Aki and Subaru shared a confused look.
‘When you guys said that, Aki, I thought they’d just opened it and I didn’t know about it, but when I went to check it out, there wasn’t one. I thought it was strange. Do you know it, Kokoro?’
‘I know the McDonald’s inside Careo.’
Kokoro had tried to avoid that McDonald’s since kids from her school would probably be hanging out there.
‘What about the truck selling things from Mikawa Market? It’s been coming to the park near my house a couple of times a week ever since I was little,’ Kokoro asked.
‘It’s A Small World’ swirled around in her head.
The little truck blasting out the song from her favourite ride at Disneyland.
It seemed like ages since she’d heard that tune. It had always made her feel low when she heard it sitting alone at home, during the day. Since she’d started coming to the castle, she hadn’t heard it.
‘I don’t know. Maybe it doesn’t stop by our neighbourhood.’
‘But Fuka, didn’t we go to the same elementary school? Elementary School No. 1? I thought the truck drove around that area.’
She’d been convinced that Fuka lived nearby. They’d never actually met, but she’d always found this encouraging.
‘It comes near me. It plays “Small World”, doesn’t it?’ Aki said.
‘Yes!’ said Kokoro.
‘My grandmother used to do her shopping there,’ Aki said. ‘She said it was so helpful.’
‘I think it comes around our area too,’ Ureshino said. ‘But it doesn’t play music. And it’s not really a truck, more of a van, isn’t it? The one that sells vegetables and things? A lot of elderly people can’t make it to the supermarket. My mother always times it so she can do her shopping there. She can’t drive, and so it’s awkward for her to go to the supermarket.’
Ureshino seemed to be describing something a little different from what Kokoro and Aki knew.
‘And then there’s the date,’ Masamune said.
Kokoro and the others looked puzzled. Ureshino chimed in. ‘Listen, Masamune, the date you gave us to go into school, the tenth of January, that wasn’t actually the day of the opening ceremony.’
That’s true, thought Kokoro.
Then Ureshino said something startling.
‘It was a Sunday, wasn’t it?’
‘What?’ The word got stuck halfway up her throat. She gave Ureshino a surprised look and he looked back, confused.
‘I haven’t been going into school so I’ve sort of lost any sense of what day of the week it is, so I made a mistake. When I told my mother I was going to school the next day, she laughed and told me it was a Sunday. I thought you’d all made a mistake, but I went in anyway, and the entrance was shut, so I waited half the day in front of the gate.’
‘No way!’ Kokoro said, but Ureshino was looking dazed.
‘It’s true,’ he said.
When she saw his look, Kokoro was convinced.
Ureshino, having been beaten up a few months previously, risked it happening all over again, and Kokoro had admired his courage in going back. But if it had been a Sunday, well, that changed things.
She was suddenly feeling very confused.
Even if he had waited outside the gate, there would have been students in clubs coming in and out, and so that really took guts to hang around there.
‘I figured Masamune had made a mistake about the date, so I thought I’d better come back on Monday, but my mother told me Monday was Coming-of-Age Day and school was out. Two days off in a row. So then I really couldn’t work out what was going on.’
‘Eh? Coming-of-Age Day is the fifteenth, isn’t it? I didn’t think it was a two-day holiday,’ Subaru said.
‘The days of the week are a little out, for all of us,’ said Masamune.
They blinked in surprise.
‘In my world the opening ceremony was the tenth of January, but for some of you it wasn’t, right?’
‘The opening ceremony’s one thing, but I thought Coming-of-Age Day would be the same for everyone,’ Aki said, and looked to the others for confirmation.
Subaru nodded. ‘In my world, the opening ceremony was the tenth of January. The same as Masamune.’
Masamune and Subaru’s eyes met.
‘Everyone was really surprised since I hadn’t been to school for so long. Though no one actually spoke to me.’
‘You turn up all of a sudden with that hair colour – maybe you scared ’em?’
‘I went over to your class, Masamune. Eighth grade, Classroom 6. But the kids there said there wasn’t any student with your name in their class.’
Masamune was taken aback. After a moment he said, ‘Thank you. So you came over to my class …’
‘Yeah.’
‘Thanks.’
‘You’re welcome.’
‘About that …’ Fuka ventured, raising her hand hesitantly. She was addressing Masamune. ‘You said you were in Class 6 of eighth grade, no? I’m in Class 3, and once when I said there were only four classes in eighth grade you got a bit cross, remember? But this time when I checked it was true – there are only four classes in eighth grade. There’s no such thing as the sixth class you said you’re in.’
We’re in different worlds – Masamune’s words now seemed all the more believable. There was no other way to explain it.
‘Listen.’ Above the chat, someone raised their voice.
It was Rion, who’d kept quiet till now. Rion’s world was in Hawaii, in Honolulu.
Kokoro suddenly remembered that Rion and Ureshino were in the same grade, in the same elementary school, but didn’t recall each other.
That in itself was pretty strange. Back when the subject came up, she should have thought how odd it was. She’d explained it away by telling herself that Rion and Ureshino moved in totally different circles.
Thinking about it now, she felt disappointed in herself. If that’s how stupid I can be, I might very well not be able to get on properly like ordinary kids.
‘I can be a bit slow, and don’t exactly understand all that stuff about parallel worlds,’ Rion said, ‘but what you’re saying is we can never meet up in the outside world?’
The others were silent, their faces solemn.
‘Yep,’ Masamune nodded after a while.
We could all help each other.
Kokoro remembered Masamune’s words, his eyes tearful and pleading.
‘You mean we can’t help each other?’ Rion asked.
Masamune was silent for a time. Everyone turned their gaze on him. ‘That’s right,’ he said. ‘We can’t help each other.’