・Apple

"It smells like an apple. Is it because I was just thinking about apples?" Campanella looked around curiously.
"It really is the smell of apples. And there is the smell of the wild thorns." Giovanni also looked around.
It was coming in through the window.
It is autumn now, so Giovanni thought it couldn't be the smell of wild thorns' flowers.

 Suddenly, there were six-year-old boy with shiny, black hair, wearing red jacket, unbuttoning.
He looked terribly surprised, and stood barefoot, trembling.
Next to him was a tall young man dressed neatly in black clothes, standing in a posture like a zelkova tree blowing in the wind, holding the boy's hand firmly in his own.
"Oh, where are we? Oh, it's beautiful." Behind the young man there was a cute little brown-eyed girl, about twelve-year-old, wearing a black coat and hanging on to the young man's arm, looking out the window curiously in wonder.
"Oh, this is Lancashire. No, we're in Connecticut. Oh, no, we've come to sky. We're going to heaven.
Look. That is a sign of heaven. There is nothing more to be afraid of. We are called by God."
The young man in black happily glowed in joy and told the girl.
But for some reason he wrinkled deeply on his forehead and seemed very tired.
Forcing himself to smile, he let the boy sit next to Giovanni.

 Then he gently pointed out to the girl the seat next to Campanella.
The girl sat there obediently and folded her hands neatly together.
"I'm going to older sister's place." The boy who had just sat down, turning his face funny, said to the young man who had just taken a seat across from the lighthouse keeper.
The young man looked at the child's shrunken, wet head with an indescribably sad expression on his face.
The girl suddenly put her hands to her face and cried bitterly.
"Father and Kikuyo still have a lot of work to do. But they will be coming soon. I wonder how long Mother had been waiting for us.
She wonders what song my precious Tadashi is singing right now, or if he is playing with everyone, hand in hand, going around the black elders bush on a snowy morning.
So let's hurry up and see Mother, because she is really waiting and worrying."
"Yeah, but I wish I hadn't gotten on the ship."
"Yes, but look at that magnificent river, you know, it would always look vaguely white out the window when we would sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and relax all summer.
There it is. Hey, isn't it beautiful, shining like that?"

 Big sister, who had been crying, wiped her eyes with her handkerchief and looked out.
The young man gently told them again, as if to teach them a lesson.
"We are no longer in sadness. We are going to travel through this nice place and come to God soon. We're going to be in a really bright and smelly place, full of really nice people.
And those who were able to get on the boat instead of us will be rescued, and will go to their mothers and fathers or their homes, who are waiting for them anxiously.
Now, let's sing with energy and fun, because it's almost time to go."
The young man stroked the boy's wet black hair and comforted everyone, his face gradually turning bright.
"Where did you come from? What happened with you?" The lighthouse keeper asked the young man as if he finally understood a little.
The young man faintly smiled.
"The ship hit an iceberg and sank. We left later because their father had returned to home country two months earlier on urgent business.
I was in college, and I was hired as a tutor. But on the twelfth day, around today or yesterday, the ship hit an iceberg and started to tilt and sink all at once.
The moonlight was faint, but the fog was very deep. However, the boat was broken in half on the port side, so everyone couldn't get on it.
The ship would be sinking before long, and I was desperate and shouted for help to get the little people on boat. Nearby people quickly cleared a path and prayed for the children.
But the distance to the boat was still filled with small children and parents and others, so I didn't have the courage to push them away. But I felt it was my duty to help these children, so I tried to push the children in front of us.
But then again, I thought it would really be happier for them if we all went to the front of God, instead of helping them in that way. Then I also thought that I would be able to help them with the sin against God by myself.
However, I couldn't do that as I saw. As I saw the children being sent into the boat, the mother kissing them like a madman and the father standing upright, holding back his sadness, it was very hard to see.
The ship was going to sink fast, and I was fully prepared for it to sink. I hugged these two and waited for the ship to sink, trying to keep them afloat. One of the lifebuoys that someone had thrown came flying in, but it slipped and went all the way over.
I was desperate, so I released the grating on the deck and the three of us clung to it tightly. Out of nowhere [about 2 characters blank] we heard a voice. Immediately everyone was chanting it at once in various languages.
Then suddenly there was a loud bang and we thought we had fallen into the water and gone into the vortex, and then I held these people tightly. And then I realized that they were already here. Their mother passed away the year before last.
Yes, the boat must have been saved, because it was rowed by very experienced sailors who were able to quickly get off the ship."

 There came a small praying voice from somewhere, and tears welled up in both Giovanni and Campanella's eyes as they vaguely remembered all the things they had forgotten.
(Oh, wasn't that big ocean called the Pacific? In that iceberg-flowing sea in the far north, in a small boat, someone is working hard all his life, battling against the wind, freezing tide water, and frigid cold.
I feel really sorry for them. What can I do for their happiness?)
Giovanni hung his head and was completely gloomy.
"I don't know what is happiness. Because really, no matter how hard it is, if it happens to be on the right path, every climb and descent of the pass is a step closer to true happiness."

 The lighthouse keeper comforted him.
"Yes, that's right, the sorrows are also thoughts of God in order to reach the best happiness."

 The young man answered as if he were praying.

 And the brother and sister were tired and sleeping in their seats.
They were wearing soft white shoes on their bare feet.

 The train went down "goto goto goto goto" the bank of the glittering phosphorescent river.
Looking out the window on the other side, the field looked like a magic lantern.
Hundreds and thousands of triangle signals of all sizes, and above the big one, a surveying flag with red dots, were visible.
At the edge of the field they were all gathered together, it looked a dim, pale mist.
From there or from further away, from time to time, something like a vague smoke of various shapes and sizes appeared one by one to the beautiful bellflower-colored sky.
Indeed, that transparent clear beautiful wind was full of the smell of roses.
"How do you like it? This is your first time to taste these apples, isn't it?"
A lighthouse keeper in the seat over there was holding big golden and red colored apples on his lap with both hands to prevent them from falling off.
"Oh, where did they come from? Great. This kind of apples can be grown here?"
The young man was so surprised that he gazed at the apples which the lighthouse keeper holds in his hands, eyes narrowed and head tilted, forgetting himself.
"Yeah, just take it. Please take it."

 The young man took one and looked at Giovanni and his friend for a moment.
"Come on, little boys over there. How do you like it? Please take it."

 Since Giovanni was called a little boy, he got a little sullen, and didn't say anything. but Campanella said "Thank you."
The young man picked apples up by himself and sent apples to them one by one, so Giovanni stood up and said thank you.

 The lighthouse keeper finally had his arms free, so he took apples by himself and gently placed one by one in the lap of the sleeping sister and brother.
"Thank you very much. Where is it grown? Such a fine apple."

 The young man said with a deepening look on it.
"Of course there is a farm around here, but by itself, it produces a good crop. Farming isn't so hard, here.
Usually, as long as you sow the seeds you want, they will grow by themselves. Rice has no hulls like rice in the place of Pacific, and it is ten times larger and smells better.
But the place where you are going don't have any farm. Apples and sweets don't have any waste.
They all become a small amount of good scent that varies from person to person and evaporates from the pores."

 The boy suddenly opened his eyes and said.
"Oh, I'm dreaming of my mother right now. Mother was in a place with a great cupboard and books, and she looked at me and put out her hand and smiled.
I said, 'Mother, shall I pick up an apple for you.' But I woke up. Oh, this is the train I was on earlier."
"There's the apple right there. That's what this man gave us." the young man said.
"Thank you, man. Oh, Kaoru is still sleeping. Let me wake her up. Big sister. Look, we got an apple for you. Please wake up."

 The older sister laughed and woke, put her hands to her eyes dazzlingly and then looked at the apple.
The boy ate the apple as if he were eating a pie.
The beautiful skin, which had been peeled off, was glowing and evaporating away before it fell to the floor in a corkscrew shape.

 The two carefully pocketed the apple.

- To return to table of contents of Night on the Galactic Railroad