Under Watch

“It’s really a very nice place, and since I’ll be spending more time in my townhouse, I see no reason not to take on a tenant.” The woman leaned forward and grinned. If Doumeki were a lesser man, he might have been inspired to lean away from her.

As it was, he shifted in his seat; he hadn’t been expecting that the house he’d seen advertised for rent in the paper was owned by Yuko, known fortune teller, and some even said, a witch. But he needed a place to stay, and the rent was reasonable. Plus, it wasn’t like he’d actually have much interaction with Yuko …

“Can we see the place before I make my decision?”

Yuko clapped her hands together excitedly. “I was hoping you’d say that!” She leapt up from the table and slapped down enough cash to pay for the cup of coffee that Doumeki had been sipping and the bottle of wine she’d single-handedly consumed. Doumeki barely had time to down the last swallow of his coffee and grab his coat before Yuko flagged down a taxi.

The taxi ride was awkward. Doumeki tried asking a few questions about why Yuko was so determined to get away from the country house. Yuko in turn evaded the question by asking why Doumeki was so interested in the house in the first place. As a result, they lapsed into silence. Almost abruptly, as soon as they arrived in a small town in the country, the taxi driver stopped the car.

“This is as far I go. I’ll wait for ya’ to get back, and I’ll even cut the cost of the waiting, but I’m not getting near that house.”

Doumeki raised an eyebrow at Yuko. What was wrong with the house? Yuko merely laughed and ushered the young man out of the car.


The walk to the house wasn’t too bad. The path was well-tended, periodically intersecting a winding dirt road that Doumeki assumed he would be driving on himself if he accepted the deal.

“Now, if you do move in, and you absolutely end up loving the place, I might be able to work out a lease-to-own sort of situation.”

“What? Why so suddenly?” Doumeki wasn’t sure he liked the glint in Yuko’s eyes.

“No real reason. You just strike me as the perfect match for this house. And who am I to argue with hitsuzen?” Yuko turned and opened a small wooden gate covered in vines. “Here we are!”

When Doumeki stepped through the gate, he was sure he was in another place altogether. Sakura trees lined the back fence in full bloom, their pink and white petals dusting the path. Then, beyond the back fence was an orchard, cherry trees on the left side of the slate-stone path to the house and apple trees on the right. The place was exactly as it had been described in the paper, and for the price Yuko was asking, it was amazing no other tenant had snatched up the offer.

Beyond the orchard, Doumeki saw the house – a white-washed, two-story brick house, (plus an attic, Yuko was saying). Going off to the right a ways was a covered pathway leading to a summer kitchen. A small hut stood next to the structure, what once must have been a smoke house. He was already planning how he could turn the summer kitchen into a small, personal temple and use the smoke house as a shed.

“I had the house properly wired for electricity, phone line, and cable, but I left the oil lamps mounted and filled on the walls. It’s an old house, and we are out in the country here. Storms and winds and just random failures make it practical to keep to the old ways of lighting everything. There’s also a supply of candlesticks and candles in the cellar, which you access here.” Yuko pointed to the locked cellar doors next to the back kitchen door.

He waited for Yuko to unlock the door and let them into the house. At this point, the house could have a bathroom, a single bedroom, and kitchen space, and he’d take it. But entering the kitchen, he decided he was glad that it was more than that. The kitchen was floored with smooth slate, interspersed with white granite crescent moons. A large compass rose in the floor made up of black, red, and white stone decorated the floor beneath a sturdy mahogany table. Why such a nice table in the kitchen, he didn’t know, but who was he to question Yuko’s tastes? He vaguely heard Yuko saying he’d have to supply his own refrigerator and microwave, but that wasn’t a problem for him. To the left of the back door, through saloon-style swinging doors, was a laundry room.

Doumeki smiled faintly at the memories of his grandfather washing clothes by hand in a basin like this, pumped full of water from the well. There was even space for an indoor clothesline.

“There is actual plumbing in this house, right?”

“Of course. I left this room with the hand-pump because it adds character. And the motion of pumping water is strangely soothing, I find. The well, in case you want to collect fresh drinking water, is off to the apple tree side of the house. There’s a cedar barrel, too, that you might like to keep the water in.” Yuko gestured him back into the kitchen. She pointed to a narrow door behind the table. “That’s a back staircase to get to the second floor. Used to be the servants’ staircase.”

Doumeki nodded and followed Yuko out of the kitchen and into the hallway. To the left, immediately next to the kitchen was a room with a long rosewood table. The dining room, he figured. Across from the dining room was a back parlor that used to be used to entertain less important guests. Doumeki decided he’d make it his office. Next to the parlor was a closet that had been converted into a toilet room, because really, that’s all the room there was in there – a toilet and a sink, and that was it. On the other side of that was the main parlor which still had a piano that Yuko said was nearly as old as the house. Across the hall from the parlor were the main stairs that were divided into two staircase so one did a 180 degree turn on the landing before finishing the climb.

The second story was just as nice as the first. The master bedroom had been completely cleared out, it seemed. Yuko explained that she’d kept most of her stuff in the master bedroom and since she was mostly relocating, she wouldn’t want to leave anything behind. The master bathroom was impressive with a deep jade tube and brass faucet. A shower stall stood next to the tub for the option of quicker bathing. There were two other bedrooms on the top floor and another full bathroom with shower and tub in the same unit. At the end of the hall were three doors, one on the angled edge of the wall, which concealed the servants’ stairs. On the same side of the hall as the master suite and the smaller of the two other bedrooms, the door opened onto more steps, which looked more like a ladder, but led to the attic. The last was across the hall from the attic access and was nothing more exciting than a linen closet.

Yuko led Doumeki down the servants’ stairs.

“Any questions?”

“Where did the servants live when this house was still in its prime?”

“The town hall has a record of all these old houses, if you ever want to read for yourself, but I happen to know that the last family to live here, before the town took over it and maintained it and thus before I bought it, had two male live-in servants who stayed in the attic. There was a nanny who stayed in the small bedroom upstairs, and the other maids and the cooks would ride in or walk each day on a rotation schedule.”

“Ah. What were the male servants’ jobs?”

“One was the butler, I believe, and the other was… Oh, what was it?” Yuko looked perplexed a moment. “The gardener. That was it. At least, those were their primary jobs. They did other manservant work, too.”

“Would it be all right if I converted the summer kitchen into a temple?” Doumeki asked, having satiated his curiosity about the history of this house for the time being.

“I think it would be lovely.”

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A/N: Weee! Another story!!! *dance* Me+boredom+biochem=THIS.