Author: Naoko Awa

I couldn’t recall which day it was, but it’s a story about me, losing my way on the hills. Carrying a riffle at my back, I was walking back to my little house on the hills lethargically. That’s it! I remember now. I was walking aimlessly as I kept on thinking about the girl that I liked.

As I make a turn on my way, the sky turned so bright all of a sudden as if it was made of polished blue glass. Even the floor looks bluish…

“Huh?”
I stood straight, blinked my eyes for a few times. Wait, shouldn’t that place be a pine forest? Why has it become an open ground now? Not to mention being filled up by balloon flowers, as if it was a garden of balloon flower.

I started gasping for air. Have I took the wrong way? Is there such a garden on the hills? I should head back now!
There’s nothing wrong with the garden, but it’s just too beautiful that it somehow, freaks me out. But… but the scenery is just so calm and serene, wouldn’t it be a waste if I head back now? Then, I decided to rest for a while.

As I sit down and wipe my sweat away, something white drifted before my eyes out of a sudden. I stood up to get a clearer view, but what I saw was a row of balloon flowers swaying as that white object ran by them.

At first I thought it was a kid, but then it turned out to be a white fox! I quickly get my riffle and started chasing after it. It never stops running and I couldn’t catch up with it. I may shoot it down, but it’s best to follow it to its den. I’d want to hunt down the elder ones. It takes a jump into the garden and ‘poof’, it’s gone! I stood there aimlessly as I lost it.

Suddenly, there’s a voice from behind.
“Here you are.”
Shocked by that voice, I try to turn around slowly to get a picture of what I’ve heard. I turned around, and there’s suddenly a shop in front of me. There’s a blue plate on the shop that writes “Printing and Dyeing shop of Balloon Flower”. Underneath the plate is a staff that wears a green apron. From that moment, I understood what I’ve seen. It must be some illusion created by that fox just now!

Then I said to myself “I know, I’ll act like I don’t know anything and go with the play. This way I’ll get to catch it at the end.”
“Can I take a rest in your shop?”
That staff smiled and say “Come in! Come in!”
The rooms in the shop are made from mud, 5 birch chairs were placed along with a nice table in it.
“Isn’t this a nice shop?”, I rest myself on the chair.
“Yes, thanks to you.” The staff began serving me tea as he replies.
“Say, what is it that you actually dye in your shop?”
The staff jumps up, grabbed my hat and say “Yes, sir. We can dye anything, including this hat. Everything can be dyed into such charming blue colour.”
“What?” I snatched the hat and say “I don’t like blue hat.”
“Is that so? Well then, try this…” the staff started giving me blue objects like scarf, socks, trousers and so on.

I thought for a moment, “Is the fox trying to get some reward from the ‘customers’? Plus, it wouldn’t be good if I don’t get anything since tea was even served. If it is so, I’ll let it dye my handkerchief.” So, I put my hand into the bucket.

This time, the fox screamed in a weird tone “Yes! Yes it is! I’ll dye your finger!”
“What!? Finger? That’s ridiculous!”
The fox smiled and said “Oh, my dear customer, dyeing finger is a very special thing!”
Then, the fox shows its tiny little fingers that are in blue! It crosses four of its fingers and made a little window frame. After that, it puts its fingers closer to my eyes and said “Look! Look through it!”
“Huh?”
“Look! Just look for a moment!”
I did so, and was stunned from what I saw. There is a female fox lying elegantly in that “window”. It looks as though it was a painting of a fox. “What on earth is this…?”
The fox turned gloomy and said “That was my mother.”
“….”
“Few years ago, I hear a ‘bang’!” said the fox.
“Bang? Is… is that the sound of a gun?”
“Yes it is…”
The fox began to lose its spirit, he faces down to the floor and said “I wish I could see her again. I wish that she could be here with me. This should be love, isn’t it?”
I felt sad for the fox and nodded my head.

“And then in the Autumn season when the wind blows softly, the flowers told me to dye my fingers and make a window out of it! I listened to them as I gather the flowers to dye my fingers. This way, I could do this! Look!”
The fox formed a “window” with its fingers again.
“I’m never lonely anymore. I can look at my mother whenever I wanted to.” explained the fox.
I understand how the fox feels as I’m alone too. Then, I asked “I want those windows too!”
I behaved like a child as I asked for my wish, but the fox seemed to dislike that attitude of mine.
“Okay then, let’s dye your fingers! Put in your fingers there.” said the fox.
As I put my fingers on the table, the fox brought a pen and a bucket of syrup extracted from the flower. The fox began painting my fingers silently and carefully. At the end, my fingers looked as blue as those balloon flowers in no time.
“Look, we’re done! Quick! Form a window!”
My heart was pumping in a high speed as I slowly form the window with my fingers. I looked through the window carefully, and I saw a girl wearing a dress and a hat. She looks familiar, and there’s even a small mole under her eye. I thought to myself “But… but… Could it be!?”
I jumped out of shock! That’s the girl that I liked but could never meet!
“It’s a good thing to dye my fingers, right?”
“Ah, what an awesome thing it is to do!” replied the fox.

I decided to pay the fox, but could never found a single coin from my pocket. I had no choice, so I said “I’m penniless, is there any other way I could repay you? Perhaps I’ll give you my hat? My scarf? Anything you like.”
“If you put it that way, I’ll take the riffle then.” replied the fox.
“My... my riffle?” I asked. Then I thought to myself “Since I’ve found such a mystical ‘window’, why would I need a riffle now?”
“Okay then, I’ll give you the riffle.”
As I hand my riffle to the fox, it bows politely and accepted my offer. “Thank you.”
In the same time, the fox handed me some mushroom and said “Here, you can boil a soup with these mushrooms.”
Before leaving, I asked the fox for the way home. The fox told me that the pine forest is right behind the shop and that I could reach my house in 300 meters. I thanked the fox, followed the way, and I’ve finally found the pine forest and that cozy warm little house of mine.

I was thrilled! I didn’t expect to find a garden of balloon flowers behind the pine forest. What more interesting, is that unbelievable experience about that shop and the helpful little fox. I rejoiced from what I’ve gone through today. I kept on making that little ‘window’ from my fingers.
But this time, it’s raining ‘in there’. There isn’t a single sound in there but the rain. Far away, I could see that courtyard I’ve always been missing. There’s a pair of soaking wet boots lying on the floor. (That’s mine!) I remember this! I think my mother could appear in any second to get my boots. Suddenly, she appeared.
“Ah, it’s bad to throw these anywhere.” said my mother.
And then, there was these vegetables that mother has been planting in the garden. The vegetables were soaking wet too. Could it be that she wanted to harvest the vegetables?

Out of a sudden, I could hear laughter of some children. That’s my voice! And, the other kid is my younger sister who had passed away…
I sighed and put down my fingers. Somehow, that sadness and sorrow has returned. Back when I was a kid, the house was burnt. That courtyard is probably not even there anymore.
I thought to myself as I was on my way home, “Since I have such mystical fingers, I must do my best to protect them. I must cherish them forever.”
I kept on having these thoughts after I got home. Then, I thought back of what I’ve done since I got back home. It was till then I realized that I mistakenly washed my hands like I always do! But it’s too late now! I tried my hardest to form that ‘window’, but all I could see is just the ceiling of my house but nothing!
Not only that! I even forgot to eat the mushrooms given by the fox!

The next day, I planned to visit the fox again. But this time, I prepare some bread to repay it.
But no matter how hard I try searching for the garden, I couldn’t find it anywhere. It’s just a piece of pine forest now!
I wandered around the forest for a few days in hope that I could spot some fox or anything that can bring me back to the garden. But I guess I wasn’t lucky enough.
Since then, I could never see a single fox in the forest anymore.
Sometimes, I’d put my finger up and form that ‘window’ hoping that I could see something from it. The people always laughed at me, saying that I have some of the weirdest action.


Words for the children:

Have you been cherishing the people around you? We tend to realize what we have only when we lost it. However, we can never move forward if we live in the memory. Why don’t we start to cherish the things around us, rather than missing what we’ve lost? The person in the story kept on looking behind, thinking about the past, but had never paid a single attention to his presence and future. It’s too late to realize that we should have loved and cherished our family when they’re gone. The children often thought that “Parents are “suppose” to take care of us, it’s what they must do, and it’s their job.” To be frank, this isn’t right! Parents are not our maid. Parents are the elders that should be respected, loved, and cherished by us. Our parents have been nurturing us, encouraging us, protecting us, and loving us. It’s time we realize that our growth is the best way to ever repay them.

Ikeda Sensei has always been encouraging us not to forget to love and be filial towards our parents. But how do we define being filial? Being filial means not to make them worry about us. Not to get sick, not to be friend with the wrong person, to study well, are examples to not make them worry about us. Parents would be glad to have children that don’t need them to be worried over them! Perhaps some of you would have lost your parents. But that’s not the reason for you to feel sorrow! You must live meaningfully and to be strong against your challenges. This is also a way for you to repay your parents.

The Daishonin teaches “Parents are artisans that build pagodas.” In other words, parents are the ones who nurture us to become capable people in the society.

Another message from this story is about peace. The purpose of the fox getting away the riffle from the person, is to not allow the dreadful incident that happened on his mother to ever happen again. “There’s nothing more valuable than peace” and “To wipe away the word ‘tragic’ from Earth” are two of Ikeda Sensei’s sentences that touched the local newspaper company and my heart. War could start from a gun, soon a gun may become bombs, and at the end it could have be an atomic bomb. A single atomic bomb could take away millions of lives in no time, not to mention destroying the nature.

When there’s peace, we can go to school without worries.
When there’s peace, everyone would have a great future.

Ikeda Sensei understands how it feels like to have an ongoing war. Thus, Ikeda Sensei had begun spreading the awareness of the importance of peace ever since he was young. Ikeda Sensei is currently 82, but his mission has never stopped. China and Russia avoided the tragic of having a war through having a dialogue with Ikeda Sensei.

Have you tried having a dialogue with your friends? We may not have war in our country, but we must still have dialogue with our friends, informing them the importance of peace and the nightmare of having a war. This is how we let the public understand what Soka Gakkai really is. This is what we called a Dialogue of Peace. You could even bring your friends to the JD meeting to let them know what activities you are involved.

At the beginning of the story, that person had always thought that the fox is trying to trick him. But as the fox sincerely had a dialogue with the person, he began to trust the fox to even tell him what’s his wish. This is the power of dialogue. If you could just take a first step to sincerely have a dialogue with your friend, I’m sure he/she would reply you with whole-heartedness.

Lastly, you must all cherish what you have and be filial towards your parents. Your current thought and action will contribute to what you’ll become in the future. Please do not hesitate. Be brave to have that dialogue! Keep up the good work!

Shared by,
Wee Yean.

Labels: n. Story palace