The End of Infinity. By Aspirety.
Major AIR spoilers below.
It’s summer. The sound of the tide resonates through my ears as I watch the sun begin to set. To my side, my childhood friend is quietly playing in the sand. We have been together for a long time, longer than I can even remember.
“What are you looking at?” my friend asks me.
“The sky.” is all I’m able to respond with. I can’t help but think that the sky looks so sad today. “What are you building?”
“A sandcastle!” she responds enthusiastically.
I suppose this is the first time she’s been to a beach, so a sandcastle is to be expected. “The tide is rising up pretty quickly. Aren’t you worried that the sandcastle will wash away tonight?”
“Don’t worry.” she responds calmly. “I don’t mind if it washes away.”
I take a moment to consider her words, before returning my gaze to the horizon. Suddenly, I remember a dream. It was a very, very long dream. I’m not sure when I remember having dreamt this dream. Are these really my dreams? It all flashes to me in an instant of realisation.
The planet’s first memory.
My happy memories of living with her.
My mind fills to the brim with memories which don’t belong to me. And then, for a brief moment, I understand everything. I remember the story of a long, long journey which lasted thousands, no, hundreds of millions of years. The story of a girl in the sky who was burdened with an unending sadness, and the boy who strove to save her.
There were many people trying to save the girl, but the girl wouldn’t allow herself to be saved, because she couldn’t let go of her attachments to the world and find peace. But one day, there was a girl who learned the value of seeking her own happiness. She was the strongest of all of them, and through the wishes of everyone who loved her, she was able to survive until the end of the dream, and gain the strength to say farewell with a smile.
But the dream went even further beyond that. I remembered a scene of a girl and a boy playing on the beach. I recognised the two as myself and my friend. That night, we would each part ways once the sun set, and wouldn’t meet again for a long time. When she arrived home, the girl became very ill. She was submitted to a hospital in the hopes that they may be able to determine a cause of her sudden illness, but nobody would be able to provide an answer.
I wouldn’t know this, but the girl would continue escaping the hospital in the middle of the day to run to the beach, hoping to play some more. Her illness would cause everyone to be worry about her while her family prayed for her recovery, but she would continue smiling energetically like nothing was wrong. During the time I waited, our nursery school would receive a new teacher: Miss Kamio.
“Why are yer playin’ alone?” she would ask me.
“I’m waiting… For my friend to get better.” I would respond.
“Is yer friend unwell?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen her for months now.”
“I see. Yer young and yeh already have lotsa’ problems.” She would sit down next to me. “Yer have all this bad luck, and there ain’t nothin’ yer can do ‘bout it. I know the feelin’. But it ain’t like there’s nothin’ yer can do.” I would look up at the teacher. “You can pray. It don’t matter who yeh pray to, as long as it’s from the heart. Even if it don’t feel like nobody is listenin’, yer never know. Maybe somebody in the sky is listenin’ to yer prayer.”
“In the sky…?”
“In the meantime, yer can rest assured tha’ Miss Kamio will stay beside yeh while yeh wait. That way yer don’ have teh feel like yer alone. Okay?”
Somehow, the woman’s words would give me hope. She’d continue to spend time with me every day and make sure I wasn’t left alone. I must’ve remembered that being alone is painful, so her presence was comforting to me in that time. As I waited, I continued to send my prayers to the sky, in the hope that my friend would recover soon.
Summer turned to Fall as I continued to pray, and finally, my prayers were answered.
“I’m sorry to make you worry. I’m all right now!” she assured me with lots of energy.
A part of me must’ve been afraid to accept this blessing, but I wanted to believe in her. “So you’re really okay now?”
“Yep! Summer may be over, but we have all the time in the world to have fun together!” And from that day on, nothing would be able to separate us anymore. Miss Kamio would become frustrated as my grades would begin to fall as soon as my friend returned to school, but in the end she could never stay mad at us after seeing us have fun together. Then, once we graduated from nursery school, the dream ended. I can’t remember what happened after that.
Whose memories were these? Why could I remember things that haven’t happened yet? I didn’t fully understand the details, but seeing this dream taught me how fortunate I was.
“What’s wrong?” A voice makes me turn around. Standing there was a lone girl. I know her name and face. She’s my childhood friend, Saika. “Look, I did it.”
She’s finished her sandcastle, and she’s proud of it. “It looks good doesn’t it?” I praise her.
“Yep, it turned out well.” She seems satisfied with it.
“The sun’ll set soon…” I look at the sea and squint. Watching the setting sun should make me sad, but knowing it’ll rise again gives me strength.
“Yeah…” she responds.
“Then should we take a look before we go?”
“Mm? Take a look at what?”
“What’s at the far end of the beach. You’ve always said you wanted to know what was over there.”
“Did I say that…?”
“Maybe you didn’t, but I think you were thinking it.”
“Yeah… Okay, we’ll take a look.”
Now I know what awaits us there. We can see people sitting on the embankment when we turn around. A man and a woman. The man might be sleeping, because he’s hanging his head. The woman sits upright next to him. As if waiting for him to wake up. The woman notices us, and waves. I wave back. They were given cruel days, while we were given a beginning. I clench my fist.
“All right, wanna get going?” She’s waiting for me up ahead.
“Okay.”
“What lies ahead… The end of infinity.”
I’m no longer afraid of what lies at the end of the beach. Even though there may be many more painful sunsets in the future, I am hopeful that the sun will always rise again in the end. That is their final gift to us. I turn back just once to say something. My words are carried away by the sea breeze before they disappear.
“Farewell.”
