A Story
Tonight as I walked home, I stopped, as I usually do, to smell this amazing gardenia bush that grows next to one of the canals near my house. This evening everything was still, and the smell of the flowers hung in the air at quite a distance from the bush. The flowers were so white that they shone bright against the dark waxy leaves. When I got close to the magnolias, I came across a little woman in a straw hat who was picking the flowers. I knew she wouldn't understand me, but I still said, "They smell great, don't they?" and gestured to the flowers. The woman had picked two blossoms and was holding them up for me to smell. I smelled them and was about to leave when she said "dozo" and offered the flowers to me. I took the flowers and thanked her in Japanese. As I looked back, she was again picking blossoms. I took the flowers home and thought about how nice that little encounter was. I filled up a vase with water, and discovered that the blossoms were covered in small bugs and had a weird moth-like thing on one of the stems.
I threw them off my balcony and wondered if I'd inhaled any of the bugs.
3 comments:
RE: inhaling the bugs
Probably not. But I suspect the bugs have invaded your apartment and are now living in your pillowcases. If you have any. If not, then probably the bed.
Happy birthday.
It's your birthday? Happy birthday!
Do they do cake and ice cream and birthday candles in Japan? Do they sing "Happy Birthday?"
Oh, and I agree with X's expert opinion about the bugs. You surely would have felt them scuttling around your sinuses by now if you inhaled any.
No, but they did order us up some ice cream parfaits. The think is, they put corn flakes in the bottom of the parfait - very weird, but not bad, as it happens.
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