COULD HAVE BEANS
A Whole New World
It feels almost like her innards have been doused in acids. A gnawing pain begins to grow in her stomach and it spreads quickly to her arms and legs, all around her body. Everything is stretching.
But her house isn't.
She takes a few bounding leaps, choking and coughing, to the front door as she expands length-ways and side-ways. She feels a cold hard pain in her head as it slams into the ground and collapses onto the grass in a hurting heap. Her eyes flutter open and she sees the size of the place. She's lying on the doorstep of the house she used to live under. It's not so huge anymore.
Although the ache in her body remains, it has grown remarkably. She stretches out her arms and legs to reveal that she really has become a five foot six, fully grown human girl.
Is this what human beans feel like all the time? They're so big and heavy and take up so much room; she never realized before how much they weighed.
She leans over to peer into the bush where her tiny Borrower house is. It's empty. Arrietty sits down, defeated on the grass.
Great. She's human, and she has no idea where to start looking for Shō. She only has a month before her twenty-seventh birthday, and the old woman is gone. She's been left alone, in a completely different world from the one she knows.
Although, from the tiny Borrower sanctuary she hadn't really left for twelve years, she'd forgotten how beautiful the human world was. A clear, cloudless blue sky that seems to stretch on and on for miles, the sweet smelling air and the brightly shining sun are all reminders of her first experience twelve years ago.
Shakily, Arrietty stands up on her new long legs, grass stains smeared all over them. She goes to wipe them off when she realizes the entire length of her legs is bare. When she grew, evidently her clothes did not.
She lets out a little shriek of horror, frozen to the spot for a few seconds before leaping behind the bush again. Panic floods her. She had never noticed how many human cottages were lined up on the street. And their placement ensures a perfect view of her bare body if she tries to leave her hiding place.
How to go about this? She mulls over the options, quickly and panicked. If she leaves the bush, there's no telling how many Beans will see her from the windows of their houses, and then where to? Into the house? No, there might be people living in there not expecting visitors. But she doesn't want her first experience as a human spent cowering out of sight. She can't waste time, she only has one month to find her love in this world. Either way, she'll need to find some new clothing and then the nearest town.
If only it was easier done than said.
Suddenly, Arrietty spots something in the corner of her eye. It's clothing, thank the heavens. But the numerous t-shirts, pants and undergarments are swinging from a strange metal contraption. They blow innocently in the wind; so accessible, yet so, so risky. Until she finds another option, this is the best one.
Crossing her fingers and peering around the bush to make sure there aren't any humans approaching, she takes a few deep breaths, a few leaps of faith and grabs a handful of fabric, praying to the spirits that whatever she's taken is wearable.
It is…to a certain extent; she's grabbed a huge human towel.
Groaning in frustration, she's about to run back and grab something else when she hears the hum of a car coming down the street. Ducking, she curses under her breath and grudgingly wraps the towel around her torso. It gives her some decency, at the very least. When she's sure the car is gone, she sighs with relief and tiptoes back over to the clothing, spins the contraption around in a circle until she notices a human's dress hanging on the rim. It's perfect; red and sleeved like her Borrower dress. With any luck, the humans of the house won't notice one item of clothing missing.
She reaches to unhook it when the front door of the house swings open.
Her stomach drops and she dives behind the bush just before the bean walks into sight. She stays hidden behind the branches, the only view of her through the leaves. She can't see her face of the Bean, but she can hear it softly humming to itself. In horror, she watches as the Bean removes every item of clothing from its place and drops them all into a basket at her feet. Arrietty curses silently when she realizes the Bean is going back into the house, and is probably not going to come out again.
Well a towel will be embarrassing, but at least she might be able to score some sympathy points with the local Beans if she concocts a brilliant story. Or she could just face utter humiliation in her first hour as a human.
She's not wearing shoes either, but it's no matter, she notices some lying on the porch of the house, closer to the bush than the clothes were. All she needs to do is borrow.
So she creeps over to the front of the house and snags a pair of black sneakers from the pile sitting so readily on the doorstep. There are so many pairs; the humans in the house probably won't miss one. They fit rather nicely.
But if she returns to the bush, she's probably going to need food and water. And some real clothes, she realizes – she can't go for one month wearing only a towel.
She could take her chances and knock on the door of the Beans. She could tell them she was a neighbor who had been locked out of her own house. She could be one of their long-lost family members looking for a bathtub. She could-
"Why are you wearing my brother's shoes?"
Arrietty turns around slowly. She's been pondering for so long that she doesn't realize there's a young boy standing behind her, his old teddy bear falling limp to his side. He's watching her with his mouth open. Human children are so much smaller from her new height. The boy doesn't even come up to her shoulders.
She stares down at her borrowings.
"I…I'm sorry. I don't have my own shoes."
The little boy takes in Arrietty's bushy auburn hair, makeshift towel dress and sneakers without socks. He turns his back to her and calls into the house.
"Mom, there's a strange lady on our front lawn!"
A tired looking middle aged lady, about the same age as Homily, opens the door and leans against the door frame with her apron on, holding the basket full of clothes. She looks Arrietty up and down, and her eyes flicker with recognition at the towel, but thankfully, she doesn't question it.
"Are you lost?"
Arrietty manages to nod her head slowly and mumble.
The mother seems friendly, but rather dubious of Arrietty's nature. She quickly runs a finger through her hair and folds her arms over the towel that's slipping off her skinny torso.
"I'm so sorry. I'll put them right where I found them…" Arrietty murmurs, rubbing her shoes together, looking down. The lady is puzzled.
"She took Takeo's shoes. She says she doesn't have her own."
Realization dawns on the lady. She seems surprised – maybe she was making an assumption. Either way, it doesn't matter to Arrietty.
"Do you know where you're headed?" she asks. Arrietty shrugs and bites her bottom lip.
"I don't really know. I've never been…to this part of town before."
"Are you headed into the city?"
"I think so. I mean – yes, I am." She corrects herself. The lady finally manages a tired smile – although Arrietty can't tell if it's forced or not.
"No matter about the sneakers. That boy hasn't worn them since he was thirteen. Come inside, you look exhausted."
Arrietty is ushered into the house, and the little boy doesn't take his eyes off her.
"You're pretty. How old are you?"
The mother scolds her son in disapproval.
"That's not very polite, Kazu. You never ask a lady her age. Apologize please."
He does, albeit reluctantly.
The mother pulls out a chair for Arrietty and she sits at the dining room table. It's like the one in her house, but much bigger and made of fancy human materials. Everything is polished and shiny.
"Cup of tea?"
Arrietty nods silently. Kazu takes a seat opposite her.
"What's your name?"
"Arrietty."
"What a pretty name!" the mother says cheerily over her shoulder.
"Where are you from?" Kazu asks.
"Somewhere far away."
"What are you doing in town?"
"Looking for someone."
"Who are you looking for?"
"You ask a lot of questions."
"Who are you looking for?"
Arrietty is soon tired out of answers for the little boy, but he hasn't lost interest in her. He asks her everything about her family, to her love life, to her childhood, all of which Arrietty has to lie about.
"That's enough, Kazu." The mother takes a seat next to Arrietty, setting down a cup of scalding hot tea in front of her. She ushers her son into the other room.
"So, Arrietty, are you honestly…lost?"
Arrietty nods – she is.
"Were you traveling up the road, or did you just happen to come in from the field lands?" the mother looks at her expectantly.
Arrietty doesn't know the world beyond the shrub she used to live under.
"I…don't remember."
"You don't remember…anything? Nothing at all?"
"No."
"Oh dear."
The mother puts her cup of tea down and pushes the hair out of her face, exhaling softly.
"So, you have no idea what you're doing here, where you're going, or where you're from?"
"Well, I'm looking for someone, in the city. That's all I know."
The mother stands up and takes Arrietty's empty cup to the sink and douses it with water. She's murmuring to herself.
"I suppose the road is no place for a young lady. If you have nowhere to go," she hesitates ever so slightly, "you can stay here for a few nights. We have no spare rooms, so you can share with Kazu," she catches herself quickly, "only if you want to, of course."
Arrietty thinks to herself. She has no place to stay, she doesn't know where to start looking for Shō, she's completely alone, and most importantly, she's human. She has no idea how to behave like a human. How do they greet each other, communicate with each other? Do they kiss and hug each other at first greeting? Do they shake hands, or not make contact at all? Do they have any different customs to Borrowers? Arrietty has no clue. Staying with a human family could help her find him. So she nods, and accepts.
That night, Kazu's mother, Rena, gives her a large tee shirt to sleep in. It smells unusual, like a human's overly sweet perfume, but at least she can take off the towel (and if she's lucky, slip it back in with the rest of the clothes). She also sets up the mattress for Arrietty to sleep on in Kazu's room.
It seems that Kazu is extremely happy to have a new roommate.
"How long are you staying with us for?"
He takes a flying jump off his bed, and to Arrietty's horror, lands on the mattress with chance of a near miss.
"I don't really know. Until I find my own place in the city somewhere, I guess."
Kazu pouts.
"You don't want to stay with us?"
"No, no. I do. It's just that I'm looking for someone very special to me, and they're in the city right now."
"Why in the city? I don't really like it there."
"Why not?"
"Because. It's so loud and all the old people talk on their phones and everyone's busy all the time. And it's never fun. Dad's always working so he never takes me to the crepe shop anymore," Kazu sighs unhappily, "sometimes Takeo takes me, but it's not the same."
"I think the city is a nice place," she turns to the little boy and smiles; "you can take me to the crepe shop instead."
His face brightens.
"Okay, Arrietty. I will."
Arrietty likes this idea, surprisingly, a little more than she should. It's surprising how happy it makes her. But she likes how happy he looks when she smiles, and she likes the happiness she feels when she can make him smile. She likes him. She likes this family too.
She likes being human.