Interlude: Yachi Comes Calling

Interlude:
Yachi Comes Calling

 

ON MY WAY HOME, I spot a familiar figure with her back turned, so I jog after her. You’d think maybe it was raining, because a tiny bit of running is all it takes to make my clothes feel damp. But no. While summer break’s almost over, summer itself is still going strong.

“Yoo-hoo!”

I give her a little shove from behind. Her cheeks are puffed out like she’s eating something. Then, finally, she turns. “Mmm?”

“What the?”

The Yachi I’m looking at isn’t quite the same Yachi. Whaaa?

“What. Do. You. Want?” She speaks in a weird robotic voice and raises both hands menacingly. Meanwhile, she’s still chewing something.

“Oh, nothing… Hmmm…”

From the front, they look nothing alike—their eye colors, hair colors, and hair lengths are totally different. And their faces are different too. Also, this one’s shorter. So why did I ever mistake her for Yachi? Now I’m confused.

The only thing they have in common is that their hair sparkles. But unlike Yachi’s sky blue, this girl’s sparklies are silver, like the winter snow came early. It’s mystical.

“I thought you were a friend of mine. Sorry.”

For some reason, she looked like Yachi when her back was turned…but why?

“Oh. Well, then.”

With a shrug, Not-Yachi starts to walk off. Hmmm… I guess she doesn’t care? But just then, she turns around and walks back. When I gaze into her dark blue eyes, it feels like I’m peering into the depths of the ocean.

“Why did you think that?” she asks after a long delay. This girl seems to process things at her own pace. What an odd duck.

“Well, when I saw you from behind, you looked a lot like her. Identical, actually.”

“Identical?”

Tilting her head, she starts to count on her fingers…over and over and over. I don’t know what she’s counting, but it kinda reminds me of Yachi.

“No, it just doesn’t fit. You must have terrible eyesight.”

“Huh?”

“But it reminded me of something I was trying to remember. Thanks for the help. Now, I bid you adieu!” With an energetic wave, she runs off. “I think it was this way…?” she murmurs to herself before making a right turn around the corner, leaving a trail of silver sparklies in her wake more fleeting than the summer sun in September.

“…Uhhhh…”

Who the heck was she? Because she just ran off in the direction of the graveyard.

 

***

 

“Now…there is nowhere left for me on this earth.”

Yachi’s lying in the corner of the room, reading my sister’s manga out loud and doing all the character voices. She does this with every book she reads. One time I asked her why, and she said, “It’s easier to read this way.”

Yachi doesn’t let anything stop her. She’s hard to grasp, like a cloud of smoke. This morning I woke up, and as usual, she was already here, lounging around. But I don’t know where she comes from or where she goes when she leaves.

“I don’t quite follow the plot, but nevertheless, this is a fitting tool with which to practice Earthling language.” Once she’s finished with the book, she sets it down and crawls over to me on her hands and knees. “Little, have you finished your homework?”

“Mmm…I still have a little more.”

It’s messed up that they give us tons of homework every time we get a couple days off from school. The weekend doesn’t feel like a weekend at all.

“Alas.”

Yachi crawls back to the corner. Then she flops back down and grabs the next volume of manga. I guess she really doesn’t go to school…but why not? Part of me is jealous that she never has to do homework, but another part of me is worried about her future. What if she turns into a delinquent like my sister? Then again, if she’s not going to school, I guess she already is one.

I look over my shoulder at her. As she lays on her side, her hair pools on the floor. The strands themselves are bright blue, but the sparklies make it look a bit more pastel, like the furthest reaches of a cloudless sky. By this point, I’m kinda used to it, but every now and then I’ll stop and realize: gosh, her hair is such a crazy color.

For a while I gaze at it, entranced. Then she notices me, sits up, and giggles. “I see what you’re after, Little.”

“Huh?”

“I should have known you’d spot these rice crackers.” She pulls a package of crackers out from under her clothes. I didn’t actually spot them, though. “I’m impressed to see that you’ve mastered the fine art of staring.”

“Wait…I was staring?”

“Yes, and for quite a long time.”

Was it really that long? I feel kinda embarrassed for some reason. I wanna say it’s not true, but then I see how much progress I’ve made on my homework (not much) and realize that it probably is true.

“Now, then, you may have some.” She opens the package and offers it to me, so I decide to take a little snack break and walk away from my desk.

Oddly enough, even though the crackers were hidden under her clothes while she was lying down, they’re not crushed at all. Every now and then, she defies my expectations. Or is it the crackers? Are the crackers weird somehow? I bite into one as a test. The faintly sweet and salty taste of soy sauce dances on my tongue.

“Yum yum!”

Yachi seems to enjoy them about ten times more than I do. The sparkle of her smile is on a whole different level. When I look at her, something in my chest gets all floaty. Like water, but warmer.

“The other day, I saw a girl and thought it was you.”

“Mmm?” Her eyes dart over to me, shining with otherworldly color.

“She didn’t really look like you at all, but for some reason, she seemed just like you…”

“A clone of me? Yes, I imagine there is at least one of those in this world.” She kept on crunching her crackers. “I copied my face from a different individual, so I do have one identical twin.”

“Oh…really?”

“Yes.” She swallows her food.

I don’t know how she “copied her face,” but it sounds crazy. Or is she just joking? I watch her for a moment, but she just seems perfectly content, like always. So if I had to guess, she’s probably…

“Yachi, are you really an alien?”

“Of course!” she declares. But after a moment, she falters. Her eyes dart around and around. Then her lips curl into a big, smug smirk. “But in actuality, I am not.”

“Wait…you’re not?”

“I am an adolescent like any other.”

“Adolescent…?” I don’t know what that word means, but I do know that Yachi is not at all like any other kid.

“Well, there you have it.”

She stashes her crackers, then flops back down onto the floor. What was that about? Does she want to keep it a secret? I think it’s a little late for that… Even after I go back to my desk, I keep glancing over my shoulder at her. Her hair and eyes seem to ripple with white-crested waves.

Then she peers at me from behind her manga. “There will be no more rice crackers for you today, Little.”

“Oh…okay.” Hastily, I turn around and face forward.

“But perhaps tomorrow.”

Then I hear her little feet thumping down the hall. Maybe she’s in a big rush to get to tomorrow… Classic Yachi. I’ll see you then.

~Today’s Shimamura Forecast~

 

If we had enrolled at different schools…if the gym didn’t have a loft…if I was just a bit more responsible…would something still have blossomed between me and Adachi?

To me, the inner workings of destiny were truly, deeply fascinating.