Post by Nagamine Aki on May 15, 2009 18:51:04 GMT -5
The swing gave out a few tired creaks when she sat down and let her feet drag on the ground, riding the short moment of inertia. She didn’t push the swing into motion, instead setting her hands in her lap, over the immaculate white of the dress she wore today, with a large white ribbon tied around the waist and formed into a large bow at the back. She didn’t have a book with her, which was unusual. But it was really hot outside and she hadn’t quite felt like reading for once. She had come to the park to revive memories of her childhood, if anything.
Some years ago, she had been sitting right there, or perhaps a few meters away, in a swing that had been broken in the meanwhile, and replaced with this one. Or maybe there had even been other replacements between them, coming and going, almost unnoticed. Aki barely noticed when a leaf torn from a tree, still green, floated past and almost got stuck in her hair for a moment, before drifting away and higher into the air. It left only a slight tingly sensation, as if a bug had managed to tangle itself in her hair, but by the time her hand was brushing through, there was already nothing left.
The park was deserted now. Aki wondered if the children of the present didn’t like to play anymore. Maybe a setting such as this had become old-fashioned for them and they had some other means of amusement? Or were the times really so restless that not even children found the time to be happy and carefree? She inclined to think it was hardly something as drastic. Maybe a new park had been opened, deeper into the village, so no one came to this remote one anymore.
Aki didn’t usually think of such things at all, but the conversation she had overheard by accident that morning still lingered in her mind. The door to her parents’ bedroom had been cracked open as she walked out of her own room to see what they had for breakfast, and she had stopped to listen on the slightly louder-than-usual conversation coming from there. She wasn’t stupid enough not to realize what her father referred to when he mentioned “the wars”, and he seemed to think a new one had a good chance to start. He had mentioned people’s greed as a fuel for it, or something of the sort. Aki hadn’t paid much attention to the explanation, having been simply horrified by the prospect of war in itself.
For a moment she had imagined her house burning, her parents dead, with herself as the only survivor. What would she do then? Head for the village, which would also be burning, where maybe somebody from their own side would mistake her for an enemy and kill her? She didn’t know very much about wars, since she had never witnessed one, but she had read history books, and a lot of fiction in which the plot involved war. She had soon calmed herself, realizing that her mind had gone off and was exaggerating everything.
But it seemed she still wasn’t fully convinced that everything was fine.
Some years ago, she had been sitting right there, or perhaps a few meters away, in a swing that had been broken in the meanwhile, and replaced with this one. Or maybe there had even been other replacements between them, coming and going, almost unnoticed. Aki barely noticed when a leaf torn from a tree, still green, floated past and almost got stuck in her hair for a moment, before drifting away and higher into the air. It left only a slight tingly sensation, as if a bug had managed to tangle itself in her hair, but by the time her hand was brushing through, there was already nothing left.
The park was deserted now. Aki wondered if the children of the present didn’t like to play anymore. Maybe a setting such as this had become old-fashioned for them and they had some other means of amusement? Or were the times really so restless that not even children found the time to be happy and carefree? She inclined to think it was hardly something as drastic. Maybe a new park had been opened, deeper into the village, so no one came to this remote one anymore.
Aki didn’t usually think of such things at all, but the conversation she had overheard by accident that morning still lingered in her mind. The door to her parents’ bedroom had been cracked open as she walked out of her own room to see what they had for breakfast, and she had stopped to listen on the slightly louder-than-usual conversation coming from there. She wasn’t stupid enough not to realize what her father referred to when he mentioned “the wars”, and he seemed to think a new one had a good chance to start. He had mentioned people’s greed as a fuel for it, or something of the sort. Aki hadn’t paid much attention to the explanation, having been simply horrified by the prospect of war in itself.
For a moment she had imagined her house burning, her parents dead, with herself as the only survivor. What would she do then? Head for the village, which would also be burning, where maybe somebody from their own side would mistake her for an enemy and kill her? She didn’t know very much about wars, since she had never witnessed one, but she had read history books, and a lot of fiction in which the plot involved war. She had soon calmed herself, realizing that her mind had gone off and was exaggerating everything.
But it seemed she still wasn’t fully convinced that everything was fine.
