Summer break had just started. It was in the evening and Makoto was in the middle of preparing dinner when the phone started ringing. Rei put down his pen and went to answer it.
"The Tachibana family, Ryugazaki Rei speaking," he said as he answered the phone. When Makoto was busy doing something else or wasn't at home, it was usually Rei who picked up the phone. The reason why this was, was unknown.
"Ah, Rei!" it was Makoto's mother who was calling. "Can you get Makoto for me?" she asked.
"He's in the middle of cooking. Is there a message I can give him?" Rei asked in that way that made him sound way older than 12 years old.
"No, just tell him to call back when he has time. There is something I want to discuss with him," Makoto's mother answered.
"I'll tell him that," Rei answered. "See you, grandma," he said.
"Goodbye Rei," Makoto's mother said before they both hung up.
"Who was it?" Makoto asked, not having heard what Rei was talking about.
"Grandma, she said that you should call back when you have time," Rei answered.
"Will do," Makoto said as the rice finished boiling. Dinner would be ready soon, and so Makoto asked Rei to come help him lay the table before they could eat.
After dinner, and after they'd washed up, Makoto went over to the phone to call his mother back. He was curious as to what she had wanted. Normally when she couldn't get in contact with Makoto, she would ask Rei to take a message, but this seemed to be something she actually needed to talk about, but why couldn't she just have told Rei to topic like she normally did? These questions filled Makoto's mind as he dialed the number to his parents' house.
"The Tachibana family," his mother answered almost immediately.
"It's Makoto. You said I should call back?" Makoto said in a questioning manner.
"Yes, I've got news. Remember that your dad and I entered a contest to win 1000000 yen?" she asked.
"Did you win?" Makoto asked, surprised.
"No," his mother said. "Not the 1000000 anyways. We won the second largest amount 750000 yen," she answered.
Makoto was both surprised and happy. "That's incredible! Congratulations!" he said. "But why are you telling me this now?" he asked.
"We decided that we don't need the money, so we would spend them on our children," his mother said. "So we agreed to invite Ren, Ran, you and your family on a trip to Okinawa for two weeks during this summer break," she said. "And we are buying a camera for you, Ren and Ran, one for each," she said.
"Why the camera?" Makoto asked.
His mother laughed. "As you can take pictures in Okinawa of course," she answered. "We agreed that we're leaving this upcoming Saturday," she said.
"Do I have a say in the matter?" Makoto asked, worriedly.
"Not unless you absolutely can't leave, but then we'll just bring the other four along," his mother said cheerfully, knowing that Makoto wouldn't deny coming along if she put it like this.
"Okay. Where do we meet?" he asked.
"We meet at Iwatobi Station on Saturday morning at 8," his mother said. "We're going to Tottori-shi by train and taking an airplane from there to Naha in Okinawa," she said.
"How much does it cost?" Makoto asked.
His mother laughed again. "Nothing in your case. We're paying all tickets, rooms at the hotel, and all food. All you need to pay is whatever these categories do not cover."
"There's nothing that doesn't cover as far as I can think," Makoto answered. "Drinks too?"
"Yes," his mother said.
"Thank you," Makoto said, not knowing any better words to express his feelings. He was both happy that his parents would do this for him, his siblings and his children, but he also felt like they should be spending their money on themselves instead. But his parents had always found great joy in their children, and their grandchildren too. Maybe it would make them happier to use their money on making their family happy than using them for themselves.
"You're very welcome, we'll see you at the station on Saturday morning," Makoto's mother said before they both said goodbye and hung up.
"What was it about?" Rei asked.
Makoto turned to see that all his children were looking at him. Rei's book was resting in his lap and Nagisa and Haruka, who had both been drawing, had laid down their pencils to look at him.
"My parents won a prize of 750000 yen," Makoto answered. "They decided to spent the money on a trip to Okinawa for the entire family. We're leaving on Saturday morning. We have to be at Iwatobi station at 8," he explained to them all.
"I've never been to Okinawa before!" Nagisa exclaimed. "Have you?" he looked to the others with curious eyes.
"Not that I can remember," Rei said.
"The orphanage never arranged trips for that far away," Rin said.
"They never arrange any trips," Haruka said.
"They did arrange that hiking trip!" Rin yelled.
"That was with the school," Haruka answered.
"They still arranged it," Rin defined.
"Stop that," Makoto said. "The point is that you've never been to Okinawa either, right?" he smiled kindly at both Rin and Haruka, knowing that he had managed to stop the argument this time. "I haven't been there either," he said.
"Where have you been to then, Mako-chan?" Nagisa asked.
Makoto thought. "For our field-trip in 9th grade we went to Tokyo, aside from that I've only been to Kyoto once after I'd graduated from high school."
All eyes widened. None of the four children had ever been outside town, not as far as they could remember anyways. To go to places like Kyoto was incredible in their eyes, and to go to Tokyo seemed more like a distant dream to them.
"It's not that big a deal!" Makoto said, surprised by all the eyes on him. He wasn't used to it at all. In his opinion, these were only small trips. Some of his classmates had been to Tokyo before the field-trip and one of them had been to Kyoto twice by that time too, and seen even more of Japan. One of his classmates had even been to Australia on vacation once.
"I wanna go to Tokyo too!" Nagisa exclaimed. "I want to see all Japan, no! All the world!" he yelled excitedly.
"It's not that easy to just go there," Makoto said. "In fact, a trip isn't cheap at all. You need a place to stay and a way to get there. You will need money for food and entrance for whatever you want to see," he said. "If you go abroad, it's even more expensive."
Nagisa pouted.
"Anyways, I want you to be done packing by Friday night, as we don't have to think about that when we're leaving on Saturday morning," Makoto said, changing the subject back to the trip they were going on.
"Okay!" Nagisa exclaimed, cheerfully. Remembering that he was about to go to Okinawa with his family seemed to be enough to wipe the pouting off his face.
"Onii-chan! Over here!" It was Ran calling, She, Ren and Makoto's parents were already waiting as Makoto and his family reached the station. Everyone was smiling as Makoto and his family reached them.
"Are we all here?" Makoto's father asked while looking around.
"I brought everyone," Makoto said. Rin and Haruka were standing on either side of him and Rei and Nagisa were behind him. He could sense their presence easily.
"We're here too," Ran said while wrapping an arm around Ren's shoulders. "Even Ren's here on time," she smiled.
"You're mean," Ren commented.
"The train's coming," Makoto's mother said as she noticed the train approaching in the distance. "Are we all ready to go?" she asked.
"Yeah!" Nagisa exclaimed, causing all smiles to grow wider.
The train stopped by the station and then everyone boarded. Excited conversations broke out as they sat on their seats and the train departed from the station. All were looking forward to this trip.