|
1.
When Fuji is five, he wants to run a pet shop.
This
seems to him a marvellous idea. Saeki's family have a dog and occasionally the two of them (Yuuta being entirely too small
to come too) are allowed to walk him along the beach, providing that they stay within sight of Saeki's mother. If Fuji had
a pet shop, he could do this every day and play with the puppies that they'd naturally have and watch the birds and
stroke the cats and… It would be fun, anyway.
He and Saeki spend all of two days talking about it. Fuji wants
to have lots of birds. Swallows are his favourites. He has a poster on his bedroom wall which is simply the silhouette of
a swallow.
When Saeki's mother points out that they'd have to clean up after the animals themselves – rather
than going running to her like they do when the dog makes a mess – the idea loses some of its appeal.
He still
goes out to watch the birds making great spirals in the sky at dusk each night.
2.
The summer after
Fuji turns seven, he decides that he wants to be a cactus grower.
He has it all planned out. He's going to have a plot
next to Ojii's workshop, with a little house/workshop and a garden so that the cacti have somewhere nice to live and he can
go to the playground when he gets bored.
Fuji likes cacti. They're tough little plants, not like the flowers his sister
tries to grow with seeds that she's brought home from school Some of them don't even look spiky until you get close –
or prick your finger on one like Yuuta did the day after Fuji's birthday.
That cactus is called Ryuu. Fuji doesn't
think it's recovered from the ordeal yet and gives it pride of place by his window.
When Fuji mentions his plans to
his mother, she laughs and reminds him that if he went to live there on his own, he'd have to do his own cooking. He's tried
to cook before, helping his mother. Somehow he had emptied the whole bottle of hot-pepper sauce into the marinade without
her noticing. Yumiko hadn't even paused to excuse herself from the table before making a run for water.
No, maybe it's
not such a good idea.
Ryuu stays on his windowsill. Over the years, he is joined by many companions.
3.
Fuji
is nine when his class study haiku. The idea that complex and abstract ideas can be expressed in so few words fascinates him
and he soaks up all the teacher can tell him with unusual enthusiasm. He spends the rest of the afternoon wrestling with words
until Saeki and Yuuta drag him over to the school to play tennis.
He thinks he'd make a good poet.
If he were
a poet, he could be outside everyday (well, he might stay inside when it rained sometimes) and look at the plants and watch
the animals and find his inspiration that way.
His father points out that evening that being a poet would require him
to actually finish a poem. Fuji thinks this is a lot harder than it sounds and resigns himself to going back to school on
Monday.
4.
Fuji is ten when he considers becoming a professional tennis player. He's won a lot of
tournaments, so he's probably got enough potential, and if he were a professional he could spend all his days down at Ojii's
courts and play all evening like the boys from Rokkaku Chuu. Fuji's counting the days until he's old enough to join them.
If
he were a pro, he'd be able to travel all over the world. Who knew what he might see? Every tournament would be in a new place,
a new adventure. (It's a little like that already but somehow driving down the road from Seishundai Daisan to Rokkaku Daisan
isn't quite the same).
Yuuta could even come too. After all, if he wanted to play doubles tournaments as well, he'd
need a partner, and when Yuuta was a little bit older, he'd probably be quite good too. Or maybe Saeki. Fuji would like it
if Yuuta came but honestly he was more of a singles player.
Fuji speaks with Ojii about his plans one evening when
all the other children have gone home. Well, he speaks and Ojii grunts occasionally. Talking to Ojii is a good way to sort
out his thoughts and it's with some regret that he realises that if he became a pro he'd have to spend a lot of time in the
gym and most of the rest on a practice court and then he'd have no time to look after his cacti or go for long walks.
He'd
have to settle for playing tennis at school instead. Yuuta and Saeki could do that with him too.
5.
Fuji
doesn't consider photography as a career until he has to retire from the tennis team at fourteen. Suddenly confronted with
a lot of spare time, he spends his afternoons in the garden, lying on his back on the grass and staring up at blue sky that
really isn't empty when you really watch.
His art teacher raves about his photographs, which has always amused him
because he usually takes photos for fun (the one he took of the regulars together at dawn is entirely different). Fuji's choice
of subject matter, zoom and camera angle tend to be rather eccentric but it's always fun to experiment and see what happens.
If
Fuji really wants to be a photographer, he knows he's going to have to put together a portfolio and start looking for work
experience. For some reason, he never quite gets round to it and instead allows his life to amble amiably onward, the exams
only registering as a minor blip on his radar.
In any case, there's still high school to come, with a new tennis club,
and there will be plenty more rambles with Tezuka and trips to the zoo with Eiji and solitary expeditions to find new cacti.
Fuji would never admit it – he's not sure that anyone would understand – but he thinks Ryuu needs a special friend
and he's constantly on the look-out.
Most likely Fuji will finish school and go on to university, get a normal job
and then spend his weekends doing the things he enjoys without any obligation that might make them a chore. It's quite likely
that if he had to do them, they wouldn't be nearly as fun.
Well, he might say that but maybe he will be a pet
shop owner someday or a poet. Maybe someday he will have so many cacti that he has to sell some or he'll discover that he
has the drive to carry him into pro tennis. Maybe he'll do what people seem to expect and become a photographer.
Maybe.
After
all, Fuji's only fourteen: he has lots of time to make up his mind.
|
