Someone cried, bringing other in echo with him or her. Forseen...did they mean I foresaw that the can would fall down?

“Oh, no. I don’t have those powers...”

I didn’t have those foreseeing powers they spoke of. I just happened to have seen it, so I would have known. I tried to explain to them, but they wouldn’t listen. Everyone was stirred up with emotions and talked to each other incessantly like a relay.

“Was that an act of a ghost?”

“Bother. There’s ghosts in this classrom?”

“No, Sadako called it here. That’s why she would have foreseen it.”

“So Sadako told the ghost to do that.”

“What? So the rumour about Sadako is true!”

They jumped to this conclusion in an instant.

W-Why had things ended up into this?

“I-It’s not like this. I don’t have any special powers...”

As I approached one of the classmates, trying to explain to her, she suddenly screamed, ran to a corner. Other students followed her and ran away from me afterwards.

All of a sudden, there was no one around me. As if there was a transparent wall between my classmates and myself, everyone was standing far from me, staring at me, horrified.

This shouldn’t happen. I didn’t mean for this.

However I tried to explain, this episode was heard through all the classes in the same grade on that day.

＊ ＊ ＊

On the next morning, Sawako, bringing along with her flowers cut in her garden, walked through the roads in the rain and arrived at school.

During the whole night of rain, the leaves were moistened, the asphalt road dampened, bouncing off the bright light emitted by the sun.

Sawako would usually be early for school, but she was even earlier on Mondays.

The messy bookshelf, the dirty prints on the wall, and the withered geranium (plant)...the things she had seen since the start of school, after four months, had almost been tidied by now; Sawako taped the torn books or shielded them with a plastic cover; she cleaned the dirty prints on the wall with detergents every day; she had also plucked away the dried leaves on the geranium (plant), replaced the soil with new ones, and applied fertilizers afterwards.

Since then, Sawako had always been early for school to have a look at the classroom and the corridor to see if there was something she could do to help or make the school a tidier, comfier place.

She was especially meticulous on Mondays because it was the day for everyone to greet a fresh new week. She would, before anyone had arrived at school, come to school and tidy up the classroom, although what she did were only chores like rubbing the table or checking to see if there was any trash. Today, she decided to put the flower decor she brought from her house on the teacher’s table.

Before anyone had arrived at school, Sawako spotted a blue object dropped on the sports field. At first, she thought it was only a plastic bag containing junk food, so she had to, regardless, pick it up since it was her motto to ‘do a good everything every day’—or even, ‘do as many good things she can every day’.

But with further inspection, she found the object heavier than a plastic bag.

“A cap?”

There were traces along the periphery of the object, indicating it to be a cap. It was cap that dropped here sometime yesterday, gone through the mad rain, and thus had raked up some nasty dirt. The brown water droplets dripping from the edges of the cap dirtied Sawako’s socks.

What should I do? Sawako pondered. The cap was too dirty to be put into the lost-and-found box in the school office. Moreover, she had no idea of whether it was thrown here as trash or someone who lost it.

Taking the wet baseball cap, Sawako walked to the sink and washed the cap thoroughly with soap.

Perhaps someone threw it as trash, but the wet cap soaked in dirt looks as if it is crying with a sad face. I can’t just leave it here; my heart will grieve if I do.

Flipping the cap around several times, Sawako had already clean the cap both inside and outside. Having checked the dirt is cleaned away, she took baseball cap to the social information room.

“This will do.”

She flattened the edges of the baseball cap, changed the shape into a round arc, and placed it on the cupboard beside the window. After that, she pushed the windows to facilitate ventilation. There were few and far between people going into this room, so placing the cap in the deepest side of the cupboard would make it difficult to be spotted.

Looking at the cleansed baseball cap, Sawako imagined whom the owner of the cap would be like: Is it a student in this school? Or is it a student from another school who came here for the training competition? He must be a boy great at sports and full of vigour.

The deep-blue-coloured cap lay erectly beside the window where the sun shone on it. It looked different from the time she picked it up: it looked as if it was sticking its chest out in pride.

After school, Sawako took the dried baseball cap and walked to the place where she had picked it up on this morning.

Should I put it into the lost-and-found box, or should I take it to the baseball club and ask those members? Sawako thought a lot, but decided finally to place the cap back to the place where she had picked it up. She first put the baseball cap in a plastic bag she had bought in a stationary store beside the school; then, she hung the plastic bag on a nearby tree. With this done, the cap wouldn’t get wet even if another rain came.

Looking at the baseball cap that was shaking alongside the leaves of the tree, Sawako hoped that the cap would return to its owner. And at this moment...

“Isn’t that the Sadako?”

“Yeah. She’s the one rumoured to have an abnormal body.”

Sawako heard the words between some girls passing nearby.

“I heard that she once called a ghost to push down the cupboard to crash on a male student.”

How did things end up like this? It seemed as if the twisted fact had spread around the school.

“What is the Sadako doing over there? She seemed to have hung something strange on the tree...”

“Gulp. She looked at us! Hurry, run!”

As if escaping the eyes of Sawako, the female students ran away with a tensed face.

The rumour ‘the Sadako has a powerful, abnormal body’ seemed to be known universally in the school.

Heaving a sigh lightly, Sawako began her journey back home. While everyone was returning with their friends around them, Sawako was the only one still alone till this date. Originally, she had planned to make a lot friends in middle school, but she failed.

How long will these days last? Until the end of my first year? Or until the graduation of middle school? Will it go on forever in my life... Sawako was accustomed to living alone. After all, she had been spending most of her time in her life on her own. Be that as it may, once the thought that she may be forever alone, she couldn’t help slowing her footsteps down and drooping her head.

＊ ＊ ＊

On the next day after school, after Sawako had completed the sundry duties her teacher had ordered, it was already two hours past the usual time for leaving school. On her way back home, when she passed through the tree she had hung the plastic bag on, she discovered that the baseball cap was gone.

Walking closer, she found only the plastic bag hanging on the tree, but instead of the baseball cap, there was a folded piece of paper inside, seemingly torn from a notebook. Unfolding the piece of paper, she found some big words written on it with a mechanical pencil: “Thanks! I’m elated!”

So this means the baseball cap has returned to its owner? Sawako heaved a sigh of relief and felt a warm feeling rushing to her chest. The words left on the sheet was filled with life and vigour. Although there were only a few words, but the liveliness between the lines represented the pure gratitude and joy of the writer. Sawako repeatedly read the message composed of only two lines. The hopes she had for the cap to return to the owner was clearly sent and received. Who was this person who left this piece of paper? How is he like? Though unaware, Sawako had eased her emotions, and the corner of her lips was rising...

Holding the piece of paper, Sawako lifted her head: the west sky had been dyed from gold to crimson gradually by the last glows of the setting sun.

At the same time, at a sports field in another school, Kazenaya looked upwards to the west sky. He was originally having defending exercises, yet his eyes were caught by the glows of the setting sun.

“Kazenaya! Don’t look elsewhere!” reprimanded a senior, flying a strong ball at him. Kazenaya who had come back to his senses just now, although stretched his hand in reflex to catch, but missed, the ball flying out of his glove. Kazenaya ran after the ball and sent it back to his teammates. Standing at a side, a second-year senior pouted at his behaviour, saying, “It is because of this that you would make such a silly mistake in the competition. Or should I say, you don’t deserve to be in these defending roles.”

His seniors continued to make sarcastic comments of him. Nevertheless, Kazenaya didn’t talk back to them. Rather, he brightly replied to the second-year senior, “Sorry! I will work hard. Please give me your guidance!” and bowed ninety degrees to his seniors.

“Okay, sure...”

The second-year seniors were utterly astounded. They turned their heads away both in lamentation and reluctance.

This feeling might linger around for some time, but I will do my best to change it bit by bit. I will definitely change their way in looking at me. Kazenaya patted his baseball cap and murmured, “Thank you.” to the one picked up his baseball cap and might also be bathing in the same sunset glow.

Under the glow of the setting sun, the commercial and residential buildings reflected sparkling light. The whole city was glowing as if golden sand was sprinkled all over it.

The other side of the sunset glow was the coming tomorrow.

Even when there are a lot of nasty and deplorable things today, things might change tomorrow. Even when there are deplorable things that will happen tomorrow, things might change the day after that. Even when there are deplorable things that will happen by then, there will finally be a day where all these things will meet a change.

So let us do what we could today, for today is what gives meaning to tomorrow.

Folding the piece of paper and putting it into her schoolbag, Sawako murmured, “Thank you.” to the one who left this piece of paper.

Thank you. Thank you for understanding my good will.

Despite walking back home alone, Sawako lifted her head towards the setting sun, stuck out her chest, and moved her legs to set out on her journey.