Flash

I CURSE THE INVENTOR OF MIRRORS
FOR BESTOWING HUMANITY THE GIFT
OF SEEING ONE’S OWN IMPERFECTIONS
AND CURSE FURTHERMORE THE CAMERA’S
FOR BESTOWING HUMANITY THE GIFT
OF SEEING EACH OTHER’S IMPERFECTIONS
FROZEN ETERNALLY IN TIME AND SPACE
WITHOUT A CHANCE OF OVERWRITING

The 1st of April, Niigata — Japan.

Dear reader,

It is not out of shamelessness that I trouble you to read my humble tale, a tale belonging more to the camera than to myself. Allow me to explain, then, that since this tale begins on April 1st, The Fool's Day, the veracity of the events depicted is yet to be determined, before the end of the story. I still concede, for a lack of options, that this may just be a fantasy to embellish the last day of my last spring break, which had left much to be desired until just then. My leisurely routine could be briefly summarized through mere flash fiction.

“He woke up, lived, slept, and repeated. Thus lived Akito Itabashi, until his first meeting with Death”.

That said, my once placid existence was quite joyous — or, at least, I believed it to be — before my encounter with the camera. Once photographed, however, I noticed a profound lack of charm in the mixture of my life. It is no wonder, dear reader, that I omit my life up to the moment this story begins, on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, a single event is enough to redefine an entire life, as long as it actually happens.

I bid you farewell, then, with the following message: To those who are on their last day of spring break, bored and truly believing to have wasted it all, fret not. A single encounter, even if on the last possible day, can give meaning to everything that has happened before, and also to everything that is yet to come.

Enjoy yourselves.

Yours sincerely, the narrator, Akito Itabashi.