Chapter 8
Connection
On the night of the guest lecture, Chihiro could hardly sleep--Sen's excitement found its way to Chihiro's consciousness. After a few days, Sen was cheerful, but the initial exhuberance subsided. Then one evening...
Chihiro was at her study desk, practicing her calligraphy brushstrokes. She leaned back in the tiny chair she used since she was twelve, stretched, and tried to see if she could empty her mind of all thought. It was a relaxation trick her father tried to teach her, but she never got all the way there. Random thoughts would always pop in her head. This time things went a little differently. As her conscious thoughts all went silent one by one, she started to feel a sensation of being called. The feeling startled Chihiro back into full thought. She leaned forward, placing her head on her folded arms, turning her view toward the dresser, and looked with renewed interest at the ornate music box.
She pushed her chair back away from the desk and headed across her room to the dresser without taking her eyes off the box. She opened the box for the first time in over a year, looking once again at the beautiful purple hairband. She decided to wear it for a little while, even though she stopped wearing her hair in a pony tail years before. Immediately, an intense thought popped into her head. "Haku... ...Here?" She had no idea what or who a 'Haku' was.
Sen was unaware of language, but a few days before an extremely powerful external force imparted a vocabulary of two words upon her. While Chihiro sat at her desk with the hair band in place, something marvelous was happening to Sen: she began to receive Chihiro's thoughts. The images Sen knew suddenly had meaning. [BOOK!!] [DESK!!] Sen was thrilled at all the words she was learning so suddenly. Sen was also picking up Chihiro's memories, both recent and buried. Chihiro was inexplicably thrilled about everything. She felt she had developed a real appreciation for her room, her surroundings, her book, her desk, her life. Even after Chihiro carefully removed the band and returned it to its place in the music box, Sen was busy on her own examining her surroundings. [WINDOW!!] [FLOOR!!] [CHAIR!!] [PICTURE!!] Sen examined the image on the picture. [RIVER!?] [HAKU HERE??] [NOT HAKU HERE] Sen examined the other pictures in the room [NOT HAKU] [NOT HAKU]. She saw the picture of Kenji Sano and proclaimed, [KENJI BIG NOT HAKU!!] Chihiro felt an urge to giggle at that time--Sen was clearly enjoying herself and her newly acquired skill.
Chihiro didn't know it, but the course of her life just started down a different path...
Connection
On the night of the guest lecture, Chihiro could hardly sleep--Sen's excitement found its way to Chihiro's consciousness. After a few days, Sen was cheerful, but the initial exhuberance subsided. Then one evening...
Chihiro was at her study desk, practicing her calligraphy brushstrokes. She leaned back in the tiny chair she used since she was twelve, stretched, and tried to see if she could empty her mind of all thought. It was a relaxation trick her father tried to teach her, but she never got all the way there. Random thoughts would always pop in her head. This time things went a little differently. As her conscious thoughts all went silent one by one, she started to feel a sensation of being called. The feeling startled Chihiro back into full thought. She leaned forward, placing her head on her folded arms, turning her view toward the dresser, and looked with renewed interest at the ornate music box.
She pushed her chair back away from the desk and headed across her room to the dresser without taking her eyes off the box. She opened the box for the first time in over a year, looking once again at the beautiful purple hairband. She decided to wear it for a little while, even though she stopped wearing her hair in a pony tail years before. Immediately, an intense thought popped into her head. "Haku... ...Here?" She had no idea what or who a 'Haku' was.
Sen was unaware of language, but a few days before an extremely powerful external force imparted a vocabulary of two words upon her. While Chihiro sat at her desk with the hair band in place, something marvelous was happening to Sen: she began to receive Chihiro's thoughts. The images Sen knew suddenly had meaning. [BOOK!!] [DESK!!] Sen was thrilled at all the words she was learning so suddenly. Sen was also picking up Chihiro's memories, both recent and buried. Chihiro was inexplicably thrilled about everything. She felt she had developed a real appreciation for her room, her surroundings, her book, her desk, her life. Even after Chihiro carefully removed the band and returned it to its place in the music box, Sen was busy on her own examining her surroundings. [WINDOW!!] [FLOOR!!] [CHAIR!!] [PICTURE!!] Sen examined the image on the picture. [RIVER!?] [HAKU HERE??] [NOT HAKU HERE] Sen examined the other pictures in the room [NOT HAKU] [NOT HAKU]. She saw the picture of Kenji Sano and proclaimed, [KENJI BIG NOT HAKU!!] Chihiro felt an urge to giggle at that time--Sen was clearly enjoying herself and her newly acquired skill.
Chihiro didn't know it, but the course of her life just started down a different path...