"Hey, it looks just like snow, "Akari had said.
It was seventeen years ago when she said that. We had just become elementary six students
and we would always walk together around the small grove on our way home with our schoolbags
on our little backs. It was spring and a countless number of cherry blossoms were in full bloom on
the trees, their petals dancing soundlessly in the air, covering the asphalt beneath our feet in a
blanket of white. The air was warm and the sky hung overhead as if it was a great canvas covered
with light blue paint. Not far from us ran the main road and the Odasaki railroad crossing but
none of its noise seemed to reach us. Only the chirping of birds could be heard as if a blessing
from spring. There was no one else was around.
It was as if it was just a painting of a certain spring scene.
That's right, atleast in my memories that moment of time was like a painting. You could
say they were just a collection of images. When I try to gather those old memories, I feel as
if I'm gazing from outside a frame at a little distance. The young man had only just turned
eleven and so was the girl who was around the same height as he was. I gaze as their gures as
they run into the distance, the light that lled the world enveloped them naturally. I was always
watching them from behind in that painting. And every time it would always be the young girl
who ran ahead rst. When I remember that short moment of sadness that shivered the young
man's heart, it makes even I who was now an adult feel just a little sad.
In any case, I remember how Akari had described the shower of cherry blossom petals were
like snow. But I never saw it that way. At that time, cherry blossoms were just cherry blossoms
and snow was just snow to me.
"Hey, it looks just like snow."
"It does? Hmmm, maybe it does. . . "
"Oh, never mind," Akari said coldly walking two steps ahead quickly before turning around.
Her brown hair shone as the light from the sky re ected o it and once again, she said something
mysterious.
"Hey, I heard they fall at five centimetres per second."
"What?"
"What do you think?"
"I don't know."
"Come on, think about it, Takaki-kun."
I still didn't know what she was talking about so I just honestly told her I didn't know.
"It's the speed cherry blossom petals fall at. They fall at ve centimetres per second."
Five centimetres per second. It had a mysterious ring to it. I let her know how fascinated I
was, "Wow, you know a lot of these things don't you, Akari."
"Heehee," Akari smiled happily.
"There's a lot I know. Rain falls at ve centimetres per second. Clouds fall at one centimetre
per second."
"Clouds? You mean the clouds in the sky?"
"Yes, the clouds in the sky."
"Clouds fall too? Don't they just oat?"
"Clouds fall too. They don't oat because they're composed of water vapour. It only looks
like they're oating because they're so big and so far away. As the vapour expands in the clouds
they grow bigger and bigger and then they fall to the surface as rain or snow."
"Wow. . . " I said as I gazed up at the clouds in fascination and then back at the cherry
blossoms again. Akari's young cheery, pleasant voice made it sound as if it was an important
rule of the universe. Five centimetres per second.
"Wow. . . " she repeated, teasing me and suddenly broke into a run.
"Hey wait, Akari!" I cried as I ran after her.
During that moment in time, it was a habit of Akari and I to exchange little bits of knowledge
we learned from books and watching TV as we returned home. Little bits of knowledge that we
thought were important things such as the speed ower petals fell at, the age of the universe or
the temperature silver melted at. It was as if we were a pair of squirrels desperately preparing for
our winter hibernation, or perhaps we were travellers sailing the seas trying to learn astrology so
that we could gather the starlight scattered around the world. For some reason, we had seriously
thought these little bits of knowledge were going to be essential in our future lives.
Yes. That was why both Akari and I knew so much. We knew what position the stars were in
during the seasons, or in which direction and brightness Jupiter must be at before it was visible
to the naked eye. We even knew why the sky was blue, why the earth had seasons, when did the
Neanderthals disappear and the names of the species that became extinct during the Cambrian
Period. We were both extremely fascinated by everything that was much bigger and far away
from us. But for me, I've forgotten most of it all. All I know is that they were bits of knowledge
that I once knew were the truth to me.