Oh June, just like the mountains I'm blue

I think it was the occasional quick cooling breeze that make it so obvious that it was one of those very hot, still and humid days. One where the sun just continually heated everything and our clothes stuck to our bodies despite the several applications of 'roll on deodorant!' We sat outside the hospital waiting for the bus to take us back into town, trying to enjoy the little breezes, intermittent as they were. Everything was calm then and time passed slowly in a lazy and leisurely manner as if to allow the stillness to have more time.
The journey to the hospital was quite the opposite.
When you feel you are a little behind schedule then every moments delay somehow seems magnified. Time sped past us and presented life hurriedly.
I wanted to leave the office at exactly twelve noon but I got delayed by finish up deadlines. When I rushed out of the building at almost half past, I had crossed the underpass to the other side of the street before I realized that I'd left my reading glasses and my appointment book back in the office on my desk. I raced back to the office hoping to see the clock hands march backwards.
No such luck!
Once collected without any explanation to my surprised office mates, I headed back out towards the bus terminal. The roads were over-flowing with traffic and I'm waiting so long for a signal to cross and even then halfway across there is a heart stopping moment as a late breaker makes his brakes squeal out a protest. Momo doesn't press herself flat against his windscreen!
When I finally reach the terminal where Hitomi was waiting for me, she wore a disappointed face as she told me that we had already missed three buses and the next one wasn't due for another seven minutes.
How many times did I look at my watch in those seven minutes? I am constantly calculating time and distance in my head and hopefully I won't be late for my scan.

When I'm willing the bus to move forward with haste I notice that it stops for prolonged periods at every bus-stop and of course every intersection we approach has a red light. When we finally get there with two minutes and thirteen seconds to spare I was wishing that I had tennis shoes and a sports bra rather than my Yohji Yamamoto heels and my 'wacoal full figure G-cup ibra'. It was a fantastic accomplishment holding it all together at a pace that might earn someone a gold medal in track and field events!
Hitomi waited for me in the hospital cafeteria.
The receptionist didn't seem to notice that it was three minutes past the hour as I handed her my appointment paper, but I think she may have wondered at the cause of my breathlessness. Ten minutes and fourteen pages into Bubka magazine passed before the nurse called me into the room. I was given a gown to change into and asked to remove my hair adornments and my ear rings.
Lie down, head perfectly still and insert Momo into the cavernous mouth of a mega warp driven techno-babbled brain analyzing machine.

"Buzz buzz" it sounds as it rotates around me and then just a few minutes later like like some grand anti-climax, it's all over and done with.
Returning to find Hitomi, I got lost in the warren-like corridors and Unlike Hansel and Gretel, I had no trail of breadcrumbs to follow and so I headed outside and I walked around the building to the cafeteria on the west side where it enjoyed the lazy afternoon sun. There was an invalid carriage parked outside the cafeteria and on the seat was a cute little basset hound, with his little paws on the arm rest, peering in through the window. No doubt his owner was having an afternoon meal in there somewhere.
So cute!
The food that arrived on our plates looked like hospital food and smelled like hospital food. It even tasted like hospital food with that sterile and clean additive but because we'd missed lunch and we were so hungry, we cleaned our plates of steamed fish, corn and rice despite our whispered reservations that no matter which hospital and in which country, there is a lingering sterile cleanliness about the food that has somehow washed out a lot of the flavor. There is also the wonderment of dining conversations. The couple at the table next to us had the topic of cancer and how an uncle had died of lung cancer and how the cancer rates were becoming higher and there is no cure. Lung cancer and salmon is hardly a digestible meal conversation anywhere other than a hospital cafeteria.

We had been invited down to spend the weekend with a work colleague of Hitomi's who is a very charming man. He's a man who appreciates the finer things in life such as the theater and the arts, classical music, fine wines, fast cars and of course, 'real men'. For your ears (eyes) only, I don't think that Hitomi and I are the kind of girls that would go off and spend the weekend at the house of a friend with a couple of straight guys, but you never know!

Yutaka is sporty kind of guy if Sumo is his field. He is a little on the weighty side but a well defined musculature beneath it all. He has very strong yet gentle hands as I was to learn later when he gave me a complete massage. It felt so good I must admit.
He owns a very nice white wooden fronted house on the slopes of Ehosihma Island that overlooks the city of Fujisawa and a pool where he and his friends can relax. This summer has started off really hot and Hitomi and I spent a lot of our Sunday in and around that cool pool.
On Saturday afternoon after a morning of looking around the town and doing a little shopping, he drove us up to the race circuit where he gets his speed thrill from not only watching the motor racing but also he drives and rides some fast machines. We met some lovely people there who have similar passions to Yutaka and he drove us around the circuit in his sports model coupe. He even let me drive it but to be honest I am not one for speed. The engine seemed very forgiving no matter how clumsy I was with the gear change and when I hit the straight and pressed down on the accelerator, I was pushed back into the seat as I saw the pointer effortlessly move into triple figures. That was enough for me and I brought it down to something approaching window shopping speed before we had a sharp left turn. A single moment of g-force exhilaration in that way was enough for me.
On Saturday night we met his lovely Mother who loved to speak well of her son's achievements. I'm not sure exactly what he told her but we played along with whatever she said. I understand how proud she is and she and I were left talking while he and Hitomi went off to discuss new plays and parts that they would like to audition for in a dreamy sense. Takao, his boyfriend appeared after he had his Mother driven home so no guesses that she doesn't know about it and Hitomi and I were very possibly another cover in the reasons behind the invite.

Oh don't discredit me with such suspicious thoughts. I've seen it happen many many times before and with many gay couples and I am not offended by it. I was quite happy to share the weekend with my sweetheart at this charming mans beautiful house. I have no care whatsoever of any innocent ulterior motives that he may have had and his dear Mother went home happy.
On Sunday we lazed by the pool and after hearing that he was a bit of an expert as he massaged his boyfriend, I gladly volunteered to have my muscles kneaded back into shape.
My stars did he work wonders on me! My limbs felt brand new after he had stretched and rubbed and squeezed and pressed my fibers back into place.
Now I must admit that when he did the same thing to Hitomi it looked a little bit too intimate but it's just the perspective of my point of view. He did exactly the same to me as he did to her and she really felt good afterwards too. So we reaped the benefits of a wonderful week-end and felt fully refreshed for the week ahead.
We all need to get away some times.