Date

Next in the series of translations of 夢で会いましょう is a small story called "Date" by Itoi.


Date

I used to go along with her dating methods.

Her idea of going to the zoo and feeding bread spread with jelly to the orangutans was successful only because of my quick-thinking. I dodged by the feeders and bribed the black orangutan in the neighboring cage to pass the bread over to the orangutan next door to him.

That was my first date with her.

When she suddenly had the idea to go to the coffee shop to play Pass The Luck I was actually a little annoyed, but I was able to refuel my spirits by recalling some good memories. The hard thing about playing Pass the Luck with two people is this: it’s pretty easy to guess who has the joker. But because I had hid the joker underneath my shoe before dealing, the game turned out to be a lot more stimulating.

A one-person one-umbrella date on a rainy day. She's always holding an umbrella when she isn’t indoors.

The next date: two people each describing the qualities they like in the people they like. I told her that my mom was a really good cook and the heaviest person in town; also, that mom is the fastest woman in town to this very day. On her turn, she spoke fervently about a classmate that was the assistant team manager of the school baseball club as well as the head of a history research group. It was my suggestion that, as a rule, neither of us mention the other.

Next, the peeling-green-grapes-for-fun date. The fun was all mine to have, however, since she left me the job of feeding her all the peeled grapes. What a pity.

All we had left after exhausting every flavor of dating method was a difficulty in approving of whatever the current dating project was.

“Starting today, let’s play a longer game where we don’t ever see each other. How’s that?”

But I was of the opinion that we had better discuss it a few more times before engaging in such a large-scale project.