Chapter 3- "Never Ending Flowerfields"

After walking along the coastline for some time enjoying the beautiful landscape and arriving at a big flowerfield she suddenly stopped and turned around to face me.

 "You're from the mainland, right?" Himari asked, turning to face me. "I've never seen you around here before."

"Yeah, that's true," I replied. "I'm just here to visit my grandpa."

She looked at me with curious eyes, brushing a strand of her red hair behind her ear. Her walking cane rested gently in the grass beside her, forgotten for a moment.

"Is it nice over there?" she asked, turning her gaze back to the sky. "The mainland, I mean."

I paused for a moment, thinking. "It's... busier. Noisy. You can barely hear your own thoughts."

"That sounds awful." She smiled faintly. "Here, all you hear is the wind, the waves, and the birds. And sometimes, the thoughts you try not to listen to."

I sat down beside her, careful not to crush any of the wildflowers swaying around us. The field stretched far and wide, dotted with colors that felt almost unreal in the golden light.

"Do you come here often?" I asked.

"Almost every day," she said. "It’s quiet here. I can imagine I’m somewhere far away—flying above the clouds, looking down at everything."

"You want to fly?"

She nodded slowly. "More than anything. I used to dream of becoming a pilot. But... some dreams just stay on the runway."

Her voice was soft, almost carried away by the wind.

"I think..." I began, then hesitated. "I think some dreams just need a little help taking off."

Himari looked at me again, a little surprised. Then she laughed gently, almost like she hadn’t done so in a long time.

"You're strange," she said. "But not in a bad way."

We sat in silence for a while, just watching the clouds pass. For some reason, even though I had just met her, I felt like I’d known her for a long time.

"Well," she said eventually, standing up carefully with her cane. "I should head back. My house isn't far, but if I take too long, the nurses will start panicking."

"Wait, you're staying at the clinic?" I asked.

"Something like that." She didn’t elaborate. "Maybe I’ll see you here again. You seem like the kind of person who wanders into the right places."

And with that, she walked away, her cane tapping lightly against the stones hidden beneath the tall grass.

I watched her silhouette disappear into the evening light, the sky above us streaked with the soft colors of dusk.

Even though we had barely spoken, something in me stirred. Like her dreams, maybe mine had been stuck on the runway too.