Proof of the Beginning...003

There was a mountain path on my way to elementary school.

The mountain path wasn't actually my designated route to school, but I loved taking that way home.

A wire fence was stretched along the mandarin orange orchard next to the apartment complex, and a steep, narrow concrete slope continued down through the middle.

The nearby houses quickly disappeared, and the path led into the woods.

If you turned right just before the exit of the almost straight mountain path, there was a small pond.

The water in the small pond was clear, yet it was always quiet and never rippled. In winter, a thin layer of ice would form, and when I took it out and dropped it on the ground, it would shatter with a sound like a glockenspiel.

A while after the ice stopped forming, bubbles would rise to the surface with a 'pukukuku...' sound, and I was convinced.

Something lives there! Since there were no rivers or streams around, thinking about it now, that pond might have been a collection of spring water. I wanted to find out the true identity of the bubbles that came up from time to time, but I felt a bit hesitant to wake up the pond, which seemed to be still sleeping.

One day, some time later, on my way home, I heard the voices of boys coming from the direction of the pond.

It seemed they had discovered something in the pond!

Watching quietly from a distance, I saw the boys holding wooden sticks and poking at something.

I held my breath, thinking that I might finally find out the true identity of those bubbles.

However, I couldn't see what they were poking from that far away, and I wasn't able to find out its true identity that day.

The next day, I decided, 'Today I will be the first to reach that pond, and I will see the true identity of the thing living in the pond no matter what!' and I dashed out of the classroom the moment the school bell rang. I ran down the narrow, steep slope, almost stumbling. 'Oops, I can't forget. I have to find a wooden branch of a suitable length on the way.' I looked around, found a branch that was a bit thick but short, and holding it in my hand, I approached the pond.

The pond was still empty of anyone else...

I peered in, but I couldn't see any fish.

No, I held my breath, thinking that if I stayed perfectly still, something might come out from the shadows of the rotted, fallen trees.

Pukukukukuku...

I saw something red moving.

It was a crayfish! The true identity of the bubbles was a crayfish.

Part of me was satisfied to finally know what it was, but I was also a little disappointed that it wasn't something amazing like I had imagined.

When I gently poked the stick I was holding into the swamp, the crayfish retreated, pointing its claws at me.

Thinking, 'What the...', I tried to pull the stick back, but the water stayed connected to the tip and moved along with it.

???


I instinctively stopped pulling the stick back.
I tried to understand what it meant, but I couldn't wrap my head around the water moving while staying connected.

I wasn't sure what to do, but I couldn't just leave the stick poked in there, so I pulled it out slowly.

With a slippery sensation, the water moved, still connected.

I didn't understand it, but I pushed the stick deep into the water once more to scoop up the connected water and lifted it up.
There was clearly extra weight on the stick.

I didn't know what would come out, but driven by a mix of fear and curiosity, I gave the stick a good, strong pull upward.


The moment I did, a clump of water wrapped around the tip of the stick lifted up, only to fall back into the swamp with a wet thud.

It was something I had never seen before.

"Isn't it amazing! Did you see it too?"

I was startled by the sudden voice and almost dropped the stick, but one of the boys who had been here yesterday was holding onto it with me.

"Can you see the black round things inside this jelly-like stuff?"
He said, hooking a little bit of the water clump onto the stick, pulling it up, and placing it on the ground,
then he scooped it into his palm and spread it out for me to see.

I leaned in to look at it in his palm, and then I looked at his face.

"These are frog eggs. These black dots will grow up and turn into tadpoles."
As he explained this, he held out his hand with the frog eggs on it, as if asking if I wanted to touch them too.

I hesitantly touched the frog eggs sitting in his palm.
They felt like loosely set jelly.
They were cold and didn't really feel like a living thing, but I felt like I had encountered something special, and I liked them instantly.


"It's amazing, right? Tadpoles are going to come out of this. Isn't it amazing?"
The boy said with a hint of excitement, then gently returned the frog eggs to the swamp.

"Do you always pass through here on your way home?"
He asked while squatting by the swamp to wash his hands, and I replied vaguely, "Oh? U-um, yeah."

However, the vagueness didn't seem to bother him.
"It looks like there are even more eggs in that deeper part over there. Let's bring longer sticks tomorrow!"


It seemed he had chosen me as his new adventure partner.
"Yeah, okay. A longer stick, right."
I answered with a smile, and just like that, I became a member of the expedition team tasked with finding out the true nature of the bubbles in this swamp.

I must keep the slippery, smooth sensation of the frog eggs tucked away carefully as proof of the adventure that is about to begin.