Golden Time:Volume7 Chapter1

Status: Incomplete

23% completed (estimated)

   

Golden Time 7: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Anpan! It's anpan!" said Mother, gripping the steering wheel.

He took his mouth off the bread roll, which he had opened wide and was about to bite into at any moment,

"...Huh?" Banri, in the passenger seat, had no choice but to reply.

It was just the two of them in the car. Those words were clearly meant for him, but "anpan"?

To think she couldn't tell the difference between an anpan and a dinner roll even from this close, surely, for all that she was his mother, wasn't she going senile a bit too soon? Or perhaps she was simply so heartbroken at her son leaving home to return to his solitary life in Tokyo that her perception had been impaired to the point where she could no longer distinguish one type of bread from another? If that was the case, he supposed he could bring myself to be gentle with her.

"...You see, Mother, this food item is what is referred to the world over as a "roll." Just look at it. It clearly has a rolled shape, doesn't it? And then the whole thing is bread. That is why people call it a 'roll'."

He thrust the roll he was holding right up to his mother's nose.

"Hey, don't do something like that while somebody's driving..."

As she tried to push her annoying son's hand away with one of her's, her eyes widened in shock.

"Woow! What's this? Such a wonderful smell!"

He knew he'd get that reaction.

"It's irresistible, isn't it? Isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's ir-re-sistible. This. Is. Out of this world. Top class!"

"Isn't it? Top class, isn't it? Then you understand why I couldn't resist eating it, can't you? How about you taking the first bite?"

"But as I get up in years my mouth gets dry. I have that chalky, parched feeling, so just give me the 'puff' part. Just the 'puff'."

He understood. Banri lightly puffed up the plastic bag around one of the individually wrapped rolls, pinched the opening shut, and shot the trapped air in a puff right beneath his mother's nose. Hit point-blank by the irresistible aroma of the baked bread, she let out a long, blissful sigh without ever loosening his grip on the steering wheel.

"It smells like pure happiness... or rather, this truly is anpan."

"...No. Look, like what I said before, this is a bread roll! Just so you won't wind up embarrassing yourself, I am setting the record straight: anpan is normally round. And it has sweet red bean paste stuffed inside. And by the way, a bun filled with green pea paste is called an 'uguisu-pan'. The paste is green and has a strong flavor of 'bean-ness'."

"Oh shut up."

"So it's come to this!?"

"What were you talking about just now? 'Bean flavor', are you an idiot? Do you seriously think your mother is weird and losing it and can no longer tell the difference between a roll and an anpan?"

"Ah, am I wrong!? But you were saying anpan, anpan, so I totally thought..."

"The point is, the way you looked as you were about to eat it was just like in that anpan game."

"Anpan game"... was she talking about that thing where you flick an anpan sitting on a table with your finger, aiming to knock another one flying? Or that trick where you skillfully toss three anpan into the air and catch them in time with a song? Or perhaps that business of grabbing at a bunch of anpan all at once and messily devouring just the tasty bits?

"That doesn't fit... the first is ohajiki, the next is otedama and the last, chasing women. So what the heck is the anpan game...? Could it be something like slamming one down with all your might and using the momentum to flip another anpan over so you could claim it as your own?"

"Enough. Talking with you makes me old."

Stepping on the brakes at a red light, she switched on the radio. Music poured from the stereo: a track brimming with such reckless, spirited energy that it seemed capable of giving lovestruck girls throughout Japan the courage (and a gentle push) to charge forward, transforming them into radiant, happy versions of their future selves. A moment later,

"...'Playing around with anpan' is a form of glue sniffing, where one puts an organic solvent in a plastic bag, hold it over your mouth, and inhale the fumes to get high. Don't do it; it melts your brain."

The explanation was far more wretched than he had anticipated.

Answering with just his eyes, "Who would do that?", Banri finally took another bite of the bread roll, which was half peeled open in the bag. At that moment,

"Huh...!?"

The aroma of wheat flour and a rich buttery quality wafted up through his nose. That exquisite texture, soft, melting in his mouth. Crisp, airy and chewy, followed by the gentle, spreading sweetness of sugar.

"So. Good! Are you kidding!? What is this? It's super delicious!"

He was amazed. It was so delicious, far beyond anything he had expected that he instinctively straightened up and wanted to make a big fuss over it.

"Eh? That much?"

"Yes, that much! It's completely different from what they sell around there! I'm shocked! Nothing needs to be added! It's delicious as it is! It's incredibly moist, and it won't dry your mother, so try it! I mean, please, try it! I want to share this joy with you!"

"That so? If you say that much about it, then, well, I guess I'll try a little."

Banri tore off a bite-sized piece of the bread in his hand and passed it to his mother. His mother popped it into her mouth,

"...Hmm...!?"

Her eyes widened so much it seemed they might pop out. It was a fresh reaction coming from somebody around fifty years of age and who had experienced all the big events of life, from marriage to childbirth, the funerals of her parents, and even having seen her son off to college. "Right? Right?", Banri asked with his eyes, "Yes! Yes!" she nodded vigorously. "More? More?" "Yes! Yes!"

Banri split the remainder in two to share with his parent, and the two of them quickly devoured the bread roll right there in the car. The whole process took less than a minute; the traffic light hadn't even changed yet, and the song was still playing.

"This stuff is dangerously good. Should I eat another one? I mean, they gave me so many, so maybe I could share a few?"

"No, no. Since they gave them to you, go ahead and eat them after we get home. And if you can't finish them all, you can even share them with your friends in Tokyo."

"Really?"

His friend in Tokyo... the face that immediately sprang into Banri's mind was, of course, the face of a person who was anything but a mere 'friend.' The face that was surely waiting for Banri to get back was the lovely, perfect smiling face of his lover. Only imagining it like this, Banri's heart was instantly on the verge of shooting straight to Tokyo, transcending time and space. He almost called out her name: Kouko. His cheeks were nearly melting with joy, but then he remembered he was in Shizuoka, in a car his mother was driving.

"In that case, I'll do it."

Pretending to fix a twisted seatbelt, he managed to hide the lovestruck, slack expression on his face, on that betrayed his feelings about her, so that his mother wouldn't notice.

"I had no idea that home-made bread could turn out so delicious."

"Why can't we do it too? Then we could eat all we want, every day."

"Once, a long time ago, a neighbor showed me how. But I certainly could not make it anywhere near as well, and neither your nor your father were thrilled with it."

"Is that so? Well, Meiko's technique must be exceptionally good. Even amazing."

"That's incredible. With a wife who can make bread like this for him, Dai-kun is a lucky guy."

"Well, he's probably quite happy... even if his wife's driving is a bit rough."

"It may be rough, but there is definitely an abundance of happiness there."

Meiko had only arrived not long ago.

It was at the very moment they had been pulling out of his parent's garage. His mother was driving.

Noticing a cute yellow Beetle speeding toward them along the narrow road in front of the Tada house, a street barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other, Mother hit the brakes with a look of bewilderment; yet, ignoring the nose of their car jutting out from the garage, the Beetle headed straight for them, effectively blocking their path. "Oh no, we're going to get hit!" Mother cried, hurriedly backing up. Almost simultaneously, the Beetle slammed on its brakes, skidding wildly with a deafening screech before finally coming to a halt at an angle that completely blocked the entrance to the Tada family's garage. As mother and child exchanged puzzled glances, Meiko popped her head out of the driver's-side window and waved with a beaming smile, calling out, "Thank goodness: I made it!"

When Meiko found out that Banri would be returning to Tokyo on the Shinkansen shortly after three o'clock that day, she had spent the morning baking her signature bread rolls for him. A few days ago, while hanging out with the group, including Dai and Linda, Banri had heard of Meiko's hobby baking bread, and had shouted reflexively, "I want some!" It seemed that Meiko remembered that well and went out of her way to bring some over, fresh from the oven.

"Sorry to add to your luggage. Please take care on your way back to Tokyo. Definitely get in touch next time you're back home... and we absolutely have to get everyone together again!"

<~~23% Completed~~>

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