Chapter 1:
Paddling
HINAKO WAS BY NO MEANS the bragging type, but she considered herself pretty good at cooking. Well, compared to cleaning, anyway. She stood at the stove with her smartphone on the counter, checking the recipe as she went. On the menu: fluffy, oozy omurice. As far as dishes went, it was pretty straightforward. Make some chicken rice pilaf, put an omelet on top, and bam. Omurice.
Rice pilaf was the easy part; Hinako had experience making it in home ec class back in high school. It sat ready and plated, quietly awaiting its pale yellow crown. Now for the omelet.
Hinako poured her beaten eggs into the frying pan, which was hot and primed with vegetable oil. Then, rocking it back and forth, she used her long cooking chopsticks to aggressively stir.
So far, so good. The next step was to slide the egg to one side of the pan right before it had time to fully set.
Wait, really? Already? Crap, it’s sticking to the bottom! She hastily swapped out her chopsticks for a spatula.
“Rrgh! Nngh!”
Last step: hold the frying pan with one hand and clap your wrist with the other to create a gentle tossing effect. This was apparently more complicated than it sounded, because bits of loose egg went flying everywhere. Making an omelet should have been simple, and yet somehow it was so complex.
Once Hinako had finagled her egg into a less-than-perfect oval shape, it was time to set it on top of the pilaf. For a moment it stayed in place, but then it rolled off to the side, and when she tried to lift it up with her chopsticks, it split apart irreparably.
“Ugh! God!”
Hinako slumped her shoulders and sighed. This wasn’t “fluffy and oozy”—it was just scrambled. But, oh well. It wasn’t bad for a first attempt…or so she decided to tell herself, anyway. She grabbed her plate and egg-splattered phone and carried them over to the folding coffee table.
She’d spent all yesterday surfing, so her apartment was still little more than two giant, towering piles of cardboard boxes. And it was there, in the valley between them, that she had set up her makeshift dining area. Why did this feel so familiar? Oh, right—it reminded her of the famous Snow Walls of the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route.
But this lighthearted comparison was perhaps a mistake, because right as Hinako set her food down, one of those “walls” started to collapse.
“Whoa!”
Hastily, Hinako pushed it back into place. Whew, that was close.
Then the stack next to it started to tilt instead.
“Wha?!”
Reflexively, she threw out her right hand to catch it, but then a stack on the left-hand pile started to fall. And when she reached out to support that one, the first stack started to tilt all over again.
What the… Give me a break!
And it was that moment, right when Hinako’s hands were both occupied, that her cell phone started to ring.
Uh, guys?! Can you stop ganging up on me for a hot minute?!
The screen displayed the identity of the caller: Hinako’s mother.
Not your best timing, Mom!
Willing the boxes to behave themselves, Hinako hastily pulled one hand away, snatched up her phone, and then pressed her hand back in place. All was well, until—“Ack!”—the other pile of boxes started to collapse. And if she hadn’t slammed her phone hand against them just in the nick of time, they would have turned her into a Hinako sandwich. As it turned out, all those years of surfing had honed her reflexes in surprising ways.
Moving her thumb, Hinako managed to answer the call and switch it to speakerphone. “Uh, hello? Mom?”
“Hi, sweetie. Did you finish unpacking all your boxes?” her mother asked casually, unaware of the war her daughter was presently waging with said boxes.
“Oh, uh…yeah, totally!”
Thank goodness this isn’t a video call!
“Have you been getting enough to eat?”
“Yup! Made omurice!”
Gah! The box at the top of the right-hand stack was threatening to fall, and when Hinako pushed it back, one of the lower boxes popped out. Using her hips, she forced it back in.
Meanwhile, her mother laughed. “You and your brother are so alike! He just asked me to make some.”
Her mother’s omurice was, of course, exquisitely fluffy and oozy. Hinako could picture its perfect oval shape, placed just so atop the rice pilaf… One slice of the knife, and it would split neatly in two, releasing its eggy fragrance… Then her brother would take a bite and smile… Times like these, Hinako envied that he had stayed to help out with the family landscaping business.
“How’s college?”
“Hasn’t—started—yet!”
Gritting her teeth, Hinako firmly stood her ground between the two mountains of boxes. It felt like she was going to split in half.
“I still don’t understand why you chose oceanography of all things…”
Not this again! Hinako mentally groaned. “I just really! Love! The ocean!”
And there was no ocean where her parents lived—oh crap, the boxes were going to cave in!
“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle the coursework?”
I understand you’re worried, but now’s really not the time! Hinako thought. “I’ll be fine, Mom! Gotta go! I’ll call you back later!”
Abort mission! Hinako whipped her hands away. Plan B: grab the table and run. But right as she bent down, an avalanche of boxes toppled onto her back. And her skull.
“Ow!”
Then her water glass toppled over, sending its contents spilling across the floor.
“Man, I need to get it together…”
Under Hinako’s torso, her shoddy omelet had turned into an egg pancake.