Osaka stepped out onto her back porch and sighed happily as a cool breeze lifted her hair. The sky was brilliant deep blue, filled with comfy-looking towers of white cloud and a happily beaming sun. Of late, Osaka had really started to pay attention to the sky in all of its moods and colors, and decided that cloudless days weren't all they were cracked up to be, aesthetically. It made her glad that she lived out in the suburbs where she could see a good swath of sky—walking through the deep city, where the buildings hungrily closed in above, bothered her sometimes.
She wore an expendable old T-shirt and a pair of scuffed blue jeans, the knees deeply ingrained with old stains from dirt and grass. Normally she preferred skirts, but these jeans were about as comfortable as pants came. Remembering her dispute with Kagura on the subject still brought a smile to her face.
"But how can ya stand havin' your legs constricted all the time?"
"But how can you stand having your undies exposed to the open air!?"
Today, though, Osaka had submitted to the tyranny of the trousers for a good cause. She carried a little spade in one hand, a shopping bag of bulbs in the other, and a big sack of topsoil had already been lugged out. An allergy pill was slowly dissolving in her belly, which was already starting to protest, but it would be worth it.
What with the onrushing exams, it had been far too long since Osaka last had time to get out into her garden… and this time she was finally getting to show it off to someone! Actually, she was a tiny bit nervous on this point—one could count on Chiyo to be sweet and polite, but being so good at everything, what would she think of Osaka's humble effort here? Would the wunderkind find it a bit pathetic?
But to Osaka's eyes, at least, it looked grand! The garden was shaped like a crooked teardrop—once it had been a near-perfect circle, but she'd decided to add to it one day and then run out of energy before she'd finished digging. There were a wide variety of flowers gently dancing in the wind, the names of which she never could remember. (Their speciesnames, that is… when an individual flower seemed to develop a personality, she gave him or her a name, and those generally stuck.)
Rather than putting her charges in orderly, color-coded rows like some gardeners, she'd strewn them at seeming random, her only consideration being that the hardier, more aggressive flowers have room so that they weren't suffocating their neighbors. The local florist, who Osaka was absolutely convinced had to be some kind of hulking, benevolent ogre, had given her a primer on who would choke who, and she'd absorbed every single word. There had still been a few tragedies, but for her first try, she'd done exceptionally.
"Heya, guys," she greeted softly, kneeling at the edge of the garden. "Sorry I haven't been around. But I got some new friends for you, so you be nice, hear?"
She liked to think that they did.
The back door opened again, alerting Osaka that her guest had arrived. She stood and turned, immediately starting to offer an excuse about the garden's cockeyed shape… but instead, she burst out laughing. Chiyo emerged wearing boots, gloves, a heavy apron with a row of gardening implements clipped on bandolier-style, a floppy sunhat and a determined look on her face that Osaka hadn't seen in a very long time. Chiyo's stern expression quickly melted into confusion at her friend's reaction, though. "What is it?"
"It's… hehe! Just look at you! You're takin' this so seriously, Chiyo-chan!"
"Of course I am!" Chiyo replied earnestly. "I don't want to ruin your garden."
Osaka nodded, sobered. That possibility hadn't occurred to her. "Fair 'nuff," she conceded. "Here, take a look, though."
"Oh, Ms. Osaka!" Chiyo gasped. "It's gorgeous!"
Osaka's shoulders loosened. It would be pretty hard to fake that reaction. "Glad ya like it," she said, relieved. "Just don't ask me what they're called…"
"Is the shape intentional?"
Osaka smirked bashfully. "Eh, after I made it by accident, yeah, it was."
Chiyo sat down and leaned closer, watching the little plants shimmy and bob. "The spread is so artful, too. It makes you feel like you're looking at a real meadow, you know? There isn't this… stifling order to it."
"That's not what I expected ta hear from you."
Chiyo glanced back to her with an arched eyebrow. "Why are you surprised?"
"I dunno. It's just that you're always so tidy and neat, and 'cept for Yomi, you're the one who gets the most annoyed at Tomo when she's freakin' out all over the place…"
"Well, there is a place for orderliness," Chiyo agreed. "And I do like being on top of things. But on the other hand… isn't it also nice that life doesn't always move in straight lines?" She smiled warmly. "You're the one I learned that from."
"You're not gettin' all sappy because we're about to graduate, are you?"
"You caught me!" Chiyo laughed. "Okay, let's get the work! Are we going to fill in the oval you started, then?"
"Nah, I kinda like the way it tapers off, an' the red guy at the end there." She indicated a frisky little Asiatic Lily named Yu Hong. "Let's dig on the other side an' curve it the other way, so it'll kinda look like a galaxy!"
"Roger!" Chiyo drew her spade. She'd considered bringing a proper shovel, but they didn't really have to dig that deep and she'd be nervous about either of them wielding such a destructive implement so close to all those innocent flowers. After all, neither was exactly Ms. Manual Dexterity.
They worked together in companionable silence for some time, cutting an artful swoosh through the grass to complete the galaxy. As Chiyo carved the garden's tip, she glanced up to see Osaka absentmindedly scratching out a pattern of trenches in the freshly turned dirt with the hand rake she'd brought. "Have you ever considered starting a rock garden?" she asked.
"Well, I planted a few over there, but I don't think I'll have the patience to watch 'em grow," Osaka replied. As usual, this was delivered with such airy gravity that Chiyo couldn't tell if she was kidding or not. But even if she meant it, there seemed little need to explain the meditative art of rock gardening to her just then. "Say, Chiyo-chan, doesn't it feel good to get dirt under your fingernails?"
"Well…" Chiyo paused, glancing down at her gloved hands. "I can see why it would, I suppose."
Osaka pushed her hands through the dirt, obliterating her mini Zen garden. "D'ya ever wonder why people use the word 'dirty' to mean somethin's all disgusting and filthy? When it's actually just dirt on ya, it's not so bad. In fact, it feels pretty good, like you're accomplishin' something. You're… gettin' your hands dirty, y'could say." She giggled.
"Well, I guess you couldn't call your hands 'filthy' in this context," Chiyo allowed, "But you'll have to wash them before dinner. You wouldn't eat with them like that, would you?"
"So something's filthy an' dirty when ya won't put it in your mouth? But what about cayenne pepper? I wouldn't put it in my mouth, but it don't seem that dirty to me, either."
"Um… then maybe something is 'dirty' when nobody would put in their mouth. Or… if it'd be bad for you, if you did."
"What about Ms. Kurosawa's stories, then, that night in the summer home with all the sake? Tomo called 'em dirty, but they were about puttin' all sorts a' stuff in her mouth…"
"Er…" Chiyo flushed bright pink. More to change the subject than anything else, she took a fairly tall plant with broad leaves into her hand. She'd had problems with its type in her own garden. "Oh, Ms. Osaka? I found a weed. Should I pull it?"
"Not Señor Kenta!" Osaka cried, horrified. Chiyo quickly released Kenta and left him to his weedy ways.
The puffy clouds continued their march overhead as the girls pressed their edging down, poured out the topsoil and Osaka began placing her bulbs, humming cheerily. Chiyo just sat down inside of the garden's original curve and watched, not wanting to mess with an artist's vision. It was plain to see that Osaka's work wasn't random; while she never agonized for long, she paused thoughtfully over each bulb and before patting it down.
As the last one found a home, Chiyo finally spoke up. "Ms. Osaka?"
"Yeah?"
"So you're… doing okay, then?"
"'Course I am!" Osaka affirmed in genuine surprise. "Why shouldn't I be?"
Chiyo lay down in the grass, curling with the edge of the garden. From above, it would look like the flowers were cradling her, with Yu Hong tickling the back of her neck with one of his leaves. "I was just thinking about yesterday, the rejec--ah, the floppy envelope you got from your backup university. You were pretty down about it, and, well… I was worried, I guess."
"Oh, that," Ayumu nodded. "Yeah, I was. Gettin' rejected by a school… 'specially that school… really stings. But now…" She sat down on the inside of the barren curve, resting her hands in the grass behind her. "Y'know, Chiyo-chan… everyone's so psyched up over these tests. They're actin' like it'll be the end of their lives if they don't get into a good school. But it won't, will it? Or do they got Test Failin' Death Squads waitin' to cap us if we don't make it?"
"They're worried that all of their hard work in school will be dashed," Chiyo said, "And they'll be funneled into some pointless, unfulfilling career, working all their lives for just the bare essentials and denied the chance to contribute to…" she stopped, realizing that this was the fate that could be facing her friend. Chiyo found the thought of Ayumu Kasuga the salarywoman intolerable. Or perhaps she could be happy as a housewife, certainly a noble occupation, but… to be honest, that didn't seem to fit, either.
"But you see salarymen all the time, and they're not writhin' in torment… I'm sure some of 'em have interesting lives. An' look right now! We just had a bright an' cheery afternoon, didn't we? I'm happy as I can be, an' it didn't come from my schooling or any career."
"So you're really okay?"
"You're so anxious, all of the sudden!" Osaka exclaimed, concerned and amused in equal measure. "I'm doin' better than okay! What gives?"
Chiyo sat up and looked at her. "Have you heard anything from the school that you and Ms. Tomo applied to?"
"Nah… my fingers're crossed, though."
"Mine, too."
Osaka set her hand gently on the black earth, cupping it around a spot where she'd planted a Peony. "Must sound like I'm a total dim-bulb… everybody already set how you win an' how you lose, and here I am sayin' I don't mind losing. Well, no, I'd mind, but it's not like I… like it'd kill me if… I dunno."
"Well… you haven't 'lost' yet," Chiyo pointed out. "Even Ms. Yomi is still trying to get into a college. And you do not sound like dim-bulb. Please don't say things like that."
"Why are you bein' so serious?" Osaka suddenly grinned. "C'mon, it doesn't suit you!"
Normally, Chiyo might have felt insulted, but it just glanced off. She averted her gaze pensively. "I'm glad you're not worried, but… I don't find it so easy to let these things go. You say it's not the end of your life, but… but for some people it really is. You can't pretend it isn't important, and I can't not worry, do you see?"
Osaka closed her eyes for a moment, marshalling her thoughts. "You know…" she said slowly. "A few weeks back, my cousin finally wrote us from Bengal. When my mom told me, I said, 'that's great! So what's he doin'?'"
Chiyo rested her elbows on her knees, listening.
"'He's an operator at a major phone company,' she told me. 'Cool!' I said, 'But what's he doing?' An' she looked at me like I was a space alien or somethin'. It kinda pissed me off… we hear from the guy for the first time in years, an' all she thinks to tell me is what they're payin' him for. There's so much I wanna know, though! What else is he up to?"
"You mean, like hobbies or his love live?"
"Yeah! An' does he volunteer? What're his friends like? He got a sharp sense o' humor? He a part time member o' the JSDF over there?"
"Er… it wouldn't be JSDF in India…"
"Fine, the National Guard. But what I'm thrustin' at…" Osaka paused, gesturing ineffectively. "Uh… shoot, ya broke my train of thought. I lost it."
"Sorry. But I think I see." Chiyo volunteered. "You mean that people aren't defined solely by their professional lives, and you'll find a way to make yourself worthwhile even if you don't have a stellar career?"
"Sure, that sounds good. Everything's done anyway… no sense twistin' my guts now. Just gotta accept what happens."
"Ms. Osaka…"
"Took me three years of tryin' to force myself before I realized I'd just have to get it together when I got it together. I can't go faster than I can go, y'know? So I'm finally cool with myself, an' I'm not gonna let some college that doesn't even know me screw that up." Osaka's smile wasn't a consciously brave one, because as far as she was concerned, she didn't have anything to be brave about. "So you don't hafta worry, savvy?"
"That…" Chiyo yipped in surprise when a raindrop hit the tip of her nose. A few more pattered around them, the vanguard of a larger force. The sun still beamed down, but the islands of cloud overhead had clumped together and darkened.
"A sunshower!" Osaka laughed and spread her hands. "Elves are gettin' married!"
"I thought it was foxes?"
"Mine's Hungarian."
"Ah." Chiyo stood as it started to come down harder, but then wavered on her feet when Osaka showed no inclination to follow. "Are you…?"
"Huh? Oh, right." Osaka rose. "Wouldn't be a very good hostess if I let you get pneumonia an' die, huh?" Before setting out, she paused to address the flowers. "Drink up, guys, 'cause ya never know what the your next meal will come… or some crazy guy with a weedwhacker."
"Um…" Chiyo started.
"Just bein' hypothetical." Osaka laid her arm across Chiyo's shoulders as they started towards the house. "Let's go in an' get some melon bread! If you got any worries nibblin' away at your soul, melon bread will chase 'em right off!"
"Melon bread?"
"Oh, yeah. The stuff works miracles! Here, look," Osaka's voice solidified a little. "I didn't get any mail, but they'll be postin' who got in tomorrow, and me and Tomo were goin' to go check it out. If it'll make ya feel better, you can come along. You'll be like our chaperone!"
"Thank you, I think I will." Chiyo gave a small smile. "I did stake my life on the outcome after all. It'll be nice to see if I'll live…"
"…or die!" Osaka finished with a diabolical giggle, rubbing her hands evilly.
"Y-yes, or die." Chiyo looked sideways at the suddenly sinister space cadet. Hopefully, that miracle melon bread really could drive anxiety away…