6

This can’t bring back the life that was lost, but we’ll rewind the clock a bit. To begin with, the poor girl who had been hit wasn’t walking to school by herself, but rather along with a friend.

The two of them were walking together in front of my bike, and seemed to get along quite well. Being that I was on a bike, I easily caught up to their elementary schooler strides. I was on my aforementioned road racer, so sidewalk or not, I didn’t have to try very hard.

As I got closer to them, I found that the two elementary schoolers walking side-by-side were not as friendly as they had first appeared. You may wonder how I could know that, since I’m no Sherlock Holmes, but I think anyone would have noticed, really.

They were playing video games while walking beside each other.

I don’t know what console it was, or the specific game, but from the small glimpse I got passing them, I’m pretty sure they were even playing separate games. Granted, back then even if it was the same game they wouldn’t have been able to play together without some kind of connecting cable.

Two girls walking the same road to the same school, but playing completely different video games. They definitely didn’t seem very friendly.

But, it’s not like I was thinking about that at the time. Besides, looking back on it both then and now, I realized that just may have been their dynamic.

So, I was on a fast bike, and headed to school myself, meaning I could have easily passed in front of them. But I didn’t.

The sidewalk was narrow enough that in order to pass by the two girls I would have had to bump into one of them, at least slightly. Being a person that had witnessed many traffic accidents, I wanted to avoid such an interaction. I could accept that accidents were a natural part of life, but didn’t really want to be a party to one myself, much less the perpetrator. Actually, it’s probably due to my depth of knowledge about traffic accidents that I wanted to avoid creating one so much. I still don’t have a driver’s license for exactly that reason. I know all too well how easily an accident can happen even with nobody at fault. I rely on my passport as my only form of identification. It’s particularly convenient, since I only have to renew it once every ten years.

But considering what followed, maybe it would have been better for me to try and pass them, even if it came down to using a bit of force. Maybe something like that would have shown them the danger in playing games while walking, and the tragedy could have been avoided. Or if I couldn’t pass them, I could at least ring my bell.

The problem was, although I wouldn’t be as scary as a car horn, I hesitated when I considered the possible reactions of the girls to my bike bell. It was, of course, meant to startle them, and the idea made me feel bad. I didn’t want to scare little children… and I’ll admit, although this wasn’t an era where all children carried portable alarms, I was worried that I might make them scream.

At the same time, my actions could have prevented an even worse outcome, but that cycle of thinking is never-ending, so I’m going to leave that where it lies.

With all that running through my head, the girls stepped out onto the crosswalk, completely absorbed in their games and not noticing the red light. One of them was promptly run over by a truck.

Just one.

Yes, one was hit, and the other was safe. In itself, that’s something to be happy about. Better for one to be saved than both be torn apart. I might be a bit out of touch with general ethics, but I feel like anyone would agree with that sentiment.

But what caught my eye was the following actions of the girl that survived, the girl now alone on the crosswalk. Well, catching my eye is putting it lightly. She was what made me completely freeze up.

It was stronger than the impression of the accident leaving another girl ripped apart, and more frightening than the thought of blood on my bike. My entire body froze in response.

She noticed the other girl was gone, turned around, and acknowledged her situation. She realized that her friend, a girl she’d been walking beside just a moment prior, was no longer in this world.

But it was what came next.

She went back to the game she had been playing. Her feet stayed rooted in that spot.

My thoughts raced. What? She’s just gonna go back to her game? After her friend died right in front of her? No wait, maybe she just can’t deal with reality. I wondered if going back to her game was a way of avoiding the thought that she could have very well shared her friend’s fate of a brutal death by only the slightest change in position.

I wanted to believe that, but I was wrong.

She stopped playing her game after a moment, turned it off, and placed the game system in her backpack. Then–

“XX-chan!”

She screamed, crying her friend’s name (I couldn’t make it out very well) as she rushed across the wrong side of the crosswalk towards what appeared to be the remains of her friend’s head.

“You’re gonna be okay, XX-chan!” she cried, hugging XX-chan’s head close. To someone else, it must have looked like the anguished cries of a young, innocent girl. Or at least sounded like it. It probably worked on the other curious onlookers who made their way to the accident.

I couldn’t blame them for feeling sympathy towards the poor, small girl as she cried and screamed.

But I had seen it. Something nobody else noticed. She took the time to properly save her game and put it away before rushing over to her friend.

I was a witness.

That was how U and I met.