WHEN I SNAPPED BACK to my senses, the first thing that registered in my brain was the somber melody of the six o’clock chime flowing into my eardrums. Then, as soon as the long-hanging final note of Greensleeves fell silent, all the turmoil and confusion came rushing back into my mind like a shot of adrenaline.
What the hell just happened to me?
I’d never passed out before in my life, but these symptoms sure seemed to fit the bill—all my thought processes came to an abrupt halt without a hint of prior warning, and then the next thing I knew I was someplace completely different, scrambling to figure out how I got there. To be more specific, I was no longer standing beneath the big cherry blossom tree at the abandoned park—I was down by the coast again, sitting on the seawall with my back to the ocean. Right in front of me stood the island’s resident patrol officer, holding his bike at his side as he looked down at me with concern.
“Hey, you all right, kid?” he inquired. “C’mon, say something.”
“…Officer?” I mumbled drowsily.
“Uh, y-yeah? I’m still here, pal… Didn’t go anywhere,” he joked, but with an awkward laugh that said he was as confused as I was. Not that there was anything strange about him stopping to talk to me, of course. I was still floundering to figure out how I got here and how long he’d been standing here in front of me.
“So, uh… Is there something I can help you with?” I asked, trying to be nonchalant.
“Whaddya mean? Thought we were makin’ small talk.”
“We were…? For how long?”
“…You sure you’re all right, kid? We’ve been chatting it up for, like, the past five minutes. Did you have a stroke or something?”
Five minutes? I definitely wasn’t sitting here talking to him for that long… At least, not that I could remember. I took another look around to confirm what I already knew: this was not the last place I remembered being. This was the Sodeshima seawall, not the abandoned park with the cherry blossom trees. Weirdly enough, the sky was still the same deep orange it had been when I last looked up at it—so I couldn’t have been out for that long. I fumbled around for my cell phone, wanting to check the time, but it wasn’t in my right-side pocket like it was supposed to be. Panicking, I tried to remember if I’d simply forgotten it at home but then belatedly realized that I was already holding it in my left hand. Relieved, I was about to press the button to make the screen turn on when another question took hold of my mind: If I was passed out, how could I have pulled my cell phone out of my pocket?
And that wasn’t the only thing that didn’t add up—the clothes I was wearing now were totally different from the ones I’d been wearing earlier. I specifically remembered sliding my hoodie on this morning, but now here I was wearing a regular crewneck sweatshirt. One that definitely did belong to me, for the record, but I had no memory at all of changing into it. Or was it possible that I’d somehow been wearing the crewneck the whole time and simply mistaken it for my favorite hoodie this morning? Surely not. They weren’t even the same color.
“Hey, c’mon, kid! Don’t clam up on me again,” the officer said, calling me out for getting distracted. I quickly shot my head up to look back at him.
“Sorry, officer. I’m a bit confused, I guess. About what time it is, and the clothes I’m wearing… Stuff like that.”
“If you say so… Well, I can’t help you with your wardrobe, but you should know what time it is, at least. Think about it: Didn’t you hear the six o’clock chime go off?”
“Huh? Oh, riiight… Yeah, okay. Must have slipped my mind…”
That only raised more questions in my head, but I decided to leave it at that and shove my cell phone back into my pants pocket so as not to seem like I didn’t believe him. And to give the guy some credit, I had heard the six o’clock chime while I was sitting here—but I’d also heard it back at the abandoned park. Which shouldn’t have been possible, unless I was somehow magically teleported here in the blink of an eye… No, even then, the officer claimed I’d been sitting here talking to him since at least 5:55. So what the hell was going on? No matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t come up with any sensible explanation for it.
“Look, kid,” the officer began, “if you aren’t feeling too hot, I’d be happy to give you a ride home. Or take you over to the clinic to get checked out, if you’d prefer.”
“No, no—you don’t have to do that… I can walk myself home. Thanks, though.”
“You sure? Well, okay… Look, I know it’s been a rough few days, but try not to overthink things, all right? It wasn’t your fault, and you did everything you could. Anyway, I’ve gotta get going, but I’ll see you around.”
“Wait, huh…?” I stammered as he straddled his bike and put one foot up on the pedals.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he added, looking back over his shoulder at me. “No more late-night rendezvous for a while, yeah? I know you’re young, but you’ve gotta dial it back.”
And with that, he pedaled off. I sat there for a good, long while trying to figure out what he meant by “late-night rendezvous,” and how it had been a “rough few days,” but I honestly had no idea what he could be referring to. Still, it seemed like he was genuinely concerned about me, so I must have really looked like I was at the end of my rope. Which wasn’t that far from the truth, in honesty—I hadn’t felt this confused and gaslit in a very long time. The struggle to wrap my head around it was starting to make my vision blur. It felt like I was being made the victim of a cruel joke.
That thought gave me pause. What if it really was some prank? Today was April Fools’ Day, after all. Maybe someone predicted that I’d finally be coming back this spring break and got the whole island in on some super elaborate plan to make me feel like a crazy person… No, there was no way. I shook that ridiculous conspiracy theory from my mind. I needed to stop overthinking this—it was making my brain hurt. Plus, it was getting dark out. It was about time I made my way home.
By the time I made it back to the house, the sun had completely dipped beneath the horizon, and there was no longer much light outside at all. When I opened the front door, Eri came out from the living room in her school uniform, and we made eye contact. It wasn’t until that moment that I remembered she and I got into a fight earlier, and my stomach dropped. I wasn’t sure if I should play it off like nothing had happened or be the bigger person and open with an apology. But in the end, she broke the ice before I could even make up my mind.
“You’re home pretty late. C’mon, hurry up and get inside,” she urged.
“S-sure, one sec,” I replied.
She was acting perfectly normal; I couldn’t hear any hint of anger in her voice. I always thought she was the type to never let a grudge go, but maybe I hadn’t given her enough credit. I still needed to apologize, though; it seemed like the right thing to do, especially since I was the older sibling. I slid off my shoes and stepped up into the hallway, stopping Eri as she made her way toward the bathroom.