The next day, I was faced with a very difficult choice.
“Life is like a bowl of shaved ice. There’re so many good flavors to eat, but you can’t eat all of them. You’d get a tummy ache.”
I had to decide between Skank-san, Granny, and Minami-san. If I went to see all of them, I would run past the curfew my mother had set. I could only visit two places at most. It was as difficult as choosing between strawberry, lemon, and soda-flavored ice.
“So why’d you come here?” Minami-san asked, drinking a bottle of barley tea with a sullen look on her face.
“Oh? Well yesterday you said I should do whatever I liked,” I replied.
“Go play with your school friends.”
“I don’t have any school friends.”
“Seriously? You really are a loner, huh?”
“That’s not true. I do have friends. I have this little one, and you.”
“You can’t just decide I’m your friend.”
She looked at the sky and let out a snort. I mimicked this, watching a bird flying above. I thought about how difficult it would be to sleep in a bed if I had wings.
“I came here because I don’t know anything about you,” I said. “I want to learn more.”
“You don’t need to know anything about me.”
“That’s not true either. Life is like a Japanese-style breakfast.”
“What the heck does that mean?”
“There’s nothing that you don’t need to know about.”
“What are you talking about?” she said. “You’re really something.”
“I’m not something,” I said. “And I don’t want to be ‘something,’ I want to be more clever.”
“Weird for somebody so impressive to say they don’t want to be.”
“People who are impressive can’t make time to go out with their families on Mondays, can they? There’s no point in being that impressive.”
That was all I said, but…
“You talkin’ about your parents?”
I was surprised to hear her say this. She really did have a high schooler’s smarts. However, I was loath to nod in agreement, so I was silent. Minami-san huddled up again, wrapping her arms around her legs.
“Might not be such a good thing to be so clever after all.”
“That’s not true. I want to be super clever! There’s no way you can write a story without being sharp, right? I never knew that there was a tree called the ‘baobab’ before I read The Little Prince. I didn’t know there were talking roses, either.”
“There are no roses like that.”
“What? Are you saying baobabs aren’t real either?”
I began to grow uneasy. Not once in my whole life had I even seen a baobab tree. But then, Minami-san was a high schooler.
“Baobabs do exist. They’re big trees that take over a hundred years to grow. People say that they’re the biggest on Earth, and that they were some of the very first trees. I’ve also heard that God was angered by the baobab tree’s jealousy once and turned the tree upside down, which is why its branches look like roots.”
“Who was the baobab jealous of?”
“Of the palm tree, who was more slender; and the fig, with its fruits.”
I was deeply moved by this.
“That’s a unique and wonderful story. How like you, Minami-san.”
“There’re just myths. It’s not like I made up those stories.”
“Still, you’re much more clever than I am, if you know all these interesting stories. I hope I can grow even more clever so that I can know them too.”
“Hmph,” said Minami-san, as though she had no interest in either me or the baobab tree.
However, I could tell that she was not unhappy. When I begged her to tell me more interesting stories, she had plenty to say. The most interesting one was that the phrase “under the rose” meant “secret” in English. I did not speak English yet, but I was sure that when I was an adult and I could, I would need to find a reason to use it.
I completely lost myself in talking to Minami-san that day. By the time I realized, it was already time to head home. I had completely forgotten to visit Skank-san or Granny. All the next day, I wanted nothing more than to talk with Minami-san again, but no matter how boring it was, I still had to go to school.
The idiot kids were still idiots, and my neighbor Kiriyuu-kun was scribbling secretively in his notebook, so school was as boring as ever. Still, at least there was one good thing. During break, while I was alone at the library, Ogiwara-kun showed up. I decided to strike up a conversation right away. I was dying to tell someone about all the things that Minami-san had said, but had no one else to spill them to.
Just as Ogiwara started to leave, not even noticing me at the far end of the library, I chased after him, making a face as though I was leaving, too.
“Ogiwara-kun!”
“Oh, Koyanagi-san. I didn’t know you were in here.”
“Yeah! What did you borrow?” I asked, pointing at the book in his hand.
He showed me the cover with a smile. I knew exactly what that expression meant. I, too, knew the joy of holding a brand-new book.
“The Memoirs of a White Elephant, huh? I’ve read that one too.”
“Yeah, I wanted to read it when I found out it came from France, just like The Little Prince.”
Of course, that was Ogiwara-kun for you. He chose books the same way he laid the groundwork for our conversations. Taking advantage of this newly laid foundation, I told him about the baobab and the rose as though I had known them the entire time. Ogiwara-kun showed proper surprise for each. Surely, he and I were the only ones in our class who would find such things interesting. Because we were both clever.
We talked on and on, but I still was not satisfied. However, our conversation ended abruptly when a boy from our class called Ogiwara’s name from the other side of the hall. Ogiwara turned and left as though he had forgotten we’d even been speaking. Of course that would happen. Not only was Ogiwara-kun clever, but he had plenty of friends.
I would have to find another outlet after school for everything trying to burst out from inside of me. Sitting under the blue sky on a concrete rooftop, I told Minami-san all about what had happened today.
“He’s got your heart racin’, huh?”
“I mean, we were just standing there.”
“Not what I meant.”
The corners of her lips were turned down again today, but that did not mean she was angry. Bit by bit, I was coming to learn about her.
“Oh right,” I said. “I’ll be finished with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn soon.”
“Yeah? And what about it?”
“Then I can read the story you wrote. I’m really excited for it.”
“No idea what you mean,” she said grumpily.
She was sitting on her notebook as always. She had probably been writing before I arrived.
“I’ll see you next time, then.”
“Do what you want.”
Minami-san’s “Do what you want” carried the same meaning as Skank-san’s “See you later, little miss.” I waved at Minami-san’s back. After that, I stopped by Granny’s home, and told her about the same things I had told Minami-san. It was a wonderful day.