Prologue
A bird soared through the clear sky as though it were drawing an arc on a canvas. In the middle of this November day, gentle sunlight poured down on Minami-Ikebukuro Park.
As I lay directly on the green lawn with my girlfriend beside me, I didn’t mind the faint prickling of the grass against my head and arms when I thought about how she had to deal with that too.
Next to each of our heads were identical cups with Blue Bottle Coffee’s blue logo on them.
What brought my mood down a little was the fact that I had thoughts of my cram school classes bouncing around in my mind. It was Saturday, and I had to go to cram school later. But since Runa had come to Ikebukuro, I was spending time with her until then.
“That must be nice...” she suddenly uttered.
“What is?”
As I looked over to her, I found her staring directly at the blue sky.
“Can’t birds go, like, anywhere?” Runa asked.
“And you can’t?”
She didn’t reply to my question and didn’t look my way either.
Runa reached out toward the sky as though to grasp at something. “I’ve always wanted to become free,” she said.
“Free from what?”
This time, she finally looked at me. I was relieved to see the gentle smile adorning her face.
“I dunno... My dad doesn’t really care what I do, and grandma is busy with her own stuff, so I don’t really have anyone getting on my case much. I get a decent allowance too.” With a small smile appearing on her face, Runa looked at the sky again. “Still, I’ve felt kinda constrained there.” Her smile vanished and was replaced with a serious look. “I’ve always wanted to go back to that house, where it was all five of us. Where I had Dad, Mom, my older sister...and Maria.”
It was as though her sad voice were meant for the sky above.
“There isn’t a house like that for me anywhere on Earth now.”
When she said those words, her profile looked as frail as an elaborate sugar sculpture. It was beautiful enough to leave a strong impression on me.
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