Now we were alone.
We began our journey south toward the airport, talking to each other and singing songs we knew duet parts to. I asked Rin to sing to me the first evening we were on our own under the stars. I stayed awake through the whole thing and not once did I feel sleepy. She pouted. "That song was supposed to be a lullaby, you know." I couldn't help it! If you heard her sing very closely you would be compelled to listen to it all the way through. Our campfire was reduced to glowing coals and the surrounding fireflies lit up the air around us. We were peaceful and at ease, now beginning to understand the true meaning of rest.
The next day I heard a group of people singing a song. I picked up on it and I sang it to Rin. She looked up, words scrolling through her eyes. She was in the database. "It's Dana Dana from the 1940s play, Esterke. It was written by Aaron Zeitlin and composed by Sholom Secunda. Written in 2/4 time in the key of G minor, it's an old song written during the times of Nazism, traditionally performed in Yiddish. Arthur Kevess and Teddi Schwartz translated the song into English in 1956; it has since become available to sing in German, French, Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian. "
She didn't comment further on the subject and we walked the rest of the way, trying hard to make up our own songs. Even when we reached the airport and took the next flight to Narita, there was nothing to sing about. It remained that way for the next three days we wandered around the city with our hunger unbearable and our legs weary. On the fifth day out, though, something caught our eye. We heard the rumble of Earth and the heavy mechanical whirr of machines further along our path. Amber caution lights flashed in the distance around orange and black blockades. Needless to say we were intrigued by the construction projects up ahead.
It was an empty lot filled with overturned Earth and the start of what would have been a large office tower. There were many yellow machines that rumbled and shrieked at us when we wandered into the site. Rin was fascinated by them all. She took me by the hand and dragged me over to one of them. She looked up and laughed. "Look at this yellow dragon!" I corrected her, "It's an excavator." She gave me a look and ran off toward another machine. "Okay, Mister Smarty-Pants, then what do you call this one?" I smiled at her and followed. "A bulldozer," I said, leaning against the blunt end of the hydraulic blade. Rin gave me another look and went to point at something else, but I interjected: "That's a dump truck. And over there's a loader. Oh and next to the excavator are the crane and a Caterpillar." With a brief shrug of defeat, she laughed and took her place back at my right, taking my arm in hers. "Len knows his heavy construction, doesn't he?" I looked at her. Her gaze went right to the road outside. A massive yellow machine with a large drum at the front slowly advanced in front of the lot, flattening out the concrete and asphalt with an audible hiss. We turned to it and watched as several men in orange vests returned hanging off of the large vehicle; one shouted something very loudly over the machinery. As they began to hop off, many of the machines in the area suddenly fell to a halt. We hid behind a large pile of dirt and watched as men climbed down from the dozers and excavators, heading toward us. We ran a bit further behind and saw just what they saw: snacks. An area littered with lunch boxes and packages of bagged goods.
Our stomachs rumbled anxiously.
The same glint in her eye from when we took all the snacks from the snack room returned. She had an idea. A terrible, awful idea.
"Len," she whispered, "are you tired of walking?" I nodded. "And you know your construction equipment, right?" Again, I nodded. Turning from the food to the vehicle, she spotted a man coming right at us, noticing how out of place we were. She nudged me. "I've got a plan." Now I would have retorted, but she jabbed me again, this time in the stomach. I can't tell you how unfortunate it would be if Rin were ever to jab you in any place, especially near your vital organs. For now, let's assume that you readers out there are the lucky ones.
"Hey," the worker called out, "what are you kids doing here?" I turned toward the noise and raised my hand out to defend Rin. She pushed me aside and confronted the man. She was real pushy when it came to food. He towered over her, his round stomach bounding with every step. He didn't look like the kind of guy who would be pleasant otherwise. Rin put a finger to her lips and, looking back at me with a wink, she talked sweetly to the man. Her posture slumped a little and her voice half-feigned fatigue. "Sir, we just came in from Hokkaido to see our long-lost older sister, and we haven't eaten or slept in days. So we were wandering around and noticed that you have some snacks lying around. If you would be so kind as to give us some, we'd greatly appreciate it." He looked her over with his small eyes, nostrils flaring in thought. "Hokkaido, you say? Then what're you doing out here? You could've just flown right to Tokyo if you wanted." She lowered her head. "Well, we didn't have any money, so we walked." The man gave her an incredulous look. "You walked all the way here? From Hokkaido?!" Rin faked a sneeze and made herself tremble. "Well, we did have to swim across..." The man turned to me, still in disbelief. "Is this your brother? You look just like her. Almost like twins." I nodded again and, noticing how Rin was glaring daggers at me as she faked a throaty cough, I came up with my alibi. Many other workers heard Rin talking and began to gather around. I held Rin close and shivered. I had to be convincing too. "Listen, sis. I'm gonna try calling nee-san again. I'll go find a pay phone, so I'll come get you when I've got a hold of her." She kept me in a death grip, her fingernails digging into my arms painfully. "You promise, right? You won't leave me too?" she said with tearful desperation, "you can't leave! Not like mommy and daddy, please Len! Promise me you'll come back!" I stroked the back of her head and let her bury her face in my chest. "It'll be all right, Rin. I won't leave you, I promise." She gave out an audible whimper and rested her chin on my shoulder. She was faking tears. "I'll score us some food. You grab the rolly machine," she whispered. I was in no condition to object, so I got up and left her in the middle of the sympathetic group of workers who were already offering their lunches. What a bunch of saps.
Then my mind raced. Rin may or may not have them giving her surplus supplies of snacks by melting their hearts with more heart-wrenching stories about our fake childhood. I don't think I had much time. Immediately I flew behind the wooden fence and looked up the giant drum of a front wheel in front of me. A road roller. It made no noises whatsoever and no one sat inside behind the wheel. The window was open. I climbed up and into the vehicle (which is harder than it seems,) taking my place at the driver's seat. The seat was a cold and somewhat uncomfortable bench. If this was going to be our mode of transportation, I would have to discuss with Rin the benefits of upholstery. My knees brushed against a cold metal that jingled. The keys were still in the ignition. I could feel a smile slowly growing on my face as my hand reached out to turn the key, to bring the machine to life.
I had to see how Rin's end of the plan was coming.
Looking out the back window of the road roller, I noticed how much she had acquired in so little time. Bags and bags of snack food, sandwiches, rice balls, and bento boxes were lined up before her. But then I saw—that greedy cow! She was eating all of them without me! Upset about these turn of events, I took the key and jerked it to the side.
The road roller idled, a mechanical skipping of gears, and then the engine loudly roared and sputtered. My hand flew to the stick shift and I threw the machine in reverse at high speed, carelessly careening into the construction site. Many of the men leapt out of the way and shouted at me. "Who's driving this thing?" From within my rear-view mirror, I saw Rin swipe a large tablecloth from a crate and she began to swaddle the snacks. At once, I realized my mistake. She shot me one of the most horrifying looks and climbed up onto the road roller. The men looked at her, outraged. "B-But we thought you were nice kids! And now look what you did! You flattened everything out!" Since I had to apply the brakes while in reverse, the machine let out this horrible grinding noise. I shifted out of reverse and into park. Rin smiled and imitated the noise with a loud "WRYYYYYYY," throwing the sack of food into the passenger's seat. "That's right," she said with a haughty laugh, "we'll drive you all flat into the ground! If you ever aspire to become a vocalist in the future, watch out! Because it's our voices you're going to be hearing a lot in the music industry!" The construction workers were outraged. The one that approached us first stepped forward. "Give us back our snacks and our road roller, you delinquents!"
I turned and watched Rin to see what she was going to say next. At first I could see her test the name out. Ro... Roada Rolla… Road Roller. What she said next is probably one of the best things I've ever heard. Better than any song, better than any praise. She brushed her hair to the side and pulled up her shorts, rubbing her thumb off her nose. "It's my road roller now!" Really, it was awe-inspiring. Then she turned to me and jumped in next to me, leaning out the window as I put the road roller into drive. She let out the same yell as before, and added as we drove away, "Don't forget-- Vocaloid Twin Wonders Kagamine Rin and Len swiped your snacks and drove you flat!" They chased after us, shouting "don't you ever come again!" and "DQN! DQN!" and "You kids don't have a license for that thing!"
Once we were far enough away from them we laughed about our triumph, slapping each other on the arm and thigh. Then Rin gave me a shove. "You thought I wasn't going to get you some snacks too, didn't you?" I turned to her and saw that she was pouting angrily. I leaned back into my seat, increasing the speed of our yellow machine. "Yeah, but only because you were stuffing your face like some fat pig!" She punched me so hard I called out, "I was just kidding! Sheesh. Ow!" She punched me again in the same place. "I was just trying to soften them up a little bit more, but then you had to go in and flatten everything out!" I shot back, "well the plan was pretty vague, you could've at least told me about it!" She countered, "but I just made the plan up on the spot! Improvisation? Hellooo?" I didn't have anything to argue against that, so I shook my head and turned my eyes back on the road.
Then she rubbed my arm, trying to make up for what she did. "Len," she started quietly, "I'm going to make you a promise right now. Don't laugh, okay?" I nodded. "Good. Then I promise that whenever we do stupid pranks like these we'll plan them far in advance. And also, if there are snacks involved we will always get the same amount of snacks, got it?" I pulled into a grassy field and stopped the road roller, thinking about it for a while before turning to look at Rin. She looked… I don't know, cute? Her cheeks were pink, but she looked frustrated at something. And I felt myself starting to snicker at how ridiculous the notion was. She caught my shoulders bounding, my hand over my mouth, and she shook me. "Hey! You promised you wouldn't laugh!" I stopped and ruffled her hair. She smoothed it out in annoyance. "Yeah yeah, I'm sorry." Then I thought about it again and gave her a smile, holding out my pinky. "So, it's a promise then? I'll get snacks too?" Rin smiled back after combing her hair with her fingernails, reaching into her sack of goodies to pull out a bento box. She wrapped her little pinky around mine and opened the box to reveal tiny octopus weenies with rice balls and soy sauce. My stomach growled at the sight.
"It's a promise," she said. With a toothpick she skewered a weenie and offered it to me with a cupped hand. She kept feeding me weenies until I was crying. They were so good! She laughed at me. "You're so stupid with food, Len." Then I took a rice ball and pressed it to her lips until she opened her mouth to chew on it. We spent the rest of the night eating until we were full, laughing about today's events until our sides were sore, and singing praises to our road roller until we went to sleep.