Chapter 7 Chapter Seven: Paper Dolls

During this time, do you always take the bus from Ogikubo Station to work?Konno Hiroshi was sitting at the door tying his shoelaces, and his wife Umeko asked from behind.Meizi was wearing pajamas and a sweater over her upper body. Well, by the way, you can exercise a little bit.Konno Hiroshi said in a weak tone. Six months ago, the Konno Hiroshi family bought a house near Iogi Station along the Seibu Tram Line.For a while, Konno Hiroshi used the Seibu Line at Jingo Station to go to work.However, Ogikubo Station on the state-owned tram line is not too far from Konno Hiroshi’s house. Although it is farther than Jingo Station, it is not impossible to walk there.In fact, the state-run tram line to Tokyo is a straight line, so it is more convenient to take this line to work.Moreover, walking is also good for the waist, so in the past two months, as long as the weather permits, Konno Hiroshi will choose to walk to Ogikubo Station to take a bus.

It takes a lot of shoes to walk that far.Meizi said slightly reproachfully. Most people only think about how to save on bus tickets, and few people even count the cost of buying shoes into their travel expenses. Is the husband's health important?Or are shoes important? Konno Hiroshi thought so, but didn't say it out loud.He didn't want to argue with his wife early in the morning over boring things, and Meizi didn't mean anything malicious.Meizi's provocation is like a game of competition between husband and wife. That is to say, accusing the other party's weakness can add psychological chips for victory.According to the size of the opponent's weakness, it can be divided into one point, two points, and three points. Of course, there are also ways to show off one's strengths and add points for oneself, but such opportunities are rare.It is much easier to discover the other party's weaknesses.In the form of couples, there is a tendency to complain to each other.

I'm leaving. walk slowly. Konno Hiroshi took two steps, and there was the sound of the door closing behind him, followed by the sound of locking it from the inside. The present house was discovered by Meizi.From the perspective of commuting convenience, I should have bought a house in the circle subway circle, but for ordinary office workers, that would be too extravagant.So Konno Hiroshi had to endure an hour's drive every time he went to or from get off work.Living in Iogi is also good for children's schooling, and shopping along the Seibu tram line is also very convenient, and the layout of the house is reasonable, so Konno Hiroshi agreed to his wife's choice without saying a word when buying the house.

It's so close to my childhood home. Konno Hiroshi noticed this when he came to see the house.Although the surrounding streets have changed, there are still many places that Konno Hiroshi is familiar with.From Konno Hiroshi's birth to 1944, when the war was about to be defeated, their family lived in a residential area north of Ogikubo Station.At that time, the state-owned tram line was also called the provincial line, and the end point of many provincial lines was set at Kichijoji. When the house was built, it was the period when Konno Hiroshi's father was most prosperous, and it was definitely a luxurious Japanese-style house.The gateposts of granite, the walls made of Dagu stone, and the beams and pillars of the house are made of a lot of precious cypress

It was finally preserved in the flames of war, why sell it? Everyone around said so, and Konno Hiroshi didn't quite understand the reason at the time. Konno Hiroshi didn't know the details of the situation. He only knew that after the war his father would set up a new company and needed funds, so he sold the house.These things were told by my mother a long time later. Now, is that old house still there? Konno Hiroshi thought this way more than once. But thinking about it, it has been more than 30 years. Even if the house was not sold at that time, I am afraid that it would not be able to maintain today.My father died, my mother died, and the family had experienced a very poor life. In order to make ends meet, the house would have to be sold sooner or later.

Konno Hiroshi had long forgotten about the old house, but since he moved to Jing Ogi's new home, he found that the old house was still there when he was walking to Ogikubo Station to take the bus. I can't believe it's still there. Thinking back, although I have been in Tokyo all these years, I have never been here once. A persimmon tree sticks out over the wall of the old house, with orange-red fruits hanging on the branches. At that time, they did not know that their house would be sold, so the family scattered a few persimmon seeds in the corner of the yard. One of them germinated and continued to grow. Judging by the leaves, it was indeed a persimmon tree.With the development of the war and the deterioration of the current situation, the food supply in Tokyo has begun to be tight. Hungry children often imagine the small persimmon tree as a big tree full of fruits.

Looking at the persimmon tree through the fence, it was about the same location as Konno Hiroshi remembered. That's the guy, yes. Konno Hiroshi concluded that this was the little persimmon tree at that time. Thinking of this, a strong feeling of nostalgia suddenly arose spontaneously.A ripe persimmon fell from a tree and landed on the side of the road. Konno Hiroshi lightly kicked the persimmon with his toe, and it rolled on the concrete road.At that time, there were all red soil roads paved with Kanto sand. Konno Hiroshi didn't know the surname on the nameplate at the gate either. Of course, he couldn't know it.

Anyway, it survived perfectly. But upon closer inspection, there is something that makes Hiro Konno feel sad.Here and there you can see the signs of repairs and additions, some long ago and some more recent, like patches on a garment. However, the overall layout of the house has not changed. The gates are open on the left and right, and a urinal is opened on the right side of the gate. Usually, family members use this urinal. The layout of the rooms is as follows: the first floor has a reception room, a living room with six mats, a living room with eight mats, a study room with four and a half mats, and a servant room with three mats; on the second floor there are six mats. There are two rooms and one room with four and a half mats.According to the number and composition of family members, these rooms can be divided at will as long as a partition is added in the middle.These layouts may not have changed, but it's also impossible to tell what's going on inside from the outside.

Entering the main entrance of the room, there is a wide hall, which is actually just a corridor, as big as four and a half mats.Although my father expressly forbids playing here, it becomes a playground for children on rainy days. Meizi knew that her husband lived here when he was young, and Konno Hiroshi told her when he came to see the new house. I used to live nearby when I was a kid. Ah yes.It didn't look like the wife cared much about it. It has completely lost its old style. there's no way. On Sundays, the couple often went hand in hand to buy things in the shopping street near Ogikubo Station, but Konno Hiroshi never told Umeko: If you turn there, you can see my childhood home.

Konno Hiroshi seemed to have some concerns in his heart, but he himself didn't know the reason. because there is no suitable opportunity Perhaps this is the biggest reason.The road passing the old house is the shortest way to Ogikubo Station, but if you want to go to the shopping street by this road, it will take a long detour.When he and his wife went to the shopping street to buy things, he didn't want to take this road, because he didn't want his wife to feel that he deliberately took a detour just to tell her that this was his childhood home.And Meizi never asked about the location of the old house.

She doesn't ask me, and I don't need to tell her specifically. Although he didn't live in the old house for a long time, seeing the old house through the fence brought back Konno Hiroshi's memories of his childhood.To be honest, if he hadn't seen that persimmon tree, Konno Hiroshi would have forgotten that he had planted seeds there.If you search in your mind out of thin air, you may not be able to remember anything, but once you encounter an introduction, it will bring out a series of memories.Konno Hiroshi doesn't want anyone to spoil his joy of reminiscing the past for the time being. Maybe I should have come here a few years earlier. While driving, he looked into the yard through the wall and thought about it. Konno Hiroshi was a weak child when he was young, not only the people around him said so, but even he himself thought so.Konno Hiroshi has an older sister who is six years older than him. When he was young, he used to play with his older sister by pulling her skirt, but the age difference was too big. After a few years, his older sister didn't want to play with him anymore. Don't stay at home all the time, go out and have fun.At the urging of his mother, Hiroshi Konno went out of the house to play, but at most it was just a circle around his house. At that time, there were still patches of fields near Konno Hiroshi’s home, surrounded by barbed wires, and leeks were planted in the ridges outside the wires.Konno Hiroshi pulled out four or five tender green leek leaves, and then went to find small holes in the red soil in front of his house. There were many small holes in the red soil. When he found them, he inserted the leek leaves. Small white worms live in the small holes, which may be the larvae of butterflies or moths.I don't know if it's because they like to eat leeks, or because they are angry because foreign objects invade their home, but they will bite one end of the leek leaves tightly.Once bitten, the half of the leaf on the ground will shake unnaturally, and when you see the timing, you can lift the leek leaf suddenly to catch the small insects. Hiroshi Konno's game is nothing more than that.But for him, it's also the most fun game when he's alone. what are you doing? Nothing. Let me play with you. Um. In the neighbor's house diagonally opposite, there was a girl two years older than Hiroshi Konno, named Kanko, surnamed Xikoji.Konno Hiroshi thought this surname was strange, it sounded like a place where a monk lived. Juanzi is called Konno Hiroshi: Xiaohong, and Konno Hiroshi is called Juanzi: Sister Juanzi.Adding a sister always feels embarrassing to call her, so Konno Hiroshi will not call her by her name unless it is absolutely necessary, and of course he will not call her by her last name. Is she practicing playing the piano?The sound of the piano often came from her house, and whenever the sound of the piano stopped, Jinzi would poke her head out of the gate with her clogs on.If Konno Hiroshi was outside, Kaniko would usually play with him. She's kinda bad though While playing hide-and-seek, Juanzi yelled that she's not healed, she's not healed yet, and ran farther and farther away.And I also waited to play this kind of game at dusk, and the surroundings gradually dimmed. Although it is only two or three hundred meters away from home, and there is nothing scary at all, Konno Hiroshi has never been to a strange place alone except for school.At this time, the surrounding scenery became a bit scary, dry wells, empty houses left by the family to escape the war, small dark warehouses, looming ancestral halls in the woods, and stones piled up in the open space At this moment, Juanzi's voice suddenly disappeared.It was replaced by the cry of a ferocious beast: Awow Konno Hiroshi knew that it was Jinzi who was deliberately scaring him, but he was still terrified. It was not yet the era of shortage of supplies, but the life of the children at that time was very simple.There are few opportunities to buy new toys and new school supplies every year.Every time his parents bought Konno Hiroshi a new toy, he would show it to Kanko.Seeing Konno Hiroshi's smug smile, Kanko would definitely pour cold water on him: What are you talking about.This is Kanoko's habit of breaking or soiling Konno Hiromyo's most precious toys whenever possible. For example, the crayons, which were gifts from my uncle to Konno Hiroshi, are the latest style, with sumo wrestling patterns drawn on the box, and Konno Hiroshi loves them very much.He couldn't help showing it to Juanzi, and told her how good the crayon was. Silk said, "Huh?"Yeah?Let me have a look. She pretended to be drawing on paper, but deliberately broke the crayon very hard.The grief at that time remained in Konno Hiro's memory for a long, long time. Of course, when Kanko is in a good mood, Konno Hiroshi’s favorite thing is to play money-picking games with Kanko Let's go pick up money.As he spoke, he kicked away a stone on the side of the road with his foot. Konno Hiroshi kicked away the stones on the side of the road following the example of the silk, and then searched carefully as if lying on the ground. After a while, ah, I found it.Juanzi yelled, and took out a ten-yuan coin from under the stone. Of course, the money was hidden in advance by Kanko, but it was many years before Konno Hiroshi realized this.Kanko usually buys snacks with the money she picked up, and then distributes them to Hiro Konno to eat together. This is the happiest moment for Hiro Konno. Desserts are delicious, the most important thing is that the little princess is in a very good mood today Silk is a beautiful little girl.Konno Hiroshi's sister said. yes.Mother nodded again and again. Even the cousin who came to play at home said: Juanzi might be an actress in the future.In this regard, Konno Hiroshi was very impressed. When playing with Kaniko, Konno Hiroshi never paid attention to her appearance.Because he is only a child of seven or eight years old. Now it is a bit difficult for Konno Hiroshi to recall Kanko's face. There is only one photo of Girls' Generation Kanko in his photo album.But looking at the photos, Hiro Konno always felt that it was different from the Kanko in his memory. Silk skin is very white. The skin is as delicate and smooth as wax stone. The eyes are clear and large.In a child's mind, the so-called beauty and big eyes may mean the same thing.In this concept, Kanko is indeed a little beauty. Because sometimes Konno Hiroshi is often bullied and teased by Kanko, so he doesn't really think that Kanko is beautiful, but since the adults say that, it must be reasonable.Take a closer look, Jinzi's eyelashes are as long and neat as the girls in the manga. Every morning, Konno Hiroshi will walk to Ogikubo Station to take the tram to work. On this road, he can see the old house where he once lived, and the old house will evoke infinite memories for him Princess Walnut, the name of a manga protagonist comes to mind. It is a character image that Konno Hiroshi liked very much when he was young. The manga was written by Katsuji Matsumoto, probably a man with big eyes.No, Princess Walnut is a girl, so maybe the author should be a woman, Konno Hiroshi doesn't know.He didn't remember the appearance of Princess Walnut very clearly, but he only knew that he liked that face very much at that time. When she loves her to a certain extent, she even wishes to become like her. If only my face could be like hers. Konno Hiroshi imagined, trying to open his eyes in front of the mirror. I forgot which magazine it was, but a ten-centimeter-high Walnut Princess paper doll was included in the appendix.Konno Hiroshi likes the puppet in green on the top and red on the bottom, and it is like a treasure.But this puppet somehow resembled Kaniko, which made Konno Hiro feel a little regretful.For a while, this paper puppet of Princess Walnut became Konno Hiroshi's most cherished toy, like a talisman. Paper puppets are generally girls' playthings, but it's not impossible for boys to play with them.Konno Hiroshi remembered that he had played house games with Kaniko a few times. They found a lot of cartons, and then used the cartons and lids to build a house. The space between the cartons was used as a toilet, and the result was a home with many toilets.Paper puppets are assigned to their own rooms, and Princess Walnut's room is always the largest and most luxurious. Pinch the shoulders of the paper puppets with your fingertips to make them stand up, and then speak the lines you made up yourself. Hello! Ah hello! Kanko especially likes to make paper dolls go to the bathroom.She asked the paper puppet to squat down, and then asked it: Is today's stool soft or hard? These funny childhood memories revived in the mind of the middle-aged Konno Hiroshi. Alas, if I hadn't seen the old house, how could I have remembered so many things! Looking at the home where I lived when I was a child from a distance, my thoughts are like a fountain, just like a magician continuously conjures things out of a box.At this age, Konno Hiroshi sees clearly that life is no longer much fun.I am very happy when I recall the past. To put it a bit exaggerated, Konno Hiroshi seems to have found a new way of entertainment. One day a month after discovering the old house, when Konno Hiroshi passed by there for work, he noticed that the door panels of the old house’s gate had been removed, and a closer look had put up scaffolding inside. There were few tiles left on the roof, and the windows The window frame is gone too, Konno Hiroshi understands: It's finally about to be dismantled. The house was built in 1936, and it has experienced wind and rain for more than half a century.Since it is a wooden structure house, it has been used to the limit for fifty years.It should be said that this house is still very well preserved. Konno Hiroshi paid attention to the houses around the old house while walking. There were no such old buildings around.There are reinforced concrete apartments everywhere. It is estimated that the housing price in this area will not be too low. When he married Umeko, Konno Hiroshi's parents had passed away, and there was only one older sister.And the parents didn't leave any inheritance.Meizi was somewhat dissatisfied with this point.However, compared with getting a small inheritance, it is still more cost-effective to marry a husband who has no parents, at least not to wait for the elderly.There are many examples in the world that prove this theory is correct. Konno Hiroshi is now close to the age when his father died. He doesn't want to be taken care of by the children to cause them trouble, but if he lives on, his body cannot be strong forever, and there will be a day when he can't take care of himself.Also, there is not much legacy to leave to the children. At a certain age, it is better to die cleanly. This idea is too realistic, let's think of something happy. Arriving at Ogikubo Station, Konno Hiroshi squeezed his body into the crowded tram, and at the same time, his thoughts ran to the past. There are dull buildings everywhere outside the car window. There used to be a small forest near the old house.It would be more appropriate to say the grove than the woods.At most, it covers an area of ​​eight or nine hundred square meters. There are some tall trees with dense branches and leaves. The ground is covered by shrubs, and there are several faint paths among them.There are several small puddles on the path, and butterflies in twos and threes often come to the water to drink. For the young Konno Hiroshi, the forest at night was terrifying, but during the day it was much better, with sunlight shining through the branches.There was also a cleared clearing in the grove that was a secret playground for the children to play in. One day, Hiroshi Konno and Hiroshi Kanno went to play in the woods, and Hiroshi Konno forgot whether they were playing games or chatting on a tree stump. It was just me and Kazuko that day. Konno Hiroshi can be sure of this. How old was I? Konno Hiroshi lived in that old house from 1936 to 1944, from the age of two to ten.In 1944, the situation of the war worsened, and the family moved to his father's hometown, Toyama City, to escape the war.During the period of living in Toyama, the old house in Tokyo was sold, and Konno Hiroshi never went back to see the old house since then. At that time, Konno Hiroshi was about nine or ten years old, almost at that age. Playing in the grove, Konno Hiroshi suddenly noticed that the silk was missing. strangeness. Is Juanzi trying to play some prank again?Konno Hiroshi carefully pushed aside the grass, thinking that her plot must not be allowed to succeed, but who knew that when he pushed aside the grass, he saw a white thing, which was the color of his skin. Kanoko was squatting with her back facing Konno Hiroshi, urinating. You are peeing. Um.Kaneko stood up and pulled up her panties under her skirt.But she went on to say: uncomfortable. Kakino frowned because her underwear was wet, so she bent down and pulled it off as if by magic, then hung it on a tree branch to dry. I don't wear anything underneath.Kaneko said to Konno Hiroshi who was watching from the side. Um.Of course he wasn't wearing anything, and Konno Hiroshi didn't know what else to say except nodding his head.The snow-white skin just now has been hidden under the skirt. What is hidden there? Kanko seemed to see through Konno Hiroshi's thoughts. show you.As he spoke, he turned up his skirt. Konno Hiroshi stood there speechless. Like a wound. It was an unbelievable shape that had never been seen before. The fluttering skirt locked Konno Hiroshi's sight. At that age, Konno Hiroshi had no sense of sex, and no one knew whether the excitement he felt at that moment was related to love.Maybe it's just a surprise, or an indescribable excitement. Every time the young Konno Hiroshi saw Kanko, he thought of what happened in the grove that time, and he wanted to take a closer look.But there was no more chance. Silk is a beautiful girl. Maybe I can become an actor in the future. People around still comment on Juanzi like this. It is indeed beautiful. Konno Hiroshi thought so when he was in fourth grade. but The appearance is very beautiful, but there is such a thing that can't even explain the shape hidden under it, it is really inconceivable.Whenever he thinks of this, Konno Hiroshi will be inexplicably excited.The beautiful features and strange creatures are in stark contrast. Kanko was about twelve years old at that time. Almost, at that time, Juanzi had already begun to mature, and her body was basically like a half-adult. Today's Konno Hiroshi is very familiar with every corner of the female body, and the body of a twelve-year-old girl can probably be imagined.However, the memory left in my heart is obviously different from the image in reality.Forty years ago, there was only such a short moment, and the impression seen through the eyes of a child had repeatedly appeared in Konno Hiroshi's mind countless times. It's completely different. There is no concrete image anymore, it just remains in the mind of Konno Hiroshi as an incredible concept.Perhaps this expression is closer to reality. Sure enough, the dismantling of the old house started, scaffolding was erected, and a tarpaulin was placed around the house to prevent dust from flying around.When passing by next time, the skeleton of the house has already been revealed.There is also a sign next to it, which reads: Private residential building land. Seeing old houses is the only joy of walking this road, but A few months later, a new apartment with no connection to Hiro Konno was built on the site of the old house.In this way, all traces of a family's history of living here for more than ten years have disappeared. This is a matter of course. Parents passed away a long time ago, and it would be rare if the house can be preserved to this day. There is nothing in life that makes Hiro Konno particularly happy, and the evidence of survival is being weathered bit by bit.But fortunately, the past can still be recalled. On rainy days, just play in the lobby of the corridor.Konno Hiroshi will take out a lot of cardboard boxes and pile up the hall with nowhere to go. He uses the cardboard boxes to build a luxurious home for the dolls. The weather is fine today. Yeah, let's go for a walk. ok let's go. Princess Walnut is always the protagonist of the game. In the beginning, Princess Walnut was manipulated by Konno Hiroshi, but gradually Kanko took away the power to control the protagonist. There is a stone slab for shoes at the gate, and one step up to enter the corridor. Kaneko manipulated Princess Walnut with her fingertips, making her walk in the corridor.Kanko wanted Princess Walnut to stand still, so she inserted her into the gap in the wooden floor, but the gap between the floors was larger than expected, and Princess Walnut fell through the gap in the floor. ah! sorry! no solution anymore. Did the silk do it on purpose? Konno Hiroshi still doesn't know, maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn't intentional.In short, it happened in an instant. Konno Hiroshi wanted to crawl under the floor from the yard to rescue Princess Walnut, but it turned out to be unrealistic. Konno Hiroshi couldn't remember how sad he was at that time. It seemed that he cried all night. For a long time, he would look under the dark floor from the crack in the floor where Princess Walnut fell every day. There are probably only so many memories about the old house and Juanzi left. I was about eight years old when Princess Walnut disappeared. Judging from the childishness of the game, it is roughly that age. The connection between seeing Kanko's private parts in the grove and the disappearance of Princess Walnut in time has become blurred in Konno Hiroshi's memory. Most of it has been dismantled. The beams of the house could no longer be seen from outside the tarpaulin, and the rubble had piled up outside the fence.Since it was very early in the morning, the construction workers hadn't gone to work yet, and it seemed that they could get in through the gaps in the tarpaulin.Konno Hiroshi looked at his watch, usually he arrived at the company ten minutes earlier, even if he was late occasionally, it didn't matter, he could explain: there was a traffic accident on the road, and there was a traffic jam.However, today is the only chance to enter the ruins of the old house, so Konno Hiroshi got in through the gap of the tarpaulin. The beams and columns have been removed, and the remaining half of the low wall can still see the layout of each room. Konno Hiroshi found that the room without the roof is smaller than the original feeling. The layout of the courtyard has been altered by subsequent owners; the cypress floors of the rooms have been ripped off; the gallery halls are the best preserved, but here and there are tiles covered with moss. Judging from the shape, the stone slab for putting shoes in front of the door is still the same as before.Konno Hiroshi bent over and leaned over, a damp and musty smell peculiar to the underfloor wafted into his nostrils.Konno Hiroshi picked up a wooden stick and fiddled with it under the floor of the original corridor hall. Ah, found it. Under the dust, the poor paper dolls lay there quietly. The printing on the surface of the paper puppet has completely faded, and it can only be judged from the overall shape that this is the former Walnut Princess.The paper body has turned brown, with wavy wrinkles all over the body, and several damages. Konno Hiroshi wanted to take it back, but after checking the condition of its whole body, he finally decided to give up.Just a little touch will break everything, no matter how much you repair it, it is impossible to restore it to its original shape. Bye now!Konno Hiroshi put Princess Walnut back to its original position, clasped his hands together and bowed before exiting the ruins of the old house. The memory of the paper puppet and the old house had disappeared in Hiro Konno's mind for a long time, and now they have revived again, which made Hiro Konno feel great joy. In the future, sleepless nights will be accompanied by these beautiful past events. Moved to a new home, but it was the former residence of his childhood. What surprised Hiro Konno even more was that he met an old acquaintance. The owner of the cake shop in front of the station was Konno Hiroshi's deskmate in elementary school.He also evacuated with his family to escape the air raids, but they moved back to Tokyo shortly after the defeat.I have been living there for more than 30 years, and I seem to be still serving as a district councilor now, and I know more about my old friends. He also knows something about the silk. As predicted by the people around her, Kaniko became a beautiful woman, but unfortunately she did not become an actress. Well, she is indeed a once-recognized beauty. Kanko got married in an ordinary way and became an ordinary mother.Her husband seems to be a district councilor too, and his home is just opposite the station.