continued up the stairs, hearing the sound of water running. Amaya must be bathing, he thought as he finally hit the top landing. His feet sank into something soft and squishy. It felt like water. Why did the carpet feel like it is wet? He walked a little more and squished a little more all the way to their bedroom door. He turned the knob and entered the room. Something didn't seem right. Yori popped on the light in the bedroom. He slowly took in the scene and then landed on an open prescription bottle on the nightstand. He went over to it picked it up. It was a prescription for Amaya, but it was empty. The sound of water caught his attention again. His feet sank deeply into the squishy, wet carpet as he walked toward the bathroom door. Yori turned the knob and water met him at the door. The tub was overflowing, and the faucets were on full blast.
Yori hurried over to the tub and pulled back the curtain.
His eyes widened. Amaya? His wife lay in the tub and she appeared to be sleeping. He did a quick sweep of the situation.
"Amaya?" he called out to her.
No answer. Unresponsive.
Panic set in. "Amaya?" he called to her again.
No answer. Unresponsive. Wrists covered in blood.
"Oh, my God." Yori cried out as he realized the gravity of the situation. He reached into the tub and pulled out the plug.
He reached for his cell phone in his pocket and quickly dialed for emergency assistance.
"Hello," the operator said.
"Good evening. My name is Yori Morioka." He gave the operator his address. "I just came home and found my wife Amaya unconscious in a tub of water. Please send an ambulance quickly."
"Right away, Mr. Morioka." The call disconnected.
Yori went down on his knee beside the tub. Tears welled up in his eyes. "Why Amaya?" The last of the water went down the drain. He reached out and touched Amaya knowing he shouldn't disturb the scene. Her skin felt cool but still soft.
He heard the sound of the ambulance blaring outside. He couldn't let them see her like this. He dashed into the bedroom for something to cover her with. That's when he spotted a piece of notepaper on the bed. Yori reached for it and read it. He sighed deeply. Written in Amaya's perfect penmanship was the sentence, "Yori, I'm sorry. Amaya." Yori buried the paper into his pocket, dashed back into the bathroom, and covered Amaya's naked body and then he ran through the wet slippery bedroom to let the paramedics in.
"She's in the tub upstairs, first bedroom on the right," he told the two men.
They bowed quickly, hurried into the house and up the stairs.
Time seem to go very slowly after that. The next thing he remembered was an officer speaking with him as the paramedics worked on Amaya in the ambulance.
"Can you tell us what happened?" one of the officers asked him.
"I came home and found her in the tub," Yori told the officer.
"Did you and your wife have an argument?"
"No," he lied. He didn't know why.
"Has she ever attempted suicide before?"
Suicide? What is he implying? "No," Yori answered. "She's normally a very happy person."
The officer lifted two plastic evidence bags. One contained the empty prescription bottle. "She took barbiturates.
Doctor's don't normally prescribe this for happy people. "
Amaya had a prescription for barbiturates? Why? Yori gazed over into the ambulance as the paramedics tried to resuscitate his wife.
"We have to get her to the hospital," one of the paramedics told police. "We need Mr. Morioka to accompany his wife."
"Yes, of course," the officer said, stepping aside to let Yori get into the back of the ambulance. "We'll follow you to the hospital."
Yori sat down and gazed over at Amaya. She looked so peaceful.
One of the paramedics climbed out the back of the ambulance and closed and secured the doors. The one left inside with him bandaged Amaya's wrists and covered her with a warm blanket. Amaya was still alive, but also still unconscious. Why had she done this? Of course he already knew the answer. It was because of him and his undying love for his best friend's wife. I'm sorry, Amaya. This is all my fault, honey. Please don't die.
The monitor played a long beep.
"She's flatlining," the paramedic told him.
"Flatlining?" Yori asked, still trying to comprehend the gravity of the situation.
"Her heart has stopped." The paramedics grabbed the defibrillator and put it against Amaya's chest.
Yori couldn't watch. He just covered