CH ss - 4

Water Strider

“Kyaimoniyoiko! (Let’s go shopping!)”

“Huh? Are you going out? It’s raining now.”

Saki, who was usually a recluse, seemed unusually eager to go out, but when I looked out of the window of my ramshackle flat, I saw that it was pouring.

I would prefer not to go shopping in these circumstances.

“Yippee!”

“Oh, you want to wear your new cap?”

“Boots too!”

“You want to wear boots, too?”

“Boots!”

I recently bought her a pink rain coat with patterns of ice cream and candy on it, and a pair of peach-coloured boots with a clear ribbon and lamé1 on them, so she wanted to wear them out.

Saki usually stayed at home, but if she wanted to go out, she could go with me without making excuses because of the rain.

“Hmm, where should we go?”

“Chupa?”

“I’ve got all the ingredients for the dish. I don’t need to go to the supermarket, do I? Yes! Shall we go to the candy shop?”

“Dagachi?”

“Yes, sweets. Let’s go shopping with your allowance, Saki.”

“Three hundred! (Three hundred yen!)”

“Yeah, but I’ll only charge you 100 yen, can you just get me one?”

“Ai!”

Saki took out one 100 yen coin from the gap between the TV and the stand.

No, I bought a cat piggy bank, but for some reason she didn’t put any money in it, but hid it over there.

“I’ll put the money in your wallet.”

“Come back, come back.”

This was another wallet I recently bought for Saki. When she put money in it, the green frog swallowed the coin.

The red lining made the inside of the bag look strangely realistic when opened.

“Let’s go.”

“Ai!”

As I stepped out of my ramshackle flat, a large puddle of water formed in front of me.

And Saki went there straight.

“Splash, splash.”

Saki kept stepping in the puddles with her favourite boots.

As an adult, I didn’t know what the fun there was, but her face looked satisfied.

“Don’t go in the middle of the road, in case a car comes.”

“Ai!”

We were at the end of the road, so we were still safe, but it would be dangerous if we suddenly jumped out and headed for the centre.

I stayed out of the puddle and watched Saki from the side.

“Splash, splash.”

“Fun?”

“It’s fun!”

“That’s good.”

Satisfied after a few moments of puddle-jumping, Saki and I held hands and headed for a nearby candy shop.

When we arrived, Saki’s eyes lit up when she saw all the different sweets in the shop.

“Sweets!”

“Yeah, you can buy a lot of things for 100 yen, so just pick the one you like.”

Saki put a coins into the paper box and started to choose her sweets.

Hmmm, I’m not sure, but the experience of shopping with her own money would be exceptional.

In the end, after much deliberation, she decided to buy more chocolate sweets.

I was going to put my foot in my mouth if I didn’t have enough money, but it just so happened that the candy that Saki had chosen was exactly 100 yen.

Maybe my child was a genius.

“Thank you.”

The old lady who ran the candy shop thanked me and we left the shop.

“Bright…”

“It’s sunny.”

Apparently the rain had stopped while we were shopping in the candy shop.

Saki was a bit disappointed when the sky cleared up, but when I told her that the puddles hadn’t disappeared, she looked happy to see them again.

“Splash!”

“Hmm? Do you like the puddle in front of our flat?”

“Yes!”

It seemed that she liked the puddle in front of our ramshackle flat better than the one by the candy shop, so we walked slowly, hand in hand again.

“Hey, nyani? (Hey, what’s that?)”

“Hmm?”

In her favourite puddle, before I knew it, someone was playing before Saki.

“Oh, it’s a water strider.”

“A water strider?”

“Yes. It’s an insect.”

“Mr. Insect? Flying?”

“Probably. I hear some don’t fly.”

Saki and I crouched down and watched the water strider swimming.

“Why doesn’t it fly?”

“It doesn’t fly.”

“Why is it here?”

“Huh? Is it because they’re water striders? Don’t they like puddles?”

“Come on!”

“Just like Saki, who likes puddles.”

“Ai!”

“So, Saki, are you a water strider?”

“No!”

Oh, she denied it with all her might.

In fact, I didn’t know why water striders were in puddles, but it was interesting to see a child’s perspective on such things.

Saki and I kept staring at the insect in the puddle.

Lame fabric is a type of cloth with metallic threads. Basically shiny cloth.