Three Little Tigers

 

“Stay. Good girl. Now, let me take those weeds off you.”

 

“Lori, let me help you. I can do that for you.”

“Are you sure, Ki? I don’t want to burden you, it’s just a bit more difficult to kneel down, you know?”

“I know. Don’t worry, I can help out. I’ve seen you do it. How hard can it be?”

 

“Yeah, no. It’s not that hard, just make sure that she’s fed regularly, ok?”

“Sure thing.”

 

For Kiyoshi, that ‘thing’ was horrible. He could not understand how Lori wanted to keep it. But she did, and even though he did not like the thing, he would help, at least for a little bit while Lori gave birth. It was not far off now, she’d said.

 

Soon enough, Lori gave birth to a boy. She was planning on giving the baby up for adoption, but maybe she could find one of those desperate couples who would pay to get her son. ‘Her son’. Wow. She sighed. Fortunately, the boy was healthy and even cute.

That was her second tie to the town all done. Lori felt like she was finally becoming free again.

 

Shortly after Orlando—the baby, was born, Lori went back into town. She loved to meet up with guys, and she had missed going around the last weeks of her pregnancy.

That exclusive lounge in the expensive part of Oasis Springs was her goal, and with her skills, she easily gained entrance.

 

The place was said to belong to a man who ruled the most important gang in the city, but she had not seen anything too weird. Of course, she was kind of distracted whenever she set foot at the place.

 

And more often than not, her eyes were focused on something, or things, much interesting to her, than the latest police raid.

 

Besides, there was plenty of weed in that place.

 

Oh, how Lori had missed her weed! That was the good stuff, too!

 

Soon she was wasted and enjoying herself like she used to.

 

And when the buzz of the high went down a bit, she could always find guys who paid for her drinks, and more.

 

“There’s a room in the back, wanna go there?”

“Sure thing. I just need a little fix, you know?”

“No worries, girl. I’ve got you covered.” And he did. It was not difficult to get your hands on good stuff in Oasis Springs and for that, Lori was glad to have stayed.

 

One night, or better said, early morning, when she was coming home, she heard a commotion in the backyard. She had just taken off her clothes and was about to jump into bed, but Kiyoshi was not there. When she went to look, she saw Kiyoshi on the floor covered in a green slimy goo in front of the ‘thing’.

“Ki? What happened? Are you alright?”

By then, Kiyoshi was on his last leg. He had believed that Lori was going through one of those phases that pregnant women have, or so the Internet said, but she was going out almost every night and it was not like she invited him. She did not make any effort to pretend to want him by her side when she went into town. He was bewildered by her behaviour, but his parents had told him that something like this was meant to happen and he was not going to give in and tell them they were right after all this time. Still, things between him and Lori were not as romantic as he had hoped they would be a few months before.

He sighed, trying at the same time not to inhale any of the disgusting green slime.

“I-I don’t know. I was feeding it, and then, I saw a black hole in front of me, and- and- I don’t know. This thing is awful!”

“Come inside and take a shower. You’ll feel better then. I don’t know what you did, but that thing smells like shit.”

Kiyoshi stood up and carefully walked to wards the house. He got inside while Lori said she would throw some sand onto the gooey stuff.

 

After she did that, she came close to the thing, and whispered, “Good girl! Who’s a good girl?”

 

Some time went by like that. Lori kept doing all nighters out, and Kiyoshi expected her to not do that, without actually confronting her for her behaviour.

Orlando was growing, and Lori could really not guess who his father was. Those green eyes were not hers, but the hair definitely was.

 

She was still of a mind to give him up, but she also kept delaying looking for adoption agencies, or potential buyers.

 

Then, one fine morning almost at the end of summer, Kiyoshi was about to feed the thing.

 

Suddenly, he felt it grabbing at him, but there was no time to react.

 

A woman riding her bike had witnessed the incident and rode in trying to help the young man, but it was clearly too late.

 

Another witness came forward, but really, they were in shock at how ferocious the attack had been.

 

Lori had been inside the house when it happened, and she got to the door when someone knocked. It was coincidentally Kiyoshi’s father, who had been coming over recently, trying to get the young man to leave his wife. Lori would not have minded that, to be honest. The will had no clauses about getting divorced at any time, or losing any of the inheritance if she did. But Kiyoshi did not want a divorce.

At that moment, they heard the scream and soon the shouting of the women who had witnessed it all. Naoki and Lori ran to the back only to be told of the tragedy.

 

They would need to take the plant to the morgue in order to get Kiyoshi’s remains. The authorities arrived and arranged just that. When everyone left, it was only Naoki and Lori in the lot. The grieving man took it out on his son’s wife.

“This is all your fault, you wretched woman! You took my son and derailed him from his path to greatness! Kiyoshi was doing great at work! He was going to be my heir! I will make sure you pay for what you did.”

Even though she had planned it all, Lori had not been even near Kiyoshi when the plant took him. The witnesses mentioned repeatedly how abrupt and unexpected the attack had been and how there was nothing to do by any of them. Lori knew that if Naoki took his suspicions to the law, the accusation would not stand.

Still, she preferred not to have to deal with the police in town, so she made a different proposition to the grieving father.

 

It was probably the grief that made Naoki Ito take Lori’s offer. Yeah, it was surely only that.

 

A little bit over a year and Lori found herself free from two of the three reasons that made her stay in Oasis Springs.

She could certainly endure four more years of that life, couldn’t she?