The professor is particularly fond of "stones" in general, and yesterday 80% of the class was spent talking about natural stones, which are also the origin of gemstones. I was impressed by the way the girls' eyes lit up as they heard the names of many stones that I had even heard of, such as amethyst and diamond.
"You're interested in jewelry, too, Walnut?"
"It's amazing, you know. Stones themselves are part of the natural world, but when humans dig them up and polish them, they become gems with such beautiful colors and sparkles. At first glance, they look like ordinary stones, but in reality, they have great beauty and power. Isn't that just wonderful?"
I was impressed by her thinking like that. I had thought that the charm of gemstones was only in their sparkling brilliance. But she was right, what I thought was just a piece of stone can become a magnificent jewel when you polish it up.
For us incomplete and imperfect teenagers, it certainly has a redeeming quality.
We may still be blue and incomplete, but we have something special inside of us.
"......This stone is so beautiful."
I looked down at Walnut's hand and saw a picture of a stone with a deep, beautiful blue color sitting on an open page. In bold letters in the upper right corner of the page is written "Lazurite ── Blue Gold Stone ──". The name was unfamiliar to me.
The sky is blue, but I wonder what color it is higher up. The ocean is blue, too, but I wonder what color it is in deeper and deeper places.
She stares at the open page with gentle eyes.
"I'm sure it's something like this color," she said. "The blue far above the sky and the blue of the deepest part of the ocean. It's like a 'Lazurite Blue' which is completed by the overlapping of various blues.
After naming the blue she envisioned, she looked out the window. From our classroom, we could see the horizon stretching straight out beyond the school grounds.
"Lazurite blue, huh?" she said.
The sky was a dull gray today letting down occasional drops of rain, and the horizon below it was a similar color.
Both the sky and the ocean are genuinely mysterious. When it is calm, they spread their own "blue" colors, and depending on the weather and season, they hide their colors and put on a different robe. But as Walnut says, the "Lazurite Blue" may be their true form.
"My grandmother and I used to play by naming imaginary colors like this."
She said quietly and smiled a little sadly.
As you have heard before, Walnut's family consists of her parents and her grandmother. The other day, on her way home from getting her grandmother's medicine at the hospital, she stopped by the store where I work part-time.
"My grandma has a lot of things she doesn't understand. She's getting older, so I guess it can't be helped."
She told me about her grandmother, who had been diagnosed with a brain disease. This was the reason for her forlorn smile.
"At first, everyone in the family thought it was just age-related memory loss," she said. "But it got worse and worse, and by the time I went to the hospital, the symptoms had progressed to a much more advanced stage."
Memory loss, a natural phenomenon of aging, and memory impairment caused by brain disease are two completely different things, according to Walnut.
"There is a department called Amnesiac Outpatient Clinic. I still wish I had taken her there earlier."
With the rapid development of medical care, it is no longer just a dream that we will live to be a hundred years old. However, the current medical treatment is not capable of eliminating the risks that increase with age.
"I'm sorry for telling you this."
I could only silently shake my head at her words.
My family is still alive and well, and even my grandmother in Hokkaido is in good health. I had only just learned of the existence of the "Amnesiac Outpatient Clinic" through Walnut's story. So I couldn't help but think that I had nothing to do with it.
"Why do people get sick?"
When she said these words, I was confronted with the reality that this was where I was.
We all get older without fail, and as we do so, various risks arise. What kind of disease causes memory impairment? I had seen it in dramas and movies, but somewhere along the way, I had come to feel that even the disease was fiction.
In reality, however, there are actually people who are dealing with this fact.
"I forget a lot of things, but I remember my late grandfather very well. I remember where we met on what day and month of what year, and the first time we went out together wearing a white dress. I forget things from yesterday, but I remember memories of my grandfather from decades ago."
I am sure that even Walnut must have had many painful memories. She knows that one day her beloved grandmother will forget her. But she still lives each day with a smile on her face. She is so natural that we don't even notice it.
"Human memory is a mystery, isn't it?"
Today, she is more eloquent than ever.
People are truly unknowable. Some people may appear bright, but they have a great deal of darkness inside them. Some people are prickly and sharp but have gentle hearts. Someone may seem optimistic, but deep down inside they are troubled.
I am sure that everyone has a part of themselves that they do not reveal to those around them. But if there are only a handful of people to whom you can show that part of yourself, I am sure that it is someone whom you have truly forgiven.
If I am becoming that kind of person for Walnut...
If I am becoming even a little bit like that for her...
"I will always be on Walnut's side."
Two people are better than one when it comes to carrying heavy things. At my words, she softly lowered the corners of her eyes.
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