THE HOT ROAD

It was the picture of two tortoises lying prone and sunbathing that my mother took by her mobile phone camera. It happened on the mean point of a long and quiet asphalt road. Along this road, a waterway for farming ran. The two tortoises were on the narrow space of a concrete pipe appearing above the water.

Rice fields mostly spread out all around. The hospital was located on such land. In a life of a mere little human being, I had exceeded the limit and had tried to give a description of too many things, or had tried to express things in the surprising language to people. As a result, I became a patient.

The sun was shining on this asphalt road with the very hard heat. And the surface of the road reflected the immeasurably heated light. The sunshine was so hot and bright that we did not know whether my mother should put up a parasol against the sky or against the surface of the road.

My mother came through such the road and visited me. When she went back, I went out too, and went part of the way with her. Then she found that tortoises in the waterway and took a picture of them. She said that she would show it to someone.

Because of the hard heat, I stopped walking at the point where the tortoises were lying. I look at my mother from behind walking away with a parasol against the sky. She seemed to be the heat haze in the gold sunshine. I could not stand the heat of the ground as if I had been standing barefoot. So I returned early to the cool inside of the hospital.