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saleem reshamwla
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A collection of stories about Japan written while part of the National Geographic Glimpse Correspondents' Training Program.

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A Rock. A Pigeon. A Tiny God. · 15 June 06

A boy’s voice yelled across the playground: “Konnichiwa!”.

I stopped walking and turned toward the sound.

About 50 yards away, a tiny child looked back at me. I assumed he’d been talking to someone else. I’d never seen him before. But on the off chance that he was talking to me, I replied.

He came running in my direction. Fast.

He stopped a slowed few feet in front of me and spoke quickly in very polite Japanese.

“Hey! Hey, I want to ask you what you think about that?” He pointed to his right, my left.

A trail of feathers lead to the body of a decaying pigeon. I hadn’t noticed it. It’s rested a few inches separate from his body.

“Woah. Um, wow. It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?” I said.

“I wonder what it is,” he said. “Have you seen this before?” He held out a red rock streaked with white lines. It looked like a tiny slab of marble, but the color of clay.

I thought we should talk more about the dead bird, but maybe that wasn’t going to a happy place.

So, I looked at his rock.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Ha ha,” he said. “It’s a stone.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Have you ever seen this stone before?”

“No, I haven’t seen that stone before.”

He looked down at his stone. I did the same.

“What’s your name?” I said.

In very humble Japanese, he replied, “My name is (unintelligible) Shota.” I had him repeat it, then I told him my name.

“I must say, you’re Japanese seems quite good,” he said. “So, I want to ask you: Where do you come from?”

“Where do I come from?”

“Yes, where do you come from?”

“I come from America” I said.

“Ah, America.”

He looked at his rock.

“Well, I guess I’d better go back to school,” I said.

“Ah,” he said. And he turned.

“See you,” I said, but he’d already begun running. Fast.

“See you,” he yelled back. He seemed to be running with a purpose.

I took another look at the dead bird. It was pretty gross.

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  1. i dig your current trend with the bird postings, Kid. i currently have a “nest” on my balcony behind my trash can made of 3-inch-thick pigeon droppings stragetically pooped into a big pile. in it are 2 stinky baby pigeons that scare me and wake me up every morning with their chirping. i dont know what to do, but i wish they looked like the bird in your story.
    — sho-chan    2057 days ago    #

  2. I had that problem until I opened the door and allowed my cat to scare them away. Birds are nasty, they’re disease and parasite ridden.
    — Mel    2052 days ago    #

  3. Shogo: That was the harshest last sentence in the history of comments on this site. Thanks, yo.
    — saleem    2046 days ago    #

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