Maria-sama ga Miteru Volume 7 Chapter 12

What was it about him that charmed me?

I couldn't sum it up in just one word.

To try and put it into words, it was his existence itself.

The thrill I felt when I first met him was like the excitement of buying all those s.h.i.+ny new textbooks at the start of the new school year.

The city zoo.

I'd grown tired of my everyday life and my feet turned towards the zoo, seeking refuge in the unexpected. I probably wanted to look at some living being that wasn't a human. So I would have been just as happy in the botanical gardens, or the insect enclosure. But the zoo was closest to where I was supposed to meet my older brother that day, so I hadn't looked any further.

I aimlessly wandered around, looking at the various animals. Their smell filled the air, but I soon became accustomed to it.

Then at the elephant enclosure, I encountered a curious scene.

From where I stood behind him, it looked like steam was rising from this man. At first I thought it was smoke from a cigarette, but that was wrong. While starting fixedly, I surmised he was carrying something like steamed pork buns.

At that point, he looked over his shoulder.

"Do you want something to eat?"

Probably because I'd been looking at his hands.

This bearded, bear-like man split his roasted sweet potato and offered me some. Still lost in confusion, I accepted and ate it.

It didn't feel like a new form of flirting. He seemed to have completely forgotten about me, with all his attention devoted to the other side of the fence. The elephant filled his mind, and even when I called out to him he didn't notice immediately.

"Would you like some tea?"

I asked a man, for the first time in my life.

"Huh?"

"As thanks for the food."

I pointed at a vending machine. At that point, he finally seemed to remember. That I was the girl he shared his roasted sweet potato with.

"Thanks."

We sat on a bench and drank hot canned coffee.

"Do you have today off work?"

I asked, my interest still piqued. He was at the zoo during the middle of a weekday, but he didn't look like a businessman skipping out on work. He told me he was a high-school science teacher, and he sometimes came to the zoo on days when he didn't have cla.s.ses.

"You came to look at the elephant?"

"Why do you think that?"

"Because you were staring at it so intently."

Was my reasoning correct? He laughed like a kid that had been caught while up to mischief.

"Yeah. I like big animals."

"Big animals? Like whales?"

"Whales are alright. But what I really want to see are dinosaurs."

Then he muttered, "But that's not going to happen," and took another sip of the canned coffee.

"So why do you come to the zoo? They don't have dinosaurs, right?"

I kept asking, question after question. His story kept me wanting more.

"To imagine. Like, when I look at this elephant, I think, okay, the stegosaurus was probably about this big. Or when I see a giraffe, I think the brontosaurus probably moved its neck like this."

He also said that he'd occasionally go to construction sites because cranes and excavators gave him a sense of dinosaurs too. But while they had the same size, they weren't as good because they didn't have the same bone structure or move the same way. Having flesh on the outside must make it a lot easier to picture them as living beings too.

"So you're not interested the in real thing, only a subst.i.tute?"

I said, a bit rudely. But he smiled and answered.

"I'm interested in the real thing too."

That's how I came to know that he dug for fossils.

"And me?"

I asked, spinning around after putting the empty coffee can in the recycling bin.

"Huh?"

He asked in return.

"When you look at me, are you reminded of a dinosaur?"

"Let's see. A hypsilophodon, I guess. A stegosaurus would be a bit bigger."

I felt a thrill, having never been compared to a dinosaur before. I'd never met someone like this.

"Thanks for the coffee."

He politely thanked me, then rose from the bench. He slowly walked over, and placed his can in the steel bin next to me.

"See ya."

As I watched him walk away, my heart cried out, "Wait!" He'd talked to me as we drank our cans of coffee, but I still wasn't satisfied.

I wanted to know more.

Things like his name, about his family, and his favorite food. Oh right, about his favorite dinosaur too -

I thought, "Next time, we'll have to a much more leisurely cup of coffee."