On the Road
I've recently been contemplating the power of stories. In fact, I had a discussion about stories with my friend John just about an hour ago. I've been enjoying thinking about stories so much for the past hour or so that I'm tempted to start rattling off some of my thoughts. But instead, I think I'll tell you a story of my own. It may be one that means little to you when it's all said and done, but it's one that marked a rather pleasant chapter in the life of the ones who lived it.
Last Saturday, two boys met at one of the boy's house. Their names were Peter and Travis. Both of those boys had scooters. And they set off on those scooters in search of a mysterious lake. One of the boys had discovered the lake on a map, but neither boy had seen it in real-life and neither boy had ever heard anyone else talk about it. But they were in a mood for exploring, so off they went.
They had to fight through a lot of cars and trucks, but finally the boys found themselves riding past the borders of the city. And things slowed down a lot after that. The roads grew smaller and tighter, but they were more peaceful and interesting, and more suitable to a Saturday scooter adventure anyway. The boys brought the map, just in case, but they secretly hoped they wouldn't have to use it. If someone had stopped the boys at many points during their journey, saying, "Hey, you, just where do you think you are?!" they wouldn't have been able to answer with anything better than, "Somewhere south of the city," or even better, "Maybe you should mind your own business, thank you very much."
Did they ever find the mysterious lake? Of course they did! (It's a rather large lake, after all.)And they found it without a single bit of backtracking, too, though backtracking is hardly a bad thing usually. And what an unexpectedly plain and normal lake it was! Said Travis: "I thought it'd be more of a lake than this. It's basically just a big rice field." Peter thought so too.
But the boys weren't disappointed. They just decided that instead of spending too much time looking at the lake or trying to get something out of it that it just didn't have to give, they would see whether they couldn't make some kind of adventure out of the journey back home.
So they zigzagged their noisy scooters down narrow roads, overgrown with trees. They nearly ran over a big spider in the road once. Then later, they nearly ran over a strange stick. They turned around when they realized the stick had moved, and watched it slither off into the brush. They went down wooded roads and winding roads and gravelly roads and going-nowhere roads and rice field roads. One time they scared an oba-san (old woman), but not too bad, they thought, so they didn't feel bad about it. And many birds and animals and even a few bugs (some swallowed) noticed that as they rode, the boys would often laugh out loud, almost as if someone were tickling them.
They even stopped at a gas station once that happened to live on the side of an old road. The man there asked them, "Mbababa--Pe! Mhahahaudud--Pe!" and things like that. They told him, "Ibaraki-ben de hanasereba, zenzen wakarimasen. Demo futsu na Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu," which of course means, "If you talk to us in the Ibaraki dialect, we can't understand a single thing you say. But we can speak a little bit of normal Japanese." And he told them, "Gajaumusuni--Pe!" which seemed to mean, "Then please talk to my wife, you crazy foreigners!" So they did, and a rather pleasant woman she turned out to be. After some poor guesses about their ages, occupations, and ability to speak Japanese, she let the boys pay for their gas. She told them one last time to please find Japanese girlfriends and then let them leave.
No one knows how long they road those scooters down those small streets on the outside parts of the city. Sometimes you could hear their scooters' happy, roaring, 50-cc engines south of the city, and sometimes you could hear them east of it. Out east, some people say they heard those engines several times in a nice little neighborhood where they boys' friends lived--the Woods and the Chans. One nosy neighbor even noticed the boys' scooters sitting outside those houses--with the boys nowhere to be seen! Well, those boys didn't disappear, as you might've guessed. Even boys on a crazy scooter-riding adventure in search of mysterious places like to stop and talk to their friends sometimes, you see. And they did a bit more than talk. The Woods gave them water and pineapple, and the Chans gave them enough peanut butter for a month! All brave adventurers should be so lucky as to have friends that nice and caring.
And that was nearly the end of their journey. They headed back to the city but stopped at a park to explore just a little more. What a way for an adventure to end. Wouldn't you know it, that park turned out to be a park that didn't allow for much exploring. But it did have some very nice playground equipment, and as the boys obviously thought, that's nothing to sneeze at.
They got home an hour later and just before dark.
The End.
Last Saturday, two boys met at one of the boy's house. Their names were Peter and Travis. Both of those boys had scooters. And they set off on those scooters in search of a mysterious lake. One of the boys had discovered the lake on a map, but neither boy had seen it in real-life and neither boy had ever heard anyone else talk about it. But they were in a mood for exploring, so off they went.
They had to fight through a lot of cars and trucks, but finally the boys found themselves riding past the borders of the city. And things slowed down a lot after that. The roads grew smaller and tighter, but they were more peaceful and interesting, and more suitable to a Saturday scooter adventure anyway. The boys brought the map, just in case, but they secretly hoped they wouldn't have to use it. If someone had stopped the boys at many points during their journey, saying, "Hey, you, just where do you think you are?!" they wouldn't have been able to answer with anything better than, "Somewhere south of the city," or even better, "Maybe you should mind your own business, thank you very much."
Did they ever find the mysterious lake? Of course they did! (It's a rather large lake, after all.)And they found it without a single bit of backtracking, too, though backtracking is hardly a bad thing usually. And what an unexpectedly plain and normal lake it was! Said Travis: "I thought it'd be more of a lake than this. It's basically just a big rice field." Peter thought so too.
But the boys weren't disappointed. They just decided that instead of spending too much time looking at the lake or trying to get something out of it that it just didn't have to give, they would see whether they couldn't make some kind of adventure out of the journey back home.
So they zigzagged their noisy scooters down narrow roads, overgrown with trees. They nearly ran over a big spider in the road once. Then later, they nearly ran over a strange stick. They turned around when they realized the stick had moved, and watched it slither off into the brush. They went down wooded roads and winding roads and gravelly roads and going-nowhere roads and rice field roads. One time they scared an oba-san (old woman), but not too bad, they thought, so they didn't feel bad about it. And many birds and animals and even a few bugs (some swallowed) noticed that as they rode, the boys would often laugh out loud, almost as if someone were tickling them.
They even stopped at a gas station once that happened to live on the side of an old road. The man there asked them, "Mbababa--Pe! Mhahahaudud--Pe!" and things like that. They told him, "Ibaraki-ben de hanasereba, zenzen wakarimasen. Demo futsu na Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu," which of course means, "If you talk to us in the Ibaraki dialect, we can't understand a single thing you say. But we can speak a little bit of normal Japanese." And he told them, "Gajaumusuni--Pe!" which seemed to mean, "Then please talk to my wife, you crazy foreigners!" So they did, and a rather pleasant woman she turned out to be. After some poor guesses about their ages, occupations, and ability to speak Japanese, she let the boys pay for their gas. She told them one last time to please find Japanese girlfriends and then let them leave.
No one knows how long they road those scooters down those small streets on the outside parts of the city. Sometimes you could hear their scooters' happy, roaring, 50-cc engines south of the city, and sometimes you could hear them east of it. Out east, some people say they heard those engines several times in a nice little neighborhood where they boys' friends lived--the Woods and the Chans. One nosy neighbor even noticed the boys' scooters sitting outside those houses--with the boys nowhere to be seen! Well, those boys didn't disappear, as you might've guessed. Even boys on a crazy scooter-riding adventure in search of mysterious places like to stop and talk to their friends sometimes, you see. And they did a bit more than talk. The Woods gave them water and pineapple, and the Chans gave them enough peanut butter for a month! All brave adventurers should be so lucky as to have friends that nice and caring.
And that was nearly the end of their journey. They headed back to the city but stopped at a park to explore just a little more. What a way for an adventure to end. Wouldn't you know it, that park turned out to be a park that didn't allow for much exploring. But it did have some very nice playground equipment, and as the boys obviously thought, that's nothing to sneeze at.
They got home an hour later and just before dark.
The End.
posted by Peter Rice at 8:14 AM
2 Comments:
Peter Rice!! How are you doing? I found your blog through Blakes!! How is Japan? Are you still enjoying it?
Things are going well for me. I'm moving back to OKC to go to law school on August 13th. Kinda crazy how I'm heading back to OKC for school...I feel like a freshman again! :)
Hope things are going well..just wanted to say hi!
Petey...I always told you that you can write stories. When you start the next Harry Potter empire, make sure you share the profit with your buddy Stephen, who always believed you could do it.
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