chapter 2- blossom of the cherry

"Hey, it looks just like snow, "Akari had said.

It was seventeen years ago when she said that.We had just become elementary grade six students and we would always walk together around the small grove on our way home with our school bags on our little backs.

It was spring and a countless number of cherry blossoms were in full bloom on the lovely trees, their petals dancing in the beauty of silence in the air , covering the road beneath our feet in blanket of white.

The air was warm and the sky hung overhead as if it was a crystal clear and calm Ocean . Not far from us stretched the main road and the Odasaki railroad crossing but none of its noise seemed to reach us. Only the singing of birds could be heard as if a blessing from spring .

There was no one else around .It was as if it was just a painting of a certain spring scene. That's right. At least in my memories that moment of time was like a painting. You could say they were just a collection of images.

When I try to recollect those old memories, I feel as if I'm looking from outside a frame at a little distance. The boy had only just turned eleven and so was the girl who was around the same height as he was. I look at their figures as they run into the distance , the light that filled the world enveloped them naturally.

I was always watching them from behind in that painting. And every time it would always be the young girl who ran ahead first. When I remember that short moment of sadness that shook the heart of the young man, it makes even I who was now an adult feel just a little sadness.

In any case, I remember how Akari had described the shower of cherry blossom petals were like snow. But I never saw it that way. At that time, cherry blossoms were just cherry blossoms and snow was just snow to me.

"Hey, it looks just like snow."

"It does? Hmmm, maybe it does. . . "

"Oh, never mind," Akari said coldly walking two steps ahead quickly before turning around.

Her brown hair was shining as the light from the sky reflected of it and once again, she said something mysterious.

"Hey, I heard they fall at five centimetres per second."

"What?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Come on, think about it, Takaki-kun ."

I still didn't have any what she was talking about so I just honestly told her I didn't know.

"It's the speed cherry blossom petals fall at. They fall at five centimetres per second."

Five centimetres per second. It had a mysterious ring to it. I let her know how fascinated I was, "Wow, you know a lot of these things don't you, Akari."

"Heehee," Akari smiled happily.

"There's a lot I know. Rain falls at five centimetres per second. Clouds fall at one centimetre per second."

"Clouds? You mean the clouds in the sky?"

"Yes, the clouds in the sky."

"Clouds fall too? Don't they just oat?"

"Clouds fall too. They don't oat because they're composed of water vapour. It only looks like they're floating because they're so big and so far away. As the vapour expands in the clouds they grow bigger and bigger and then they fall to the surface as rain or snow."

"Wow. . . " I said as I looked up at the clouds in fascination and then back at the cherry blossoms again. Akari's young cheery, pleasant voice made it sound as if it was an important rule of the universe.

Five centimetres per second!.

'Wow !' she repeated, teasing me and suddenly broke into a run.

"Hey wait, Akari!" I cried as I ran after her.

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