Book 2: Chapter 1: 16th of July (Thursday)
On this summer morning, my still-sleepy body felt like it was covered by a thin, invisible membrane. My senses felt dulled by the humidity and heat. Giving in to the inertia caused by the A/C I had just turned on, I moved like a mechanical puppet devoid of any emotions, simply wiping the white wooden dining table over and over.
As was often the case, my parents weren’t home this morning. Ayase-san made her way in from the kitchen with two plates in hand and set them down on the table that I had just finished wiping. Instead of our usual white rice, sodden-looking toast was upon these plates.
“…Bread with soy-flavored boiled greens?”
“French toast.” Ayase-san gave me the dish’s actual name with an indifferent tone.
Still lost as to what that meant, I just muttered a confused ‘I see’ in response. Of course, I knew what french toast was. I hadn’t eaten it before, but I knew of its existence thanks to the fact that it appeared in some of the books I had read. That being said, the tragedy of this situation was that even if I knew the term, I was still unable to have an actual physical reaction to its existence in the real world, since I had never seen the real thing.
“Judging from its name, is it some French dish?”
“It originated in America.”
“You sure know a lot, Ayase-san.”
“At least I think that’s what it said on the menu at a family restaurant I ate at once.”