Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume30 Chapter6 1

Distant Desire. Part 1.

Let's go on the Ferris wheel.

That's what Shimako-san had said.

She hadn't said, "Would you like to." She'd said, "Let's." Then Shimako-san took hold of Noriko's hand and they joined the end of the queue.

"Are you okay with heights, Noriko?"

"… Usually."

"Right. You're strong."

"Usually I'm scared, was what I was going to say."

"Oh, you."

Noriko thought that she should have been the one delivering that last line. It didn't seem like Shimako-san had a love of heights, based on the way she was talking, so why had she deliberately chosen the Ferris wheel?

"Is this some sort of challenge you've set for yourself, Shimako-san?"

They'd been on the roller-coaster just before the Ferris wheel. And the go-carts before that.

In terms of speed and acceleration it wasn't like those other two. Shimako-san's shrieks, whether they were of joy or terror, had come to an end. Noriko thought she may have been the first person ever to hear Shimako-san's voice raised so loud.

Despite all that, and for reasons that she didn't fully comprehend, Noriko still had the same gloomy expression on her face. She let out a sigh. Shimako-san herself had said, "It's not that big a deal," so it was foolish of Noriko to let it drag her down.

"It could be."

Shimako-san looked up into the clear blue sky, then returned her gaze to Noriko.

"Perhaps it's because I'm with you, Noriko."

"But this isn't the sort of challenge I'd set for myself."

"That's not what I meant. Because I'm with you, I feel like I can do these things. So we should try and conquer all sorts of things."

"And by all sorts of things, you mean things you're not good at?"

"I can't really say whether or not I'm good at them. I haven't been to an amusement park before."

"Not even when you were young?"

"Not even then. I never asked my parents to take me to an amusement park, because I never felt enough of a desire to come to one."

Shimako-san laughed softly.

"So that's how it was?"

"How about you Noriko? Did you come here often?"

"Well, it's not like we were here all the time. It was mainly because of my older sister."

In Noriko's case, she didn't have to be assertive because her older sister would badger their parents about going, so occasionally they'd go to the amusement park. The days that her public servant father and school teacher mother had off lined up exactly, so on Sunday they would all go somewhere together as a family.

"Ah. I suppose that happens when you have two siblings about the same age. In contrast, my older brother left home when I was young and, since my father's the chief priest at our temple, Sundays aren't really days off. So a daughter like myself fitted in perfectly."

Even after their heart-to-heart talk earlier, Shimako-san still talked about her family with the same tone of voice as always. It really was "not a big deal."

"Ah."

Shimako-san's gaze had absently wandered forwards, and then she suddenly hung her head in shame. Noriko was about to turn forward to see what had happened when Shimako-san grabbed her hand, stopping her.

"…"

But, she hadn't made it in time and Noriko had seen. The couple standing in line in front of them were kissing, unconcerned about the fact that they were out in public.

Noriko didn't think that she had done anything wrong, so didn't see the necessity to avert her eyes. She considered staring at the couple until they stopped what they were doing out of embarrassment, but relented out of deference to the way Shimako-san let her innocent gaze drop.

At any rate, standing right behind Noriko and Shimako-san were three grade school boys, and the exhibition came to an end surprisingly quickly due to them pointing at the couple and calling out, "They're kissing," and "Kissy-kissy."

The boys were probably brothers. They were different heights, but their faces all looked similar.

"That's what our mom said."

"Aunty didn't say that at all."

Listening in to their conversation, it became apparent that two of the boys were brothers, and the third was a cousin.

Lined up behind the boys was an elderly man and woman. Were they husband and wife? Or companions? It seemed unlikely, but they could be siblings. The surprisingly energetic seventy-year old gentleman was expertly escorting the cane-carrying lady.

So then, what kind of relationship would the people around them think they had? Noriko suddenly found herself wondering this.

Friends? Sisters? Relatives? People that got along well together? Or two girls that were part of a large group that came here today and had decided to go on the Ferris wheel together even though they didn't really like each other?

They weren't quarreling, but people could definitely get that impression from Noriko's glum expression. Still, Noriko thought it was better than a forced, meaningless smile. And they were holding hands, after Shimako-san had clasped Noriko's hand.

After boarding the Ferris wheel and sitting down facing each other they both looked out the window. As they ascended, the figures of the people on the ground became corresponding smaller.

"The people, they're so small."

Shimako-san said what Noriko was thinking, before Noriko had the chance to say it.

"As the daughter of a temple priest, it was always tough on me when it came to keeping secrets."

The amusement park looked like a miniature garden. The mountain, the lake, the castle and the roofs of the various buildings were all visible. The people down below looked like tiny insects, although they would each be laughing, or crying, or angry, etc.

All of that in such a tiny container. Pondering this, Noriko thought that perhaps people's problems were also that tiny, after all.

"And now?"

Noriko asked. Shimako-san responded immediately with, "I'm happy."

"Because I have my darling Noriko by my side."

At that moment, the capsule they shared reached its highest point.

For the first time, Noriko felt that the words Shimako-san had said, that "It's not that big a deal," weren't some kind of justification, but her true feelings.