Gauche the Cellist and Other Stories
Page 8
Two blue slides from a magic lantern depicting the bottom of a small mountain stream.
Slide One - May
Two young crabs were talking at the bottom of the pale-blue water.
"Clambon laughed."
"Clambon bubbled with laughter."
"Clambon bounced up and down with laughter."
"Clambon bubbled with laughter."
Above their heads and to the side it was blue and dark, like steel. Dark bubbles were floating by, one at a time, along the smooth ceiling.
"Clambon was laughing."
"Clambon bubbled with laughter."
"So why did Clambon laugh?"
"I don't know."
Bubbles were floating by, one at a time. The young crabs blew five or six bubbles, plop, plop, plop, one after another. The bubbles shone like mercury, rocking from side to side, as they rose diagonally up.
Turning its stomach with a jerk, a fish passed by over their heads.
"Clambon died."
"Clambon was killed."
"Clambon is dead...."
"It was killed."
"So why was it killed?" Placing two of his four right legs onto the flat part of his younger brother's head, the elder brother said,
"I don't know."
The fish turned back with a jerk, and headed downstream.
"Clambon laughed."
"It laughed."
Suddenly it became bright, golden rays of sunshine falling into the water like a dream.
The net of light from the waves danced majestically, stretching and shrinking on the white rocks at the bottom. Long spherical shadows stretched directly down from the bubbles and litter, standing diagonally together in the water.
The fish returned, sending all of the golden rays scattering, its own body taking on a strange steelish glow, before it swam once more upstream.
"Why does the fish come and go like that?" asked the younger crab, moving his eyes as if dazzled by the light.
"It's doing something bad. It's catching something."
"Catching something?"
"Yeah."
The fish returned from upstream. This time it was swimming slow and calmly, without moving its fins or tail, just floating with the current, its mouth opened in the shape of a circle as it approached. Its black shadow slid silently over the net of light at the bottom.
"That fish……."
And then it happened. Suddenly white bubbles formed in the ceiling, and something flew inside like a blue shiny bullet.
The elder brother clearly saw that the blue thing had a black sharp point like the tip of a compass. And then with a flash, the white stomach of the fish flipped over and seemed to rise up, and then there was no more sign of the blue thing or the fish. The net of golden sunshine rocked back and forward, while the bubbles floated by one at a time.
The two crabs cowered in silence.
Out came the father crab.
"What happened? You are shivering all over."
"Pa, something strange was here."
"What was it?"
"It was blue and shiny. The end was really black and pointy. And after it came, the fish went up and disappeared.
"Were its eyes red?"
"I don't know."
"Hmm. Anyway, it was a bird. It's a kingfisher. Everything's all right, you don't need to worry. It's not interested in us."
"Pa, where did the fish go?"
"The fish? It's gone to a scary place."
"Pa, I'm scared."
"No, no, it's alright. Don't be frightened. Look, here comes a birch flower. Look at that, isn't it beautiful?"
A large number of petals from a white birch flower were sliding across the ceiling alongside some bubbles.
"Pa, I'm scared," said the younger crab, echoing his brother.
The net of light danced, stretching and shrinking, the shadows from the petals sliding over the sand.
Slide Two - November
The young crabs had grown quite big, and the scenery at the bottom had completely changed from summer to autumn.
Soft white round stones had tumbled in, while cone-shaped grains of crystal and shards of phlogopite had floated in from upstream.
Moonlight as if from a soda bottle, penetrated all the way to the bottom of the cold water, the waves on the ceiling like a pale-blue fire, burning and dying, over and over, while all around was silent, the sound of the waves echoing as if far off in the distance.
With the moon so bright and the water crystal clear, rather than sleep, the young crabs went outside their hole, quietly blowing bubbles and looking to the heavens.
"Yep, my bubbles are bigger."
"You are blowing them bigger on purpose. I can blow mine bigger if I want to."
"Go on then, try it. You see, that's as big as you can do. Now I'll blow mine, watch this. See, mine's bigger."
"It's not bigger, it's the same."
"Yours only looks big because you're so close. Right, let's blow out at the same time. Ready, go."
"See, mine's bigger."
"You think so? Right, one more time then."
"Hey, you're not allowed to stretch out like that!"
Out came the father crab once more.
"Right, it's time to go to bed. It's already late. Tomorrow I'm taking you to Essad."
"Pa, whose bubbles are bigger?"
"Well, that would most likely be your big brother."
"No they aren't, mine are bigger," said the younger crab almost in tears.
And then,
PLONK!
Something big, black and round fell from the ceiling, sinking all the way down, and then rising back up again. Patches of gold sparkled on its surface.
"Kingfisher!" cried the young crabs, pulling their heads back in.
Father crab strained to see, stretching his eyes like a pair of telescopes, before saying,
"No it's not, it's a wild pear. It's coming this way, let's follow it. Oh, it smells good."
And that explained why the moon-lit water was suddenly filled with a wonderful pear aroma.
The three crabs chased after the pear as it bobbed along.
With their three black shadows on the bottom, six crabs looked to be dancing, walking sideways as they chased after the round shadow of the pear.
Not long after, the water began to murmur, waves on the ceiling sending up flames of blue, the pear having caught on a tree branch lying on its side, a flurry of moonlight-rainbows floating above it.
"How about that, it's a wild pear, and it's nice and ripe. Doesn't it smell good?"
"It looks delicious, pa."
"Hang on! If we wait two more days it will sink down here and make delicious wine all by itself. Alright then, let's go home and sleep, come on."
The father and his two boys went back to their holes.
The waves now began dancing with pale-blue flames, sparkling as if scattered with specks of diamonds.
*
That's the end of my slides.
The Restaurant of Many Orders
by Kenji Miyazawa