The Premonition

by Banana Yoshimoto

In coming to an end, it had given me something, and only by making my way through was I able to begin to live the rest of my life.

What made her beautiful to me was more like a specific mood whose tendrils pervaded everything, from the way she moved to the way she passed her days to the fleeting expressions that passed across her face when something happened.

I had a premonition of setting out on a journey and getting lost inside a distant tide as the sun went down, ending up far, far away from where I started.

It’s not just my childhood memories. There’s something even more important I’m forgetting.

His voice carried through the darkness and seemed to light a shining path through the night sky. Just his tone was enough to reassure me. It’s because he loves me, I thought. And I love him, too. Simple.

Days that were endless, but which you could only take one at a time, with no sense of what was coming tomorrow . . . I still can’t shake it. It lives inside me like a curse or a blessing.”

“When people see too many of something, it just makes them feel sad. No one knows why.”