by Yoru Sumino
“So it takes love to make a picture like this?”
“Yes. Only someone who gives their all could make something so truly amazing.”
Although I cannot remember it, that must have been why I was so moved by Minami-san’s story, I thought. Then it occurred to me that there was someone I wished to ask about.
“People who are talented and love what they do shouldn’t be embarrassed about it.”
“You had a friend like that, didn’t you?”
“He’s not my friend. But he does draw. He seems really embarrassed about it, though. Hey, Granny, what is the person who drew that picture doing now?”
“He’s living in another country with his family.”
“I see. For some reason I thought he might’ve been your lover.”
I was still unable to take my eyes off of the painting, so I have no idea how she seemed then, but I could tell by her tone that she was enjoying talking with me.
“And why is that?”
“Because it says ‘love’ right here.”
I pointed to the right-hand corner of the picture. I could not read English, but I could decipher that much at least. The English word that was written there, I was certain, was “love.”
However…
“Hee, Nacchan, that doesn’t say ‘love.’ Love is spelled ell-oh-vee-ee. This is ell-eye-vee-ee. It’s pronounced ‘live.’”
I got as close as I could to the picture and, surely enough, Live was written there. Also, although I did not know the meaning, were the letters em-ee.
“Live…what?”
“Live Me. Me means yourself. Together it means ‘Let me live,’ though actually the grammar is wrong. It’s the artist’s signature. A bit of a joke.”
Not knowing English, I did not get the joke. I could only tilt my head.
“Life really is like a diet.”
“You get results through effort?”
“No, things aren’t any fun when you’re too dense. Not when it comes to fashion or jokes.”
“I see!”
“Yep. So I need to get smarter.”
“You will. Now then, let’s do something that’s just as important as studying. Can I ask you to do a job for me?”
“A job? What is it?” I asked.
She smiled at me devilishly and held something up. My face lit up with joy—I knew exactly what it was for.
“Shave me some ice. In summer, eating shaved ice is an important as doing homework, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely!”
Apparently, she had been up on the second floor, searching for the shaved ice machine. It was no wonder I had been unable to find her.
With the smell of that wonderful drawing still lingering in my nostrils, we decided to move to the cool living room and make our shaved ice there. We retrieved a square-shaped block from the bottom shelf of Granny’s freezer, and I shaved with all my might. Granny prepared the syrup and spoons, while Miss Bobtail circled around in amusement, as though she had never seen shaved ice before. Finally, she plopped down on her behind, looking around.
I poured bright red syrup onto the mountain of fresh, snowy ice. I loved every flavor, but today I felt like strawberry. Granny seemed to be of the same mind, and the two of us ate together, dyeing our tongues red. As for my golden-eyed friend, although I had gone to the trouble of pouring syrup for her too, she only seemed to be interested in the parts without it, and so I shaved some more off the block onto a plate. Soon, she was happily licking the heap, lost in her own satisfaction. Perhaps she merely wished to avoid staining her little tongue.
As we ate our ice, I told Granny all about everything that had been happening, including what Skank-san had told me. I thought that Granny might be able to give me some answer, but she only said the same thing as Skank-san.
“Hmm, well, let’s see… I think this really is something that you have to think about on your own.”
“I know that. That’s why I came to ask you for a hint.”
“A hint, hm?”
Granny sipped the tea she had prepared to settle her stomach. I thought about it, wondering what sort of hint I should ask for. Meanwhile, my sun-basking friend lay beside me, thinking of nothing at all.
“Say, Granny. Your friend, the one who painted that picture. What kind of person was he?”
“Hm?”
“My classmate, the one who hasn’t been coming to school? He likes drawing pictures, too. I figured you might know a lot about people who draw.”
“I see.” She smiled, even more warmly than Skank-san. “Like other artists, this friend of mine was an incredibly delicate person. Artists hurt easily, and are weaker than others in many ways.”
“I know plenty about that.”
“But they are also kinder and more pure than almost anyone else. People who make art can see the world clearly. The good and the bad things come to them more directly than to anyone else. The pictures they draw aren’t like photos. When you look at them, you see how the world looks to them.”
I tried thinking of the pictures I had seen in my life, and of Kiriyuu-kun’s drawings. They were like magic. I certainly did not see the world that way. Still, if the painting in Granny’s bedroom reflected the true shape of the world, then the world might truly be a beautiful place.
“There could never be pain or sadness in such a beautiful world,” I said.
“Yes, that’s true. And yet, there are pain and sadness in this world, aren’t there? In truth, such places could never exist in our world. Artists know that. That what is why they feel pain and hurt so much more strongly.”
I thought of Kiriyuu-kun’s face when he was being ridiculed. Somehow or other, I think I understood just what Granny was saying.
“Even if that wasn’t true, it’s only human nature that the bad things linger in our hearts longer than the good.”
Indeed, what I witnessed at the supermarket and the sight of Kiriyuu’s eyes were etched deeply into my heart, more so than all the wonderful things that had happened in the days since.
Then I thought of Minami-san’s tears. “Is it the same for people who write stories?”
“Yes, probably. However, I think that people who draw are even lonelier than people who write. Stories are made of words, aren’t they? Words are far easier to convey than images.”
“I think I’ll go for the stories, then. I want to be able to share what’s in my heart directly… Yep, there’s no other path for me.”
As I stood up, holding my shaved ice dish and filled with determination, Granny gave an elegant laugh. “Did you find something?”
“Yeah. I promised Hitomi-sensei that I’d be the ally of that cowardly artist. First off, I’ve got to tell him that.”
“If that’s your decision, then I approve. However, there’s a chance that boy might be less cowardly than you think.”
“Hitomi-sensei said the same thing. He really is a coward, though. Spineless, too. He can’t even say how he feels.”
And yet, when he looked at me, I felt like his eyes were conveying his true emotions.
That evening, after I returned home from Granny’s, I could not get Kiriyuu-kun off my mind, even as I ate dinner, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed. There’s no way to know everything about someone else, so you have to think about it. But no matter how hard I thought, all I could think of was our differences. I could not find one single way in which we were the same, as Skank-san had implied.
Besides, there was still one thing that I desperately needed to consider: How should I tell him that I was his ally? By letter? By phone? I couldn’t text him, since I did not have a cell phone.
And so…
Chapter 7
THE NEXT DAY, after morning announcements, I called after Hitomi-sensei and presented her with the decision I had made the night before. “I’ll take the handouts over to Kiriyuu-kun’s house for you today. There’s something that I need to tell him.”
She appeared troubled at this proposal. That made se
nse—she assumed I was part of the reason that Kiriyuu had stopped coming to school. Although she wouldn’t say it, I knew that was true.
“You said I should be his ally, didn’t you? An ally of justice should never stop being an ally just because someone won’t come to them. They go to the aid of the weak.”
I refrained from adding “Obviously the idiots in our class are the bad guys.”
But Hitomi-sensei still appeared troubled. I began thinking about what I ought to do should my proposal be rejected, and thought I would just go to Kiriyuu-kun’s house anyway. After all, Hitomi-sensei had said herself that adults were not always correct.
Of course, that did not mean that I was any more correct, just because I was a child. I knew that the decision Hitomi-sensei had come to meant she had decided to have faith in me.
“All right. You can take the handouts today.”
“I will honor that duty!”
“Good, but I’d like you to promise me three things.”
She made a serious face and held up three fingers. It was the sort of serious face that I loved on her. I was sure that she was thinking of both me and Kiriyuu-kun from the bottom of her heart.
“First, if you manage to see Kiriyuu-kun, I want you to tell him that I will always be waiting for him.”
I was stunned. “You haven’t seen him?”
“No, he still hasn’t wanted to see me.”
“He really is completely spineless.”
As I said this, she folded down a second finger. “That’s number two. You mustn’t go after him. Attacking someone is not part of being their ally. So you absolutely must not try to force him to come to school.”
This made sense to me. It was the duty of an ally of justice to scold naughty children, and although Kiriyuu-kun was spineless, he was not naughty. And so, I could not attack him.
“And the last one?”
“Third, you have to promise not to call your classmates bad. Everyone is just as worried about Kiriyuu-kun as you are.”
I heard this, and I thought: She really is off the mark.
I wonder if she realized that the last promise was the only one that I did not nod to. When I returned to the classroom, I looked over the kids who were causing a ruckus. Everyone was passing the time as they always did, the usual vapid looks on their faces, as though Kiriyuu-kun had never even been part of the class. No one else said anything about Kiriyuu or asked Hitomi-sensei about him. Not a single one. And so, her third request was a lie. An absolute falsehood.
I had no idea if this was a happy thing or a sad thing, but it soon became clear that day that I, although I was only a child, was not confused or mistaken.
At break, something occurred that left me speechless.
“What? Why would you do somethin’ like that for a thief’s kid? Do you like him or something?”
I was copying my notes onto a sheet of paper when this idiot boy spoke up, his stupid face pulled into a grin. Just as he had suggested, I was doing this for Kiriyuu-kun. If I am going to his house anyway, I might as well share the lesson with him in my nice, neat handwriting, I thought.
I somehow managed to pull my cutting words back into my mouth, sighed, and answered his question. “Yes, I do like him, at least more than I like you all. He’s a weakling, but he’s great at drawing.”
“He’s weak because he’s always drawin’.”
That might be true, I thought, recalling what Granny had said, but I could not allow an idiot to hurt others simply because they said one thing with some truth to it. I ignored him and continued copying my notes.
The idiot made a face, as though his nonexistent pride had been hurt. “Don’t ignore me!”
When I continued to do just that, he snatched away the paper I had been copying and raised his arm, holding it up for the class to see.
“She’s in love with Kiriyuu!” he shouted.
Everyone in the classroom turned our way, muttering. The idiot looked at me, his eyes burning with a victorious pride, as if he had somehow claimed a victory. How utterly revolting. I heaved a deep sigh and prepared to teach this boy the depths of his own idiocy.
“I know you’re excited to show the class just how stupid you are, so give it back already.”
I stood to take the paper from his hand, but he twisted, holding it away from me. Anyone who looked at this scene would have been able to tell at a glance which of us was in the wrong. Any one of them could have persuaded him to give the paper back. One of the kids behind him could have just taken it from him and given it back themselves.
However, no one did any such thing. Even though they all knew that Kiriyuu-kun was away, and that I was always fighting on his behalf, they did nothing. That was how I knew that Hitomi-sensei had lied.
I sighed and asked the idiot, “You won’t give it back?”
The boy ignored me. I had promised Hitomi-sensei. I would not attack my allies.
“Since you won’t give it back, I guess that makes you a thief.”
In other words, it was fine to attack an enemy.
The idiot glared at me, his face going bright red.
“You know what ‘thief’ means, don’t you? You must, given how many times you’ve said it. A thief is someone who takes something that belongs to someone else without asking, right? Then I guess you’re a thief, too. And while I don’t know if Kiriyuu-kun’s father really did steal something, since I didn’t see it happen, I know for sure that you are a thief. See, right there, you took something of mine, didn’t you?”
His face grew redder and redder. At this rate I thought he might just explode. However, I was not finished. If he did explode, I would just have to apologize.
“Stealing is bad, isn’t it?” I said. “You attacked Kiriyuu-kun because you think so too, right? In that case, let’s go along with what you were saying before. If Kiriyuu-kun’s father being a thief makes him a thief too, then I guess that makes everyone in your family thieves! What a dreadful family! Your mother, your father, everyone, all thieves. Maybe even your grandma and grandpa, too? If just being associated with someone bad makes you bad too, then maybe your friends are all thieves! No wait, I wonder if just being in the same room as you would make someone a thief? Then I guess maybe I’m a thief now too. That really sucks. I’m not like you.”
“Shut up!”
The moment the boy’s shrill voice reached my ears, something else happened. I saw the boy falling away from me. No, it was me who was falling. I could see the ceiling above me. It took a moment to realize what was happening. I sat there, dumbfounded, as the pain of the blow reached my brain. My chair fell down on its side as well. Perhaps I had pulled it with me.
Anyone who saw this would know right away: this was assault. Violence. Something we were taught never to do.
As I stood up, thinking to admonish him, something struck me softly in the head. I picked it up and spread it out, only to find that it was the paper I had been using to copy notes for Kiriyuu-kun.
“Everyone hates you,” said the boy.
He had taken something from me, destroyed it, and even physically attacked me. On top of all that, he was insulting me. If anyone could watch over this scene and say I was the one in the wrong, they were crazy. Surely someone will come to my aid, I thought.
And yet, though they had been sitting there the whole time, not a single person stepped up to offer their hand or comfort me.
What Hitomi-sensei had said really was a lie. And so I, who always spoke my mind, said precisely what I was thinking, loud enough that everyone could hear.
“You’re all thieves.”
As though to stop the reverberating of my words, the bell rang, signaling the end of break.
After afternoon announcements, with the handouts for Kiriyuu in hand, I headed straight out of the building, not stopping to receive a candy from Shintarou-sensei, who sat beside Hitomi-sensei in the faculty room. I did not offer a single word of greeting to any of my classmates as I passed them. Instead, I met up wi
th my furry friend near my home, then headed to Kiriyuu-kun’s house.
I knew where he lived already. I had run into him along the street before. Once I was in the general area, I just had to look at the nameplates.
Among the rows of identical single-family homes, there was only one with “Kiriyuu” written in front of it. I remembered how the surname was written in kanji, because I had previously remarked on how cool it looked.
“Koyanagi is cooler, though,” I said to myself, pressing the doorbell of the house.
I waited for about a minute, but it did not seem as though anyone was coming. I pressed it a second time, but got the same result.
I could not imagine that Kiriyuu-kun was out. Even I, when I stayed home sick, refused to go out—not wanting to run into the people who were still going to school. Kiriyuu-kun certainly did not have the courage.
Maybe he didn’t want to see me. I pressed the button a third time, considering how I ought to spend the next minute, when finally a voice came from the speaker connected to the doorbell.
“Hello…?”
Although the voice had little life to it, I could tell it was Kiriyuu-kun’s mother, having heard her speak on class observation day.
“Good afternoon! I’m Kiriyuu-kun’s classmate. I came to bring him some handouts!”
“Ah…thank you, just a moment.”
I waited obediently, and soon Kiriyuu-kun’s mother opened the front door.
“Wait here a minute,” I told my little friend, sitting at my feet and licking her fur.
I bowed my head to the woman.
“Good afternoon!”
“You’re Koyanagi-san, right? The one who sits next to Hikari.”
Although I had never spoken to her before, she seemed to know who I was. I wasn’t sure why that would be, but I was glad. Hikari was Kiriyuu-kun’s given name. Kiriyuu Hikari. Such an impressive name for someone like him.
“Usually, Hitomi-sensei brings these, but I guess that was your job today. Thank you.”
