Dream 01
The boy is standing next to his father, looking up at his brother with a sorrowful expression on his face. The only person he admires is leaving him, leaving him to chase a dream in another country, leaving him alone. His brother smiles at him. That smile of his being the only thing visible; the rest of his face obscured by the shadow of his baseball cap. He holds his bat out to his little brother as he kneels down on the ground to look at the boy.
“Take good care of it for me, okay?”
”I don’t even like baseball.”
”Haha. That’s okay. It might come in handy one day.”
The boy looks at the bat, his sadness making its way into his speech, ”How could a stupid bat come in handy?”
His brother ruffles his hair before saying his goodbyes and turning around to enter the waiting cab. As the car drives away Naota stares at the bat in his hands, and knows he’ll never swing it.