"Are you hurt?"
Mamura wasn't used to being talked to. With his freakish height, his unimpressed personality, and his headphones always on at full blast, it wasn't hard to imagine why people were intimidated. He was used to it. Expected it, even. But here was a little girl, barely older than five years, much like himself- talking to him as if it was no big deal.
Huh, Mamura thought, weird.
"No," he said nonchalantly, "I'm staring at this bug."
The girl stared at him confused; but then she, too, noticed the creature- a beetle, larger than most, with a black shell and a broken wing, crawling along a large log looking lost. She stared at the bug, confused, before turning her attention back to Mamura.
"Why are you lookin' at him?" She asked curiously. Again? You're talking to me again?
"I just am," he snapped back. He thought this time for sure she would leave him- alone with the broken wing and the broken spirit- but instead she bend down beside him, a satisfying click coming from her knees as she lowered down, her face moving closer and closer to the bug.
"His wings broken," she said obviously, "he looks sad."
"He is, I think," Mamura answered annoyed. How long is this girl going to stay?
She playfully threw one of her pigtails over her shoulder, before bending down closer towards the bug. She was observing it, so carefully, he noticed- almost as if it wasn't a gross bug, ubut a delecate creature.
I guess it's both, he thought to himself.
Suddenly the girl turned to him once more. "What's your name?"
"Mamura Daiki," he answered immediately, expecting to shut her up. But the questions kept coming.
"What's your age?"
"Five."
"Where do you live?"
"Tokyo."
"What are you doing all the way out here?"
"Road trip."
"Where's your mom?"
He didn't answer that question. He didn't know.
The little girl took this pause as a chance to walk over to the other side of the bug, crouching down once again until she was on Mamura's level. Mamura could see her fully now- from the freckles on the bridge of her nose, and her missing tooth on the right side of her mouth- to her lined socks and floral skirt. She was battered and bruised; there were red blusters and scratches on her hands, and her feet were covered with bandages. Whoever this girl was, she must be violent. Maybe a gang member. Or a pro-wrestler.
"How'd you get those scratches?" He asked bluntly.
She stared down at her scratches, as if just realizing they were there. And then her face lifted up again, her eyes suddenly bright and skinning, sparkling new.
"That's the first question you asked me."
A rosy blush began to form on Mamura's pale face, and he turned away in an attempt to hide it. The girl didn't seem to get the message, though- she immediately followed his face, searching for his mouth, his nose, his eyes- anything.
"Just answer the question!" He said, his stubborn and red face finally meeting the girls bright one.
The little girl blinked at him, her eyes shining still at the sight of his blushing face, and then turned her attention back to the broken beetle.
"You're cute when you blush," she said simply.
Mamura could feel his ear on fire.
He tried to get a word out, but all he could manage were constant sputters; empty sounds with empty meaning, just a little boy trying to understand why a little girl was calling him cute.
In the end, she was the first to speak.
"I climb trees," she said quietly, a red blush slowly forming on her face too, "I don't like telling people. It's boyish."
"It's not boyish," Mamura said immediately.
"Really?" she asked, her face a mixture of doubt and hope.
"I don't climb trees," he shrugged, "And I'm a boy."
"So, what is it then?" she asked him, "Girly? I don't want that either."
"No, I don't think so- it doesn't seem girly either," Mamura answered back, beginning to be genuinely curious, "It's just tree climbing. Not boyish or girly or anything."
"But it has to be something, doesn't it?" The little girl said back, desperate for answers. "It can't just be nothing."
"Hm," Mamura said, his mind blank and his curiosity only growing. "Then it must be… fun," he said finally.
"Fun?" She repeated, her eyebrows knit. Then suddenly her whole face changed, as if she had just realized what Mamura had said. "Oh, right! Fun."
She continued to stare at the beetle, but this time a sheepish smile was on her face. "So does that make me fun?"
Mamura could feel his face heat up once again. I really don't like this girl.
"Yeah," he answered. "Yeah, you are."
This time she looked up at him, her eyes wide and her previous smile gone. "You're fun too."
In the midst of all his red and heat and fire Mamura tried to change the subject. "What d-do you think of the beetle?"
She didn't turn away from his face. "It looks lonely."
"But we're here," Mamura answered, "Why is it lonely?"
"People don't need people to stop being lonely," she replied simply, "They need to be able to fly. This bugs too sad to fly."
"Well, what can we do about it?"
"We can fix it," she said simply, bending down closer and closer to the little weak bug in front of them.
"What? But-" Mamura tried, baffled by the idea of touching any sort of bug- but she cut him off with a sharp look and a sharp tongue.
"I would want to fly," she said sternly, "If it were me. I would want to be fixed."
And then she calmly grabbed onto the beetles wing, straightening it with one grasp of her little fingers, and grabbed the beetle with her bare blistered hands.
"Don't be afraid," she said to it, "I'll help you."
And then she threw the beetle into the sky.
For a moment, the beetle looked as if it was going to fall- right back onto the ground where it had came from; not a fixed beetle, but still a broken one. Mamura didn't want that for the beetle- he wanted it to soar like it was meant to, he wanted its wounds to heal and its wings to fly- and suddenly he was leaping out, trying to catch that little bug that was so gross, but so delicate, and there was nothing to do but hope that it would fly once more.
And finally, it did.
It's wings spread out like an angels, and suddenly it was soaring through the air, no longer attached to the dew ridden ground but amidst the vast openness of a clear sky; and Mamura wasn't afraid for the little beetle anymore, he was cheering for it; cheering for the beetle to finally be free, and to never to lonely again.
Mamura turned to the little girl, her face blank and smiling, unaware of the beautiful creature she had just fixed.
"I want to fly too," he said suddenly, his eyes burning and his breath quickening, "I don't want to be lonely anymore."
He thought of his mother who left him, and his classmates who were afraid of him; of his brother who was too young to love and his father who couldn't even hold him without bursting into tears. He thought of quiet nights and his own wet eyes, and his nightmares filled with his own voice calling Mommy! Mommy! But mostly, he thought of the little girl in front of him, and her magic blistered fingers that gave a broken beetle his wings back.
"Maybe one day I'll fix you too," she said quietly.
"Suzume!" A voice called, breaking them out of their trance. The beetle was gone, and with it the moment- reality had come crashing down on them. It happened in slow motion- the little girl turned away from him, and suddenly she was gone, and the reality was the little girl went back to her mother, and Mamura went back to his father, and they continued in their separate ways, their experience only a forgotten memory.
But the little boy didn't forget. Not really. That little girl came back to him whenever he was alone, as a reminder that one day he too won't be lonely, because that little girl will be there to fix him, to help him fly once again, no matter how impossible it seemed.
And while that little girl forgot all about little Mamura Daiki, Mamura Daiki never forgot about little Suzume, the mysterious girl who had gave him hope again.
"Mamura?" A voice called for him, dragging him out of his memory, "What are you thinking about?"
Mamura stared at the girl who had called for him- she was pale and pretty, around seventeen years old, with her hair tied sweetly into two long black braids. She had a bandage on her knee, and a small patch of freckles on her nose.
"They're still the same," he said, staring at the string of dots.
"What?" She said curiously, "What are you staring at?"
He looked at her. "An idiot."
She scrunched her face. "You're the idiot."
Finally, Mamura smiled. "We're both idiots."
And then he pulled her into him, hoping to never again let her go.