The next day, I met up with my black-furred friend as soon as school ended, and headed for the hill. Normally at this point I would have to decide who to go see, puzzling over it like a menu at a restaurant, but today my destination was set.
As usual, there were smaller children running around the park at the bottom of the hill. Normally, I would be jealous of them spending time with their mothers at the park, but today was different. I already knew that my parents loved me.
I quickly chose the stairs to the left. The sun was burning with all its might, but was not the only cause of the sweat that dotted my forehead. It was because my head was burning with excitement at the thought of seeing Minami-san.
As I climbed the stairs, we passed by someone else. Could it be the owner of that building? If that was the case, I had to thank them for letting us use it all the time. However, I considered the possibility that he might get mad at us for that, and instead only said, “Hello,” to the suited old man.
He gave me a strange look, but returned a gentle “Hello.”
Why was it that adults always looked at you strangely when you greeted them, despite telling children that they should greet everyone they see?
Not long after that, the old iron gate came into sight. Normally it was open, but sometimes it was shut as though someone had come by to check on it.
Today, it was shut, and a sight I had not seen before unfolded before me. Normally, I could see up the stairs beyond, but today the stairs were hidden by two adults.
What was going on? I walked straight up to the adults to ask what was happening. One of the pair, a man who looked older than my father, turned to me.
“Sorry to interrupt your walk, little lady, but you can’t go past here.”
“Really? How come?”
“Up through here is a construction site. It’s dangerous, so we can’t let anyone through.”
I tilted my head. “Construction?”
“There’s an old building up at the top there. It’s falling apart, dangerous, so it’s gonna be torn down.”
There was only one old building at the top of those stairs.
“Y-you can’t!” I shouted, without thinking.
The adults looked shocked.
“Was that place a secret base of yours?” the man asked. “I’m sorry, but that place really is dangerous. If you play there, it might collapse right on top of you.”
Secret base. That was the perfect word to describe the atmosphere of that place. I was so disappointed to only learn this most fitting term just as the place was about to be destroyed. More than anything, I feared the look of sadness on Minami-san’s face.
“Say, did a high school girl come by here today?”
“A high-schooler? Nah, haven’t seen any. Yo, you see anyone?” the older man asked.
The younger man just shook his head. “Were you supposed to meet her here?”
“Yeah, I was. So, was this construction decided by whoever owns the building?”
“Hm? Yeah, that’s right.”
Nothing to be done for it, then, I thought. Even a child knew that it was up to the owner whether something was to be treasured or destroyed. If possible, I’d hoped for it to be treasured, but no adult would care about the wishes of a little kid whom they had never even met.
I was incredibly disappointed, but I knew that I couldn’t give up. “Hey, I’ve got something to ask you,” I asked the kind, smiling old man.
“What’s that?”
“If a high school student named Minami-san comes up here, can you tell her I’ll be at the big house up at the top of the hill?”
“It’s a promise.”
I wrapped my pinky around the old man’s and climbed back down the stairs with Miss Bobtail, heading for Granny’s house.
I waited there all afternoon for Minami-san, eating Granny’s sweets, but soon it was time to go home and she had still not shown up. She did not come the next day, or the next, and even though I told Granny to tell me if she ever showed up, it never happened.
A short time later, I traveled to the clearing where Minami-san’s building had been, but there was nothing but rubble. The disappointment tasted like a bowl of corn soup without a single piece of corn in it.
I would never again be able to meet with Minami-san here.
That got me thinking about a number of odd things. The first was that, though we lived in the same town, not once had I ever passed Minami-san on the street, nor even a single high school girl wearing the same uniform. The second was that the handkerchief I had received from her, which I had stored carefully away in my desk, had vanished. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find it. I began to feel a despair that went beyond despair.
The final thing was the most peculiar. No matter how much I talked about Minami-san’s story, I couldn’t remember a single thing about it. I had been so moved. I had seen such a wonderful new world, and I remembered the feeling of deepest satisfaction, but no matter how deeply I searched my brain, I had not a single memory of the contents.
I knew from reading stories that mysteries were wondrous things, but the mysteries born from my time with Minami-san only left me scratching my head.
And that was how Minami-san and I came to part.