Chapter 1: Calling you
"This is a good spot, don't you agree?" A girl, a young one no matter how you looked at it, sat down on a bench and placed her phone on the seat beside her. "Stupid me, you wouldn't know." She touched the screen, picked up the phone again and held it in front of her. Slowly, as if it was fragile, she moved it first to the right and then back again. She smiled and put it down on the seat.
A small backpack made it company, and as she opened it and emptied it of its treasure a plastic bottle, the kind any vending machine would spit out after being bribed with a few coins, saw daylight. It was accompanied by a lunch box and a few napkins onto which she placed chopsticks and a mug to hold them down in the weak breeze.
"You're on loudspeaker but the camera will only show the sky right now," she said and turned to put the backpack on the ground in front of her. With her feet she pushed it to where she wanted it out of her way. Then she looked up with her hand to protect her eyes from sunshine. "Ah, maybe not just the sky after all," she said and let her hand fall.
Above her a canopy in translucent pink offered shade whenever wind caught in the branches. They connected in a trunk firmly planted by the walkway leading to the bench she sat on. Along the promenade, unevenly spread more benches and sakura trees offered rest to those making the long climb up the hill.
It was well worth it, most of them agreed once they made it down again. All benches offered a magnificent view of city and coastline alike. With sakura in full bloom the promenade transformed into a pink fantasy worth a visit even if the view hadn't been there. For the rest of the year people usually punished legs and feet for watching rooftops thinning out into a small harbour and the sea feeding it. A few had other business here, but there weren't all that many of them.
The girl looked at that view in silence. Then with a violent shake of her head she stared down again. "Sorry, I got caught up in memories." She quickly picked up the phone. "Just tell me if I'm boring, will you?" Her smile turned into a smirk, but then a mischiveous light glimmered in her eyes and she grinned widely. "You know I miss you. We were supposed to share this day together you know."
She put the phone in her lap and grabbed chopsticks in one hand and her bottle in the other. A quick twist with her hand and it let out a carbonated protest. After quenching the worst of her thirst she allowed her lunchbox to make the phone company on her lap and went to work with her chopsticks.
"You never told me what spring's like over there," she said between some pickled cucumber and a mouthful of rice. "I want to know, but I'm not doing you company," she added after she had swallowed the rice. "This place is all I need, well apart from you being here."
She put her food beside her and played a little with the bottle. April was warmer than ususal and despite her legs being naked from where they stuck out under the hem of her skirt she wasn't cold at all. Even the wind carried the first touch of the warm season that lay ahead.
"I'm quite vexed with you." She fell silent and gave the phone an accusing stare. "Back before winter break you promised you'd come back from Tokyo before the winter trimester." This time her bottle received an angry glare while she contemplated how to continue. "But when school started you weren't back." She ran out of words and drank twice. "You know, I've only met you twice since then. I'm lonely here."
A bit further away on the promenade what looked like a mother with her daugter slowly approached, so the girl closed her lunchbox, placed it by her side and put her phone on top of it. "Looks like we're getting company here, but this talk is kind of private, so I'll put you on hold until they're gone." With those words she touched the screen again.
Mother and daughter, if they really had that relation, came close enough for the girl to hear them talking. When they passed the kid turned and stared. The mother silently tugged at her daughter and refused to look at the bench. The kid even turned fully around after they had passed just for her mother to violently pull her along, but not before both girls had managed to stick their tounges out at each other.
The girl on the bench picked up her phone again. "Sorry about that, but they're gone now. Look, like I was saying. I've only met you twice since then, and if you're not here I don't know if I'll get another chance. Mom and dad aren't too happy about it you know."
She kicked out with her feet and let them dangle a little. Her toes were dirty, but she didn't care. "I'm afraid this will be the last time."
***
"Found her?"
A nod. "Yeah, she's with her parents now. After that I don't know."
"Sucks. Sometimes I hate my job."
The other man shook his head. "Naeh, job's not too bad. She's better off this way."
"Still. Damn, why don't they just go there together with her instead?"
He looked up the hillside. "Kid didn't have a very good reputation. And then that Tokyo crap on top of it. Honestly dunno if I'd want to as a parent."
"Think they'll keep her locked in?"
He followed the hillside further up with his eyes until he saw the stones. "Yeah, think so. Graveyard's no place for a girl to be alone."
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