"On the Way Home"

As I walked home, my arms swayed like the branches of a weeping cherry tree, and for a brief moment, I saw crushed lotus flowers underfoot as if someone had stepped on them. It was just a fleeting glimpse, but in that moment, I realized I was floating. I tried to open my eyes, but they remained stubbornly shut. Then, I heard someone's breath nearby. Suddenly, my arm felt scorching hot, and I trembled in pain. In that brief moment, I saw an unusual license plate and the white hood of a car. But my eyelids grew heavy again, and I couldn't see anything.

"Ryoko, were you hot? Did it hurt? Are you okay?" It was my friend, Jhon's familiar voice. Had my arm touched the car? Even though it was early summer, the surface of the car on a sunny day could be scorching. Was my friend worried that I had burned my arm?

But why was I being carried on my friend's shoulder? Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered talking to Jhon occasionally when I walked home from elementary school. In her hazy consciousness, Ryoko wondered about that.

Jhon usually sat in the bushes near the forest we passed through on our way home. He loved taking walks around this area. He had looked at my nametag on my bag and said, "Ryoko, that's a nice name." So I  asked his name, and he said  "Just call me Jhon." It made me feel like I had gained another sibling, and Ryoko was happy about that.

He had a very demanding job, he said. He worked hard for everyone's sake. He didn't give me many details, but he seemed to really like airplanes. Even things I couldn't talk about at school or at home, I could somehow talk to him about them.

This day too,  when I saw Jhon, I ran towards him. Ryoko didn't think she had broken the rule about not stopping to play on the way home. After all, we were only a few meters away from the way home.

He must have sensed my presence because he immediately turned around, smiled, and patted the space next to him, signaling for me to sit.

"Ryoko, you seem lively today."

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just hot, so I'm thirsty."

Ryo tried to take a sip from her water bottle. However, when she shook it, only a few drops of water remained, and she closed the cap with a sad expression. That's when Jhon handed me a bottle of tea.

"Thank you."

Ryoko thought about the rule not to eat food from strangers. Was my friend, Jhon a stranger? She hesitated but eventually took a sip of the tea. Ryo didn't want to think of him as a stranger. As she drank, the two of them talked about ice cream and the Maurice Bart incident. The Maurice Bart incident was when a foreign company started expanding in Japan, and many politicians were found to have received bribes and gave special treatment to the company. Even though these politicians were found guilty, their punishments seemed quite lenient, and that's why it had been the topic of conversation on the news recently. At first, Ryoko didn't understand what it all meant, but after watching news explanations every day, she wanted to know what people thought about this incident. She asked her mom, dad, grandparents, and aunt. Her dad said, "I'm busy." Her grandma said, "Move aside a bit." Her grandpa said, "That's right." Her aunt said, "You watch the news a lot." Her mom said, "That's how the world is." Ryoko felt anxious. She felt sorry for the people on TV who were passionately speaking out about right and wrong. So, every time she met an adult who seemed approachable, Ryoko began to ask about the Maurice Bart incident. She wanted to find people who would say that speaking up about bad things being bad and good things being good was important.

So, Ryo naturally asked Jhon about the incident. But what happened after that? Why can't I open my eyes? Ryoko was puzzled.

"...?"

For some reason, she couldn't even speak. She had no strength in her body. She couldn't move. And then, Jhon's tone began to change.

"Are you okay?"

"..."

Ryo couldn't answer, but she could feel his stroking her face and head.

"Hehe."

The warm and gentle Jhon she knew was gone.

"But you've fallen asleep. Ahahaha."

Gradually, Jhon's voice grew quieter, and then she couldn't hear anything anymore. It felt like she had come to a dark, empty, distant place.

The voice in my ear sounded very happy. Ryoko thought that this person was saying the same thing as her mother. "It's not easy to know the world. I'll show you how harsh it is."

And just like that, she too had disappeared.