📮Episode 5: The Soliloquy of the Stone That Prevents Falls on Daruma Slope (Takasaki Chapter)

The winter air is biting cold, and white puffs of breath rise up along the slope.

I'm a little pebble known as the 'Stone That Prevents Falls' here on Daruma Slope in Takasaki.

Back in the day, little ones with backpacks would come running down this slope, shouting and laughing.
Especially on mornings when a thin layer of snow had settled, it was quite dangerous.
I would always catch their toes just a little to slow their momentum.
I've lost count of how many kids said 'Whoa!' but managed to avoid landing on their bottoms.

But since the Reiwa era began, the number of children walking this slope has dropped significantly.
They built a wide road where cars zoom by, and I hear everyone uses that as their route to school now.
The only ones who pass by occasionally are adults looking at their smartphones while walking up and down.
Even when I think it's dangerous, my turn to help doesn't come around very often.
Days when I feel relieved that 'no one fell today' and days when I feel a bit lonely and 'have nothing to do' come by in turns.

Even so, every once in a while, an old lady who remembers the old days finds me and smiles.
She'll say something like, 'Oh, you're still here, little stone,' and gently stroke my surface with her foot.
The warmth of her fingertips seeps into me, even on this asphalt that's colder than the snow.
A child who looked like her grandchild happened to stumble on the slope once,
and I braced myself just a little to catch the sole of their shoe.

When the grandfather reached out and caught the child, saying 'Whoa, that was close,'
their laughter spread out into the winter sky.
Ah, I thought, I'm still here, properly fulfilling my role,
and I puffed out my chest as much as a little pebble could.

Well, today too, I'm just secretly bracing myself under someone's feet.

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