Chapter 1 - The Lonely Summer Vacation
One moment, the white ribbon sparkled in the
dazzling light of the sunset, the next, Chise’s straw hat fluttered up high
with the summer breeze.
The white ribbon of the straw hat danced
gently in the orange sky, like a feather coat, before finally perching itself
at the tip of a large tree branch.
(What do I do now…)
The tree in question, dyed red by the sunset,
was like an impish boy raising his hand up high. Chise could only look up at
her hat worriedly.
It was about an hour ago when she told the
Andou-san, the homemaker, "I shall be going on a stroll," and went
out of the house.
The roads here were not concrete and
pavements, but simple dirt paths, and everything was a brand new experience to
Chise, whether it was the lush greenery, or that the brook was so clear that
the rocks at the bottom were visible. As she had walked on, her eyes had grown
wider and wider until the moment when a sudden gust of wind had ruffled her
straw hat and carried it to the branch.
The brook trailed off into the glitter of the
sunset. There was much greenery by the wayside, and the large tree on which the
straw hat was hooked was rough and scary looking. Chise took a single feel of
it, and the skin was grazed off her palm.
She had been raised in the city and was never
particularly good at sports, let alone tree climbing. Moreover, she was dressed
in summer clothing - a white one-piece dress and fancy sandals. The waist-length
hair would also be a hindrance in an attempt to climb the tree.
The water in the brook moved along slowly into
the distance, it’s murmur the only sound that could be heard. Until suddenly...
A bicycle headed straight down the path basked
in the orange sunlight.
A boy, looking to be just a little older than
Chise, probably no more than a high school student, was riding it. He was
dressed plainly, wearing a sweat-soaked shirt and faded jeans, the thin arms
and the tense face bare to bake under the sun.
He looked towards Chise, and the girl tensed
up at his standoffish expression.
His lips curled together, and he slowly
approached on the bicycle.
Chise had assumed he would ride off but,
unexpectedly, he parked next to her.
And even more surprisingly, this standoffish
boy suddenly looked up. Straight towards Chise’s straw hat with its white sash
dropping down.
Tanned hands reached for branches, feet wedged
against the bark, and he quickly scaled the tree. Then, he reached out to nudge
the straw hat which fell straight to Chise.
Her eyes widened as she caught it with both
hands.
Once the boy saw Chise catch the hat, he hoped
down from halfway up the tree and landed on the grass patch.
The ground trembled slightly. The girl’s
slender shoulders followed suit.
The orange sky turned scarlet in the meantime,
making the world a little darker and things harder to see. The boy, appearing
content with mission accomplished, hopped onto the bicycle and left towards the
large setting sun.
“Erm...”
Chise wanted to call out to him, but all that
was left was his skinny back growing smaller in her eyes.
She was left standing there, holding onto the
straw hat with both hands.
(He kindly helped me out…but I did not thank
him.)
She dropped her shoulders, disappointed at how
slow her response was.
(But I should be able to see him again… for I
will be spending this summer vacation here.)
Surely, she would make sure to thank him when
they met again.
She bowed deeply towards where the boy had
left.
The sun had set completely by the time Chise
returned to the villa, and the housekeeper went out to welcome her back.
“It is late. I was worried that you were
lost.”
“I am sorry.”
Andou-san was an elderly woman in her 50s,
genial in appearance and kind. When Chise saw her for the first time, Andou-san
kindly welcomed her in with a smile and a “Well, welcome.” The girl immediately
took a liking to her, so she felt really bad for making the elderly lady worry.
“It’s different here compared to the city.
Everything is dark outside at night, and you can’t see anything. There aren't
many people walking outside either. Do ensure that you return before it gets
dark.”
Chise’s parents had never showed this much
concern, so she was both a little dumbfounded and elated.
“I understand. I will be careful.”
Chise’s honest reply made Andou-san’s face
relax.
“What would you have first, dinner or bath?”
“Ah, dinner please.”
“Alright, I will go about preparing it.”
“I shall leave it to you then.”
Chise lowered her head in gratitude. This
caused Andou-san to narrow her eyes.
“You really are polite, Chise-san. It’s rare
to see a proper, polite princess like you. I suppose this grace of yours comes
from being raised in a private girls school in Tokyo since kindergarten, no?”
she said, sounding impressed.
Chise blushed furiously and muttered, “th-that
is not the case...I-I am normal,” before hurriedly evacuating to the washroom.
Chise was unused to being praised and did not
know how to answer.
Back in school, she was a genial, dull girl.
“You’re spacing out again, Chise-chan,” had been how she had often been teased.
Never once had she been called classy.
Being praised like this caused her to feel
overly embarrassed, and even after washing her face in the washroom, her cheeks
remained red.
Her ablutions done, she went to eat the dinner
Andou-san prepared for her. The meal consisted of lots of summer vegetables in
a consommé risotto, herb-fried sautéed chicken, and a grapefruit jelly. She was
being more mindful of her etiquette, and her usage of the knife and fork, than
usual.
Each dish tasted delicious.
“It is delicious,” she remarked so bashfully
that Andou-san narrowed her eyes happily.
“Pleased to know that it suits your tastes
well. Is there anything you can’t eat?”
“Erm...”
Chise was momentarily gobsmacked, which seemed
to surprise Andou-san a little.
“Don’t worry. Please do say if there is
anything,” the woman prompted gently.
Chise stammered,
“I...cannot really eat, green peppers.”
Andou-san beamed further, her eyes narrowed
again.
“My younger daughter never wanted to eat green
peppers until she graduated from elementary school. Right now, she’s still
calling back to ask how to get her elementary-school-age son to eat them.”
“In that case, what should I do so that I can
eat them?”
“Well, I’ll keep that a secret for now. If I
reveal the answer now, Chise-san, you’ll be flustered and keep wondering where
the green peppers are hidden in every meal.”
“Not at all. A-and, it is not that I cannot
eat them at all. Please serve them as normal.”
“No, no. Please leave it to me. Is there
anything you hate other than green peppers?”
“E-everything else is fine.”
Chise blushed in response, and upon seeing
that, Andou-san beamed away.
The sweet and sour cold grapefruit jelly was
covered with sweet milk sauce. Chise picked it up with the silver spoon,
nibbling at it. It was really delicious.
While she was eating, Andou-san asked a
question.
“How does it feel outside?”
Perhaps,──
“There might be not that much of anything out
here, but the scenery is beautiful. You are in your third year of middle
school, and did well on your entrance exams, haven’t you Chise-san? Ah, but
your school doesn’t require any admission exams, does it? Oh yes, oh yes, if
you take the bus to the town center, there is a cinema and a shopping mall.”
And then she continued happily chatter
throughout the meal.
Chise only nodded somewhat apprehensively here
and there, adding an odd question now and then in a teeny-weeny voice.
Suddenly, she recalled that aloof looking boy.
She thought of how he had helped her retrieve the straw hat from, and her heart
started to race. She started to worry if Andou-san would notice her acting
differently...
“It would be great if your parents could
finish work early and get here sooner…”
Andou-san’s carefree words stabbed Chise’s
heart like a needle.
And the girl immediately ──
“Yes, that would certainly be nice.”
── smiled.
“Thank you for the meal. It was really
delicious.”
After dinner, Chise intended to clear the
cutlery, but ──
“Thank you, but that is my job.”
── Andou-san stopped her firmly.
“E-erm, then please at least allow me to bring
them over to the kitchen.”
“Really, you make me question just who is the
one hired to work here,” replied the woman, rebuffing the girl with a joke.
“You’re really obedient for a middle schooler.
Your parents surely must be glad to have you.”
The compliment was muttered gently, but the
words hurt Chise deeply once more. And yes, embarrassed her too. Therefore, the
girl hurriedly gathered the cutlery, brought it back to the kitchen sink, and
went up to the second floor.
Chise’s room, the place where she was going to
spend her summer vacation, was an empty space facing the courtyard. The bed,
desk, and chair were already lined neatly, all being old but sturdy, and made
from wood that gave off a warm feeling. The curtains were in tender
grassy-green with white lace resembling clouds. It was all really pretty.
Inside, the girl leaned her back against the
walnut-colored door and lowered her head.
The long hair was draped down her cheeks,
hiding her expression.
There was nobody else here, other than her.
“...”
So she stood there, frozen in that position
for a long time until, finally, the edge of her lips regained a hint of life.
Even without looking into the mirror, she knew
without a doubt what expression adorned her face. A feeble smile.
She wanted to be sincerely ‘happy’.
In a way that would allow her to smile a
happier smile than that.
Eventually, she sat down on the chair facing
the desk and took out the letter set she brought from Tokyo.
There were illustrations of fish, clouds,
watermelons, and fireworks on the envelopes and the postcards, spreading a
perfect summer vibe. Just looking at it filled her with elation.
She laid the color pens on top of the table,
wondering which colors she should use for which postcards. The more she thought
about it, the happier she felt.
In the end, she picked a deep blue pen and a
card illustrated with blue fish, and began to write to her bosom friends.
“I arrived at the villa today.
Back before the summer vacation, we talked about a
distant relative of my father, called Shiori-san, who lived alone in this
house.
I imagined it to be a dilapidated, haunted place. Now
that I look at it in person, however, it is a cute wooden cottage, one similar
to a hut found in foreign illustrations. There are vines climbing the walls,
vines that have leaves the shape of a heart. There is an allotment space in the
garden where cucumbers and tomatoes can be harvested. There is even a red
postbox at the side of the door. It is really cute.
There is a brook nearby, and I can see farms ridges,
fields, and a vineyard.
The air feels refreshing. It feels comfortable living
here.”
One by one, Chise started to recall all the
wonderful things she had seen with her eyes, heard with her ears, and felt on
her skin on this day. Perhaps writing about this to her friends excited her
more than expected, because then she chose a sky-blue postcard, an orange pen,
and started to write a message to her parents.
“Andou-san told me that the previous owner of this house
was Father’s distant relative, Shiori-san.”
“She would visit twice a week, but only to help with
housework, and hardly spoke with Shiori-san. She mentioned that Shiori-san was
a really kind person, genial in tone, and everyone in the village called her a
sage.
I also heard that she was the prettiest person in the
village when she was young.”
“I heard that the desk, chair, and bed I am using now
were used by Shiori-san. I found the poems Shiori-san wrote in the desk drawer,
not on paper, but on the drawer itself, written in pen. I wonder how old
Shiori-san was when she wrote it? The handwriting is pretty and elegant.”
“When you arrive, I will show them to you── ”
At this point, Chise stopped writing, stared
at the text, and struck the words off with a pen. Then, she covered everything
with correction fluid and wrote something different instead.
“I love this house, this village, from the moment I
arrived. What beautiful scenery will I see tomorrow? I am looking forward to
it. I will write to you again, Papa, Mama.”
‘It would be great if your parents could
finish work early and get here sooner…’ That was what Andou-san had said.
Her father was busy with work, and her mother
was even busier socializing. Both of them hardly had the time, to begin with,
but Chise knew very well why they did not come by.
Both of them were back home, in Tokyo,
discussing divorce.
Thus, they had arranged for Chise to come to
this house, and spend her 15th summer here. This house had once belonged to a
distant relative of her father, and that person had just happened to die this
spring.
Maybe they had done it out of consideration,
thinking she would be unwilling to hear their disputes.
However, for as far back as Chise could
remember, the relationship between her parents had always been frigid. Even
when the three of them ate together at the same table, they never smiled, and
the atmosphere between the adults had always been tense. Surely, right now they
were saying spiteful things to each other with a scowl on their face.
Chise could imagine it, easily in fact, and
her heart turned into a block of ice at the thought.
The hand holding the orange pen stopped once
again.
(I cannot be thinking about this.)
The more she thought about this, the heavier
and colder her heart and body would become.
Instead of that, perhaps she should find some
joy, a wonderful thing, and tell her parents all about it.
Surely that would make them happier, and maybe
even tempt them to come by instead.
Yes, papa and mama would surely come then,
smiling and loving each other.
“It is quiet here.”
“The air puts me at ease.”
Chise filled the sky-blue postcard with words.
The orange ink looked very warm on the paper,
almost akin to the color of sunset.
Her mind recalled the fluttering white sash
and the sight of the boy handing over the straw hat. Recalled his thin face.
The thin lips that were dyed orange.
The standoffish eyes.
The sweaty shirt.
The bicycle that departed before Chise could
utter a word of thanks. The silhouette of the boy’s back.
Her frozen heart was slowly melting, and her
lips broke into a natural smile.
Yes.
It was a wonderful, amazing thing.
Chise had always stayed at a girls school, and
never had a proper conversation with a boy of the same age. On the train ride
to and back from school, the boys were always together, chatting loudly,
something she always found intimidating.
The boy who had got the straw hat down for her
might have looked grim, but he had also looked earnest and had carried about
him an air that was as serene as the morning sky.
“It will be nice...to see him again...”
Chise whispered, feeling her cheeks heat up
slightly.
On the first day of Chise’s stay at the villa,
she met the boy, and the meeting promised a wonderful start to her summer
vacation. Just thinking about it caused her heart to throb.
She slowly opened the desk drawer.
Immediately, the graceful handwriting appeared before her eyes.
Who is he?
Why did he sigh?
These words were probably written by the
previous owner of the house, Shiori-san.
They also happened to be a very apt fit for
Chise’s personality, and the girl was mesmerized by them.
(What is that boy’s name...? If only we could
meet again.)
Her smile turned dreamy.
◇◇◇
The following morning, there was a ‘ting’
sound… Half-awake Chise heard a bell chime somewhere outside.
Then, there was a sound of a passing vehicle.
Chise opened her eyes. The curtain, green like
a young grass, dazzled as it absorbed the morning light.
It was 5am.
Whole two hours earlier than the usual time
Chise tended to wake up.
She put on her glasses, got off the bed, and
looked out of the window. A truck just happened to pass by her doors.
(Going to work this early? Must be hard,) she
thought, her mind all fuzzy with sleep. Right at that moment, though ──
── She spotted a bicycle opposite the passing
truck.
Shocked, she brought her face closer to the
window.
There was a boy riding on that bicycle.
Slightly tanned skin; long, thin limbs; a
skinny face...
That was ──
(The person who retrieved my hat...)
Chise thought that she was still dreaming.
The boy had stacks of newspapers on the back
seat and in the basket of his bicycle. He parked in front of Chise’s house and,
never getting off the bicycle’s seat, he inserted a layer of papers into the
red postbox.
(So he’s the newspaper boy!)
Her heart suddenly raced.
The boy’s palm left the newspaper.
He would be leaving!
She had to hurry and thank him!
Panicking, Chise opened the window.
The windows here were old-fashioned and
required her to use both hands.
BAM! A loud noise exploded around the house.
It shocked Chise and seemed to attract the
boy’s attention, for he lifted his face.
The boy’s aloof eyes caught sight of her, arms
still up, holding the window.
Their eyes met.
Those of the boy widened slightly in mild
surprise.
And that was the moment when Chise remembered
that she was still dressed in wrinkled pajamas and her hair was a
straight-out-of-bed mess. Embarrassment roared in her thoughts as if her mind
had been set ablaze.
The sizzling heat spread onto her face, cheeks,
and eyes.
(My face is red now!) she thought, all
shriveled on the bed, hugging a pillow. She was so ashamed she even left the
window open.
And, with nothing to hold it in place, said
window fell, with a loud thud.
Chise buried her face into the pillow, despite
the fact that she was still wearing glasses. After brooding for a moment, a
realization struck her.
The window falling shut suddenly made a loud
noise! Their eyes just met, and yet she made such a violent bang with the
window. Would he not have a bad impression of her?
Probably not? ...Maybe? It was so sudden…Chise
kept feeding herself excuses as she inched her head towards the edge of the
window, peeking at the outside again.
There was the old gate of stacked stone.
The red postbox.
But the boy on the bicycle had already
disappeared.
“What do I do...?”
Chise hurriedly grabbed the comb, tidied her
hair, removed her shabby pajamas, and put on the sleeveless one-piece dress.
However, she could not straighten her ruffled
hair at all so, making do with the straw hat, she ran down the stairs with her
glasses on, hastily put on her shoes, and headed towards the courtyard.
The cool morning breeze gently caressed her
bare arms and her heated cheeks.
Slightly gasping for breath, she went towards
the postbox.
Once there, she peered onto the road outside,
but naturally, the boy was nowhere to be seen. Chise lowered her head and
looked towards her feet. There were bicycle tracks on the dirt path, and a newspaper
was inserted into the postbox.
She took it with both hands.
And then, she felt a tender warmth on her
fingertips, like that of a bread loaf fresh out of the oven.
(This is not a dream...)
The warmth slowly spread over her, and even
her heart too was warmed.
(That boy had been here just now..)
With this warmth, he delivered the newspapers.
Since he was a part-time newspaper courier,
surely she could meet him again!
Chise embraced the newspaper, hugging it
firmly to her chest, and her heart filled with delight.
“Chise-san, what is the matter?”
Andou-san approached the door full of worry.
Chise had opened the window, then slammed it
shut, hurried down the stairs, and went out into the courtyard. Surely
Andou-san had heard all the noise involved.
“So-sorry, did I wake you up? I got up too
early, s-so I wanted to read the papers...”
Chise embraced the papers firmly, lowering her
head in apology.
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I just woke up. I’ll go
prepare breakfast right away.”
“It is fine. I-I will read the papers. Please
take your time.”
Chise lowered her head and apologized again,
before heading back up the stairs, straight to her room.
The flooring had a cool rug laid over it.
Chise gently knelt on that rug and, still excited, unfurled the newspaper.
With a blush on her face, she started reading.
From the headline news, through the social column, economic column, book
reviews, personal advice, reader submission, classifieds, and even the weather
report, she read all of it.
But the contents never entered her mind, for,
again and again, she kept recalling the tanned, skinny boy. How he parked his
bicycle before the red postbox, and his expression when he lifted his face up
towards Chise. By the end, the girl was blushing furiously.
Back at her home, in Tokyo, Chise’s father had
been the only one to read the papers. She had never touched one, not once.
Thus, laying out the large black and grey printed sheets on the rug was a
refreshing experience for her.
Every time she flipped the pages with her
fingers, the thin paper rustled, its faint scent tickling her nose.
Was this the scent of ink?
The window by the bedside remained open, and
the grassy-green curtains were half-opened letting in both the sunlight and the
cool morning breeze, allowing the sun to shine upon the black words.
(We met again.)
The grey background appeared to be glittering,
and the pamphlets inserted between the pages scattered upon the floor like a
colorful fan. Chise had a careful look at them too.
It appeared there was a discount offer at the
supermarket for cabbage and cucumbers. There was also information about
second-hand vehicle sales and special summer sales at the department store. The
large red ‘30% off’, ‘50% off’, and so on tugged at her heart.
Finally, Chise folded the newspaper, her
cheeks now thoroughly red, and she looked up the TV schedule. The ink had
stained her fingertips at this point.
(I can meet him tomorrow again.)
The swirling elation finally settled down into
a faint sense of delight, spreading throughout her body little by little. Only
then was she able to experience the next feeling.
(Ah, but...)
She recalled the attitude she had displayed,
and she felt like somebody doused her in cold water.
He might be angry. He was so kind to her, yet
she slammed the window on him and hid. Maybe he wouldn’t want to meet her.
Suddenly, her heart accelerated again, but
this time for a different reason. She was still brooding over this when
Andou-san’s voice came from downstairs,
“Chise-san, it’s about time for breakfast.”
Chise looked up at the clock on the wall and
saw that an hour had passed already.
“Ah, yes, thank you. I am heading down now.”
She folded the newspaper neatly, picked up the
pamphlets that were laid out all over the floor, stacked those on top of the
paper, and hurried down the stairs.
“I k-kept you, waiting. I’m sorry”
Chise panted as she stepped into the living
room. Andou-san’s eyes widened at the sight and she just said, “oh my.”
Chise panicked, not knowing what exactly was
so weird about her. Andou-san explained with a stifled chuckle, “you are still
wearing the straw hat.”
Chise reached up and touched the brim of the
hat.
Her cheeks sizzled. She removed it at once.
“Right, erm…I also have yet to wash my face,
and my hands are all dirty with ink…”
The girl shriveled, intending to head straight
to the washroom. But Andou-san just smiled and said, “it appears you really
like to read the newspapers. Is there anything interesting today?”
“No, not at all...”
“I thought a young princess like you wouldn’t
read newspapers, Chise-san. The previous owner ordered a year’s worth but,
after she passed away in Spring, I requested that they no longer be delivered
for the time being. Now I’m glad they continued nonetheless.”
Chise was way too embarrassed to admit that
she had never read a newspaper in her life back in Tokyo.
So she did all she could to bluff her way
through the conversation and quickly slipped out into the washroom to clean her
hands and face.
As she picked up the soap to scrub her
fingers, she suddenly hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should wash away
the black staining her fingertips.
That feeling was too much even for her though
and she conjured soap bubbles on her palm. Carefully scrubbing the newspaper
stains away, she muttered to herself,
“Tomorrow... I will... Wake up earlier… And
thank him... Properly...”
The following morning ──
── Chise had set the alarm clock to ring at
4.30am, but she woke up at 4am anyway and started fumbling about in the
darkness trying to wake up and prepare.
She put on a different one-piece dress than
the one she wore the previous day and combed her hair neater than usual,
actually managing to straighten her bed hair for once.
She waited until the first traces of dawn
appeared at the peak of the hill that before creeping into the courtyard while
making sure not to wake up Andou-san. The morning air was somewhat refreshing,
yet chilly, and the courtyard was still covered in the pre-dawn gloom.
(What time do the newspapers arrive...?)
The sky got gradually brighter as she waited.
The crisp morning light shone at the ground and grass in the courtyard, and at
the tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden, causing a slight change in their hue.
Various uneasy thoughts went through her head while she was watching this
process.
(If it happens to be a different person today,
what do I do...?)
(Will I scare him by standing next to the
postbox?)
But there was no place in the courtyard for
Chise to hide and, if she was to talk to him from behind the fence, it might
make him feel wary.
She was also afraid that, if she hid, she
might be too embarrassed to come out, just like the previous morning…
After much thought, she remained as she had
been, waiting next to the postbox, all stiff and tense.
She was listening carefully as she looked
towards the road again. The boy on the bicycle appeared on the other end of the
path right at that moment.
Her heart throbbed loudly.
The hands grasped at the hem of the dress from
both sides.
Just like on the previous day, there were
newspapers stacked on the back seat and in the basket of the bicycle.
The boy seemed to have noticed Chise next to
the mailbox, and raised his eyebrows.
Chise saw the grim look on his face and felt a
wrench in her gut.
(He-he is angry about what happened yesterday
after all...)
She wanted to run away.
But her legs were stiff, rooted in place.
The bike approached slowly until it parked in
front of her.
She could not run away.
She was right to wait by the postbox. Her
heart was palpitating. She was so tense she feared she was about to explode.
But having come this far, she had to follow through.
The boy remained aloof, watching her with some
skepticism in his eyes.
Chise lowered her head.
“My-my straw hat landed on the tree two days
ago, and you helped me while I was wondering how to get it down. Thank you very
much for doing that...!”
She put too much force into the bow and her
hair slipped as a result. Her voice grew more shrill with every word.
But she managed to express her gratitude.
She lifted her head timidly and saw the
surprise on his face, wide eyes and all.
That caused her to tense up again and her
shoulders started to shiver.
“A-and, yesterday, I shut the windows and hid.
I am s-sorry for that too. I-I did not know you are the newspaper boy. I was…
so rude.”
She apologized once more before lowering her
head again.
The boy’s vague, deep voice gently caressed
Chise’s ears with his reply.
“...It’s fine,” he said indifferently.
It was the first time Chise had heard his
voice.
When she straightened back up she saw the boy
was troubled by her apology. Once their eyes met, he hurriedly looked aside,
drew a layer of printed sheets from the basket, and handed it to her.
“Th-thank you.”
Chise’s voice unwittingly became as soft as
the boy’s.
The moment her hands touched the newspaper,
the moment her fingertips felt the same warmth as the previous day’s, her heart
skipped a beat.
The boy didn’t look straight at her again and,
after offering a vague hint of a bow, he sped off.
The bicycle raced down the unpaved dirt path,
quickly gaining distance. Chise heard it leave, transfixed to her spot,
watching it go.
The warm newspaper remained in her hands.
──Thank you very much.
──...It’s fine.
The exchange between them was brief, not even
a conversation. However, Chise was on cloud nine as she returned to the house
replaying the words in her head.
(Great.
I finally managed to thank him properly!)
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