[Amano Writing Club] Short Short: 'This Is All It Is'

Around the time when smartphone payments via QR codes became possible, I, who was a bit behind the times, finally got a smartphone.
Everyone around me had long since switched to smartphones, but even so, I had someone I could show off to.
Shinjuku Golden Gai, with its atmosphere like a back alley lined with Showa-era tenement houses.
The bar was located at the top of a steep staircase.
Behind the counter was the mama who had been running the shop in this town for a long time. She looked to be in her late sixties.

"For someone like me, this is all it is."

Mimicking a phrase that was popular a long time ago, I thrust my smartphone out in front of the mama like the seal of Mito Komon.
I spoke proudly, mobilizing all the second-hand knowledge I had just acquired from a subordinate at work yesterday.

"If you have just this one thing, you can do anything. You can make calls, and you don't even need a wallet for shopping. You can read the news and watch videos, too."
"Oh my, that's quite a large screen."

The mama watched me as I spoke triumphantly, looking impressed.

One month later.
It was early, just after opening, and there were only the two of us, me and the mama, in the shop.
Across the counter, the mama handed me a whiskey and water.

"Thank you. By the way, I wonder how Ta-san is doing?"

The mama grinned.

"Shall I give him a call?"

Saying that, she took her smartphone out of her bag.

"Oh, so it's not a flip phone anymore."
"How rude. I bought a smartphone right after that, and now I've mastered it."

She sniffed, 'Hmph.'

"So, Mama, you've finally reached the 'this is all it is' stage too?"
"This one has a bigger screen, so the letters are easier to see and it's convenient."

However, the next moment, she took an action that went completely beyond my expectations.
She slowly took a well-worn address book out of her bag.

Huh!? Why... an address book?

"Let's see... Ta-row, Ta-row... found it, found it."

Staring intently at the notebook, the mama began to tap the phone number into the touch panel one digit at a time with a single finger.

She doesn't use... the smartphone's phonebook.
A computer in the palm of your hand, multi-functional, and if you install your favorite apps, it can become a word processor or a game console.
But none of that matters to her.
The smartphone is just a telephone. The purity of deciding that 'this is all it is' and using it only as a phone.

I lost.
In a way, that's amazing.
Immersed in a mysterious sense of defeat, I watched in silence as the mama happily talked to Ta-san on the phone.

The End

Afterword

I participated in this project. Thank you very much.

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