NANO DAY 9
Day 9
More Writer Nino on the Island - Fic snippet
A week in and Nino still hasn’t written a word. He tries telling himself that it’s because he hates this place - hates Sho - but his argument is starting to sound childish and stale even to his own ears. The truth is, he’s frustrated with himself for letting things come to this point, but he isn’t sure how to change things either. It’s like the words have stopped flowing, all bottled up and caught inside him no matter how hard he tries to shake them out.
“You should go out. Some fresh air can do wonder for your health,” Uesugi-san says. “There’s a lovely place up the coast. You can take the car. I’ll pack you a lunch.”
Nino sighs but doesn’t have the heart to refuse for the third time in a row. So he goes.
The road up the coast is narrow and the family car is actually an old pickup truck, rusty and well-loved. As he drives out of the village and further out, the road gets even narrower, and Nino has to slow down as he follows the cliff side, hoping that no one will come driving from the opposite direction. But no one does.
For such a small island, it feels like the coast stretches forever ahead, weaving in sinuous patterns along the sea. It’s beautiful, for sure, but in a way that makes Nino crave for the concrete definition of his familiar urban landscape. There’s a feeling of infinity here, everything too vast around this narrow road, and Nino misses the closed confine of his little box of an apartment.
He drives for an hour, maybe two, and he’s starting to wonder if maybe he’s gone around the island, missed the village on his way, before he finally reaches the beach Uesugi-san has told him about.
The beach has nothing of those commercial beaches often pictured in brochures. The sand is grainy, maybe a little rocky in places. The waves come rolling in, splashing over the rocks and pushing their foam over the sand in a way that seems almost possessive. The place feels untamed, a little wild, but there are a few picnic tables on the side that tells Nino that locals have not only made it here before but found a way to share and cohabit with the sea.
He parks the truck at a safe distance from the water, then takes his packed lunch to one of the tables, sitting on top of it facing the ocean.
*
By the time the sun is starting to set in the horizon, Nino realises he doesn’t know how long he’s been sitting there, staring into distance. His lunch remains untouched on the table next to him, and there’s an unsettling knot in Nino’s stomach that could very well just be hunger at this point.
“What have I been thinking about all this time?” he wonders, staring skeptically at the plastic bag next to him. After Uesugi-san spent time and effort on this, it would be rude not to eat it, right?
A dog barks from somewhere behind him just as he is taking his first bite, and he startles, nearly choking on his mouthful of rice. He stands up then, and looks around until he spots a white dog speeding towards him with his tongue hanging from the side of its mouth.
“Oh,” he lets out, backing off a little and stumbling back onto the bench as the dog comes charging at him.
Next thing he knows, the dog has climbed half on top of him, licked his face and stolen his onigiri.
“Ugh.” Nino pushes the dog off of him and tries to wipe his face with the collar of his shirt. “Where do you come from?” he asks, just as a voice rises from the same direction the dog appeared a moment ago.
“Mochi! Mochiii!”
The dog barks.
“Is that you?” Nino asks the dog, and it tries to climb over him again. “Over here,” he calls for whoever is apparently looking for this dog. He likes dogs in general, but if they could take this one back before it slobbers all over Nino, then it’d be great.
“Mochi! There you are. I’m so sorry,” a guy probably around Nino’s age comes running almost as fast as his dog, and for a second Nino is almost afraid this guy is going to climb all over him as well.
Instead, he efficiently pulls the dog off of Nino. “Mochi, down,” he says, before turning to Nino with a brilliant smile. “So sorry about that,” he apologises.
More Writer Nino on the Island - Fic snippet
A week in and Nino still hasn’t written a word. He tries telling himself that it’s because he hates this place - hates Sho - but his argument is starting to sound childish and stale even to his own ears. The truth is, he’s frustrated with himself for letting things come to this point, but he isn’t sure how to change things either. It’s like the words have stopped flowing, all bottled up and caught inside him no matter how hard he tries to shake them out.
“You should go out. Some fresh air can do wonder for your health,” Uesugi-san says. “There’s a lovely place up the coast. You can take the car. I’ll pack you a lunch.”
Nino sighs but doesn’t have the heart to refuse for the third time in a row. So he goes.
The road up the coast is narrow and the family car is actually an old pickup truck, rusty and well-loved. As he drives out of the village and further out, the road gets even narrower, and Nino has to slow down as he follows the cliff side, hoping that no one will come driving from the opposite direction. But no one does.
For such a small island, it feels like the coast stretches forever ahead, weaving in sinuous patterns along the sea. It’s beautiful, for sure, but in a way that makes Nino crave for the concrete definition of his familiar urban landscape. There’s a feeling of infinity here, everything too vast around this narrow road, and Nino misses the closed confine of his little box of an apartment.
He drives for an hour, maybe two, and he’s starting to wonder if maybe he’s gone around the island, missed the village on his way, before he finally reaches the beach Uesugi-san has told him about.
The beach has nothing of those commercial beaches often pictured in brochures. The sand is grainy, maybe a little rocky in places. The waves come rolling in, splashing over the rocks and pushing their foam over the sand in a way that seems almost possessive. The place feels untamed, a little wild, but there are a few picnic tables on the side that tells Nino that locals have not only made it here before but found a way to share and cohabit with the sea.
He parks the truck at a safe distance from the water, then takes his packed lunch to one of the tables, sitting on top of it facing the ocean.
*
By the time the sun is starting to set in the horizon, Nino realises he doesn’t know how long he’s been sitting there, staring into distance. His lunch remains untouched on the table next to him, and there’s an unsettling knot in Nino’s stomach that could very well just be hunger at this point.
“What have I been thinking about all this time?” he wonders, staring skeptically at the plastic bag next to him. After Uesugi-san spent time and effort on this, it would be rude not to eat it, right?
A dog barks from somewhere behind him just as he is taking his first bite, and he startles, nearly choking on his mouthful of rice. He stands up then, and looks around until he spots a white dog speeding towards him with his tongue hanging from the side of its mouth.
“Oh,” he lets out, backing off a little and stumbling back onto the bench as the dog comes charging at him.
Next thing he knows, the dog has climbed half on top of him, licked his face and stolen his onigiri.
“Ugh.” Nino pushes the dog off of him and tries to wipe his face with the collar of his shirt. “Where do you come from?” he asks, just as a voice rises from the same direction the dog appeared a moment ago.
“Mochi! Mochiii!”
The dog barks.
“Is that you?” Nino asks the dog, and it tries to climb over him again. “Over here,” he calls for whoever is apparently looking for this dog. He likes dogs in general, but if they could take this one back before it slobbers all over Nino, then it’d be great.
“Mochi! There you are. I’m so sorry,” a guy probably around Nino’s age comes running almost as fast as his dog, and for a second Nino is almost afraid this guy is going to climb all over him as well.
Instead, he efficiently pulls the dog off of Nino. “Mochi, down,” he says, before turning to Nino with a brilliant smile. “So sorry about that,” he apologises.