mamoru, I will pop it on the dash, it smells divine!”
“Yup, it won’t die either, so your wheels will always have a rosy fragrance.” Usagi added, as she and Mamoru smiled at Minako’s obvious delight at receiving the magical rose.
Minako stroked the soft red petals of the flower, “Thanks guys that just brightened up my day.”
“No problem! If you need anything, just call us. But we’ll be out after 9PM, restaurant, I’m taking Usagi to her fave!” Mamoru called out as they jumped into the red sports car.
“Will do, and have a great night guys!” Mamoru and Usagi waved as they sped off down the road.
Minako kissed the soft petals of the blood-red bloom, sighed, smiled and got back into the car and started the ignition, inhaling the heady scent of the Tux rose and was soon on her way.
She was roused to the present by the arrival of the crew.
“Minako, all good to go?” the director said cheerfully as the site soon began to come to life.
“Yeah, after I defrost.” She laughed, and was relieved to find the house was still warm.
A crackling fire was soon melting away the coldness in her veins. She was feeling much better. Hot chocolate was the perfect restorative. The welcoming interior of the homestead slowly won her over. Minako’s melancholy dissolved. The outdoors was bleak, but the rooms and cornices and other features of the charming house were adorable.
When the shoot was over, makeup removed, she sat chatting away with the two girls, and four others that had arrived with the crew. The guys, clad in ninja attire looked so funny as they held bottles of beer, talking amongst themselves for a bit before joining the women as nibblies and stacks of hot food was brought to the large oak tables.
They were famished and had worked for four hours straight; indoors and out. They’d definitely earned their reward. Minako and the others were playing computer games, watching movies, reading or playing pool on the large slate table at the center of the huge chamber.
The rest of the long weekend was great and all the more so when Takehiko showed up on the last night .
“Minako, I just had to see you at work.”
“I’m glad you came. I honestly didn’t think you’d get away from your parents in time. Being American-Japanese and with all the ID-4 celebrations, even in Japan, it is not easy to slip away.”
“Well, I ate my fill, and I also had my fill of chatter on western pop culture. Bonnie and Tyler are staying over for another week longer than planned. So I don’t think they’d begrudge me staying with my fiancé tonight.”
“I should think not, now, let me help you with that shirt…”
Doth not the jewel of the teardrop of morning deceive you?
“Shall our bodies meet in sensual combat? If so, let it be that of silver and gold.”
Love and lust, fire and the smith's hand as he shifts her to his will. Yet, the flower is the power.
That which is tempest in pleasure, as she is the one in control, but indivisible always. Desire is one thing...
“My Minako, enfold me in your Love Me chain forever!”
End
