Caw

  Before us, once again, stood a lone crow, looking up at Eiri. A small tuft of snow pced on its head, appearing like a tiny hat.

  “Good morning Hasami.” She answered back to the crow, who pitter pattered toward her. Then, fpping its wings, it neatly nded on her shoulder.

  Somehow, around the same time she and Riyu got into a fight, she’d somehow tamed a crow. Well, many of them. Sometimes a whole bunch of them would flock around her, and she’d spend time with them as if they were her friend circle.

  Now that I think of it, I’ve never seen her hang out with any friends at home or at school.

  I walked to my car, unlocking it and opening the back door for Eiri. With a confident stride, and the crow bobbing its head matching the rhythm, she swiftly slid inside the car.

  “Thanks, dad.”

  I shut the door and went to the front. With the turn of the ignition, the usual hum of the engine roared, and the radio flickered on alongside the gps.

  “Any music you want to listen to?”

  “No need, thank you.”

  She sounded unusually energetic today, despite her usually loathing going to school.

  Driving off, I turned up the heating inside the car, and adjusted my gsses for the road ahead.

  As we headed out the neighborhood and turned to the highway, she suddenly spoke up.

  “Are you going to be te again?”

  “It’s been busy at the office tely.” I quickly lied, as I adjusted the rearview mirror. “Have to deal with a lot of clients in short order.”

  She looked right at me through the mirror as I spoke.

  “Oh, an eyebrow twitch. So you don’t have to do overtime after all.”

  The crow, who took a seat beside her, seemingly ughed at my failed attempt at a coverup.

  “It’s just an itch. Don’t mind it.”

  Somehow she’d picked up on a tell I had whenever I lie a few weeks ago, making conversations like these all the more difficult.

  “Hmm, I got an idea, wanna hear it?”

  While leaning back into the car, Hasami had jumped up on her p, leaning his little head against her.

  “Go off.” I said with a wry smile.

  “Let's go somewhere new today. No work, no school, just a short trip.”

  “Like where?”

  “Don’t know, just take the next left and see where it goes.”

  It’s not the first time she offered.

  I’ve said no too many times to count, and each time the response is different, whether she cried, got upset or ughed it off.

  Today, as I thought about having to commit to another tiring day in the office, dealing with the drab whites of the fluorescent lights and walls in the office mixed with the downtrodden and tired expressions of my coworkers, having to edit documents over and over and over again due to the department head’s whimsical demands, the offer suddenly turned appealing.

  So, seeing the left turn that headed into some woods, I steered into the left, with the cpping and cheering of Eiri behind me.

  Not sure if this is technically kidnapping, but an extra day off once in a while to unwind shouldn’t hurt. I’ll probably get an earful back at home, though I could maybe expin it away by becoming lost because I’m tired or something like that.

  “I never thought I’d see the day.” She spoke with a delighted tone.

  Riding into the forest, the surroundings seemed to shift into no pce I've seen before. Living in the city, my eyes got to mostly feast on the sight of concrete, gss, cement and brick. Here instead a lot of the houses pced by the riverbank to our left seemed to be made out of wood, with not an apartment complex or modern home in sight. A lot of these homes had different christmas ornaments on dispy, one even having a snowman leaning against the home.

  “So cool…” Eiri wistfully sighed. “I never got to make one.”

  “Let’s do that then, today.”“Really?!”

  Despite her growing older and putting up a mature act, it always warmed my heart seeing her embrace her childish side.

  “Of course. Though it’s been ages since I st built one myself, so you may have to be patient with me.”

  “Pfft, it’s not rocket science.” She gently kicked my seat. “Just… let’s do it in a pce no one can see, okay?”

  Question remains how we’ll spend the rest of the day, though at least I have plenty of money on my card to cover whatever expenses occur.

  “There is one thing I’d like to know though, why did you keep asking me all this time to go somewhere new?”

  “Well, we’ve always been stuck living the same day over and over. I miss being able to live sometimes.” She sighed. “You’re the only one that’s ever bothered to listen soo… I figured it was worth a try.”

  “Trapped…”

  That was one way to look at day to day life. Though I wouldn’t go that far.

  Responsibility is not something you’re stuck with, but something that one must accept in order to turn into a respectable adult. In a way, a learning opportunity.

  If you can’t hold a job or can’t hold your education in order, it’s natural that you aren’t capable of taking care of matters beyond that. I would have never been able to start a proper family if I was to skip out on school in the past like Eiri wishes to do now.

  “How are your grades?” I asked back, slightly concerned.

  “Nothing you have to worry about. I always rank around top 10 in css, at least.” She answered, a bit annoyed. “I hope there will be a nice cafe wherever we end up.”

  Her mind was still on the roadtrip we were on, far away from any thoughts about her duties as a student. She looked intently at the scenery on both sides of the car, hopping back and forth to look at either side, with ‘hasami’ following along jumping back and forth.

  “Settle down, you two. And put a damn seatbelt on already.”

  There was a sharp turn to the right up ahead. Noticing my worry, she sat back in her seat, and ccked it on. Soon, the trees cleared, revealing a new road ahead, into a pce I wasn't familiar with. Worse yet, the gps got stuck, so I would have nothing to go off of driving around this area.

  Though equally as desote at first, soon far into the horizon a rge cathedral loomed. A bell chimed, signifying the shift of the hour.

  “Already 8… I suppose we’re definitely too te now then.”

  The road was quiet, not a single car in front or behind, as if the path opened just for us. In fact, there was not a soul walking about.

  “I wonder if we’re stumbling into a horror game.” Eiri chimed in, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Or they’re all busy doing a beted sunday prayer.” I joked back.

  “We should buy a pce to live here then, I’d love skipping school on mondays.”

  “Like Riyu would ever allow such a thing.”“Then… let’s go there on mondays in secret.” She csped her hands, pleading with me.

  “Yeah yeah, we’re already having today off, don’t ask for too much.”

  “Teehee~”

  As the gps came back with the map after having frozen for minutes, I noticed a split in the roads up ahead next to the cathedral, with one of them leading to what seems to be a square.

  “Should I park around here? Think around here we should be able to make a snowman at least.”

  With the entire grassfield being near knee-deep covered in snow.

  She gave an enthusiastic nod, prompting me to take the next right turn, after which, it was only a quick drive to the next desote area, with plenty of free parking space.

  As we stepped out, we took a deep breath of the fresh winter air.

  A bunch of odd-colored trees were sprawled about opposite the shopping square, a sort of mixture between a moss green and vender color.

  I was half convinced I was just seeing things out of exhaustion.

  “Anyway,” I spoke up, shaking off my thoughts. “You can do as you want today. I’ll leave the pnning up to you.”