My first meeting with Granny was not as fraught as the day I met Skank-san and Miss Bobtail. When I say it was not fraught, I mean that I was not sad or in pain at the time.
If you climbed the hills through the trees near my home, you would find a clearing, and there in that clearing was a wooden house. One day, I came upon this house, and spent a long time looking at it, thinking how wonderful it was and how unusual for our area. After some time, I knocked on the front door, wondering if the place was abandoned. It was terribly quiet, but an old woman with a lovely smile opened the door.
From that day on, we would be friends.
Today, the spacious wooden house was as wonderful as always.
“How are the sweets you make so tasty, Granny?”
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you learn how to make things taste good. That’s all,” Granny said nonchalantly, sipping her tea.
As I nibbled on the madeleines she had made, I tried to unravel the secret of their deliciousness. Miss Bobtail lounged in the sun flooding the plank floor corridor that ran between the living room and the open field.
“I found that book you were telling me about,” I said, sitting at the low table in the tatami-floored room. “The Little Prince. It’s in the school library, so I tried reading it.”
“Did you like it?”
“Mm, I liked how it was written, but it was kind of hard.”
“Was it? You really are sharp, Nacchan.”
“I’ve thought so too, but I’m not really there yet. I didn’t get it at all.”
“It’s important to know what you do not know. The worst thing you can do is to think that you understand something when you really don’t.”
“Is that how it is?”
“Even not understanding it means it left some impression on you, didn’t it?”
“That’s true. I think having a cat to talk with suits me better than a quiet sheep in a box.”
Granny laughed softly and looked at the little one sleeping on the floor. “Such wonderful praise from you, and all she does is sleep.”
“That’s fine. She always does what she wants.”
Miss Bobtail yawned, her tail swaying back and forth. It was contagious, and I opened my mouth in an unseemly manner to let out a yawn of my own. Then, I decided to talk to Granny about the same thing I had discussed with Skank-san—the conversation from school. When I told her the whole story from start to finish, Granny laughed out loud, just like Skank-san had.
“I see, I see. That sounds dreadful, making you run in the yard and stay after school.”
“It wasn’t. I mean, I hated P.E., but it wasn’t so bad staying after. I do like Hitomi-sensei.”
“She sounds like a wonderful teacher.”
“Yeah, she is. Even if she kind of misses the mark. Hee hee, I had this same conversation with Skank-san.”
“Did you win at Othello today?”
“Only one time. But even then, I still lost twice. I wonder if I’ll get better at it someday.”
“You will. You have the power to see the future, after all. That’s an indispensable power when it comes to games.”
I knew that Granny would never tell a lie, so I was thrilled to hear this. There was a wonderful smell around her, not like incense. A wonderful smell unlike other adults. When I told her that once, she smiled and said “That’s because I’ve already graduated from being an adult.”
“That means that Skank-san has the power to see the future, too,” I said.
“I wonder. Unlike children, adults are usually creatures who look back into the past.”
“But Skank-san is better than me.”
“That’s because she’s lived longer, Nacchan. She knows how to win better than you.”
Granny talked often about how long people had lived. But she was right, she had lived at least seven times as long as me, which was probably why her madeleines were much better.
I reached out to grab a second one, but then withdrew my hand. If I were to have two madeleines on top of the Yakult and the ice cream, I wouldn’t have any room for the dinner my mother made.
I decided to use my brain for something else, to make myself forget about the madeleines.
“We have an assignment in school,” I said. “To think about happiness.”
“That sounds like an interesting lesson.”
“It is. But it’s really hard. It would be fine if we could talk about as many things as we like, but we only have as long as the class period, and I’m not the only one in the class.”
“That’s true. You have to put all those things in order, and pull your answer out from the middle.”
“I want to find an answer that will surprise Hitomi-sensei, that everyone in my class will understand.”
I felt a swelling of pride imagining Hitomi-sensei’s praise. Letting myself get carried away, I started reaching for another madeleine, but I held back at the last moment. Granny saw me and laughed.
“What’s your happiness, Granny?”
“My happiness, hm? Lots of things. Drinking tea on sunny days like this, and whenever you stop by this lonely home. However, thinking of a single answer would be difficult. I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah, think about it. Come to think of it, Granny, are you happy right now?”
Granny took a sip of tea and smiled. “Yes, I am.”
She appeared that way, and the feeling spread to me as well. When I looked out to the hall, Miss Bobtail was sleeping happily as well. This old wooden home must be filled with the essence of happiness, I thought.
“Oh right, can you tell me another book to read?”
“You said that you already read Tom Sawyer, yes?”
“Yeah, it was fun.”
“Well then, how about a story about Tom’s good friend?”
“You mean Homeless Huck? Is there another book?”
“Oh, you hadn’t heard, then? It’s called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s a lot of fun. If it’s not in the school’s library, you could ask Hitomi-sensei about it.”
Hearing this wonderful news, I tucked the name of the book away in the same part of my brain where I kept my most important memories.
We both loved talking about books, and so I never noticed how much time had passed.
Which was your favorite story from The Little Prince? I liked the one about the Prince and the rose. It was so charming. What about you, Granny? The one about the snake who ate the elephant, maybe.
As we carried on like this, an orange hue washed over the world outside. I looked at the clock on the wall to see that it was already half past five. I had to get back home by six. I promised my mother that I would.
I woke my friend with the flicking tail and said my farewells to Granny.
“I’ll see you next time, Granny.”
“Take care on the way home, now.”
“I will. I’ll look for the book about Huck, too.”
I waved to Granny, who had come to the front door to see me off, and Miss Bobtail and I climbed the footpath down the hill. The path was gorgeous. Orange-colored. I was never sad to say goodbye like this. I always had tomorrow after all, and the day after that.
“Happiness won’t cooome, wandering my way sooo, thaaat’s why I set ooout to find it todaaay!”
“Meow meow!”
I parted ways with my bob-tailed friend and headed home to do my homework. Around half past six, my mother returned home. She was out of the house even on Saturdays and Sundays sometimes, but she was always home at dinnertime. I thought how nice it would be if it was always dinnertime, but then I would have to give up on the yogurt I had at breakfast.
Today’s dinner was curry rice. Even though I’d already had Yakult and ice cream and a madeleine, I still had seconds of the rice.
“I wonder if I should go on a diet,” I said.
My mother laughed. “You don’t need to,” she said, handing me a cookie she had gotten at work.
I couldn’t help myself. I ate the cookie with vanilla ice cream on top.
“Maybe having your favorite ice cream with a cookie is happiness,” I said.
“For me it’s with coffee,” said my mother, sitting in front of me as she dunked her cookie in her mug and ate it.
And then, as always, I took my bath and I grew tired around ten o’clock. And, as always, I did not talk to my mother, nor to my father who returned after I had gone to sleep, about my conversation with Skank-san.