by Kaori Konuta

I woke up at 6:30 this morning, but I couldn’t get out of my bed till 7. I toasted two English muffins for breakfast, and ate one with almond cream spread and one with mushed banana and some cream cheese. I had water just like I do with every meal. I went back upstairs to my bedroom to get changed, waste some time on internet, put some mascara on my lushes, and wasted more time doing things that I can’t even remember.

 

My sister was laying down on the couch in the living room when I went down stairs to eat early lunch. While I ate, I talked to her once, but she ignored. Ever since I dropped her rice bowl and shattered it into million pieces two days ago, she has been giving me a silent treatment. I quickly cleaned the table, and packed my laptop into my backpack to go to a café to do some writings. As soon as I stepped outside, I smelled the breeze announcing the arrival of spring. I got on my bike and headed to the beach side.

 

I took a seat right in front of a huge window, which has always been my favorite as I get to look out to the window. Today, I saw people walking towards to the station and to the other direction every few minute, some with their family and some with their dogs. The trees swayed and seven paper napkins flew through the air.

 

At around 1 pm, I finished writing a paragraph that I couldn’t finish for days. I tried to keep writing but I started having cramps. It hurt so much and I wasn't able to keep my focus on writing any longer, so I gave up and decided to go back home. On the way home, I saw a newly built house that was looking for people to live in. The walls of the house were white, and it had Egyptian blue window frames and a bright orange door.

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When I got home, my grandmother was out in the kitchen, looking for something to snack on. She decided to have some chocolate covered Kakino Tane, and I decided to have a slice of Kasutera with hot milk. I stick a Kairo on my stomach and tuned on the heater for my cramps. I then opened my macbook, and turned on the PeongChang Olympics live stream on, to witness Yuzuru

Hanyu and Shoma Uno win medals for men’s singles figure skating finals. Yuzuru won gold, and Shoma won silver. I felt content and noticed that my cramps went away, so I started to write again. 

 

40 minutes later, my friend, Nami messaged me saying if I was home. She wanted to walk along Katase kaigann (Katase beach), so I told her that I could meet her at the station in 30 minutes. I saved what I was writing, closed my macbook, and put my dark gray duffle coat on. I biked and finally arrived at Katase Enoshima station at around 3:50. She was waiting for me in front of the ticket gate, listening to music on her phone. She wore a light gray oxford hoodie from when she visited England a few years ago, with some skinny jeans and a pair of cream-color converse. 

 

We decided to look for a bathroom inside of the souvenir shop at Enoshima aquarium, but there wasn’t, so we gave up and made our way to the beach. The sun was starting to set in. The tide was high, and the water was sparkling in different colors. Orange, blue, silver and gold. 

 A concrete stair case connected to the water was making small waves and three boys in wetsuits played tag with those waves. They chased the waves as it drew and ran away as the waves crushed at their feet. 

 

“Hey, look. The waves are looking a lot better. Let’s go back in.”

 

They rushed their way back to the beach where they had their surf boards resting. Two long boards, one short board. As soon as they put the leash around their ankles, they threw the boards into the water and started to paddle to join the other surfers, who were already in the water catching waves. I sat down, and watched them. It looked as if there was a screen in front of me playing a film of Mike Hynson and Robert August encountering winter waves.

 

While I sat and watched the boys, Nami took pictures of the sunset on her phone. I realized that I should take a few pictures myself, but decided to record it as a footage instead. I held my phone towards where the boys were paddling and press the record button. A couple seconds later, Nami screamed from the other side of the stair case. When I turned around, she was running back up the stairs with her shoes soaking wet. She was too focused on taking pictures, she didn’t realize that the tide was getting higher. Her cream-colored converse was now pale orange.

 

“You know, I expected that this beach walk would be fun and all, but I never thought this would happen.”

“Me neither!”

“I should have, though. You’ve always been the smartest and also the clumsiest one.”

 

We laughed about how things hadn’t changed since when we first met. A while later, the sun got us enchanted again. I watched the boys ride waves in the golden lay of sunlight, and she took more pictures on the edge of the stair case.

 

As the sun lowered and the tide got much higher, we decided to leave the beach, and have snack at a family restaurant. We ordered a Greek yogurt parfait and a plate of French fries. Since we hadn’t seen each other for a while catching up took a long time. I have now working on different art projects, and she has broken up with her boyfriend she was dating when I saw her in September. A year goes by so fast like a bullet train and I forget how much we grow within a year.

 

 

We finished our parfait and fries, and said our good byes. Nami made her way home with her wet shoes and I headed to the station along with the exhausted tourists.

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