A Tale for the Time Being

(1) One morning, Jiko decided to take Nao on a picnic to the beach. When they stopped by the Family Mart to pick up food for the picnic, Nao saw that there was a crowd of biker yanki girls hanging around outside the door. Nao was nervous and told Jiko that she wasn’t hungry so they could avoid the yankis. Jiko, however, insisted on going in and didn’t seem to notice when the girls made rude comments as they walked past.

The yankis were still outside when Nao and Jiko left the store. They started yelling rude comments, and Nao placed herself in front to try and protect Jiko. But  Jiko, to Nao’s dismay, started heading toward the yankis. Jiko stood in front of the girls and bowed deeply to them, and a girl in front was surprised into nodding back. The leader of the group reached over and punched the girl who nodded, scolding her for not bowing properly. All the girls bowed back, and Jiko bowed again. Jiko asked Nao to bow too.

(2) At the beach, Jiko asked Nao if she has ever “bullied a wave” and asked Nao to try it. Nao hit the waves with Jiko’s stick until she was exhausted. The waves kept coming at her, and Nao lay down, letting them wash over her. She walked back to Jiko and told her that the ocean had won. Jiko asked if it was a good feeling, and Nao said that it was.

(3) Nao watched some surfers on the ocean, and she told Jiko that one of them fell and then got back up. Jiko says, “Up, down, same thing.” Nao told her that up and down are certainly not the same thing for a surfer, and Jiko said that they weren’t the same but also not completely different.

Jiko said that the surfer and the wave are also the same: a person rises up like a wave until they fall again. Presently, Nao writes that she never completely understand what Jiko says, but that she thinks it is really nice of Jiko to try to explain it, anyway. Nao thinks that Jiko’s “little wave” won’t be around for much longer, which makes Nao sad.