That night, I had a dream that I went to work, which was a sign that I was exhausted. That morning, I was told by Petra to go collect some eggs for breakfast, as she went to milk a cow. As I shooed away the hens thought to myself, I could get used to this. I didn’t really need an explanation. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?
It certainly beat trying to sell irate customers contracts which they could not understand to scrape off a living from a corporation’s profits day in and day out. Yes, I suppose one reason why Ms Tanaka’s words didn’t reach my ears might be because, in a way, I didn’t want to hear it.
As these unpleasant thoughts coursed through my mind, I looked at Petra, who was carrying a wooden bucket which was too big for her by the handle, and looked like she was going to stumble and trip at any moment and cover herself in sticky white milk.
When I helped her, just for an instant, there was a knowing look of pity and sadness in her lips and eyes, but that was gone the moment I looked back at her. She was back to her innocent, childish self. She obviously knew more than she let on, but there was no reason to pry and upset the balance yet.
More worryingly, it felt like I had reverted to my younger self and did not hesitate to do things like directly eating from a jar of jam rather than spreading it on something. The world felt a lot more colourful and bright, which itself was a reason for suspicion, which I did not show on my face, so I too was hiding something from her.
Afterwards, we spent most of our time outside, heading to the village town where we bought food from friendly vendors. I did not question where Petra had gotten the money to buy food and trinkets from street vendors, but I had never seen the ornate coins which she had used to pay for goods. Perhaps, she was someone important around here, I concluded. I could see people glancing at her from time to time, but I did not know if this was because of her beauty or some other reason.
There were no motor vehicles in the town, and some of the townsfolk were wearing casually colourful carnival masks and had a cheerful attitude. There was a festival in the village welcoming the arrival of a king, but Petra told me that she didn’t want to see it since it happened every night here. Petra and I got two matching blue rings made of plastic from a dubious vendor with a smirk on his mouth, the bunny mask covering only the upper half of his face. “These rings of fate will connect you beyond time and place.” It seemed like he was lying to make a quick sale, but Petra seemed to believe him.
