Penguin Highway

by Tomihiko Morimi

  “Are you sick?”

  “Just a little dizzy.”

  The lady closed her eyes, furrowing her brow.

  Listening to her ragged breathing, I remembered another time we’d taken a train and gotten off along the way. I felt like something bad would happen if we stayed on this train.

  “Let’s not go to the sea today.”

  She looked displeased. “Why? I just need a short rest, and…”

  “It’s not good to force yourself. I believe we should cancel it today.”

  I pulled the lady off the train at the station before the tunnel. A train going the other way was idling on the other side of the empty platform. “We don’t need to go back,” she said, but I pulled her right across and onto the other train.

  And we went home, watching all the same scenery flowing the other way.

  We got off at the station in town, and while we were on the bus, the lady didn’t say much. Neither did I.

  We got back to the bus terminal around eleven.

  The bus did a U-turn to go back to the station, and then the terminal was empty. The lady sat on the bench in the waiting room, resting. I sat next to her drinking tea from a thermos. I offered her some cold tea, but the lady shook her head. I’d never seen her look this bad before. It was extremely hot in the waiting room, and my sweat flowed like water.

  Eventually, the lady stood up. She staggered and grabbed my shoulder for support. I stood my ground, trying to keep her from falling. “I was feeling great this morning,” she said. “Sorry we couldn’t go.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You’re a real gentleman. But kids are allowed to be more self-serving.”

  “I’m not a kid.”

  “You are so!” she said, grinning weakly. “Let’s try again tomorrow.”

  “I think we should wait a little longer.”

  The lady bought a can of Coke from the vending machine and held it to her forehead. Then she stood staring absently up at the blue sky like the penguin in the clearing.

  “Summer vacation’s ending, right?”

  “No matter how fun something is, it always has an end.”

  “Truth.”

  And with that, she started walking away.

  I hurried after her, providing support.

  The asphalt was hot enough to fry an egg on. Our shadows were jet-black.

  When we reached the middle of the terminal, she let go of my shoulder and crouched down. I crouched down, too, rubbing her back. Her body was as cold as the asphalt was hot. Cold like ice. There were drops of sweat on her pale, smooth forehead.

  Her face down, she groaned aloud.

  A drop of sweat fell from the lady’s brow, gleaming on the asphalt. The sweat drop stood on the surface of the asphalt like a marble. As I stared, the sweat drop slowly began to move. But that was just an illusion—in actuality, the asphalt the sweat drop was sitting on was moving.

  My hand on the lady’s back, I looked up.

  All around us, the terminal asphalt was moving like soft clay—a whirlpool centered on us. It made no sound at all. The speed of the flow created several different rings, like a Baumkuchen cake. In time, these different layers started rising and falling, like waves. The soft, smoothly flowing asphalt was gleaming like it was wet. It felt like we were in a caramel factory.

  All manner of things began peeking out between the waves of melted asphalt. Some looked like human hands and feet, others like gaping fish gills, complicated branching antlers, or large sets of wings. They joined together, came apart, rising to the surface of the asphalt and sinking again. It felt like something was trying to crawl out of the asphalt, but it couldn’t decide on the form to take.

  Part of the asphalt rose up, looking like the back of a small whale. Several more appeared, swimming in circles around the lady and me. Horns grew on their backs, wings sprouted, arms and legs popped out.

  Her voice hoarse, the lady whispered, “Jabberwock.”

  All I could do was observe this sinister phenomenon.

  I don’t know how long it took, but eventually, the phenomenon subsided, and the asphalt went back to normal. Leaving almost no trace of any of this activity behind.

  “What’s wrong with me?” she whispered. She covered her face with both hands. “So many weird things. In the middle of the night, creatures race out of my apartment into the forest. Wet, pattering feet crawling on four legs. They’re so scary.”

  “Jabberwocks?”

  “I dunno. I’m always asleep. I just hear them leaving.”

  “You’re making the Jabberwocks.”

  “Unconsciously. What does that mean, kiddo?”

  I couldn’t begin to say.

  The morning my father set out for France, the town was blanketed by an extremely thick fog.

  I walked with him to the bus terminal to see him off. He had a new suitcase he’d bought at the mall. My sister was still asleep, so my mother stayed home.

  The fog made us both wet, and the morning air was cold, like autumn was already here. As we walked down the bus route, the asphalt in the distance vanished into the fog. The trees along the road and the houses and the grass in the vacant lots and the vending machines were all buried in fog. The sunlight filtering through the fog gave everything a golden glow.

  “How long does it take to get to France?”

  “I’ll be on the plane for more than ten hours.”

  “I want to go to France someday.”

  “What presents should I bring back?”

  “I’d like a notebook. A foreign notebook like Hamamoto uses.”

  “Well, I’ll make sure to buy one, then.”

  We walked on through the fog. Despite the suitcase, my father walked very quickly. It was so heavy, I couldn’t even lift it. My father was extremely strong.

  “Is your research going well?” he asked.

  I thought about it. “I know that all the problems are actually one big problem.”

  “I’m going to be gone for three weeks. If you have any questions for me, you’d better ask them now.”

  “I don’t know what I should ask.”

  “Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.”

  “I know everything is connected, but I don’t understand how they’re connected. Everything is extremely complicated, and I can’t form a hypothesis.”

  “Take a big piece of paper and write down everything you think is connected. Everything that baffles you, all the little discoveries you’ve made. Everything important on one piece of paper. And write it all down in the smallest letters you can.”

  “Why the smallest?”

  “So you can see everything important in a single glance. You’ll want to look everything over again and again. Asking yourself which notes are related to which, playing with different structures in your head. Keep thinking. When you’re eating, when you’re walking; make it so your notes all go flying around in your head whenever you need them. And get plenty of sleep every day.”

  “And that’ll help me figure it out?”

  “At some point, all sorts of things will suddenly fit together. One note will connect to another note, and then those will pull in yet another note. Then…eureka.”

  “But what if I still don’t understand?”

  “Then go have fun until you do. Sometimes you just need to stop and play.”

  “Then I’ll try that.”

  We reached the bus terminal.

  In the fog, the terminal seemed extremely sad. It was hard to make out either the stop itself or the waiting room. I could barely see the trees behind the terminal at all. The road running past had so much fog on it, I was worried that the bus would never come at all.

  As we waited for the bus, a figure came toward us through the fog. Strolling casually, like she was just out for a walk. “It’s the lady,” I said, surprised.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Good morning. Out for a walk?” my father asked.

  “That and seeing you off. Aoyama
told me all about his father’s trip to France yesterday. Make sure you look after things while he’s gone, Aoyama.”

  “I will.”

  My father took a closer look at her. “You’re looking better,” he said. “I was definitely worried after seeing you in the café the other day.”

  “Unfortunately, yesterday I tried to take Aoyama to the ocean and got too tired on the way.”

  “Well, if he’s ever asking too much…”

  “I never ask too much!”

  “My son does get a little too absorbed in his research.”

  “It doesn’t bother me,” she said. “Does he worry you sometimes?”

  “I’m always worried about him. But at this point, it’s just the way he is, so I can’t really count it among my top concerns. By the way, it seems like he’s grappling with a pretty major problem these days.”

  “I know.”

  “But some problems are better left unsolved.”

  “Really?”

  “If the problem he’s tackling turns out to be one of those, it could prove extremely harmful. That’s what worries me most.”

  My father was speaking in riddles.

  We heard an engine noise, and the lady turned around.

  A large shuttle bus was slowly approaching down the foggy road. It felt very strange that a bus to the airport came all the way to the stop at the edge of our town. I thought it would be wonderful to someday get on a bus like this that would take me on a journey to outer space.

  The driver got out and helped my father stow his suitcase in the undercarriage.

  “I’m off!” my father said. He put his hand on my head.

  “See you soon,” I said.

  When the bus drove away, the lady and I walked away through the fog. “It’s like the whole town is the ends of the earth,” she said. Then she saw me fiddling with my loose tooth. “Want me to yank that for you?” she asked.

  “I’m fine. I’ll get it out myself.”

  We’d had a very similar conversation once before. It was recorded accurately in my notebook. That was back in May, when the penguins were first appearing, and I first started studying the Penguin Highway. One hundred and thirteen days had passed since then. An extremely large number of things had happened, so I felt as if I had experienced much more than 113 days’ worth of growth.

  “Kiddo, you still can’t solve the mystery?”

  “It will take a little longer.”

  “Well, I’m waiting.”

  We split up in front of my house.

  The lady walked quickly off into the fog. I fiddled with my tooth, watching her go. Just after she vanished from view, she said something. “What?” I called after her, but she just kept walking. I don’t know what she said.

  I stood surrounded by thick fog, wiggling my tooth. Suddenly, it came out, and the taste of blood filled my mouth.

  I put the tooth on my palm and made observations, then went inside.

  Summer vacation ended, the new semester began, and immediately, school was plunged into chaos.

  Why? Because Suzuki had captured a strange creature nobody had ever seen before and brought it to school with him. Kids from other classes kept coming to see it; packs of kids both older and younger all lined up for viewings. Even the teachers came by to look.

  The teachers examined the creature carefully, but no matter how you looked at it, it was clearly real. “That’s an amazing discovery,” one of them said. Other teachers were creeped out and ran away.

  Emperor Suzuki lorded it over everyone.

  He put the tank with the creature in it at the back of the classroom, showing it to anyone who came by. There was a constant ring of children around the case. Suzuki put a cloth over the tank, saying he didn’t want to scare it, and only showed a piece of it at a time. He told anyone who would listen the story of how he’d captured it on the athletic field.

  We lined up to see it, too, but when it was our turn, he quickly covered the tank and said, “Not you. This is our research.”

  “Everyone else is looking,” Hamamoto said. “Why not us?”

  “You wouldn’t share your research, would you? That’s why.”

  I had to admit Suzuki’s argument was logically sound.

  The commotion got bad enough that the teacher carried Suzuki’s tank to the faculty office. Even after the tank was gone, kids kept coming to see it and leaving disappointed. Suzuki sulked a bit, since he couldn’t brag about it anymore, but the teacher said, “We’ll have some researchers take a look at your discovery later,” so he got all proud again and bragged about that instead.

  “The teachers said it would be better to have important researchers investigate the creature,” Uchida reported. “If it really is a new species, they’ll announce it in the journals.”

  Based on stories collected from kids allowed to see the creature, I drew a speculative diagram in my notebook. It was about the size of a cat. Shaped like a whale, with a smooth, wet exterior. It had strange arms and legs. Like human arms and legs, only shorter. It had bat-like wings on its back. It sounded exactly like the creature Uchida and I had seen swallow a penguin in the forest, only much smaller.

  Hamamoto took a look at my sketch. “Do you think the lady made this?” she asked.

  “It’s a Jabberwock,” I whispered. “The lady definitely made it.”

  News that Suzuki had captured a mysterious creature spread rapidly through our neighborhood. By the time I got home from school, even my mother knew.

  “I hear Suzuki discovered an unusual creature,” she said as we ate our snacks.

  “He did. He brought it to school today and caused extreme chaos.”

  “What was it like?”

  I showed my mother the sketch and explained it to her. She frowned.

  “Oh dear. That is one sinister creature. I wonder if this is what was spotted wandering around the meeting hall.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “First the penguins and now these. I don’t get why people abandon their pets like that.”

  Clearly, my mother didn’t think this was an unknown species that couldn’t be found in any illustrated guide. My mother hadn’t read those guides from cover to cover the way I had.

  I spent the entire day with an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, one that left me unable to relax at all. I was usually very calm, so this was a new sensation. Hamamoto called, and we went out to the observation station. I called Uchida, too.

  We met at the water-tower hill and cut through the Jabberwock Woods.

  When we reached the clearing, we were so surprised, we stopped in our tracks. The Sea was unbelievably swollen, to the point where nearly half the clearing was covered by The Sea. If it kept expanding at the current rate, in a few more days, our observation station would be inside it.

  We held an emergency meeting.

  “The Sea was waxing steadily,” Hamamoto said, showing her notes. “Why did it suddenly get this big?”

  “I think because there aren’t any penguins. Have you seen any in the clearing lately?”

  “Come to think of it, no.”

  “It’s because the Jabberwocks eat the penguins,” Uchida said. “I don’t like them.”

  “Is the creature you two saw really the same thing Suzuki’s group captured?”

  “The size is different, but I think they’re both Jabberwocks.”

  “Suzuki boasting so much about his discovery really got him a lot of attention. And now The Sea is suddenly huge. I’m sure the grown-ups will come and find out about our research.”

  “The fact that our secret hasn’t already been discovered is just good luck. We’ll have to prepare ourselves to turn our research on The Sea over to other people. It’s very sad, but we should provide them with all our experiment data. That will help the larger research project proceed.”

  “Do you think they’ll listen to us?”

  “I don’t know. It’s so mysterious.”

  “Aoyama, you said all the re
search was one thing, right?”

  “I’ve claimed that, yes.”

  “Then we’ll have to tell them about her, too. It’s the penguins that can destroy The Sea, and she’s the one that makes the penguins. Are you okay with that, Aoyama?”

  I couldn’t answer.

  What should we do?

  Suddenly, Hamamoto turned around, scowling at the forest. Glaring at the shadows of the trees. “Is that Suzuki?” she said sharply.

  “I don’t see anything,” Uchida said.

  “Just your imagination?” I suggested, but I wasn’t at all sure. It seemed highly likely that Suzuki would be so excited by his success capturing the creature that he’d come here to research The Sea next.

  Worried about the future of our research projects, we left the forest.

  The next day, the chaos was even worse.

  The creature Suzuki had captured was secured under lock and key at the back of the faculty office, and no students were allowed to see it. Only Suzuki and his minions were granted special permission to go in. After school, a university professor came and listened to their story. There were rumors a TV crew was going to come, too.

  After meeting with the professor, Suzuki left the faculty room and was immediately surrounded.

  “What did they ask?” But Suzuki just grinned. “Top secret,” he said. “If I blab about it, it could cause all sorts of problems.”

  As he tried to leave, we nabbed Suzuki in the hall.

  “Suzuki, what did you tell that professor?”

  “Top secret. Can’t breathe a word.”

  Hamamoto grabbed a fistful of his shirt.

  “You didn’t tell him about our research, did you?”

  Suzuki tried to look cool, but when Hamamoto fixed her big eyes on his, he avoided her gaze. “Only our discovery,” he mumbled. “Nothing else.”

  Then he brushed her hand away and ran off down the hall.

  “I don’t like it,” Hamamoto muttered.

  TV and newspaper reporters actually did come. They took pictures of Suzuki and the weird creature together and did interviews with him. Stories about the penguins from the spring were brought up again. Our town was suddenly in the limelight as the place where weird creatures appeared.