Yasunari Kawabata - The House of the Sleeping Beauties

It may have been because he had difficulty sleeping between the two girls that Eguchi had a succession of nightmares. There was no thread running through them, but they were disturbingly erotic. In the last of them he came home from his honeymoon to find flowers like red dahlias blooming and waving in such profusion that they almost buried the house. Wondering whether it was the right house, he hesitated to go inside.

"Welcome home. Why are you standing there?" It was his dead mother who greeted them. "Is your wife afraid of us?"

"But the flowers, Mother?"

"Yes." said the mother calmly. "Come on in."

"I thought we had come to the wrong house. I could hardly have made a mistake. But what flowers."

Ceremonial food had been laid out for them. After she had exchanged greetings with his bride, Eguchi's mother went into the kitchen to warm the soup. He smelled sea bream. He went out to look at the flowers. His bride went with him.

"Aren't they beautiful?" she said.

"Yes." Not wishing to frighten her, he did not add that they had not been there before.

He gazed at a particularly large one among them. A red drop oozed from one of the petals.

Old Eguchi awoke with a groan. He shook his head, but he was still in a daze. He was facing the dark girl. Her body was cold. He started up. She was nothing breathing. He felt her breasts. There was no pulse. He leaped up. He staggered and fell. Trembling violently, he went into the next room. The call button was in the alcove. He heard footsteps below.

"Did I strangled her in my sleep?" He went, almost crawled, back to the other room and looked at the girl.

"Is something wrong?" the woman of the house came in.

"She's dead." his teeth were chattering.

The woman rubbed her eyes and looked calmly down at the girl. "Dead? There is no reason that she should be."

"She's dead. She's nothing breathing and there's no pulse."

Her expression changing, the woman knelt beside the dark girl.

"Dead, isn't she?"

The woman rolled back the bedding and inspected the girl.

"Did you do anything to her?"

"Not a thing."

"She's not dead." said the woman with forced coolness. "You needn't worry."

"She's dead. Call a doctor."

The woman did not answer.

"What did you give to her? maybe she was allergic."

"Don't be alarmed. We won't cause you any trouble. We won't tell your name."

"She's dead."

"I think not."

"What time is it?"

"After four."

She staggered as she lifted the dark, naked body.

"Let me help you."

"Don't bother. There's a man downstairs."

"She's heavy."

"Please. You needn't bother. Go back to sleep, There is the other girl."

There was another girl… no remark had ever struck him more sharply. There was of course the fair skinned girl still asleep in the next room.

"Do you expect me to sleep after this?" His voice was angry, but there was also fear in it. "I'm going home."

"Please don't. It wouldn't do to be noticed at this hour."

"I can't possibly go back to sleep."

"I'll bring you more medicine."

He heard her dragging the dark girl downstairs. Standing in his night kimono, he for the first time felt the cold press upon him. The woman came back with two white tablets.

"Here you are. Sleep late tomorrow."

"Oh!" He opened the door to the next room. The covers ere as they had been, thrown back in confusion, and the naked form of the fair girl in shining beauty.

He gazed at her.

He heard an automobile pulling away, probably with the dark girl's body. Was she being taken to the dubious inn to which old Fukura had been taken?