It should come as no surprise that I wanted to tell my special friend about this wonderful day. So, after school ended, I said a rushed farewell to Kiriyuu-kun, ran home and collected Miss Bobtail, and headed right back out toward that cream-colored building.
“Happiness won’t cooome! Wandering my way, sooo!”
“Meow?” My black-furred friend made a strange face at my abnormally enthusiastic delivery.
“What?”
“Meow.”
“Look, it’s fine to sing like this sometimes. I mean, honestly you could even do it all the time, but sometimes you have an extra good day. I bet even you have days like this sometimes?”
“Meow,” she replied, uninterested. Perhaps this was not such a good day for her. I attempted to share my good mood.
“Thaaat’s why I set ooout to find it todaaay!”
“Meow meow meow.”
Although she looked exasperated, eventually she began to sing along. What was with the act? I thought. She was trying to be so grown up. But perhaps the boys were taken with those insincere parts of her. If there is anything I can learn from her, it is the way to a boy’s heart, I thought as we walked along the embankment.
The sky was blue, the grass was green, and the dirt was brown. The soft earth of the path was auburn, cut for easy strolling. The wind was clear, and every person was their own color. Everything was painted with varying hues, and I loved every one of them. But it was when I spied the cream-colored building that my heart leapt the highest.
I laid out all the things that I wished to talk to Skank-san about.
First, I absolutely had to thank her. It was only because of her advice that I was able to find such joy inside my heart. Then I would tell her about every single thing that happened today. I’d talk simply about the unimportant parts, and at more length about the more important stuff. Of course, I would have to stress the unimportant parts that were connected to the important parts, so as to embellish the message. She would probably be surprised to hear me say that Kiriyuu-kun was not the sort of boy who ever did the things he did today.
Still, I thought that I should be emphatic about the fact that Kiriyuu-kun really might have some courage, and that Granny was the only one able to see it.
I was bubbling with excitement. More excitement than I felt upon watching cocoa powder dissolve into warm milk and the smell of chocolate wafting through the air.
The cream-colored, cake-like building was suited perfectly to cocoa. My excitement reached a fever pitch as I reached the staircase, but as I set foot on the first muddy step, I noticed something unusual: Miss Bobtail did not climb the stairs with me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, but she did not reply. “You don’t want any milk?”
She said nothing. I moved to pick her up, thinking that she might be injured somehow, but she slipped out of my arms.
“You’re a weirdo. Fine. Wait there, then.”
“Meow,” she replied finally, her voice very soft.
Well, even cats probably had days that were not so fun, so surely there were days when they had no interest in climbing stairs, either.
Although my thoughts were on my friend’s behavior, my heart was still focused on the things I would talk about with Skank-san. I proceeded to her door, and after plotting out most of the conversation, rang the bell.
Ding-dong, I heard from inside. Hm? I wondered, looking up. The rather ugly writing on the nameplate beside her door seemed to have vanished. Had she finally rewritten it? I had told her before, my writing was very good. I could have rewritten it for her, if she liked.
I waited, but she did not come out, so I rang the bell one more time. Then I heard a noise from inside. Maybe she was just waking up. What a sleepyhead! I waited for a while, giggling to myself, but still she did not appear.
She must be in, I thought, knocking this time. As I did, I greeted the door with an enthusiastic “Gooood afternoooon!”
A short time after, I heard the door unlock, and the doorknob turned. I always overflowed with anticipation when it was time to see my friend. And yet, when the door opened, that anticipation vanished into smoke.
Something occurred that I had never imagined.
It was not Skank-san who opened the door. It was a man, around the same age as her. I’m sure that the man and I shared the same expression as we looked at each other: surprise. The kind-looking gentleman opened his eyes wide, goggling at me. I’m certain that I was the first to realize who the other must be.
“Are you Skank-san’s boyfriend?” I asked.
She was an incredibly lovely woman, so it was not at all surprising that she might have someone special in her life. If that was the case, then I simply had to introduce myself.
“Pleased to meet you. I’m Koyanagi Nanoka. I’m a friend of Skank-san’s,” I said politely.
But the young man furrowed his brows, making a face of utter confusion.
“Is she out right now?” I asked.
Despite my very simple question, the man tilted his head. “Um…Nanoka-chan, was it?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I think you’ve got the wrong address. This is my place. There’s no one here named…Skank?”
Any further and his head might swivel all the way around, I thought.
“That’s not true. I’ve never met you before, but I’ve been here plenty of times. Is Skank-san trying to play a prank on me?”
Maybe she is planning some kind of surprise, I thought, but that didn’t seem right. The man gave a troubled laugh.
“You really shouldn’t be using words like that. ‘Skank,’ that is.”
“But it’s Skank-san’s name.”
“Mm…well, either way, there’s no one here by that name, so I’m sure you’re mistaken. Maybe you’ve got the wrong building? You should double-check.”
“I know it’s here! I was just here yesterday!”
The sudden loudness of my voice came as surely as the memory of being here. This young man, who knew nothing of the dark unease that swelled in my heart, looked even more troubled.
“I was here yesterday too, and you didn’t come by.”
“You’re lying! You weren’t here! I was with Skank-san!”
“Mm, what to do here…” he said, frustrated.
I knew that when an adult expressed their frustration to a child directly, it meant they were thinking about how to shut the child up.
“I’ve got it,” he said. “Maybe you were dreaming, and in that dream, you came to a building that looked like this one? When I was a kid, I spent lots of time searching for the places that I saw in my dreams, but I never found them.”
“Dreaming…?”
No, that couldn’t be. I knew that Skank-san had been here, that we had played Othello together. Eating pudding, holding her hand—none of that had been a dream. I was certain, from the bottom of my heart, but there was one single memory that drifted through my mind then. That memory’s name was Minami-san.
Even by my own cleverness, I could not explain all these mysteries—the mysteries of Skank-san and Minami-san. If I could explain it by my own reckoning, there were only three possible explanations: lies, magic, or dreams.
I figured it must be a lie on this young man’s part, but his distress appeared genuine. I didn’t get a lying smell from him, at least.
As I stood there in silence, the young man said, “Hold on,” and stepped back inside. When he returned, he had a brown Papico in his hand.
“Here, take this. It’s hot today. I don’t want you to get heat stroke.”
The Papico was cool and pleasant, but I knew when I saw it: this place truly did not belong to Skank-san anymore. Her freezer never had any Papico in it.
“How could she have moved out overnight…?”
“I mean, no one could. But anyway, I’ve lived here for four years.”
Four years. For a child as young as me, that was an interminable length of time. I knew. I did not understand it, but I knew another mystery had occurred.
I thanked him for the treat and left. He saw me off with a warm, “See you.”
I walked along the cream-colored wall and descended the stairs to find my friend waiting for me. That was when I realized something. “You knew she wasn’t here, didn’t you?”
My friend did not reply. Instead, she just began walking ahead of me. It was the same way we had walked many times before. I followed behind her, sharing her feelings. Minami-san, and now Skank-san. Mystery after mystery was befalling my friends. Where had they gone? When I didn’t understand something, it was best to ask someone who had lived far longer than I. After all, they had probably had the same experiences before.
As we walked along, I tore open the Papico bottle with my teeth to taste what was inside. I took one mouthful, then another, considering it.
“This really is kinda bitter.”
I was not a fan of the taste of coffee. I waited until the contents of the bottle had melted entirely and offered it to some passing ants.