-pg25- Tale #57 White Paint -pg27- Alpha It's spring... The sky is white....there's no wind... When did that happen? Suddenly there's little winged insects everywhere. -pg28- Alpha (Hunh...if I hold this up for 30 seconds, then I'll have a lucky day...) 21...22... 29....30! ........ -pg29- Alpha Now what? I need to paint the place... If you look at the place from far away the white paint looks neat enough, but... If you look at it from close up, it's all falling off. Should I paint it? Or would that cost too much... -pg30- Alpha The store seems to have begun life as an addition to the house, a sunny living room. The room came to be used more for drying clothes and raising cacti. I wasn't here yet, but... A long time ago, my owner told me. -pg31- Alpha And now I've come to know the house and shop inside and out. It's so wonderfully tattered. I should really fix the ventilation fan, though... I wonder how much that will cost... -pg32- Alpha I suppose it was my idea at the time...to make the room, like it still is, into a sort of shop. My owner... Probably thought it seemed like a good enough idea. Even though there are no customers. -pg33- Alpha No one has ever really come, since the very start. ....... The shop was always more of a coffee room for myself and my owner. .......... -pg34- Alpha I first wore those clothes the day the shop opened. I remember it well. "How's this? Does it match?" -pg35- Alpha Back then I don't know what I did with myself. I don't think the shop ever closed early... -pg36- Alpha In the evenings, The owner would tell me stories. They were silly things, I'm sure, but I listened to them all. I was never sure if they were stories from around here, or if my owner had picked them up while wandering. It varied a lot. -pg38- Alpha Since my owner sent me this camera, there's been no contact between us. -pg39- Alpha But I've come to know Ojisan and Takahiro, and a few other people, and so I haven't been lonely. Even though the owner isn't here, time has passed. There's someone I like. But...if there were no Ojisan... If there were no Kokone... I don't think I'd have the patience to be lonely. -pg40- Alpha It's been a long time since I thought about the owner. But memories of my owner swell up sometimes... Like memories of Ojisan...and Kokone... Tale #57: Closing