We and the Birds

The morning had come, and this time Tetsudo was the first to rise. He awoke to a quiet café.

“Oh, good morning!” The manager said as he was carrying some plates.

“Good morning, um…” Tetsudo rubbed his weary eyes. “What time is it?”

“Almost 8AM, so just before we open the café.”

“Great, we’ll be going in a bit then.”

“Stay for a while, if you’d like. You washed a lot of dishes yesterday; you deserve a lot.” The manager said with a smile.

“Thank you.” Tetsudo bowed down as the manager went inside the kitchen.

He was a short and fat bald man with a long moustache. His round head was disrupted by his big ears on each side, one of which had a small piercing. He wore a white apron, but tight jeans on his legs. Tetsudo wondered how they even fit him.

Tetsudo looked around the café again. This time the other part of it, the one with the book wall. That part had even more posters of different novels.

“’HimeHime’, ‘Pidgeon on a Power Wire, ‘Writing is not Therapy’…” More silly titles and weird covers for him to gaze at.

He then looked at one of the hundreds of bookshelves on the book wall. Books, old and new, sat untouched, as dust was gathering on their tops. Tetsudo isn’t and had never been a fan of reading – it always seemed slow to him. But something about the smell of old pages always caught his interested. He didn’t so much love reading, as he did to flick through the yellow pages.

But the day was short and there was much to do. He wanted to spend every bit of it with Yai, since it probably was their last together.

He went back to the table, where he and Yai slept; she was still snoring cutely. Her breathing was slow, acting like a lull for Tetsudo. He couldn’t really wake her up out of the blue, so he decided to pat her on her head:

“Yai, time to wake up,” but she wouldn’t really open her eyes.

After saying that a couple of times, Tetsudo got impatient and pinched Yai’s cheek.

“Sleepyhead, come on wake up…”

Yai slowly opened her eyes. And as she saw Tetsudo’s face right above hers, she let out a sleepy smile.

“I dreamt about you, and you woke me up from the dream~” she sat up straight and gave him a peck on the forehead. “Couldn’t have wished for something better…”

Tetsudo’s ears started glowing and his face lit up in red flames.

“Don’t say that!! Jeez…” he tried to hide his fluster.

The last day of the adventure was upon them.

*

After eating breakfast, Yai and Tetsudo stayed in the café until 11 AM, talking to the manager and employees, laughing at the meaningless conversations and dry jokes. The echoing voices around the poster walls ringed through every client, going in and out, even if it was just for a moment. Heartfelt talking and smiles, mixed with the smell of bacon, eggs, caffeine and tea – an atmosphere that almost surreal to Tetsudo. But soon after 11 AM, he and Yai said their goodbyes to everyone and left the café.

“We’re going directly to the beach or no?” Tetsudo asked Yai. She looked at him.

“Don’t you want to see the ocean,” she held out her hand. “And walk on the sand with me?”

He took her hand.

“Of course I want to.”

Yai smiled.

“Then, we’re going now.”

Yai and Tetsudo walked down the cluttered streets and the hot pavements singed their shoes bit by bit. Their worn clothes started to flake away in the wind, but their shining, dusty faces, just like the glowing but rusted rails still moved through the busy city. There were dirty and hopeless birds that stood on the wires above, and as they saw the bright teenagers passing down below them, they could only look in awe at how they held hands and smiled at the grey world in front of them.

They got to a park and decided to stop there for a second. As they sat on a bench and relaxed, Yai spotted a man playing a guitar with a hat in front of him, where people put money. She observed how the guitarist’s fingers moved and created beautiful, but distant sounds. Tetsudo spotted her concentration.

“You like how he plays?” he asked.

“I do,” she turned to him and smiled. “And I think you’d be great at it.”

“Eh?” Tetsudo didn’t expect that sort of answer, but he quickly smiled at her back. “Maybe I’ll learn how to play for you. How’d you like that?”

“I’d love it~!” Yai singed and hugged Tetsudo. “Hey, give me a piece of paper!”

“What for?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute, just give me a piece of paper and a pen.”

Tetsudo searched his backpack and found a small notepad and an almost used up pen, left from his school supplies. He gave them to her, and she started writing something. Tetsudo tried to take a peak at what she was writing, but was always met with a:

“Don’t look! I’ll show it to you later!” And so, he had to give up on his curiosity.

The two eventually got up and continued on their journey around Yai’s hometown. The streets were long, the boulevards were longer, but all would fluctuate from one pavement to the other, like the city moved, dancing its feelings away or vibrated hypnotically, like a cicada. The people would sometimes run from one place to another, hurrying in these businesses hours to get something done, something Yai and Tetsudo wouldn’t understand. All they thought about now is the one beside them. Not how the world and its people shifted across a grey canvas, just the person they were holding hands with. Right now, the world made perfect sense for them.

*

The waves crashed quietly and frothed for a split second before the white foam would disappear, into the sand and the ocean. The clouds had cleared a bit, and the sun shined on the beach. Every grain of sand glistened in the light. The sunset was slowly fading away, but it still was a long way away from the dusk.

Tetsudo checked his phone.

“It’s 7:15, you sure he’ll come?” He turned to Yai.

“Of course he will.” Yai said without looking away from the ocean.

The beach was empty, only he and Yai were sitting in the sand, watching the quiet waves and how some distant gulls flew over the sun and far away. Some ships passed by, only their dark silhouettes could be seen slowly fading out of view. The sand was warm, but moist after yesterday’s storm. There were no people on the piers nearby, only some lonely gulls and sparrows looked at the melancholic sun and the waves, that crashed into the stones around.

Behind the beach was a small path and the sea garden with an amusement park. Yai and Tetsudo could hear voices and laughter beneath the sound of the sea. They were there for an hour or so, looking around and having fun together. They even managed to get some carnival food just so they wouldn’t have to starve until they met Yai’s brother.

As the two sat there together, Tetsudo could hear footsteps approaching from behind. He turned around and for a moment he froze.

“Yai…” he tapped her on the shoulder.

“What?” she said while still looking at the ocean.

“Behind us,” Tetsudo said and stood up. Yai turned around, saw the figure that was standing behind them and also stood up.

“Hello,” Tetsudo said, his voice shaking violently. In the attempt to bow he almost fell forwards.

“Mr. Kitagawa.”