It was past seven-forty by the time the train nally reached Koyama Station. I got o the
train and ran to the platform at the Ryouke Line interchange where I crumpled up the useless
memo and threw it in the bin.
Koyama Station was a big building but there were few people around. While I was running
inside the complex I saw a number of people sitting around a stove in a wide open area. I
wondered if they had driven here to pick up their family. It felt like they blended in naturally
with the scenery. Only I was running around impatiently.
I had to go down some stairs and pass a place that resembled a subway station before I
reached the Ryouke Line platform. The ground was made of plainly cut concrete with a number
of pillars spaced out in a row along it, pipes intertwined and stretched across the ceiling. The
low howling of the wind could be heard as it blew from one side of the pillars to the other. Plain
white lights vaguely lit the tunnel-like area. The shutters of the kiosk were shut tight. It felt like
I had lost my way but there were a number of others who were also waiting for the train. There
was some warm yellowish light emitting from a small Soba stall and two vending machines but
other that, the rest of the place felt cold.
"Due to heavy snow, all transport is currently being delayed. We are terribly sorry for the
inconvenience and ask for you to bear with usinformed us as it echoed through the station. I put on my hood to help protect myself against
the cold a little more and went close to one of the concrete pillars to shield myself from the
wind as I waited. Some cold air struck my body as it blasted up from the concrete ground. My
impatience and the cold air were robbing my body of warm and my empty stomach made my
body stien hard. I could see two businessmen standing at the Soba stall eating. I had thought
about going to buy some myself but when I thought of how Akari was waiting for me on an
empty stomach too, I just couldn't make myself eat. I changed my mind and thought I could at
least have a can of warm coee and walked to one of the vending machines. As I took out my
wallet from my pocket, I dropped the letter I had written for Akari.
Now that I think back, even if that never happened I don't know if I could have handed the
letter to Akari or not. Either way, I don't think it would have changed whatever ends it may
have led to. Our lives are made up of many events all accumulated together whether we like
them or not and losing that letter was just one such event. In the end, no matter how strong
your feelings are at one time, slowly they will change with the long ow of time whether I
managed to hand over that letter or not.
The letter that fell out of my pocket when I was trying to take out my wallet was caught in
the wind and in the blink of an eye it was whisked away o the platform and disappeared into
the darkness. At that moment, I wanted to cry. I just grit my teeth instead and held my tears
in. I didn't buy that can of coee.
Eventually, the train I ended up on the Ryouke Line stopped completely while on route to
my destination. "Due to the heavy snowfall, we have stopped to avoid any potential trouble
ahead," informed the announcement. "We are terribly sorry for the delay but we do not have
an estimated time of when this service will resume," it continued. I looked out the window
and all I could see were the vast plains of snow in the darkness. The heavy blizzard could be
heard rattling the windows. I didn't understand why they had to stop the train in the middle of
nowhere. I looked at my watch and found out two hours had already passed the promised time.
I wonder how many hundreds of times I had looked at my watch that day. I didn't want to see
the time ticking any further so I took o my watch and placed it on a small table mounted by
the window. There was nothing I could do any more. All I could do was pray the train would
quickly start moving again.
Akari had written in her letter, "How are you Takaki-kun? I woke up early today to go to
my club and I'm writing this letter on the train."
As I imagined Akari writing that letter, I somehow felt that she was always alone. I also came
to realise I too was the same. I had many friends at school but as I sat there on the train where
no one else was sitting around me, my face hidden underneath my hood, I realised this was the
real me. The heating was working but with so few passengers on board, the empty spaces still
felt cold. I had no idea how I should have been feeling I had never experienced such a terrible
time in my life before. All I could do was sit there, my back slouched, gritting my teeth so that
I wouldn't cry and desperately held myself together against the malicious ticking of time. I felt
like I was going to go crazy when I imagined how Akari was still waiting alone at the cold station
and how helpless she may be feeling. I desperately wished that she wasn't waiting anymore and
had gone home.