-Grabbing the NOTES-

 

A man is listening to music with his eyes closed, clasping his hands together in front of his face.

目をつむり手を顔の前で組みながら音楽を聞く男がいる。

So, here is a question. How many (musical) NOTES do you think he holds in his hands?  

さて、一体この男の手の中には何個のオンプが詰まっているだろう。

Just now, he's missed one. Was it because he saw the cigarette smoke hanging in the air?

 今一つ取り逃がしたのは、ふと横から漂う煙草の煙に目をやったせいだろうか。

Or was it because a cat of his friend living next door flashed across the man's mind?

それとも、隣りに住む友人の愛猫のことをふと思い出したせいであろうか。

At least, the smoke and the cat would reach out and grab the NOTES in any way.

煙も猫もきっと、どうやってか手を伸ばし、オンプを掴もうとするのだろう。

So then, let's think about the four people and the one vehicle in this picture I've taken just a little while ago.

では、私が先ほど写真に収めた、4人の人間と1台の乗り物の場合を考えてみよう。

How many NOTES do you think there are in this picture?

そこには何個のオンプが流れているだろう。

And who do you think would get the last NOTE there?

そして誰が最後のオンプを掴みとるのだろう。

You may consider: the vehicles'purpose is carrying something. Without carrying the NOTES, I don't think it can work well. 

君は思うだろう。乗り物は何かを乗せるものだ。オンプを乗せずにその役目を成し遂げられるものか。

You may also turn your eyes to the four people in the picture annoyingly.

そして呆れたように、今度は4人の人間に目を向けるはずだ。

No clues about their genders or ages―You may want to say whatever― but will say:

性別も分からない。年齢も分からない。君は少し投げやりに言う。

"I don’t know who will grab the NOTES. Beyond that, I guess everyone has the right to have them."

「誰が掴むかなんて分からない。ましてそのオンプは、誰がとってもいいようにも思える」と。

However, at the very end of this story, you finally (or for the first time) will realize the three people and a vehicle, and the NOTES flowing just around you.

しかし最後の最後に（もしくは初めて、）君は自分の傍にいる3人の人間と1台の乗り物、そして周りに流れている、いくつものオンプに気付く。

-In a Study Room-

[This place is filled with one hundred characters and a pitiable author who writes fantasies]

*CharacterⅠ,a small frog with a beautiful human wife

It says to the author: “You cannot write a fantasy.”

Leaving just the words, they creep out of the room and shut the door properly.

*CharacterⅡ, the chubby Emperor with the two Ministers

It says to the author: “You cannot write a fantasy.”

Leaving just the words, they stride out of the room and shut the door firmly.

*CharacterⅢ, a wicked monster (,maybe a teacher by negative example for us)

It says to the author: “You cannot write a fantasy.”

Leaving just the words, he backs out the door and shut the door softly.

*The other characters

Of course they also say their favorite words to the author: “You cannot write a fantasy,” and leave the room.

*The  poor miserable author

He is the only one thinking he is not a pitiful man. 

When no one but him is in his study room, he says with a smile:

“OK then, I can start writing a new fantasy.”

-A Cold Place and the Sun-

With a few bell-ringing crickets outside, I am listening to the mechanical steady whir, like someone is blowing her hair dry in the confined room. 

I put my fingers on the forward-jutting black handle and pull it toward myself. 

The whir fades then, mixing with the other senses that tell me the secluded world. 

I feel the unreasonable atmosphere around me. 

―Brrr. My bared feet appeal, telling the chillness from the bottom of the box. 

I am, however, still caught by the world that I have never tried to observe so closely. 

The world is separated into three grounds.

 The density, color, brightness, and the temperature are different from each other. 

Bowing to pressure from my feet feeling chill in the air, I bend my knees and take a look at the lowest place. 

In the darkish densest ground, the immigrants who are alike are requiring large spaces there.

 On the left side, the bodies with full of water, wearing an orange cap are standing like making a rank of soldiers. 

My eyes are inevitably drawn to the empty spaces with the missing immigrants that may have been taken away by someone.

 I imagine the disposable workers in our world and remember the cruelness. 

I put my dark notion out of my mind, and I shift my gaze to the right side, which has two flat squire houses that protect the sensitive inhabitants. 

―They are well loved― I feel relieved. 

I remember the roofs are openable, so I lay on one of them, in the unlikely hope of the inside. 

Now, however, when I open the roof, I see another disappointing fact there. 

I pick up the only one left resident, still covering himself with his breakable white shell. How miserable you may feel, in this wide space with lots of empty rooms. 

I say so in my heart and return the tiny round life to the original place. 

In the second ground with the brighter and the smidgen of coldness, I see just two big residents sitting like they are the gate guards of the world. 

They are lordly showing me their faces without any missing parts. 

The left guard lays down his long body with brown surface. 

Even though his body will be separated into some pieces in the near future, he will still hold his gold brown flavor wafting throughout the room filled with a family. 

On the right side, the guardian looked a little bit timid compared with the left one. 

It protects himself with his green jacket just like hiding his heart. 

Both of them are shouted in each hermetically-sealed bag as if someone is afraid of them whispering each other and means to muzzle their mouths. 

There is some light falling onto their place through the ceiling, but I still feel the coldness from there.

 In the third ground on the top, finally, I find the sun. The world, where I’m observing, still ought to keep the coldness because of their fate, but I am glad to see the light flashing the isolated world.

 On the ground, an eye-opening palm-sided immigrant who came from a southern land is laying in the spotlight. 

The temperature of itself is cold, but the observer’s eyes are intrigued by her beauty in red.

 I get a view of the three grounds in the world again. 

They still show the color gradations from light to dark by the sun on the top, but I feel they sympathize with each other.

They may know that they will separate soon and never come back to the same place again. 

I close the door. And I think, I hear the bigger voice from the inside.

※Don't worry. It is just an easy story in a refrigerator.