Fate Carries You Away; Drifting Further and Further

Chapter 16: Giving Gifts On A Birthday Is A Real Friend's Job

Eiji Okumura

11 Aug. 2018

Research got much easier after Ash gave into the fact that he should just read up on the plants and medication and diet for the treatments only. He stopped having daily panic attacks, and he also seemed to have more fun doing his part of the research; spreading around fun facts he read in the books all the time, which made it clear that he's enjoying himself.

I bet he's reading in a book about herbs right now, even though I never asked him to work so hard on Saturdays. Even I don't usually work on Saturday.

But today that's different.

I might be at a shopping village and not be at work, but I am busy with work-related activities. That's because I found out a little something when reading through Ash's medical chard; tomorrow, on the twelfth of August, is his eighteenth birthday.

I cannot go there tomorrow, knowing that it's his birthday and not bring any presents, so when I left work yesterday I asked his best friend to come shopping with me today.

Obviously, Shorter said yes right away. And now we're meeting up at one of New York's shopping villages, so we can search for the best presents for Ash.

It's not hard to spot him, with his purple dip dye and bright clothes, standing near Subway.

"Morning, Eiji!" He happily waves at me, probably in case I didn't see him yet.

I wave back and greet him too when I'm close enough. "Thank you for coming."

Shorter grins and says, "Well, Ash's my friend too! So I want to be part of his birthday party too."

I chuckle, and tell him I completely understand that. "But I'm still glad you want to help me too, because I just cannot think of anyone who knows him better than you do."

"Well—" Shorter starts walking, clearly expecting me to follow him. "—I don't think I know Ash as well as you think I do," he admits with an apologetic smile.

I wonder how it's possible that after - what did Ash say? - twelve years Shorter still doesn't know everything there is to know about Ash. "But you've been friends for so long?" I ask, before realizing that Ash is actually pretty private when it comes to himself and his feelings.

Shorter shrugs. "Yeah, we've been talking for years, but we don't really talk about personal stuff."

I tell him that's totally fine, to have a less personal friendship with someone. Especially when it comes to someone like Ash, I don't want to ask Shorter about it, but maybe he also kept Ash at an arm's length because Ash could literally die any moment; that's not the easiest in a friendship.

"Anyway," Shorter says to change the subject. "What kind of present were you thinking off?"

I shrug, looking around the street to search for a good shop. "Maybe some books, he reads a lot."

Shorter nods and tells me that's true, but something about his tone tells me he's hesitant about buying Ash more books. So I decide to ask him what he thinks about that.

"I don't know," he admits with an apologetic wince. "I don't think he'll have much time left to read books." Shorter glances at me from behind his sunglasses. "If you know what I mean."

I stare down to the floor and feel a little sting of pain in my heart; I know exactly what Shorter means. Ash has reached stage 4 quite some time ago already, his reading skills will start going backwards any moment now, he won't be able to read much anymore indeed.

"Maybe we can still buy him one book," I suggest. "Do you know if he likes audio books?"

Shorter chuckles. "You wanted to buy him an audio book?"