Cor Caroli
The prairie was quiet, just like that day.
Stars that looked as though they would pour down at any moment were dotted all around, shining to assert their existence.
“*wheeze*… *pant*… I’m tired… isn’t this equipment too heavy…!?”
“That’s why I said I’d carry half.”
“*pant*, *pant*, I’m FINE… at least let me do this much.”
‘Then what are you complaining for?’, I thought, but seeing Uu-chan smile while dripping with sweat, the words completely faded from my mind.
Uu-chan placed down the equipment, and we set it all up one by one.
“You’re really good at this. Just what I’d expect from Muu-chan.”
“Naturally.”
“So, the plan is… communicate with aliens, and make it known that UFOs exist in this world. And then the misunderstanding about your father will be cleared up.”
“Yes.”
“The misunderstanding is… that your father cheated and ran away, right?”
Uu-chan’s tone held a hint of danger. I gave a small nod.
“Your father was a weirdo, but he definitely wouldn’t cheat or anything. Maybe grown-ups just don’t get that kinda thing.”
“Yes, they really don’t.”
“…Does your mother also think he cheated?”
“She’s joked about it, but I don’t know the truth. However, she has said that there’s no point in waiting endlessly for someone who’s gone, and that we should face forward.”
My mother loved my father, and spent a while crying over him, but she eventually resolved to move on.
“As a mother, I must put my child’s happiness first,” she said, and remarried.
My stepfather was the complete opposite of my father.
He was eloquent, bright, and sociable. He never so much as talked about space, and would never think to make a helmet as a present. And he never suggested going to a prairie to communicate with UFOs over summer break.
He was the type to work out a plan for a family trip to a summer resort months in advance. He did his best to treasure my mother and myself, who still wasn’t fond of him.
That much was clear. But even so—
“…I really do hate grown-ups.”
Uu-chan muttered aloofly, then quickly realised what he said and bowed his head apologetically.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t say that about your mother.”
“It’s fine. I know you’ve gone through a lot due to grown-ups discretion, Uu-chan.”
We finished setting up. It was almost time.
Digging up the memories of what my father did that day, I first had to transmit some morse code as a test; next, despite not knowing how far it would reach, transmit a pulse. Search for electronic responses in the sky with a radar.
Use the radio telescope. Shout. Wish. Pray.
And yet.
“…”
“…Nothing’s happening, huh.”
“It’s not.”
It wasn’t like that day.
The stars simply shone radiantly, looking down on us, who stood there dumbfounded.
☆
“Why on earth would you sneak out in the middle of the night and come back the next! You had us worried!”
When I returned home with Uu-chan in dismay, what we found waiting for us was a lecture from my stepfather.
He was a gentle person—I’d never once heard him raise his voice, but it seemed even he couldn’t overlook running away from home.
“I apologise for my selfishness. It was terrible of me.”
I bowed my head, and my stepfather looked as though he were about to cry.
“No… I’m relieved that you returned home without any trouble. Really…”
“I’m really sorry. How’s mother doing?”
“She’s resting in bed. Seems she was a bit shocked.”
“I’ll go and apologise to her right away. …It would be awful if this affected the baby.”
“Huh?”
Uu-chan had been looking at the ground, having been roped into the scolding, but suddenly snapped his head up.
“A baby… with you, old man?”
My stepfather nodded silently.
Uu-chan gasped, looked at my profile, then finally dropped his head once more.
“I really do hate grown-ups. I’m gonna be on Muu-chan’s side no matter what.”
I couldn’t see his expression, but his voice sounded like it was trembling slightly.
His words, his tone of voice—I turned them over in my mind countless times. I was certain I always would.
Uu-chan.
Because you were beside me, there were things I didn’t have to let go of.
“I’ll escort Ushio-kun back. Muneuji-kun, please go and reassure your mother.”
Those words from my stepfather felt as though they signalled the end of this long night.
☆
I walked into my mother’s room.
When she noticed my presence, she quickly sat up.
Her hair and face were a mess.
I rushed over to her. Taking care to not crash into her, I clung onto her body.
“I’m sorry, mother…! I didn’t mean to make you sad…!”
“I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have ignored your feelings for so long.”
My mother hugged me tenderly.
“You wanted to protect his place here, since you were waiting for him, weren’t you?”
“… Yeah.”
My mother didn’t criticise me, as though she understood how I felt.
“You know, the helmet he was making for you…”
“Huh?”
“It was finished a long time ago. Before he disappeared. But… we had to forget about him. You and I both had to move forward, so I hid it away.”
“…”
My mother gently stroked my head in exchange, and lovingly said:
“I returned it earlier, on top of your desk.”
“-…!”