A Proud Furosha

A PROUD FUROSHA By Andrej Koymasky © 2010 Written on July 1, 2002 Translated by the Author English text kindly revised by

USUAL DISCLAIMER

"A PROUD FUROSHA" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.

Chapter 7 - TV, politicians and police

One day a group from the NHK came with TV cameras, spotlights, cables, bussesÉ to make a show about us furosha. I later came to know that they already did some at other stations or parks, and later some more here and there around Tokyo.

The journalist was a guy who undoubtedly knew his trade, in fact, in spite of the wariness of the biggest part of us furosha, he got to interview many of us. At times the questions seemed me somewhat naive, but then thinking about how much I too didn't know anything about the furosha's world before becoming one of them, I understood that they were questions that the common people could have asked.

They asked Saburo and me if we agreed to be interviewed. I refused, Saburo accepted. The journalist didn't pressure me to change my mind from my refusal, as he did with others of us, and I felt grateful. This also showed his professionalism - he understood with whom it was good to insist and with whom useless. He understood that my no, although not said aggressively, would never become a yes.

The journalist told Saburo he knew he was a physician. Possibly some other furosha told him so.

"So, mister Oishi, you are practically the furosha doctor. What pushed you to this mission?"

"Mission? No, it is not a question of mission. A doctor has to treat whoever is ill, that's simply so. I am a doctor, they don't have any social assistance, they have no money to pay for a doctor. I am just carrying out my duty."

"Anyway, you consider yourself a furosha too, isn't that so?"

"No, it's not I who considers me a furosha, but you, the society, who considers me a furosha."

"And you, what do you consider yourself?"

"A human being." Saburo serenely answered.

"But if yourÉ patients don't have the means to pay a doctor, they also don't have the means to pay for medicine, I presumeÉ"

"Of course. The less expensive drugsÉ we can at times get them, and for the othersÉ we just do without. Even though this means at timesÉ they die. But a doctor doesn't treat only with drugs, but also with advice and above allÉ trying to give hope to who has no more of it. Because society, putting us at its borders, or to better say out of them, stole from us also our hope."

"Therefore the furosha phenomenon, in your opinion, can be blamed on our society?"

"Who should be blamed, otherwise? Do you think that any of us as a child decided - when I grow up I want to become a furosha? Do you really think so?"

"Of course not. But then, how do you justify the fact that there are so many furosha?"

"With the fact that our present society is not elastic enough to accept who is different, who is not able or doesn't want to be integrated, but also with the fact that our society takes care of and protects only who produces, and abandons who it reputes to be useless. But no human being can be deemed to be useless. Our society dehumanised itself. It is increasingly similar to a machine. In a machine, of course, there cannot be useless parts, they have to be thrown away. This should not be allowed in a society of men."

"Therefore you don't recognise yourself in the Japanese society of our times."

"Of course, as the Japanese society of our times doesn't recognise me as a human being."

I admired Saburo for his answers, said with serene tranquillity, with calm, and with plain-words.

They then interviewed another of us furosha who came there to look.

"Good afternoon. What is your name?"

"What does it matter? Who knows me, recognises me. Who don't know me, hears my name and at once forgets it. You can call me Mister Furosha, to me that's good enough, as well as for the people watching at us on their TV sets."

"If you had the possibility, would you like to go back and live as you lived before?"

"If your car was stolen, would you like to get it back?" the man answered.

"Therefore, you feel you have been robbed."

"Sure. Robbed. Right so."

"May I ask you to tell me why you are now in this predicament?"

"Yes, you can ask me. It remains to be seen if I feel like telling you."

"Well, if you don't feel like telling meÉ"

"No, it's all right. You have to do your job anyway, or you would not get your pay. I wouldn't like it to be my fault you too have to become a furosha." the man answered laughing with his toothless mouth, and told his story.

The interviews went on. We thought that everything would end there, and all summed up that visit from the national TV had been a distraction for us. The NHK gave to each furosha who accepted to be interviewed a blanket of blue wool with the letters NHK woven in red. But a few days later that journalist came to see Saburo again and gave him a stethoscope, a box of disposable syringes, some disinfectant and some antibiotics.

"Saburo, would you explain to me why you didn't thank him?" I asked after the reporter left.

"Because I had not to."

"What do you mean?"

"He did it only to ease his conscience. If I thanked him he would still feel in debt with me. So, instead, he is tranquil."

"But all he gave youÉ are all useful things, with which you can help better the other furoshaÉ isn't it so?"

"Yes, at least for a while, then everything will be exactly like before. Besides the stethoscopeÉ that after all was not essential." Saburo commented.

A few days later, at the Takadanobaba station I met Akiba. We greeted each other, and went to sit on the plastic seats of the station. We talked for some time about the TV interviews. Then I finally talked with him about what I had in my heart.

"Mister Akiba, it is not only doctor Oishi who is gay. I too am gay."

"Gay? Oh, yes, now it is called so, isn't it? But you aren't his boyfriend."

"I am not."

"You don't like him." he said looking in my eyes.

"Yes, I like him. And he likes me." I said and blushed.

"But then?" he asked, clearly perplexed.

I told him about our first meeting, then of the second one, and about our common life.

"Boy, you never made mistakes in your life? Mistakes that you wish you could take back?"

"Yes, a lot."

"And would you like to pay for them all your life long?"

"No."

"You gave yourself the answer. And if today you talk about it with me, it is because you want to stop making him pay for it, but you don't know how to do this."

"That's right."

"Stop making him pay for it. It depends only on you."

"Yes, but how?"

"Why don't you simply put a flower on his futon?" the old man then suggested to me, then added, "Not just once, but until he understands the message. A peace offering, you see?"

"Thank you mister Akiba."

"May I ask you a kindness?"

"Of course!"

"Don't call me mister Akiba any more. When you came to my assistance, that time at the park, you shouted not to touch your grandpaÉ" he said and I read a shy prayer in his eyes.

"All rightÉ grandpa." I then said.

"Yes, soÉ grandson." he said standing up and went away with a satisfied expression, without even telling me goodbye.

Telling me goodbye would have been like shutting a door, like closing a book at the end of a chapter. Not greeting me, the door remained open, the book was ready to be read at the next chapter.

About the interviews on the TV, that none of us could see as of course none of us had a TV set, we thought that everything would end there. Instead the newspaper wrote about it articles on articles, they said that something should be done about it. Some, or rather the majority of them, giving as a reason the inconvenience that our presence gave to the "normal people". Others for the city, the capital's "decorum". Just a few because they recognised in us the dignity of human beings.

As a result some politicians rode the wave of interest, as long as it was still alive, and declared that something had to be done to solve the problem. It was not clear if they were referring to our problems or those of the "normal people" - they were skilled enough not to say it, or else to put all in a cauldron to make everybody happy.

As a result, the mayor of Tokyo decided to build some prefabricated houses, a kind of old people shelter like the private ones, so that each furosha could have his room and common services like a mess, a laundry, a bathÉ In the newspaper this new initiative was trumpeted with big characters and, from what the newspapers wrote, also on the TV there were meetings, debates, round tables, congressesÉ

And finally the first houses were ready. Some volunteers passed giving us flyers where it was explained where to go and what to do to get a room. Always from the newspapers we came to know that the applications were made for only one room of ten. The ninety per cent of the furosha had disdainfully refused that kind of charity.

One of the furosha that at times I met told me, "The mayor doesn't give a shit for meeting us, for understanding us. We are just like stray dogs, they built us kennels where to keep us. So they don't have to feel ashamed of us, of how they reduced us."

I thought he was right. I talked about it with Saburo and he too had the same opinion.

"The only real solution would be that our families accepted us, opened their doors again to us. But they won't do it. A stray dog needs a family welcoming him and loving him, not a passerby saying - oh poor dog, and who at most throws him the half hamburger he doesn't want to eat anymore because he is too full. And even less to be shut in a kennel."

"That's why, and only now I understand it clearly, that's why I never felt like accepting to go in one of those housesÉ" I then said, thoughtful.

"Exactly so. I like my tent better, including the hot and the cold, the rain and the insectsÉ I like better to remain a stray dog, as no families want to adopt me."

But what does the municipality do when there are too many stray dogs around? They set the dogcatchers on the dogs. The mayor did exactly so, he sent the police to rake us, to take away our few belongings to force us to go in the houses-kennels prepared by the municipality.

But at this point, after hiding our things as best as we could, all us furosha went to demonstrate in front of the stations, and the town hall, against the police intervention. And the police didn't move against us, because the TV also came, even the private ones and the foreigner ones, and hundreds of reporters, of journalistsÉ

During one of these demonstrations (and this time I too spoke with the journalists, and let them interview me) Akiba arrived near me.

"Grandpa! How are you? It's been a while, I haven't seen you around any more, and I was worriedÉ"

"I went to look at the depository."

"What depository, grandpa?"

"That one that mister mayor built for us. Where they want to store us. The rooms are small but niceÉ and those who accepted to live there, say that the food is decentÉ and you can even have a bath every day, if you likeÉ"

"Did you decide to go and live there, grandpa?"

"Yes, I decided to go there. But beforeÉ I wanted before to meet youÉ"

"If it's allowed, I will come and see you."

"Possibly, some times, I would be pleased. AndÉ with doctor Oishi?"

"I already started to put a flower on his pillow, every evening. I steal it from the park, you seeÉ"

"No, you don't steal it, the park is our gardenÉ Go on soÉ and if you have a few spare yen, possibly also put a small chocolate, together with the flower."

"All right, grandpa, I will do as you say."

"Listen, before going to the municipal depository for tramps, I wanted to leave you my things, the cart and what I gatheredÉ It could be useful to youÉ"

"You are very kind, grandpa, butÉ"

"You are my grandson, aren't you? We decided soÉ or did you change your mind? No, you didn't. Good. ThenÉ" he said and explained to me.

He had his own special tour. He walked for hours and hours through the small lanes of the residential boroughs. The people, he explained me, often throw away things that at home are no more used, but that can still be useful. And often they are old family things, of their grandparentsÉ almost ancient things - cups, laces, knick-knacks, flower pots, wooden boxes, old dial telephones, grandpa's glassesÉ They just put them out of their door in a box, with a note on it saying, "take freely what you like".

He gathered all the most interesting pieces and, once every month, on the third Sunday, he went in front of the Tennoji temple where a small antiques market is held to sell what he had gathered. To spread one's wares there, one didn't need any authorization. He told me that, if I wanted, besides his handcart, he would leave me also all the lately gathered and not yet sold items.

I didn't know if I really wanted to do like him, to take his place. After all the magazines allowed me to earn enough moneyÉ But I accepted, as I knew that doing so I would have pleased him. I would anyway later ask Saburo his advice. So he took me where he had his cart.

"All the wares are in the boxes. I take away just these two handbags with my personal things. My futon and my blankets, either you use them, or you give them to another furosha who can use them. All right?"

"All right, grandpa. And I will come to see you." I repeated.

While I was going away dragging his cart, now mine, he shouted to me, "And decide for yourself, don't lose more time, do what you have to!"

Yes, sure, I would do what I "had" to do. I would at last take the first step. I waited even too long a time, I had him wait for too long. Saburo had appreciated my flowers, each time he took it off of his pillow, gave me a smile and put it in a glass full of waterÉ

I checked how much money I had in my pocket - two thousand three hundred and fifty-six yen. I entered a shop and bought a box of chocolates, and hid it in a bag. It contained thirty small chocolates, the soft kindÉ I had an ideaÉ

Back to the tent, I went to pick a flower, put it on the rolled futon of Saburo, and near it I also put one of the chocolates.

When he came back, he smiled at me as usual, put the flower in the glass, ate the chocolate and smiled me again while he let it melt in his mouth, with a pleased expression.

I told him about Akiba and his gift. He wanted to check what was in the boxes and valued the objectsÉ He then told me that all summed up it was not a bad idea, that we could try that trade. We could each do, along the day, our tour doing different routes. I could also gather things to recycle, and he could also take old things for meÉ I liked the idea.

The evening after, I put on his futon two flowers and two small chocolates. Then the following evening, three flowers and three chocolatesÉ then four and four.

And finally, the night after I put five and five, when we lied down to sleep, in the dark, Saburo said, "Do you want to make me become fat?"

"NoÉ You are handsome enough as you areÉ" I answered.

"Then you want me to become sweetÉ"

"You are sweet enough as you areÉ" I answered.

"But if you go on soÉ every day one moreÉ you will remove all the flowers from the park and I will cost you a fortune in chocolatesÉ" he said in a low voice.

"So, then, if you don't want me to remove all the flowers and save my moneyÉ you have to got toÉ to accept myÉ my court."

"Your courtÉ" he murmured almost echoing my words.

"I didn't know how to tell youÉ" I whispered, feeling at once moved and shy.

He stretched out a hand, finally overcoming the invisible barrier separating us, and leaned it on my chest. I put both my hands on his and pushed it on my heart. He turned his hand and our fingers intertwined. I then pulled him towards me. He seemed to resist for a moment.

"ComeÉ" I then beseeched him.

"YesÉ" he said.

I heard him move and soon he was crouching at my side, and his other hand leaned on my check and caressed me. I put on it my free hand and moved his hand bringing it at my lips and kissed it.

I then pulled him towards me, until he kneeled and brushed my hand with his lips. I then removed our hands and finally our lips met.

At first they brushed just lightly. Then I parted my lips and passed the tip of my tongue over his lips. He parted them and his tongue started to play with mine, for some time. Our mouths united and our kiss became deep, intimate. I was feeling entirely aflame.

When our lips parted, I asked him in a whisper, "Do you want me?"

"YesÉ" he answered.

Finally his body leaned on top of mine - I felt his strong erection push against mine.

"Take me, thenÉ" I said.

"Did you forgive me?"

"YesÉ and I want you inside me."

"Oh, Ken!" he sighed.

In the darkness, I felt his tears fall on my face.

"Are you crying?"

"I'm too happyÉ"

"I hope you will be forever, with me, from now onÉ"

He kissed me again. Moving at the unison on my futon, he took off my undershirt and I his undershirt. Our bare chests touched, brushed while, kissing again, we were caressing each other all over the body. Yes, I was really ready to give myself to him. I slipped both hands under his underpants putting each on one of his buttocks and pulled him to me with vigour.

He forced my underpants down to my hips. I raised my pelvis to facilitate his task, while he straightened up on his knees. He pulled off my underpants, while I was lowering his own, and with both hands caressed my turgid genitals, making me shudder with pleasure and desire.

I caressed his chest and brushed his nipples, then resumed lowering his underpants. When they were around his knees, with a swift move he pulled them off then lied at my side, making me turn towards him. We hugged, intertwined our legs, and kissed each other again. I could feel his beautiful member that I had already admired so many times at the public baths, pushing against me. Yes, I wanted him to take me. I now felt almost in a hurry.

I then whispered to him, "I would like you to switch on the torch, so that there is some light. I want to see you whileÉ while we do it."

"Yes, sureÉ" he said.

He stood up, took the torch, switched it on but screened its light with a handkerchief of light cotton, so that the light was faint and diffused. I looked at him coming back to my futon - he was really beautiful in his total nudity, adorned by his beautiful cock, hard and straight. And his eyes were shining while he was looking at me, or rather admiring me. And the tent made of plastic sheets of various colours seemed more beautiful than the hall of a temple of the Shingon sect of the Pure Land decorated with sheets of golden brocade.

He knelt again between my legs, leaned on me, and kissed me. We were caressing each other all over our bodies and I was feeling stronger and stronger the desire to unite with him, I wanted to feel him inside me. This time the owner of the tree was offering the ripe fruit to his guest of honourÉ that guest that for too much time he kept at the door waiting to be received.

I could feel him shudder on top of me; his desire was something concrete, almost tangible, and also extremely agreeable. And his desire was making mine spread like wildfire.

I pulled my legs against my chest, so offering myself to him. Saburo smiled and made me raise and lean them on his shoulders. He then started to brush the tip of his hard cock along the furrow between my buttocks. I stretched out a hand to seize it and guide it to its target, but he, gently, pushed away my hand.

He whispered, "WaitÉ let it find its way by itselfÉ"

"I want itÉ" I moaned, looking at him with an expression of urgent request in my eyes.

"Yes, sureÉ you will have itÉ I too want youÉ I too need youÉ"

His strong pole wedged in the furrow and I could now feel its tip brush against my hole, passing again and again over it, and each time I hoped he would stop there and start its immersion. Those manoeuvres had the power to feed my passion, to make it burn with even more intensity.

"Take meÉ" I again prayed to him.

Finally his firm glans stopped on my shuddering sphincter, almost like the bee stops on a flower. I held back my breath. And lo, the pressure started, light but steady. Determined. I relaxed, emitting a light sigh of happiness. I felt it gradually open the door of the pleasure, peep in it, then enter opening me totally. It was fantastic - different from that first time, that seemed now so far away, it didn't seem to me too big, to the contrary - it seemed to be exactly as it should be, just right for me.

I felt him advance into me, taking possession of the land that was due to him, that was ready to welcome him. He was slipping inside me with extreme slowness, almost with the same majestic and hieratic slowness with which the kannushi, the Shinto's priest, enter the shrine to perform his rites in honour of the spirit dwelling in it.

Saburo's face, usually so serious, so impassive, was now lightened by intense passion that transformed it and made it, at least to my eyes, incredibly beautiful. His eyes were shining almost as if they emitted light. His lips barely parted, almost like those of the No actor singing his "long song" revealing the passions that give life to the spirit he represents, who lives again in him.

When his beautiful balls were pressed against my firm little buttocks, and the hair of his pubis brushed against my skin, I emitted another sigh and prepared myself for the sacred dance that the priest would do to honour the kami, the spirit venerated in the shrine.

Also Saburo emitted a deep, long and low sigh, then started to withdraw until only the tip of his cock was still firmly embedded inside me. Then, while with the thumb and forefinger of both hands he was teasing my hardened nipples in an incredibly agreeable way, he sank again into me. He was slipping in and out of me, and so the sacred dance started. I felt almost as if I could feel the sound of the sacred drums and of the flutes that have to accompany the rite.

Very gradually, Saburo increased the rhythm and the vigour of his dance, making so also grow the pleasure he was bestowing on me. He smiled at me, and I felt that nothing sweeter than his smile could exist in the world. In those magic moments I was discovering an unsuspected Saburo - it was almost as if a revelation was happening in front of my eyes. Saburo was the "kami" revealing himself in human shape.

His body, tense in giving to me and receiving from me pleasure, was waving in the faint and shadow-less light wrapping us in the tent. And that tent again seemed to me more sumptuous than the Imperial Palace, more sacred than the most sacred of the sanctuaries, more solemn than the most solemn of the temples.

Finally Saburo stopped, pushed deep inside me, and from his flesh flute sprouted harmonious jets that filled the warm recess of the castle he had once again conquered. I felt inside my head the nonexistent chorus of the "No" that, rhythmic and solemn, urged and underlined the unwinding of the action, narrating the deeds of the hero.

He remained still, at times quivering, slightly panting, tiny droplets of sweat beaded his face making it shine as if he were wearing a mask of diamonds. Then slowly, almost cautiously, he slipped out of me, bent between my legs and started to take care of my hard cock, straight like a strong bamboo stalk. I was so excited that I arched up my pelvis. He put his hands under it, cupping with them my small firm buttocks he had just visited, holding me up, and with greedy gluttony he sucked me, until I too poured my tribute to him.

He drank all with long sips, and when I raised my head to look at the beautiful scene of my pole immersed in his warm mouth, he too raised his eyes and our glances met. I finally emitted a loud sigh and relaxed, fulfilled. He sucked some more, then let me go down, lied at my side, covering my body with an arm and a leg, and tenderly kissed me on a check.

"Are you happy?" he asked me in a low voice.

"Yes, it has been really beautiful. And you?"

"It was worth waiting for such a long timeÉ If I didn't make that mistake, on that night, I would not have waited so longÉ"

"What mistake? Which night? To meÉ only this moment exists, by now. You have been able to make me forget everythingÉ"

"It is not good to forget." he reminded me.

"Not the important things, they have to never be forgotten. But the insignificant thingsÉ it would not have a meaning to remember them, don't you agree?"

"You are sweet, KenÉ and you are beautiful."

"Therefore, I don't need any more to give you the chocolates? And the flowers either?" I asked him jokingly.

"No, you are enough."

CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 8

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