Promptober 2026 Day 3: Crossing
It snuck up on me. I only looked up from my phone when I heard the announcement over the train’s PA system:
“Kishibojimmae Station. Kishibojimmae Station.”
“Here,” Maki said. “This is the stop.”
My eyes widened, but before I could protest, we were up and out.
While she checked something on her Maps app, I took in the surroundings. It occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I had been here during the day. In the sunlight, it was different: Green railings that shone and glowed dramatically under sodium arc lamps turned flat and dingy. The concrete, which I remembered as practically alive with promise as it stretched out into the inviting darkness of Toshima City, cracked and sprawled dully.
Apparently satisfied, my sister nodded and tucked her phone back into her bag.
“This is our last stop,” she said. “There’s a bakery a few blocks from the station.”
“Oh– I’m in this area pretty often, actually. A bakery?”
“I’m batting for the cycle,” she said, and started to walk. Mystified, I followed after, hurrying a little to match her stride - my sister was almost fifteen centimeters taller than I was, and her legs were considerably longer.
I had expected Maki to come home from the conservatory for Golden Week. What I hadn’t expected was for her to appear in the doorway of my bedroom and ask if I wanted to go shopping, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
As if it was something that we did all the time.
What was I going to do? Tell her no for the first time ever?
“This place has a monthly pudding,” she said by way of explanation.
“A monthly…”
“Pudding, yes. It’s different every month. Seasonal, you know?”
I nodded my understanding.
“Before I left for school, I was going every month with my friends. It was, like… special, you know? Something we all did together. Anyway, we got eleven months done, but graduation and exams got in the way, and then we all went off to different schools, so I never finished the full cycle. I never got to eat April’s pudding.”
“So we’re going to get the April pudding, so you can finish the full year,” I said. “That’s what you mean by ‘batting for the cycle.’ Is that a baseball thing?”
She grinned. “That’s right.”
“What about your friends? None of them wanted to come?”
Maki inclined her head noncommittally, making one of her dangling earrings catch the sunlight and sparkle. “I didn’t ask. I wanted to do it with you.”
“...ha…?”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” she laughed, turning the full force of her smiling gaze on me. I had to look down at my shoes instead. “Is it weird to treat my baby sister?”
“...guess not,” I said. “Still, it’s not like we ever did stuff like this before.”
For a minute or two, Maki didn’t respond, and we walked in silence. At the next intersection, she reached up and pressed the button to indicate that we wanted to cross.
“I told mom and dad that I came home this week because I wanted to see them, you know?” she said. “And that isn’t a lie. I did. But the reason I came home was so I could see you*.*”
I didn’t say anything. I was watching the bright red ‘raised hand’ sign on the other side of the street.
“...I’ve just been a little worried about you,” she said. “I mean, being alone in that house with them, you know? I’ve been worried that they would get worse.”
“I have my job.” I shrugged. “And I have band practice and homework. I’m usually home after they go to bed. Besides, they’re out of the house on tour for weeks at a time. It’s really not a big deal.”
Her shrewd, concerned eyes searched my face, looking for some crack there, some kind of tell, something that would give me away. She wouldn’t find it. She never did. After a moment, she let out her breath in a frustrated woosh.
“I never learned what to do,” she said. “By the time I realized–”
“Nee-chan.”
“-what was happening, they had already decided that you - like, it was already set in stone. Nothing I could have said… and I mean, it’s not like I thought they were right. You know?”
“I know,” I said. “It isn’t your fault.”
“It isn’t yours, either. It’s just…”
She trailed off. There was something pleading and desperate in her voice that made a gout of annoyance rise into my chest. She clearly wanted something from me, but I had no idea what.
The light turned, and we crossed. A couple of old guys wearing business suits passed us going in the other direction.
At the cafe, she ordered two puddings and two coffees, and we sat. We talked about her classes. About my band and my job. About nothing at all.
As I talked, she took my hand in hers. Like always, she gripped it too hard, her slender fingers entwining with mine protectively, like she was trying to shield my hand from something.
Like I was going to wriggle out of her grasp.
Like I ever would have tried.