Goodbye Tsugumi

by Banana Yoshimoto

For some reason it had occurred to me that love doesn’t ever have to stop.

No matter how long you leave the faucets running, you can be sure the supply won’t give out.

Her cheeks shine in the light of the sinking sun, and her face seems achingly fragile, like the overwhelming brilliance of the twilight sky, which keeps changing from instant to instant, never lingering for long.

Her white teeth, her thin neck, her large eyes as they gaze into his—it all gets mixed up with the sand and the wind and the sound of the waves, and seems on the verge of dropping away into nothing.