My daily life, which had been set and passed by in a huge mall, changed little by little after I met Smile.
My shortcut to the mall through the rice paddy is actually on her family’s land, it turns out. We never make any formal plans, but sometimes, if we run into each other after my shift at Sunnyside is over, we take that farm road back home together. She always has a mask on whenever I see her, no matter how hot it is.
Cherry @ Haiku account
It was almost like
you never even cared once
for the shining sun
#haiku
Whenever I am on break from my job, I often pass the time at Kato Books. Today, as usual, I go to the literature section and realize that Smile has beat me there. Taking a closer look, I see that she is taking pictures of something on her phone while talking.
“Do you know this?” she says. “It’s called a saijiki. I learned about these just recently; it’s like a dictionary for people who write haiku… Huh? Aw, c’mon, it’s so cute!”
Cherry @ Haiku account
Sunflowers asking
what “cute” means, looking it up
in dictionaries
#haiku
I’ve checked out her Curiolive stream, too. It is incredibly popular, just like Japan said it was. Not even ten minutes into a broadcast, her viewer count is pushing fifty thousand, the number of comments and likes well into five figures, like it is totally normal for her. Comparing that with my own follower and like counts, I can’t help but feel really, really small.
Smile always wears a mask during her streams. I wonder if that bothers her viewers at all. Some of them bring it up in their comments, but Smile never acknowledges them.
So I subscribe to the channel and set up my notifications so I’ll know when the streaming starts.
Cherry @ Haiku account
The early sunrise
makes me wonder just how cute
my words truly are
#haiku
The next time I see Smile, it is during one of our mall haiku excursions. She is wearing a mask now, too.
She is with her sisters this time. I saw them once in that video chat—the girl with the glasses and the other with the hair buns. She introduces them to me: Julie is the one with glasses, and the one with the hair buns is Marie.
The three of them are so good at talking and being social. They make fast friends with everyone at Sunnyside. The seniors invite the girls to come on down to the center with them, and (much to my surprise) they actually seem excited about the idea.
As I expected, Nami, Akiko, and Ms. Tanaka all welcome them with open arms. It feels like everyone just loves those three sisters. Ever since then, Smile visits Sunnyside now and then, and that…gives me an excuse to walk home with her more often.
Cherry @ Haiku account
Summer cold, perhaps?
That mask does too good a job
of hiding your smile
#haiku
Japan told me that Smile has been on Curiolive ever since she was little. She was initially popular because her huge buckteeth made her super cute, like a beaver. She was wearing braces the first time I saw her at the mall, and ever since then, Smile has had a mask on whenever I see her. The mask, the teeth, the braces… Clearly, she is getting those popular buckteeth fixed but doesn’t want anyone to see or comment about it. That’s what it was, I’m sure.
Now I kind of regret muttering, “Braces…” under my breath back then. If she ran away in a panic like that, she must have some serious hang-ups about her mouth. If anything, I think those teeth are unique and charming—maybe she doesn’t see it that way at all?
But bringing it up feels like a bad idea.
Cherry @ Haiku account
Amid daylight shade,
all I want to discover
is the true reason
#haiku
Then I realize: All my recent haiku have been inspired by Smile.
I’m unconsciously following Smile with my eyes. Even in her streams, her voice through my headphones sounds totally natural. I want to hear more of her, so whenever I’m with Smile in real life, I have my headphones off.
Before I know it, casually calling her Smile comes totally naturally to me.
And then I realize… I like Smile. When I think about her, I feel the emotions well up. All these words keep on bubbling up. And I know how to express these feelings with words.
Cherry @ Haiku account
Throughout my whole life,
at last I find words bubble
up like soda pop
#haiku
I tear the July sheet off the haiku calendar in my room, revealing August. Today’s the first of the month; the heat’s still as intense as ever, and the air conditioner’s barely doing its job in my room. I bring a finger up to Saturday, the seventeenth.
Movers coming 4 PM.
That’s the day we’re scheduled to move.
Looking around my room, I see that it is maybe halfway tidy, just like how my AC is halfway functional. I’d begun packing pretty early on, but I haven’t really touched it at all lately. Not because I’m busy. I just haven’t felt like it.
I pick up the phone on the desk, put my headphones down, and start to head out. As I put my shoes on by the front door, I hear Mom’s voice from the dining room.
“Hey, isn’t practice for the daruma dance about to start soon?”
“Yeah, today’s the first day. I have the song on my phone.”
I turn around to find Mom peeking out from the doorway.
“Oh, it’s not a CD?”
I shake my head and walk out the door. “Good luck with it!” she shouts at me, her voice echoing through the hot and humid halls of the apartment.
Every year in mid-August, the city of Oda holds a big summer event, the Mt. Oda Daruma Festival. It’s well-known to the locals, and the Nouvelle Mall serves as its venue. The rooftop parking lot becomes the main event space, with a bunch of stalls and people doing the Daruma Ondo dance around this little festival tower. It’s been put on since I was a child.
One of the regular events is the fireworks display they shoot off from the rice paddies. It lasts for about an hour, and some of the fireworks are really big, so by local standards it’s a pretty large-scale show. A lot of people from neighboring towns come to see them, so the roof of the mall is always packed with spectators.