Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 11 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Never8

BASED ON my mother’s reaction—“Wow, they still do that these days?”—maybe it wasn’t common for an elementary school to open its pool over the summer. But this was the one and only thing I looked forward to over the break: a fun, refreshing swim in the pool. Plus, all my friends would be there. There was literally no downside to going.

With my swimsuit on under my regular clothes, I grabbed my pool bag and dashed to the front door. The momentum made me bounce like a bunny. “Let’s gooooo!”

“Put your shoes on first.”

“Oops, I went too fast!” 

I doubled back and grabbed my shoes from the bottom of the rack. It wasn’t until I’d already put them on that I realized I’d forgotten to wear socks, but oh well! As I fidgeted with my hands, I noticed how warm my shoes already were on the inside. 

When my mom came to the front door to see me off, she was carrying my baby sister in her arms. These days she’d grown up into a little chatterbox, which made playing with her lots of fun. 

“Be sure to watch out for cars and strangers.”

“Yeah, yeah.” 

“Just try to remember for at least the first five minutes, kid.” She squished my cheeks together in one hand. “Sadly, you take after me, which means you’re a little on the slow side.”

“Hey!” This was a shocking revelation. “I suspected as much!”

“That’s my girl.” 

“So this year, my goal is to be a little on the smart side!”

“Good luck with that.”

Now that I had said goodbye to my mom, I turned to my sister. “Little one, your sister must go and become healthy!”

“Gimme a break. You’re plenty healthy as it is,” Mom retorted. This time she stretched my cheeks out, and when my sister saw her doing it, she started copying her. Now my face was a new toy for everyone! Cool! Great! Always good to have lots of fun things around.

“I wonder if Taru-chan will be there…”

“Maybe,” Mom replied, utterly disinterested. My sister and I chuckled in unison. 

Unlike me, Taru-chan didn’t always show up at the pool every single day. She said sometimes she had to do stuff at home. They grow up so fast…

“Oh yeah, turn around real quick.” Mom grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. 

“Are you gonna kill me in my sleep?”

“Keep those eyes open, missy.” She started messing with my hair one-handed while holding my sister, gathering and tying it up, away from my ears. Then she tapped the high ponytail with one finger. “There, all done. Nothing beats a ponytail on a hot day.”

“Hmmm…” I tensed the muscles in my newly exposed ears and made them wiggle.

“You can do that, too, huh?”

“Ho ho ho!”

“You’re like a little mini-me, right down to the most mundane details, huh? All right, run along now.”

“Back later!” 

Waving goodbye, I turned and crossed the threshold into the world of light. A wave of heat enveloped me up to my shoulders, like I’d stepped into a river, except without the sound of water. Summer was always so intense right from the jump. As I walked deeper into the blinding light, it felt as though the sun itself was combing its fingers over me.

On my way to school, I spotted my friends here and there, and we all joined up in a big group that kept growing and growing. With their voices at my back, I cheerfully led the charge along the green school gates, around to the front entrance.

One time I tried climbing that fence, but then a teacher caught me and chewed me out. Later, when I told my mom about it, she shouted, “You big dummy!” and pretended to slap my face. She even clapped her hands together to make the sound effect. The next day, she gleefully informed me that she’d just climbed it herself and “it was easy.” No fair! 

The bronze statues out front were peeling, exposing the green beneath. I waved to them as I passed, then cut across the breezeway until the athletic field came into view. In one spot, plants curled around iron poles, creating a roofed area; that was where the early-bird kids were sitting and waiting. At first glance it was a cool, shady spot, but caterpillars would frequently rain down on anyone who sat there, so lots of kids avoided it. Taru-chan was one of them. 

I handed my pool attendance card to the teacher and got my stamp. Thus far I hadn’t missed a single one. I didn’t know if I’d get a prize for filling it out all the way, but it felt good to look at my card and see a stamp in every square.

Pool times were separated by grade; today, I was here early in the morning. As I was playing tic-tac-toe in the sand with my friends, however, it came time for warm-ups—something we always had to do before the pool opened. These warm-ups were the same radio calisthenics the grown-ups did in the morning at the park. Some kids did them right, while others didn’t try at all. 

Personally, I was a do-it-right kid. Shocker, I know! I just didn’t want to turn something fun into something boring. It was hard to turn boring into fun, so if something was fun from the start, I wanted to keep it that way. When I explained this to my mom, though, she said, “Hard for you, maybe.” No fair! 

As I was warming up, I spotted Taru-chan in the back row and got excited. She’s here today! I had lots of friends, but she was my bestest friend: Tarumi, aka Taru-chan. Wait, what’s her given name again…? To be fair, we never called each other by our given names. Maybe that’s why I forgot hers. 

After warm-ups, my face and back were drenched in sweat like I’d walked through the rain. I exhaled, trilling my lips, and half-expected steam to come gushing out. But when the pool gates opened, instead of rushing inside with everyone else, I went in the opposite direction.

“Yo!”

“Oh, hi, Shima-chan.” 

I met up with my bestie at the back of the line. Today she was wearing a yellow T-shirt with blue pants—why did it look so familiar? Absently, I looked her up and down for a moment, then realized: Nobita-kun from Doraemon! Now I wanted to see what she looked like with glasses. But the more I squinted at her, the more she started to fidget for some reason. 

The two of us arrived at the changing room fashionably late. It was dimly lit, painted in dull stone colors, and reeking of condensed pool-smell. And since it was packed full of kids, it was humid, too. Supah hot! I didn’t know what it would feel like to be a sardine, but I suspected it was something like this. 

“Your hair looks cute today, Shima-chan.”

“Does it? Hee hee hee. It does, huh?” I swayed my ponytail back and forth—so hard, I made myself dizzy. “My mom did it for me.”

“That’s cool.”

It felt like a shame to have to undo it, but I couldn’t wear a ponytail into the pool, so off came the hair tie.

“Now you’re regular Shima-chan again,” Taru-chan grinned when she saw me with my hair back down as she was stripping off her shirt. We always made sure our lockers were next to each other. 

“I may look regular, but today I’m a different flavor!”

“Oh yeah? What flavor?”

“Ummm…jungle flavor!” 

I watched the question marks sprout up over her head, then started undressing, bumping elbows here and there. The changing room was so cramped, you could expect to smack shoulders with whoever was around you. But I’d shown up with my swimsuit on under my street clothes, which saved me most of the hassle. 

Walking over the duckboards at the exit, I left the sweltering changing room and waited outside for Taru-chan to catch up. Meanwhile, the concrete was already starting to scorch my feet, so I hopped over into a puddle of cold water flowing out from the shower area. I stomped my feet again and again, enjoying the fun splish-splashing sound.

The sun hung above like a tribute to the sky, and as I gazed up at it, oddly enough, I could feel my spirit rising. Beneath the pain of the sunshine plastered all over my skin, my heart was racing. I nodded hard to myself and something warm flowed from my throat to the depths of my stomach—a gentle warmth, accepting of summer, yet unaffected. 

Once Taru-chan came out, we took a shower next to each other, sterilized our feet, and went up the stairs, chasing after the wet footsteps to the poolside. The other kids were already lined up, so we joined the end of the queue. 

The shallow end was on the left, and the deep end was on the right. Only the older kids were allowed in the deep end. One time I snuck over to the borderline and stretched a foot into the deep end but couldn’t feel the floor. Pretty cool, right? I’d have to get taller before I could swim there. Taru-chan was already getting tall as it was, and secretly, I wanted to catch up to her.

Around the time the sweat on my back had dried into flakes, the teacher began directing the line of kids to enter the pool. First, we would be assigned a lane to practice specific strokes, but we were only supposed to swim in a straight line from one end to the other, so there wasn’t much of a game to it. Nevertheless, when my turn came, I sank into the pool up to my shoulders.

“Aaeegh…”

A weird hiss slipped from my mouth. Instantly, I was relieved from the heat and gravity, as if the water was connected to a different world altogether. My limbs swayed like the tentacles of a jellyfish, and I was tempted to just float there—but then the kid next to me started swimming, so I followed suit before the teacher could yell at me. I made an effort to swim correctly, thrusting my fist out here and there.

At the start, everyone was on their best behavior, but the best part of the day was at the end: the rec swim period. Like pancake batter on a hot griddle, everyone moved to the center and started splashing each other. Not to be outdone, I jumped into the pool ahead of Taru-chan and started swimming hard. 

When I found what I decided was the “perfect” spot, I came to a stop, letting my legs dangle as I floated to the surface. Bring it on! Hyah! Then I trounced the predictable attacks from every angle. (Or at least, I tried!) Bubbling wildly at the mouth, I swam all around, running so low on oxygen that my extremities went numb, then hastily popped back to the surface. Water streamed down my face, tickling me, and as I was wiping it away, Taru-chan caught up. 

“Hi-yah!” She prodded me in the back, and after we exchanged some sick karate chops, she paused to tilt her head. “How come you suddenly started drowning?”

“I was pretending I got attacked by a piranha.”

“What’s a piranha?”

“Real scary fish,” I replied, eager to recount the facts I had just learned from watching TV yesterday. Those teeth were serious business. “Its face looks like a monster.”

“A piranha… I can’t pretend to be one if I’ve never seen one before!”

“Like this!” I curled my index fingers at my lips, using my nails as “fangs” which I then sank into her arm.

“Hmmm…” She didn’t look convinced. “Like a crocodile?”

“No, a piranha!” I chomped up her whole right arm. Yum yum yum.

“Where do they live?”

“In the jungle.” I couldn’t remember the name of the place, but it was definitely deep in a forest somewhere.

“You’re going to the jungle?”

“Maybe.” 

It was impossible to predict what I’d be doing a year from now—but I had the power to decide for myself. At least, that’s what my mom told me. No clue what it meant, though! 

“Battling a piranha in the jungle seems a lot more likely than meeting an alien, don’tcha think, Taru-chan?” I’d heard there was no oxygen in space, so it was probably like being underwater. Could be fun.

“Yeah…I think you’re right!”

“Of course I’m right. Thus, I battle with piranhas every day!”

“Wow, you already started fighting them…” Clearly, she was amazed by what a trailblazer I was. Then she seemed to have an epiphany, because her face lit up. “If we go to the jungle together, I guess I’ll let you handle the piranhas then.”

“Darn tootin’! It’s Shima time!” And then I’d catch them and eat them like a native. Wait, I’d better look up how to cook piranhas. “You handle the crocodiles, okay?”

“H-huh?!”

“I’m counting on you!” After all, there was no way I could beat one. 

“Me, fighting a crocodile…?”

“Gator battle!”

“Alligators are a different species, dummy.”

“…Gator…”

Now I wanted to sink up to my eyeballs like the reptile in question. Bubbling at the mouth, I tried to remember the nickname for crocodiles. “Diles”…? I skulked around in the water for a while to get into character, then swam back to Taru-chan.

“Welcome back, Shima-chan.” 

“My face is cold now.”

With that, I had regained the courage to stand tall once more. She beamed brightly, eyes twinkling at the sight of my recovery. “I sure hope we can go to the jungle together.”

“What? You really want to?” 

In the jungle, there were as many dangers as there were trees. Perhaps Taru-chan was more of an Indiana Jones type than I gave her credit for. Maybe she liked to explore.

She recoiled slightly, glancing around the pool, as if fearful of a piranha she couldn’t see. The other kids were wearing smiles as sweet as candy, splashing in the water and rocking with the waves. 

“I’d go if it was with you.”

I heard the sound of someone kicking up the water, and a beat later, felt the wind rush past.

Taru-chan was—and would always be—my best friend. I couldn’t imagine going anywhere without her there by my side. Maybe I couldn’t predict what I’d be doing a year from now, but I at least had a vision of it. I felt the same way she did: I’d go if it was with you. And so I shouted it like a war cry:

“GATOR!!!”

“I told you, that’s not the same thing!”

With the momentum pushing me forward, I must have gobbled her arm four or five times. 

“That’s weird.”

“What is?”

As we were getting dressed in the corner of the changing room after pool time had ended for the day, Taru-chan suddenly started sniffing loudly in my direction. “We were both in the same pool, but you’re the only one of us who smells like chlorine.” 

“What’s chlorine?”

“The stuff they put in the pool water.”

“So that’s the secret ingredient…” I was wondering why it tasted funny!

After I toweled my hair off, I gazed down at my hair tie. My mom was the one who put my hair up for me when I left the house, so what was I going to do now? 

“Hmmm…” 

I spun it around on my index finger as I waffled. Then I decided: I’d give it a try myself. So I gathered up my wet hair like I was wringing it out, then attempted to get the tie around it. I could probably manage a low ponytail, but for some reason, putting it up high like before seemed impossible! Frustrated with my failure, I tugged hard on my hair and heard a scream of pain—from my own mouth, of course.

“Want me to do it for you, Shima-chan?” Taru-chan volunteered. Apparently, she had been watching me while she was changing.

“You can?”

“Of course I can.”

“Then it’s Taru time!”

“What does that even mean…?”

I handed her the hair tie and turned around. “Don’t kill me in my sleep, okay?”

“You can sleep standing up?” 

“I think I could if I tried hard enough.” 

Especially after all that swimming. As I stood there, I watched a snot bubble of drowsiness inflate and pop, over and over. Meanwhile, Taru-chan finished tying up my hair. I walked to the far wall of the changing room to see if it would hold, then turned back to her and wiggled my newly exposed ears.

“My head feels a lot lighter! Cool!”

“Yeah, um…you look cute, Shima-chan.”

“Nyeh heh heh heh!” The praise threatened to send my cheeks into orbit. It was like each word was a cicada’s wing beating against my face. 

“Wait, it’s lopsided. Let me redo it.”

“No, no! I like it just the way you did it!” Dodging away from her reaching hands, I shrieked and started running, and for some reason, she laughed at me. “Hey, what are you laughing at?!”

“Well, you run weird!”

“Say that again, punk?!” 

I looked down at myself with my arms stretched out in front of me. Was it really that weird? Whatever. I flipped my palms up in a shrug.

“Taru-chan…it’s the thought that counts, you know.” I could hear the pool water splashing outside. “And I bet you put a lot of thought right here.” 

I grasped the end of my wet ponytail, soaked through like a calligraphy brush dipped in ink. When I gave it a squeeze, water rose up to meet me. Her thoughts sure are cold.

As she stood there, halfway between swimsuit and street clothes, staring at the floor and wringing her hands, she began to nod to herself. “A lot…yeah! A lot of thought!”

“Then that is what matters most, my dear. Ho ho ho!” 

Case closed. She nodded along eagerly. And when she finished getting dressed, we left the changing room together.

My body was swaying like I was still in the pool. Once I got home, I’d eat lunch, and then I’d sit around feeling fuzzy—both mentally and physically. It wasn’t exactly a fun feeling, but if I had to describe how happiness felt, it was the closest. 

“Hey, can I come over to your house later?” Taru-chan asked, peering at my face as she swung her pool bag in front of her feet like she was kicking it. 

“Why not just come over now? Yeah, that’s the kind of suggestion a smart person would make!”

“But I haven’t had lunch yet…”

“Oh, right. Okay, let’s eat lunch first and then you can come over.” I was kind of hoping to take a nap after lunch, but… Oh, I know! We can take a nap together! Another step closer to the smart side. 

“Do you think your sister still remembers me?”

“Not sure. She doesn’t even remember me half the time.”

“Wow. How could anybody possibly forget you?” After a pause, she added quickly, “In more ways than one.” 

To me, anybody who could identify all those different ways was definitely on the smart side.

“Well, see you again soon, Shima-chan!”

“See ya!” 

When the street branched away from the deep irrigation ditch, Taru-chan and I parted ways. Then I saw her start running, and I was tempted to do the same, but then I remembered how mad my mom got last time, so I decided to just speed-walk. 

The insides of my shoes were damp, like I was leaking Shima-chan juice from my the soles of my feet. With every step, it was my eyelids that grew heavier, not my legs. Evidently, I’d really tuckered myself out at the pool today. But I couldn’t help it—it was just so much fun! 

Still, I couldn’t let myself fall asleep if Taru-chan was coming over. I tried to force my eyes wide open, but it made my face hurt and feel like it was about to explode. The pain seemed to help fight the drowsiness, at least. I opened my mouth wide toward the sky and took a bite of something invisible, crushing it between my molars. Then it began to swell up from deep within me.

Soon we would all go to my grandpa’s house. I’d get to see Gon, plus the neighbor girl too. Summer break was full of nonstop fun. 

“If only it lasted forever…” 

At the start of vacation, it always felt like it’d never end—and then the next thing I knew, I’d realize I was running out of time. The days all blurred together, but time was marching forward—and so was I.

I had made it to elementary school, and in a few more steps, I would be in junior high. Then, eventually, high school after that. That was probably a good thing. So why didn’t I want summer break to end? Clearly, I was in a rather philosophical mood.

If it has to end, then please give me just one more day, I wished to myself, like any other grade-schooler, as I walked beneath the summer sun. With paddy fields on my left and persimmon fields on my right, the smell of dry earth intensified. But just then, I spotted another girl walking my way up ahead.

Her skin was so pale, she looked like she’d melt into the sky behind her. At first glance she looked taller than me, but she was slouching. Her dark hair glinted blue in the sun, and as she trudged past, I could see narrow eyes and lips pursed in misery. Unlike me, she didn’t smell of chlorine—on the contrary, she looked like she’d never been to a pool in her life. A girl like her probably never wished for summer break to last longer.

I suppose it was the novelty, then, that drew me in. 

“Let’s find the fun!”

I had said it to myself, not intending to be heard. So when she whirled around, I flinched in surprise. She looked at me in alarm, the same way anyone would react to a stranger suddenly talking to them. Then she straightened up to her full height, and when the sunshine lit up her face, I estimated her to be maybe a year older than me.

I waved hello, and when she turned back and rushed off down the street, I waved goodbye while I was at it.

“Good.”

Maybe you think this is boring, but I choose to laugh. When I say I’m going to find the fun, I mean it. And one day, the fun is going to find you, whoever you are!!! 

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!