The boy must have had some regrets about it, too.
He was walking alone in the rain. He didn’t mind getting soaked. He walked along, passing people with their umbrellas up as he went, and examined every single umbrella.
This is the story of the objects of the city.
“In his case, I think we can find the boy right away.”
I asked around, describing the boy, and the objects of the city immediately told me where to find him.
“That boy spends the whole afternoon walking around town looking for something.”
“He’s passed down this road time and time again.”
“I’m sure he’ll be here before too long.”
And so I stood there waiting on the main avenue for the boy, holding Miss Umbrella above my head.
It wasn’t long before the boy appeared.
“……”
Maybe because he was exhausted from searching for so long, or maybe because he had already given up hope, the boy’s eyes were dark and gloomy looking.
He was moving slowly, with heavy steps. He seemed to be dragging his rain-soaked body along.
I wonder if he’s all right?
“You’ll catch a cold, you know. You shouldn’t be walking around at a time like this without an umbrella.”
Smiling at the boy, I let him stand under my umbrella.
As if she was snuggling up to her former owner, Miss Umbrella tilted toward him, protecting the boy from the rain.
“Say, miss, that umbrella, where did you—?”
“The world seems so confining when you’re young, doesn’t it?” I said, interrupting the bewildered boy. “Your values can be shaken by just a few words from your peers. Just a brief comment can make you feel like everything about you is wrong.”
Just like when your view is blocked by an umbrella, and you can only see one little sliver of the world. Even though there’s actually plenty of beautiful scenery to be seen on the other side of the umbrella.
“…Miss, who are you?”
“Heh-heh-heh, who could I be?”
In these circumstances, it doesn’t matter who I am.
“Let’s just say for now that I’m the Fairy of Lost Objects, shall we?”
“The Fairy of Lost Objects…” After looking back and forth between Miss Umbrella and me, the boy said, “Maybe you are…” From his reaction, he seemed confused. After that, he muttered quietly, “…Seems fishy.”
I heard that, you know.
Calling myself some sort of object fairy isn’t entirely incorrect, though.
Well, whatever.
“Is it really all that important how you look to others?” I asked the stray little boy. “Is it so important to you to make people like you?”
For example, just as the objects had a good understanding of the boy who couldn’t even hear their voices or converse with them, people could get to know others well without having any relationship with them at all.
“……”
The boy was silent.
I spoke to him again.
“You’ll wear yourself out if you only pay attention to what’s right in front of your eyes,” I said. Then I tried to put it another way. “Make sure you really look carefully at the people who are important to you.”
“……”
Though strictly speaking, Miss Umbrella is not a person.
“Whine…”
I felt certain that this boy was the one who could properly give the peculiar Miss Umbrella, who was cunningly crying in his hands, the proper affection.
“You take good care of her, okay?”
I wanted him to somehow understand, without me saying so, just how deeply Miss Umbrella cared for the boy and how anxious she was about being left behind.
“……”
Then the boy looked at the handle of the old umbrella he was grasping tightly with both hands and—
—held it overhead.
“Okay.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
Then he nodded.
In a world that opened up wide.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So that’s what happened while you were sleeping, Mistress Elaina. And that’s the reason why Miss Umbrella wound up back with the boy from before.”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
When my broom, who had vanished from our room at some point, returned, her hair was soaking wet, and as I handed her a towel, I asked, “Where did you run off to?”
In response, she gave me the full story, so I comprehended what had happened and nodded in understanding.
“When I woke up, the floor was a wet mess, so I figured something had happened. So that’s what it was, huh?”
“Oh? So you were asleep, then, Mistress Elaina?”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
I was stubbornly unwilling to admit it.
Who on earth could that rude witch be, falling asleep during a conversation? Oh no, I haven’t got the slightest clue.
“It seems like you’ve been awfully tired lately.”
As she blotted her hair with the towel, Miss Broom frowned with concern. I couldn’t help but think she ought to be more concerned about her own well-being.
Anyway, her concern was unnecessary.
“There’s just been a lot going on lately, you know, so I’ve been on my guard and haven’t really been able to sleep. Fwah…” I yawned as I said that. “But as far as I could tell from your story, it sounds like he’s quite a strange little boy.”
“Well, he is the owner of an umbrella that makes noises like a crying dog. In a certain sense, Miss Umbrella may have been a perfect match for the boy. Just as she needed him, I’m sure Miss Umbrella was also indispensable to the boy.”
“Well, that may be true, but I bet he must have been pretty confused when you handed him an umbrella the first time you ever met. You’ve got no room to complain if you get mistaken for some kind of creep.”
“……”
“I’m relieved you made it back here safely.”
“Mistress Elaina…! To think that you were worried about my safety…! What welcome words those are!”
She seemed really pleased, but—
No, no, that’s not how I meant it.
“If you weren’t around, I wouldn’t be able to travel anymore, you see.”