The House of the Sleeping Beauties by Yasunari Kawabata

hear the sound of waves, but the cold of the night would be harsher than here. He asked himself what they were, the two breasts in his hands. They would still be coursing with warm blood when he himself was dead. And what did that fact mean? He put a certain sluggish strength into his hands. There was no response, for the breasts too were deep in sleep. When, in her last hour, he had stroked his mother's bosom, he had of course felt her withered breasts. They had not been like breasts. He did not remember them now. What he remembered was groping for them and going to sleep, one day when he was still an infant.
    Old Eguchi was finally being pulled to sleep. He brought his hands from the girl's breasts into a more comfortable position. He turned toward the dark girl, because hers was the strong scent. Her rough breath hit his face. Her mouth was slightly open.
    "A crooked tooth. A pretty one." He took it between his fingers. She had large teeth, but this one was small. Had her breath not been coming at him, Eguchi might have kissed the tooth. The strong scent interfered with his sleep, and he turned away. Even then her breath hit the nape of his nape of his neck. She was not snoring, but she seemed to put her voice into her breathing. He hunched his shoulders and brought his cheek to the forehead of the fair girl. She was perhaps frowning, but also seemed that she was smiling. The oily skin of the dark girl was unpleasant behind him. It was cold and slippery. He fell asleep.
    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.