Friday, August 24, 2012

Hidemi’s Rambling No.430

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Spending early childhood regularly at Emi’s house greatly influenced my taste and perspective on life. A longing for westernized ways and a wish to enjoy life were rooted firmly inside of me. In addition to the house and the family, even the guests hanging at Emi’s house were somewhat western. Emi and her two brothers were around twenty years old and their friends often flocked in the house when they were at home. Those people were the kind I’d seen only on TV. The boys were wearing flashy shirts and the girls with curly hair were in low waist shorts with a navel exposed. They would play cards on a huge table in the living room and let me play with them by immensely advantageous rules. On the table were expensive snacks and chocolates I’d never seen before. Beside the table, one of them would play a guitar and some would sing along to it. Every single aspect lacked reality I knew. To me, it was inside an American TV show. Meanwhile, Emi would take me to a municipal office repeatedly to bring lunch for a young local government official. She would tell him she had to come because I pestered her, which I never did. On our way back, she was always in a good mood and would treat me to lunch at a nice restaurant. A couple of years later, she got married with him. My little sister became old enough to follow me to Emi’s house and I lost my refuge from her. I found a smaller pair of kid-sized slippers next to my special pair at the entrance one day. They had bought a pair for my sister too, and I was no longer an only VIP there. That cooled my passion for Emi’s house fast. I stopped visiting soon. Within fifteen years afterward, Emi’s oldest brother moved out, her grandparents and her mother passed away and my dream house was torn down. Her father built a cafe on the site for her other brother but it was closed and also torn down before long. On the site of my dream house is now a cluster of small houses in which strangers live. My fantasy days and place are completely all gone…

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