Free The Earthquake Bird by Susanna Jones Page A

After a stretching hike
     there is nothing better than soaking in the rich minerals of the mountains. We separated, men and women. I entered the changing
     room with Lily and Natsuko.
    Lily was uncomfortable stripping off in front of other women but did it because she was more embarrassed about being different
     and making a fuss. I thought her qualms were unnecessary. Lily had a nice body, delicate and slender, while Lucy is built
     like a crashed tank. Lucy didn’t mind communal bathing at all. Once she was in the protection of the hot water, she enjoyed
     the fact that she could take up more space than the other women. Her body had a greater surface area and therefore she must
     be deriving more pleasure from the piping water on her skin.
    We sat, three in a row, at the taps for the pre-bathing ritual. We showered while sitting on small wooden stools, and filled
     bowls of water to splosh over our skin. Lily watched Natsuko and me, to make sure she did everything the same way. Once we
     had washed, I turned the cold tap on full and blasted my ankle for a few moments until it was almost numb.
    There were three baths. One was indoors and already full. Women lay stretched out, eyes closed, hair kept off the face by
     small yellow towels. We went outside where the two baths were almost empty. Water ran from one into the other. A hill rose
     sharply behind and a thin waterfall slipped over the edge, fell into a stream near the baths. From every direction was the
     sound of water.
    Natsuko went straight for the hottest bath and sat with a small towel over her face. Lily followed but yelped at the heat
     and jumped out. Her legs were pink from the knees down.
    “Don’t you like it?” Natsuko asked lazily from under her wet towel.
    “I like the idea of it.” Lily hovered, not sure what to do. “It’s just a bit hot.”
    “I love it. If I ever have a house of my own, I’d want a natural hot spring in the garden. I’d be happy forever then.” Natsuko
     sighed.
    “Perhaps this one is a better temperature,” I suggested and went into the other. It was, slightly, and Lily entered the bath
     with me, carefully and tentatively, limb by limb until just her head stuck out.
    The cool air of the late afternoon was as refreshing as the water we bathed in and I closed my eyes to feel it more acutely
     and to listen to the different sounds of water. I lifted my injured ankle to rest it on the bath’s edge. Of course, in a couple
     of seconds I was thinking of Teiji and how I wished he was in the bath with me, no one else around. Teiji didn’t care about
     my appearance. I sometimes wondered if he even knew what I looked like. When he stared at me he seemed to be looking beneath
     the surface of my skin, but I didn’t know what he could see. I didn’t mind. As long as I kept his attention in this way, I
     felt lucky. Before my fantasy could get farther than Teiji ducking under water to find my legs with his lips, Lily started
     talking again.
    “I wonder what Andy would make of this.”
    “He might like it.”
    “Doubt it. He doesn’t much like things he doesn’t know. I’m beginning to think that I only really like things I don’t know.
     Funny that. It never occurred to me we were so different. Now it seems obvious. I wish I was like you.”
    I was amazed and looked at her, probably suspiciously. Her face was pink under her dyed red hair. She looked uncomfortable
     in the heat of the bath.
    “No, I do. You’ve got it all together. You’re so brainy too. Do you think you and Teiji will get married?”
    “I don’t think so.” And with no warning my eyes filled with tears. I splashed them slightly to give myself a reason to wipe
     my face before Lily noticed.
    “Why not?”
    I massaged my ankle. The pain was beginning to subside.
    “It’s not that kind of relationship.”
    And immediately I regretted saying it. I didn’t know what kind of relationship it was. I’d never thought about it before.
     Now I had given