Chapter II

Say Cheese!

There was once a time when the thought of her graced my mind but after that day everything changed. Haruko was gone and now her memory was a haunting one. Every night while I sleep, she haunts me in my dreams.

"Go away!" I yelled. I turned my back to where I thought the voice was coming from and tried to ignore it.

"Tisk, tisk, tisk, Ta-Kun. Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"You only tried to use me. You're no friend of mine."

"…Friends can forgive each other." The voice said hesitantly, ringing ominously around me.

"No!" I shouted and I tried to run away but I never moved. Again, my body seemed to have vanished in this white void.

"It's very vacant here isn't it Ta-Kun."

"Shut up." I shouted again.

"You're all alone without me, huh Ta-kun. Just like at home right?"

"No! This is just a dream. You're not even real, what do you know?"

"There isn't a lot of difference between dreams and reality. In truth, they have more in common."

"Like what?" I asked in response.

"In either world, nothing ever goes your way." She said her final words the voice faded and everything blacked out. I couldn't see or feel anything. After a while, I heard another voice, though I couldn't tell whose.

"Naota. Naota!" Someone yelled to me but I saw no one.

Then another voice yelled the same, "Naota!" This one was familiar although I couldn't pin a name to it. "Here, help me lift him up." He said finally. Then I heard nothing.

I don't know what happened after that. I blanked out and the next thing I knew I felt warm but I was….shivering somehow. Now shivering. Shaking. Who was shaking me?

/\

A vary familiar scene took place. When the shaking stopped my head was bombarded with unnecessary pain. The corner of a thin book connected with me between the back of my neck and ear. Man did that hurt.

"What did I tell you about that!" I shouted.

I was surprised at the voice I heard when the response I got was, "About what?" For once it wasn't Ninamori as I had expected. I turned around in bed to see the ugly mug staring down at me.

"Dad?" I said wearily. I sat up and looked around curiously and confused. "How'd I get here?" I asked.

"Somebody carried you here a few days ago." He answered. "You really shouldn't go around falling asleep in dark basements."

"A few days ago? And where were you?"

"I was at yoga." He answered proudly. I sighed and began my climb out of bed. I felt hot and sweaty, then I realized that I was still dressed in the clothes I had on in school that day and they completely stunk. "That Ninamori girl has been stopping by every morning to check on you. So hurry up, someone's downstairs to see you."

"Who? Is it Ninamori?" I asked. Then I caught a glimpse of the clock. Ninamori couldn't be here. At this time, she would already be in school. My father didn't answer me either. He left without a word.

I was curious to say the least. No one comes here to see me, not even my friends. Only Ninamori and she would have come up not wait downstairs for me, so it was easy to rule her out. The only feasible assumption I could come up with was that it be a teacher or something from school, here to have a meeting with my dad and me. Not that I would get punished or anything, I just really wasn't in the mood for it.

The only thing I could do was procrastinate but before that I took a long, hot shower. My body stunk under my few day old clothes and it was a total relief to wash that feeling away. As I sent there drenched in water and dripping with soap, I tried to replay in my mind what happed in that basement.

When I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it I came up only with a blank and the more I tried to make sense of it the more it just made my head hurt, adding to the pain my gracious father left me with. Eventually the pain became too much but didn't last long. In the instance of a pop the pain was gone and I found myself again in the void world of white. I didn't like being there, so I opened my eyes and woke up.

I made my way back to my room slowly, picked out an ordinary outfit slowly, and dressed just as slow. For some reason now, I felt angry. Frustration overcame the calm persona I tried put on. I couldn't explain it but I felt the need to grab my bat.

I grabbed it out of my closet then I just stood and looked at it. Eventually I was forced out of the doorway when something came crashing down from the top level. The blue electric guitar that Haruko left behind in the rubble when she left. I felt strange looking it and an urge to smash things with my bat suddenly came over me.

"Nothing can happen until you swing the bat." A voice rang out in my head. Familiar but faded. Where did it come from?

I found myself staring at the guitar before me until the stare became vacant and unconscious. I started to daydream about the day Haruko was my batting coach. She told me I had to swing the bat which seemed more like a metaphor for something than a statement about baseball.

"I hate baseball." I said to myself. Then I stopped staring. I was no longer in my room at this time. I had left and was well on my way down the stairs, bat in hand.

When I realized what I was doing I immediately stopped myself. From holding the bat in both hands I let the large end drop to the floor and stared at it. My intention was to turn back however, I was spotted before my body could react to my minds inclination to move.

"Still carrying that bat around everywhere, ay Ta-Kun?" I was looking down at the time it was spoken. My eyes lit up and opened wide as shock took over. I recognized the voice. It was one I never expected to hear again.

"M-Mamimi!"

"Cheese!" She said with a big flashy smile. I dropped my bat and just stared.

/\

"I thought you were….What are you doing here?" I asked her. She sat calmly and answered.

"I heard Ta-Kun had an accident at school. I came to see if you were alright, Chief." I wondered how she knew about that and then I saw my dad heading out the back door. I figured that he must have said something.

"So you came all the way here, all that way, to see me?"

She smiled a big cheesy smile and blatantly crossed her fingers before answering in here usual childish tone, "Yup!"

After that, a silence fell over us while we stared each other down. I was examining her as I imagine she was doing the same to me. Mamimi had on a t-shirt with some kind of strange flower design on it. It was tight and only went down to about her belly button. Below that she wore a pair of thigh length jean shorts that were slightly ripped over the left leg. Her hair was usual though, long and flowing down her back.

It had been a year since I last saw Mamimi and I never thought I'd see her again. We didn't even speak before she left but something was different about her now. Somehow, she seemed to be more mature. Somehow.

Before long I sat my bat down and made my way into the kitchen, sitting at the across from her at the table. "Nice outfit." I said as I sat.

"Thanks." She said gleefully. "I picked it out special, Ta-Kun."

I glared at her a moment. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that." I said. For a moment, she looked confused. Maybe she'd forgotten after all this time or maybe she just hadn't changed at all.

"Why?" She asked me.

"It's not my name."

"Haru-san calls you Ta-Kun." She said.

"Haruko isn't here anymore. So no one calls me that anymore."

"Do you miss Haru-san?"

"No." I answered glumly.

"Do you still think about her?" She then asked. "Do you still love her?" She asked with a laugh. Of course the answer was no but I chose not to answer at all. I simply looked away from her and let another silence come along.

The silence was short this time. The stillness must have bothered Mamimi because it didn't take long before she changed her expression and spoke. More serious this time.

"Hey Ta-Kun, guess what?" She said.

"You're insane?" I answered jokingly. Mamimi cracked a smile and laughed a bit at that.

"Besides that." She said. "It's about Tasuku."

"Tasuku? You found him?" I asked. Mamimi responded by a simple nod with a hidden smile. I didn't know what to assume. I didn't care too much to hear that they may be together again. "What about him?" I asked then.

"Here." Mamimi said. She reached under the table where she was sitting and slid a bag from underneath. It was filled with all sorts of junk. She seemed to be looking for something specific. After a moment, she pulled a small, already opened envelope addressed to me from inside and handed it to me.

Inside the envelope was a card with something written on it. I only needed to skim a few words on it to know what it was and what it was about. "A wedding invitation!" I looked up at Mamimi who smiled a strange smile at me. I didn't know whether to be happy or not but I said, "Congratulations" anyway. And suddenly, her smile melted away.

"Congrats for what?" She said with confusion. "I'm not getting married." And there it hit me. It had slipped my mind that Tasuku had picked up another girlfriend in America. It just had been so long since he'd written me that I just forgot.

I looked at Mamimi again who was strangely silent now with her looking down toward the floor. She seemed so different now that it was scary. It was hard to believe that this could possible be the same Mamimi from a year ago. She seemed smarter, more collected and not as weird as before. I can't say I mind the change. It's just strange.

The two of us just sat there silently in our thoughts for a few minutes. Eventually, I stood and moved away from the table, heading toward the fridge behind Mamimi. It was going on noon and I hadn't eaten anything yet. No sooner did my back get to her did she stand and jump on it, wrapping her arms around the front of my chest and holding me tight. I just let my arms dangle and did nothing.

"Hey, Ta-Kun?" she said in a low mellow tone. I didn't answer. I waited a moment until she spoke again. "Do you wanna take a picture?" She asked. She let me go and I turned to face her.

"A picture?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun." Mamimi said childishly.

"Okay." I said hesitantly.

"Okay great. Wait right there." She ran over to her bag and began to rummage through the mess again, throwing clothes and camera equipment all over the place before she pilled out a small purple toy and tossed it to me; a Bo Bo, but it want a baby and I didn't need this. "Put that in your mouth." She said.

"What? No."

"Come on, Ta-Kun, please? It's for the picture."

"No." I said again sternly and I tossed the thing away. There, Mamimi gave me this really sad puppy dog look trying to con me into it. In the past that wouldn't have worked but for some reason, today, I caved. "Okay fine." I said.

"Great!" And her face went back to cheery again. This was the odd Mamimi I remembered. Perhaps she hadn't changed so much after all.

Going back to her bag she pulled out the equipment she needed; a Sony brand camera and a tripod to stand it on. After pressing a few buttons on it and orienting the viewer she moved to me and stood at my side.

"Ready?" She asked me. I picked up the little rubber thing from the floor, popped it in my mouth after wiping it off and nodded. "Okay." She said. "Say cheese."

I crossed my arms and said with a grunt, "Cheese." And just with the flash, as quick as lightening, Mamimi turned and leaned in and gave me a little kiss on the cheek. The exact same side and spot where Ninamori had kissed me a few days ago.

My eyes lit up wide almost immediately but I didn't have time to react. The photo was taken. I can just imagine how that would look when it came out.