First was black, then white. They were flickering and mixing together— blackwhite blackwhite, blackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhiteblackwhite— Commonly called ‘the sandstorm,’ it was a phenomenon known only to CRT TVs; a nonsense image that felt like it could make someone go mad if they stared at it too long. Light and Darkness entangled, alternating and melting together.
I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore, so I tried to turn away.
“Oh?” But that would prove to be impossible. I can’t move. I don’t know what I’m trapped in or how, but I’m stuffed into somewhere cramped, and I can’t move. My arms were bent at weird angles and locked in place like I was dancing the Bon-Odori, but for some reason, my legs were properly sitting in seiza.
I looked like a new type of Buddhist statue, or like I was doing some sort of zen meditation from an obscure religion that nobody knows about. My entire body smells like rust. Probably something metal is stuck in here, I thought, as there’s something cold and hard stealing my body heat. It hurt, so I braced myself to at least try to move it, but it was useless.
“Urgh... What the hell is this?” I asked no one in particular, and there was no answer. Well, this isn’t friendly. In what was basically complete darkness, the only light being emitted came from the thing that was touching my face, which faintly illuminated the place. Apparently, it was a TV screen, but all I could hear coming from it was meaningless noise.
I’d like to at least change the channel, but there’s nothing even resembling a remote. It’s depressing, but even if I’d like to turn it off, there’s no buttons or switches on this thing that passes for a TV. In the first place, I can’t even move, so I have no way of influencing anything around me.
It might be because of static electricity, but the screen touching my face felt unpleasant, like a dusty blanket. Even so, I’m currently as powerless as a newborn, so there’s nothing I can do about it. Really, I wondered, what the hell is this, this situation where I’m basically in checkmate?
“Hrm...?” It’s not like today was supposed to be incredibly fantastic. In fact, I wasn’t expecting anything out of it. And I’m not really sure, but I don’t remember having done anything to warrant being driven into this unreasonable situation, right? God?
✦ ✦ ✦
Let’s try to remember what happened. It’s not like I’ve got anything else to do.
My name is Denkiya Hitomi, and other than my unfortunate name that I can’t do anything about, I am an incredibly average 2nd year high schooler with neither anything special to brag about, nor to illicit sympathy. My height is average, and my weight is a secret.
Either my ancestors chose this profession as a pun, or they liked managing electronics stores so much that they changed their name.
The town I live in is way out in the sticks, in the mountains, and we’re in the middle of a slowly progressing depopulation problem. Even if the major home electronics companies or electronics stores opened a store here, they’d only be in the red (although they’d surely have some business), so they haven’t come over to our neck of the woods.
Because of that, well...our store is the only one in town that deals with those sorts of things. Even though we’re just a small retail store under private management, we’re still stubbornly hanging on, even into the 21st century. Being established in the community sounds good and all, but that’s just because there are no other stores around.
That’s why, if you referenced an electronics store in town, it would be us, so just saying “Electronics store” works fine (and it’s also convenient). We take repair work for home appliances, too, and management of the store is going fairly well. Also, I’m often made to help out with tending the store and stuff.
Both my name and my family business are in sync, so at school I’m often asked if I can’t get the latest model of smartphone, or to fix any broken machinery...
Anyway. Today, at the request of my parents, I was tending the store on my precious day off.
My parents have a stupidly strong commercial spirit, so they like going to the city to check up on the latest releases in consumer electronics. At least, that’s the excuse. On the occasions they do go they’re probably just cutting loose and having fun. Mom and Dad are still madly in love, after all.
Well, even I’m not stupid enough to get in their way. And besides, just going to the city by train takes about half a day, so I couldn’t be bothered to go with them.
That being the case, I’m holding down the fort.
Besides light bulbs and batteries, we don’t stock anything like necessities that one would have to buy daily. So on slow days, the store is basically empty. The store was so empty, and I had so much time on my hands, that time felt as if it had slowed to a trickle.
I don’t have any particular hobbies, and tending the store is more or less a job, so I can’t just call my friends over to hang out... Committed to being alone, I passed the time by solving crossword puzzles, skimming thick books, and staring at the TV with my mouth open like an idiot.
I can’t actually remember what I was watching, but it should have been a boring afternoon spent slugging around aimlessly.