Summer Blaze, as clear as day: Part 1

I have not been on my blog in a very long time. And my last post was a story that was saved to my last laptop. It's been over a year since I've last had that laptop and I have no idea how my story concluded. I apologize for not continuing it. But luckily I have another short story that I would like to present. I wasn't sure on what I should have named it and ended up settling on "Summer Blaze, as clear as day". There is, in fact, an introduction only slightly related to the story that I've written. It's about the source of my inspiration for the story, and I really want to give the man his props. Also I would like to add that if you are uncomfortable with homosexuality, I would advise you not to read. In truth, this story is much more homo-romantic than it is homosexual because they are merely innocent children (and I don't wish for anybody to consider children in such a sexual light). The protagonist is 13, the deuteragonist is 12. So please understand that this is an innocent love between two childhood friends. Anyway, I'll be separating the story into parts. I hope you'll like the story.

Two of the best characters of these last few decades have been two Japanese manga characters named Punpun Onodera and Aiko Tanaka. They are singlehandedly the best characters I could ever read about. The manga was called “Oyasumi, Punpun”, oyasumi meaning goodbye and Punpun being the alias of the protagonist. It features characters of many different types and personalities; so various that I have yet to understand exactly why this hasn’t been recreated as a movie of sorts. The intricacy of every character’s mindset, it’s almost as though there were much more than one writer creating such beauty. But alas, the title belongs to one author/mangaka and to him solely: Inio Asano. The man must surely be a genius, otherwise he has very much fooled me in his gifted art of writing. I write, but I am in no way a great writer or author of sorts. Actually I may not even be a good one, you see, as I never truly realized how to express myself through written word. It’s always been quite a difficult road for me but I try. A coming-of-age story, huh? Am I capable of such a story? Clearly, I know so little about the world but I know so much about people. I claim to know how the mind works and yet, have no idea how to express it on paper. Maybe if I just start with a story, I will eventually get somewhere...

The sun was especially bright and hot on this particular sunny day. Its beams of heat could almost scathe Crystal's very skin, bringing her blood to a complete boil. The boiling, hot blood beneath her skin starts to rise to the surface of her cheeks and she curses nature for making heat all the worst. This day could possibly be the only real day Crystal remembers to bring her mother’s sunscreen to spread over her body like butter. Not only did it keep cancer at bay but its cool, smooth texture washed over her body like an unsuspected blizzard in the middle of a desert.

“Ahhh,” Crystal smiled towards the sky, her eyes squinting past the harsh sunlight and looking for a sign of thunderstorm life. She spread the sunscreen across her breastbone and around her collarbone, breathing in and out as a sign of skin relief. Casting her eyes downward, Crystal sucked her teeth, “The more and more I get older… The more and more I really hate summer…”

Ding ding, the sound of a bike’s bell could be heard a little down the way as Crystal prepared to step off her family’s porch. Ding ding, the sound came closer and the figure assumed a familiar semblance.

“Huh,” Crystal threw the sunscreen lotion towards the door, her eyes fixated on the bicyclist. “Is that…?” Her face brightened, “Ah, June!!” Crystal was way too hot to go running to wave at her. She wondered if June was over here for her as June doesn’t necessarily like this part of town. When June approached, she didn’t even glance in Crystal’s direction. June continued on her way without giving Crystal one act of acknowledgement.

Crossing her arms, Crystal huffed, “Well, that was rude.” She sighed, “But then again, she probably didn’t see me.” Crystal snatched her bag off the porch stairs and proceeded on her way.

The path felt longer than she could remember. Maybe it’s the sun, she thought to herself. The blazing nagged her skin and burned like an inferno. “Argh, I shoulda brought the sunscreen with me. Why did it have to be so dang hot today?” Up ahead was a green meadow, a gentle stream at the end of it. Crystal edged her way toward it with all her might, “Maybe the stream isn’t hot…” Hunched over, Crystal dipped her forefinger and middle finger into the water. “Yes, it’s just right!” She fell to her knees and continued to splash water on her face before she remembered the sunscreen that was supposed to be protecting it. Her skin started to get greasy and she tried to keep it from getting in her eyes. Looking up from her position for just a second, Crystal spotted a figure on the other side of the stream in the same position as she. Crystal recognized the figure to be the same person from before, “J-June…?”

The other girl looked up from the stream and she gazed at Crystal before contorting her face into her odd, yet happy smile. That was normal for her; June was never an ugly girl, she just had a very odd way of smiling. Her mouth gaped open, exposing all of her teeth, permanent and baby. Her eyes, yet open, squeezed closed until all you could see was her dark irises piercing through. Her freckles did her pretty looks no good as they made her smile ever the more freakish. June did have a cute, childish laugh about her. It almost sounded like a laugh a Disney character like Goofy would make, but it never made her look doofy. There was always a hint of sadness in that smile and laugh of hers but you could never tell if the child herself was ever sad.

“June, is that you?” Crystal squinted through the water dripping over her forehead and into her eyes. The girl continued to laugh. Crystal rubbed her eyes to get a better look at the girl, there was no mistaking it. June’s laugh was too distinct. Crystal began to remember the incident from earlier as she continued to get the water out of her eyes, “Hey, June, did you happen to see me earlier? I mean, you just rushed by my side without sayi--.” Crystal looked up, but June was gone. Looking around, Crystal spotted no evidence that June was ever there. The only clear-cut evidence of June’s presence was the echoing sound of June’s charming laughter. After a minute or two of pondering where June could possibly have run off to, Crystal couldn’t even posit that June’s laughter was even truly heard. She could feel it ringing in her ears, but there was no exact way that she could have heard her voice.

“What in the world…?” was all Crystal could utter as her mind tried to make sense of what she saw, or didn’t see. Was she hallucinating or what? It truly did feel like June was there, it was too vivid to only be imagination. But Crystal isn’t very interested in pondering over mysteries, she thought them to be too much of a drag. She picked up her bag that she had initially dropped while kneeling at the stream and picked herself up. She walked over to the nearby tree, put her bag back down, reached for her phone and sat down, leaning against the trunk of the tree. “She’s being so unusual today… But whatever, no reason to be dwelling over it.” Crystal flipped through her phone before settling on the game “Angry Birds”. After several minutes of “fun”, the heat and boredom started to sink in. Her eyes became heavy with weariness and she began to drift off to sleep.


Note: For those who like to read manga, if you haven't already heard of it or are interested in reading, here's a link to the manga I mentioned above: http://www.mangahere.co/manga/oyasumi_punpun/. Again it's beautifully written and truly worth the read.