“Hikaru’s in the back sleepin’ like there’s no tomorrow.”
Just as Hikaru’s mother had said, Hikaru was indeed fast asleep in the Indous’ cluttered living room with a fan running at full blast.
Light from the bright afternoon sun streamed in from the veranda.
The room had no air conditioner and was stiflingly hot. Even the breeze from the fan felt heavy.
Yoshiki came upon Hikaru sprawled out with his belly exposed and breathing loudly in his sleep. As soon as Yoshiki realized he was staring at Hikaru, he panicked, quickly removing his cap and sitting down on a cushion. A thin stream of sweat trickled down his temple.
“You just gonna sit there and stare at me? Yer not gonna wake me up?” Hikaru said.
Hikaru’s leg shot out and kicked Yoshiki’s arm, making an audible thump upon contact.
Ah, so he did notice.
Yoshiki was half-ignoring Hikaru, who kept nudging Yoshiki with his foot until Hikaru appeared to grow impatient and pulled a wrestling move on Yoshiki. He pinned Yoshiki down for a while, and once he seemed satisfied, he stood up.
“Hooray! I won! I won!” Hikaru cheered. “Didja bring somethin’ when ya got here earlier?”
What the heck?! Was he awake that whole time?
Yoshiki remained face down on the floor, and instead of snapping back with a retort, he replied, “Got a watermelon from one of my relatives. They were sharin’ their extra.”
“Huh? A watermelon?! My favorite! I’m the best in the world at eatin’ those things!”
“I know.”
“I can eat it like they do in manga. And maybe I’ll spit out the seeds like a machine gun, too!”
I know that, too.
When was it again? Feels like it was back when we first started grade school. We were eatin’ watermelon on the veranda in front of this same room.
Hikaru was holding a big slice of watermelon in both hands and insisted that he would eat it “manga-style.”
“Hey, Yoshiki. Check it out!”
Hikaru had opened his mouth wide and chomped right into the watermelon, and without even pausing to take a breath, he crunched away, spewing seeds and juice onto Yoshiki.
“Ugh! Gross!” Yoshiki had protested.
Hikaru looked down at the half-eaten watermelon still in his hands. “I swallowed some seeds…”
As he said that, the wind chime hanging from the eaves jingled.
“I heard my daddy’s friend ate some watermelon seeds and turned into a watermelon man with stripes all over his body,” Hikaru added.
“Uh…then what happened?” Yoshiki asked.
“He died.”
“…I swallowed some, too.”
The cicadas were buzzing on that day as well. I remember us saying, “Guess we’re gonna die…” and crying as we kept on eating the watermelon. We thought that if we were gonna die, we oughtta at least spend our final moments eatin’ watermelon to our hearts’ content.
When Hikaru’s father saw us like that, he’d laughed and said, “Why y’all cryin’?”
He died a few years after that—when Hikaru was in the fifth grade.
Hikaru’s dad used to work at the Matsushima Sawmill in the village, and he was a shiitake farmer, too. I heard he had an accident on the job at the sawmill, but I dunno what actually happened.
…Come to think of it, Hikaru’s dad had been to those mountains before. He’d been to the same mountain where Hikaru had gone missing and came back as Hikaru. No one usually went there ’cause it was off-limits.
I think it was during the same time of year when Hikaru disappeared…at the end of January.
“Hey, Yoshiki!” came a voice that was identical to Hikaru’s.
Yoshiki snapped back to reality.
Hikaru was sitting across from him with two slices of watermelon on a tray.
“You wanna eat some watermelon? Mama cut slices for us. Sure is a nice melon. Huge, ain’t it?”
The flesh of the fruit was a vibrant red. Just from its color, you could tell that it was bursting with juice and sweetness.
“So, you actually know the taste of watermelon?” Yoshiki asked.
“Yeah, I’ve eaten it ’bout ten times already. I upgraded the way I eat ’em, too!”
Hikaru chuckled softly and lifted a slice of watermelon. He then opened his mouth wide, and the next thing Yoshiki knew, Hikaru devoured the entire slice in just a few bites, practically inhaling the whole thing. He ate with such speed that some of the juice had splattered onto the tip of Yoshiki’s nose.
Then Hikaru puffed out his chest and said, his mouth full of watermelon, “Mow mmbt maht?!”
For a moment, Yoshiki couldn’t help but wonder if what he’d just witnessed was humanly possible or if it was beyond human.
“Ew…,” said Yoshiki. “Wait, no. Maybe it was kinda awesome.”
Hikaru gulped down the watermelon that was stuffed in his mouth. “Ahhh, swallowed the seeds. Guess I’m gonna turn into a watermelon man now,” he added with a shrug. “Man, I’m bored. Wanna play some Smash?”
“…Naw. I’m good. Don’t really feel like it.”