This is part 3 of a multipart story. To read the beginning of the story head to these pages:
https://read.cash/@Kim-Tuyen-Pham/like-the-color-blue-part-1-22204bca
https://read.cash/@Kim-Tuyen-Pham/like-the-color-blue-part-2-de0e0946
Like The Color Blue - An original story by Kim Tuyen Pham
For the next 3 days they met after Mia finished work and had the same routine: dinner then sex on the secret bench. Vicky was very curious about the story.
“Mia, my God, now I know you’re not a lesbian. I was wondering if you were, maybe asexual or something… Tell me about him!”
“He was just a friend, from Tokyo. Now he lives in Switzerland.”
“He must be a rich businessman. Is he going to marry you?”
“Marry me? No, not that kind of thing…”
That night, after sex, they stayed longer on the beach sitting close to the water.
“Mia, you are still very beautiful. And your breasts, I haven’t met anyone with more beautiful breasts than yours.”
“You said that before.”
“Well, it is still true.”
Mia, lying in bed afterward, thought about when they met for the first time in Tokyo. It was one year after her brother’s death. That night she was working in the bar as usual and he came with his friends. They joked with her and bought her a few drinks. She already had many drinks earlier. She was an alcoholic. She was drunk every night. That night she thought she saw her brother in Takamura. The same tall and slim body. Very similar face. Then he asked her to come back with him to his apartment. That was when he said her breasts were the most beautiful he had ever seen. They immediately became a couple afterwards and he was so tender and caring. Nobody had cared about Mia that much since her brother died.
***
It had been a week that Takamura was staying in the resort. The seventh night he didn’t come to pick her up as usual. Vicky later asked her if she went out again with Takamura and Mia said no, she did not. The next day he didn’t come to the dive center either. Vicky couldn’t stay silent anymore. “Let’s call reception and ask them if he is still here.”
“No Vicky, please don’t trouble them.”
“Hayah, it’s no trouble. Let me call.” She took the phone and dialed the number of reception. Mia felt a bit nervous and left the room. When she came back, Vicky already finished talking on phone. “He left, Mia. Don’t think about him anymore, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
It was the second time Takamura left Mia without saying goodbye. She cried alone in her room. The memories came back to her piece by piece. When Takamura left Tokyo she was desperate. Later she found out she was 2 months pregnant with his baby. She was in no condition to have or to raise the child because she was drinking and trying to destroy herself every day. Her friend took her to hospital and she was scheduled for an abortion. The pregnancy was already two and a half months and Mia lost so much blood that she almost died. When she finally started to recover she was told that she would never have children again. After her full recovery she chose to live a simple life. She shut herself down to romantic relationships and feelings, even limited her social life to very few friends and acquaintances. She didn’t want to be in sorrow again. And yet now she was hurt again anyway. But it hurt less than before.
The next morning Mia looked peaceful when she went to work. There was no trace of the tears she cried last night. After the first DSD couple she came back to the center and went to smoke in the back. When she came back out she found Takamura sitting there with a lady who was talking to Keira.
Mia stood there watching them until her eyes met Takamura’s. He was slightly embarrassed to see her. The lady sitting next to him was filling out the paperwork which she handed to Keira.
Kiera looked over the handwriting and said “What’s the name? I’m sorry I can’t quite read it.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Takamura” the woman said.
Keira saw Mia standing there and said “Our instructor Mia will take you now. Mia, can you please prepare these 2 guests for DSD? When you are ready of course, then you can go take lunch break. I already went through the flip chart with them and all the hand signals. You just take them in the water.”
Mia stared at the woman. She looked young and beautiful with a slim, tall body and her finger and toe nails painted red. She smiled at Mia. A genuine and innocent smile.
Suddenly the phone rang. Keira picked it up, then said “Mrs. Takamura, it’s for you, from the Spa.”
Mrs. Takamura went to talk on phone. She then came back and said “I must apologize. The Spa just called me and said my promotion package has to be done today. Actually right now, they are fully booked all day. I didn’t check it carefully last night. I’m sorry. I have to go now but my husband will stay and do diving with you.”
“Oh no, I will come with you. Let’s go together to the Spa, I don’t feel really well today for diving…” said Takamura in an awkward voice while starting to stand up and follow his wife.
Mia came forward. “Mr Takamura, my name is Mia, I will take you diving today, please don’t feel nervous. You will be fine. Tomorrow I will take both you and your wife diving together.”
“But…”
“That’s perfect! Thank you very much Mia” said Mrs. Takamura, smiling at Mia.
“Please take care of my husband. I will come back tomorrow.”
Mia waited until Mrs. Takamura left, then she turned and said “Please follow me. I will get you in your gear.”
Takamura followed her in silence to the veranda and watched her set up the equipment. She did it very quickly in a professional way without saying a word to him.
“Mia… I’m really sorry… I wanted to tell you that I just got married. I didn’t know Ryoko would follow me here. She just arrived two days ago saying that she wanted to surprise me. I told her I was going to meet a business partner. She doesn’t know about you…”
Again she didn’t exist. This time to Ryoko - Mrs. Takamura.
“I didn’t want to come to the dive center. She forced me to come diving. She always wanted to try it…”
There was a vast cloud in Mia’s head. She didn’t feel anything. She was not listening to him. “Mr. Takamura this is your wetsuit. Please go get change. I will wait here for you.”
“Mia…”
“In the afternoon I have two more guests. Please do me a favor and be quick.”
Takamura took the wetsuit and went to change. Vicky appeared in the door. She came closer to Mia and said “Sorry Mia, I lied to you. When I called reception they said he was with ‘Mrs. Takamura’. I didn’t want to upset you, that’s why I said he left. I didn’t know he would come back to the center…”
“It’s okay Vicky. He is just a friend.”
Takamura came back. Mia helped him into his equipment and they slowly walked down the beach into the sea.
“Mia, I don’t really like the water. Actually I’m a bit scared…” he mumbled.
“You will be fine. Put your mask on, put your regulator in your mouth, put your face down in the water and start to breathe through your mouth.”
He did it clumsily, breathing heavily through his regulator. Mia stared at the bubbles and felt the tears coming down her face. She took the mask off, washed her face with sea water and put it back on. They started to descend. Takamura got nervous. He made hand signals indicating that he was unable to equalize but she ignored him. She didn’t see him. She saw nothing. Her mind was flying back to Tokyo, to her tiny flat where they made love for the first time in her bed. They lay together in silence looking at the rain through the window. Then Takamura said her breasts were such a beauty, that he would always worship them. Now they were at 12 meters, the maximum depth for DSD, but she kept on going down. Takamura was getting more and more nervous. He tried to grab her arm but she pushed him down and went on top of his tank, holding onto the tank valve. He tried to get up by kicking hard, but she pushed him down harder. 15, 18, 20, 25 meters, they were sinking straight to the bottom of the sea. Mia saw herself on the tiny bed in the hospital waiting for the abortion to be carried out and felt the pain, the pain she would never forget, still vivid. The pain of the surgery and the pain of a dead soul who would never be able to become a mother again. There were tears inside her mask. She couldn’t see anything. Takamura was making noises through his regulator, panicking noises, while kicking up hard. They were ascending under the power of his kicks. 20 meters, 18 meters, 15 meters. He reached out trying to touch her body. She turned his tank over and pushed him underneath her again. He grabbed her arm. Lightning passed through her head. She grabbed his tank valve and closed the tank. Takamura struggled to reach up, then after few seconds his eyes opened wide and he started to choke. No more air coming into his regulator. The tank was closed. His hands extended toward her trying to grab her regulator but he failed and they fell down onto her chest, touching her breasts through the wetsuit. His eyes were going wild behind his mask, his strength weakening, his kicking fading. He was being asphyxiated.
Mia couldn’t see his face through the tear curtain of her eyes but the moment his
hands fell onto her breasts she felt them. Takamura, the first guy who she loved, the guy who promised to take care of her and adore her, the guy who looked like her brother. She immediately opened his tank again like waking up from a dream. She pressed the purge button of his regulator to make remove the water and, with one hand holding the regulator, one hand holding his head, she swam up with him to the surface. She inflated his BCD, took the regulator and mask off his face and let him catch his breath again. He was still in shock, his eyes wide open and his body shivering. They stayed like that for few minutes, it could have been eternity, then he slowly came back to normal. He stared at her with his mouth open. He couldn’t speak a word.
“Go away!” Mia said. “Get lost! I don’t ever want to see you again. Go back to your wife, Mr. Takamura.”
She pushed him back to shore where he stood up and walked back to the dive center. She was still floating in the water. There were tears in her eyes again. She stared into blankness far ahead. Nothing else but the color blue. A vast ocean. She never noticed that the sea was so immense.
THE END
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