[Melting in the Indian Summer] #25 Seya-kun's Scooter

Seya-kun calls me
Charu
.

Because he is my mother's younger brother,
to me,
Seya-kun says he is my uncle.

However,

to me, he doesn't look like an
"uncle" at all.

My mother has five siblings in total,
and they are all talkative
and incredibly lively.

Whenever they gather,
loud laughter always fills the air,

but only Seya-kun, the youngest,
is always in the corner,
quietly
just smiling.

His name is "Seiya",
so everyone calls him "Seya-kun".

Since everyone calls him that,
I called him that too.

*

When I went to play at Grandma's house,

creak, creak,

Seya-kun came down from the second floor,
making the stairs groan.

"Charu, want to go?"

he asked, in his usual voice.

Seya-kun's eyes
are the same as Grandma's,
a deep, absorbing black.

With thick eyelashes,
he looks at me with his slightly sunken eyes,
gazing at me softly.

When he smiles at me like that,
there is no way
I could ever refuse.

"I'll go!"

I
got down from Grandma's lap,
left my snack half-eaten,
and ran out wearing my red sandals.

"Just one lap, okay!"

Mom's voice
chases after me

When I go outside,
the sky is already filled with the sun

In the morning,
there were only pigeons and cats,
but by noon,
it seems the cicadas have taken over

Ugh

It's hot and noisy,
so I
shrunk my neck
and made a weird sound on purpose

Seya-kun approaches while laughing

"Aren't you going to ride?"

Pop-pop,
he makes a dry sound
as he pats the scooter's seat

My spot is
in front of Seya-kun

When I stand there,
Seya-kun's arms and legs
tightly sandwich me
to guard me

The scooter is
a dirty white color
and not very clean, but

No matter how hot the day is,
when I ride it cutting through the wind,
I feel
completely invincible

That said,
Seya-kun's scooter is
always
a slow, safe ride

On a road where cars don't pass much,
today too,
heading toward the sea,
it goes
vroom vroom vroom

The tidal flat sea
is different from the sea you go to for swimming,
there's little water,
and I've always thought
it's nice because it's not scary

We parked the scooter
along the coast,
went straight down the stone steps,
and arrived at the shell-covered beach

The smell of the sea is thick and heavy

"It's hot, isn't it?"

As he said that,
Seya-kun
wiped the sweat off my face
firmly with a towel.

Then,
he sat down on the stone curb,
shook the orange juice with pulp
that we had bought on the way,
and popped it open for me.

This favorite juice of mine

is cold and sweet,
and the bits of orange
that flow into my mouth
are indescribably delicious.

When I finished drinking the juice,
I kept the can to my lips with both hands,
tilted it way back,
tapped the bottom,
and became desperate
to suck out every last drop.

Tap, tap,
tap, tap, tap!

I persistently tapped the bottom.

"That's enough, isn't it?"

Finally,
Seya-kun said that as if he were exasperated,
and held out his hand for me to give him the can.

After that,
we
started walking along the beach,
looking for our usual cherry blossom shells.

On the beach full of
gritty shells of various colors,
they are the cherry-colored,
most beautiful shells
that we occasionally find.

Seya-kun
is collecting them in a small glass bottle.

Because they are rarely found,
there are only a few of them,
but the little bottle
was about to be full.

"Found one!"

As I pounced on it
to pick it up and hold it in my hand,

"Oh, never mind."

Usually, it was just
an ordinary shell
that looked like one
because of the way the light hit it,

and I, who never learn,

Found one!
Oh, never mind.

I repeat it
endlessly, but

Seya-kun is
already
so used to that routine of mine
that he
doesn't even react anymore

Since it's boring,
in the meantime,
I find a large, spiraling shell
and hold it to my ear

Whether it's true or not,
I strain to listen for
the sound of waves from a distant land
that is said to be etched into the shell

"Charu, I found one!"

Seya-kun, who found a cherry blossom shell,
waves me over to call me

Making sure my sandals don't slip off,
being careful
not to crush the shell,
I walk toward him
with my arms spread out like a balance toy

When I look at the palm
that Seya-kun holds out to me,

a single
cherry blossom shell,
as small and thin
as my fingernail,
was sitting there with grains of sand on it

"Isn't it pretty?"

I take it in my hand
and expose it to the air

The damp sand
dries in an instant,
and when I flick it,
it crumbles away

A cherry blossom pink that lets the light through

Rather than a shell,
it's a flower petal

Seya-kun
takes a bottle from his pocket,
removes the cork stopper,
and inside it,
gently
places the cherry blossom shell

A few years after that,
Seya-kun, who had moved to Tokyo,
just like that, quite unexpectedly,
passed away

It was the winter I was given the role of the Little Mermaid
in the kindergarten play

Because I was too young,
the idea of someone close to me passing away
was something I had never experienced before,
so I was dazed
and didn't really understand it.

But the fact that
I would never see them again
was easy to grasp, and it pierced me sharply.

That reality
would occasionally wash over me
like a sudden wave,
and it was so sad
that it felt like being dragged to the bottom of the sea.

And above all,
it was painful to somehow sense
that my beloved grandmother
was becoming smaller and weaker
every time I saw her.

Time passed,
and by the time I could understand adult conversations,
I heard that Seya-kun
had been by the seaat the very end.

In an instant,
that tidal flat sea
came back to me.

"Is this enough?"

Reluctantly,
when I handed him the can of orange juice,
Seya-kun
used his long fingers
to gently hold it
along with his own can.

His white shirt shone brightly,
and I could see his profile
as he squinted against the glare,
blown by the sea breeze.

It felt as if time
was slowly stopping only around Seya-kun,
and a vague sense of unease
pinched
at my chest.

"Seya-kun."

I pulled on his shirt sleeve
and

made a face,

shrinking my neck in a silly way.

Seya-kun laughed

and said, "Shall we look for cherry shells?"
as he headed down to the shell-covered beach.

Hello,
this is haru.

At the end of summer three years ago,
two
stories came to mind.

One of them,
an essay titled
"The Dazzling Parasol",
I finished writing

and posted at the time,
but the other story,
which I had started writing
but stopped midway,
leaving it hanging,
is this one:

"Seya-kun's Scooter."
Actually,
this was the story that came to mind first.

I wanted to write it, but
I didn't know how to write it,
or what colors to paint it with.
At the time,
I didn't have the confidence to finish it,
so I left it hanging.

Then, last summer,
looking at a photo of Philadelphia fleabane
among the pictures
that Sakura-san had sent for Koharu,
I suddenly thought,

I should properly finish writing Seya-kun's story.

During that summer's visit home,
I also visited the nostalgic
tidal flat sea
many times.
(The photos of the sea were taken then.)

And so,
after two years,
this is the essay I finally finished.

Is there someone you remember
when your heart is stirred by the seasons?

I hope that the memories
that time has filtered
are dazzling
and gentle.

Well,
with next Sunday's post,
"Melting in the Koharu Weather,"
which has been running since last autumn,
will reach its final episode.

If you'd like,
I would be happy
to see you here again.

haru

<<Thank you>>

Thank you for adding this to your magazine!

I am truly happy that you recognized Sakura's photo for
chibi3's
"Flower articles I want to read again"

and for including "Dozing Curtains".
Thank you very much,

chibi3.
Thank you.

"Crispy Frozen Confection" in

Danke Hitsuji's
"Sunny Spot Magazine"

chibi3's
"Articles by noters I want to read again and again"

Hiiro's
"Hiiro's Stroll Path"

Each of you
has added them
to your warm
and wonderful magazines.

Everyone,
thank you all
so much, always.

I would be happy
if you could come read the final episode as well.