THE PERFUME ASSAULT

I believe every man has experienced this once or twice in his life: a woman has daubed on too much perfume, having no intention to do so but in all innocence has done so, and slowly ruins what might have been a wonderful sexual encounter.

With this in mind I append part of chapter 10 from my novella, Crucibles of Passion, where the narrator encounters such a situation, made even worse by a language barrier.



The door of her house slid open, "Konnichiwa," (hello) Miyako said, bowing. I bowed, removed my shoes and followed her into her house. Once in, we walked over a small humped bridge into an area with rocks and a waterfall. Steam rose steadily from a wide shallow spa below the waterfall. A strong floral scent began assailing my nostrils.

The floral scent was very strong and soon I realized it was coming from Miyako. Shaking out a bath towel for me and handing it to me, invisible waves of perfume seemed to float off her kimono to clamp a nearly asphyxiating mask over my face. Doubtless also the steam was whirling the scent about, holding it, condensing it.

I said, "Your perfume is too strong."

She merely smiled and nodded as if I had complimented her. I remembered then she couldn't speak a word of English.

I held my nose and waved disapprovingly at her body. She smiled coyly, untied her kimono, exposing her flesh to me, in demure submission to what she thought was my request.

"Your perfume is too strong. Perfume no good," I tried again. This time she jutted her very full, very firm, very large, perfectly formed breasts towards me. I started coughing and backed away.

My endless days of poring over my Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary weren't spent in vain. I suddenly remembered the word for perfume--kosui. "Nai kosui! Nai kosui! " I barked. But was I giving it the right intonation?

"Ah!" she said, her hands flying upward then down again in sorrow till she embraced me and patted me with consoling gestures. Then she hurried into another part of the house.

She came back with a vial whose contents she shook into the sleeves of her kimono and then opening her kimono she shook more into its deep recesses and along her body. Then she poured some more into her her palm, set the vial down and rubbed her palms together, after which she pressed her fingers hard against my nose.

"Christ! Dear Jesus!" I yelled, but this only made her hug me all the more passionately as if I had cried "Oh Darling!"

I broke away from her and spun towards the spa. I knew the only resolution to the problem would be for both of us to enter the water.

I stripped quickly and lowered myself in. She laughed high and merrily like a young girl. I was waiting for her to tear her kimono off and join me, but she bent down and pulled me back to the edge, quietly kneading my shoulders in that obsequious way Japanese girls have of trying to please the male.

I reached back and flung her over me, kimono and all, into the water.I splashed water all over her, skimming my hands in a cleansing motion under her kimono, down her arms, breasts and legs pretending I was trying to tickle her, actually trying to tug her kimono off. I finally pulled her out of it and tossed it onto the floor in a sodden heap. "Nai kosui!" I yelled triumphantly and held my nose then pointed a finger at her. "Nai nai kosui," I said.

Her mouth hung open in astonishment. "Ah! Nai kosui!" she laughed, so hard and embarrassedly she had to keep slapping her hands up to her mouth in self-rebuke. Recovering, she flung her arms around my neck and clucked shamefully, vowing "Nai kosui! Nai kosui!"

I lifted her out of the water, then raising her close against me I slowly eased it in. I pushed it up rung by rung as she let fly her merry moans and voluptuous hisses.