E-book exclusive short story “A Summer Memory”
Summer vacation of my third year of elementary school.
I was visiting Nanami’s grandma’s house with the Kousaka family, and in the evening, Nanami and I left the house together.
There was a summer festival at the park that day, and Nanami and I were going by ourselves. My dad and uncle had worriedly asked, “Should we take you?” but Nanami had confidently declared, “We’ve been there many times, we won’t get lost,” and they had sent us off with a smile.
“What should we do when we get to the park?”
“I want to drink some ramune!”
“Good idea. I want to eat some shaved ice!”
“I want to do the lottery, too!”
“Definitely! And let’s have a shooting contest!”
“Yeah! Let’s!”
We were getting hyped up as we walked along the sidewalk, but… after about twenty minutes, Nanami started to get quiet.
What’s wrong… Did she get tired from talking too much? My throat was getting dry, too. I’ll have some ramune when we get to the park. Shaved ice after that.
As I eagerly awaited the ice-cold ramune, I walked next to the now-silent Nanami.
It was two kilometers from the house to the park. We should be arriving soon. That’s what I thought, but… thirty minutes passed, then forty, then fifty, and even after an hour, the park was nowhere in sight.
“Hey, when are we going to get there?”
I asked the silently walking Nanami, and she suddenly stopped. She turned to me, and tears started streaming down her face.
“Uuu, waaaaaah! I’m sorry, Haru-kun! I’m sorry, we’re loooost!”
I never thought we’d get lost. A sense of anxiety washed over me at the realization, but if I got scared, Nanami would cry even more. I had to be strong!
“It’s okay! I saw a convenience store about ten minutes ago. Let’s go ask the clerk where the park is!”
“Okay… okay… I’m sorry, Haru-kun… I’m sorry…”
“It’s fine. Come on, let’s go.”
“Okay…” Nanami nodded and started walking, wiping her tears.
And then, she took a huge tumble.
She scraped her knee badly, and started crying again.
You’ve got to be kidding me…
“I’ll give you a piggyback ride.”
“Uuu, thanks, Haru-kun…”
I carried Nanami on my back and started to retrace our steps—and just as the convenience store came into view, my back suddenly got wet. It wasn’t raining, so why was just my back getting wet…?
Could it be… The next moment, Nanami started bawling. It was the loudest she had cried all day.
“You two, what’s wrong?”
An old lady who had just come out of the convenience store asked with a concerned voice.
Nanami was crying because she had wet herself. But if I told a stranger that, Nanami would be even more embarrassed and cry even more.
“She fell and hurt herself a minute ago.”
“Oh, dear… Are your parents nearby?”
“They’re at home. I want to call my dad… could I borrow your phone?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Thank you very much!”
I borrowed the kind old lady’s phone and called my dad. I told him that Nanami had fallen and gave him the address the old lady had told me, and he replied, “I’ll be right there.”
As we were waiting for him in front of the convenience store, Nanami started to calm down. She was still sobbing, but she kept apologizing to me over and over.
“I’m sorry, Haru-kun… hic. Because of me, you didn’t get to enjoy the summer festival… We had so many things we wanted to do… hic… and we didn’t get to do any of them. I’m really sorry…”
If she had just scraped her knee, it would have been one thing, but since she had wet herself, we had to go home and change. The summer festival would be over in about thirty minutes, so we wouldn’t make it in time.
To be honest, I was disappointed. There were so many things I had wanted to do at the summer festival.
But I couldn’t say that to a crying Nanami.
I patted her head.
“Don’t cry anymore. I don’t mind. The summer festival is every year. We can just go again next year.”
“But… but… because of me, this year’s summer festival is ruined…”
“It’s fine. We didn’t get to go to the summer festival, but I got to take a walk with you.”
“But we just walked together. The summer festival would have been way more fun… And because of me…”
“I told you, you don’t have to apologize. As long as I’m with you, Nanami, I have fun no matter what we’re doing.”
“So cheer up,” I said, and Nanami gave a small nod.
“Thank you, Haru-kun… I have fun when I’m with you, too, so… from now on, stay by my side every day, okay?”
“Of course,” I said, and she crinkled her tear-swollen eyes and smiled happily.
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