“Akane, you seem like a good kid. But if you just wanted to come along for a laugh, I’d be mad.”
If I had any common sense I should’ve bailed. Still, I really wanted to at least catch a glimpse of where she was headed, so after a beat I said lightly, “I’m serious about it. I want to make sure you get there safely.”
“Oh, is that why?”
I don’t know why she let this bullshit slide, but she didn’t ask any more about my reasons for accompanying her. We drank our coffees and chatted about this and that. It was a fuzzy, surreal interlude.
As soon as her phone was fully charged, we returned to the station to have her boarding history cleared. Then we walked to the bus stop for the next stage of the journey. With her phone back on, she was powerful. She tapped in with it as we boarded the bus, and when it beeped she smiled boldly back over her shoulder at me. I was dazzled.
“Where do we get off?” I asked, but she said evasively, “Chill out, I’ll tell you later,” so I had to put myself in her hands. On the quiet bus, our conversation naturally subsided. The next thing I knew, she was asleep again. Her long, lush eyelashes and the cropped locks spilling out from under her cap shone beautifully clear in the mid-afternoon light streaming through the window. Little by little I felt sleepy and closed my eyes too. Just before I let myself go, I remembered how early I’d awoken that morning.
“Akane.”
Someone was calling my name—I opened my eyes and saw an orange world stretch out before me. The achingly familiar figure of the girl I once knew was standing there, only a few steps away.
“Saya!” I wanted to run to her. But I found I couldn’t move. My legs were so heavy I couldn’t take a single step.
“I’ll go on ahead.” She spun around lightly and glided away.
“Wait!” I couldn’t follow her, so all I could do was raise my voice. It was unbearably sad to be left behind. “Saya!”
Even my anguished cry disappeared into the intense orange. In the end I couldn’t bear the heaviness and sank down into a squat. If I couldn’t catch up with her, I wished that at least I could stay here and darkness would never come.
“Akane.”
My name was called again—when I opened my eyes this time, the diesel smell of the bus hit my nose.
“We’re almost there,” said Ryoko, who had the same face as the girl—it felt like I was still dreaming.
The next stop was announced and I stared at Ryoko in disbelief. Surely the placename scrolling across on the LED display couldn’t be the right stop for her reunion. But she seemed as cheerful as ever, so I wasn’t sure until we arrived.
We got off the bus and she hurried me along to the meeting spot. And as soon as it came into view, she beamed and waved. “Yuki, here I am!”
