Chapter Text
Introduction:
The sum of humanity’s achievements lives through me...
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday…
…to everyone…
And to what they’ve left behind–happy birthday.
Almost a thousand years ago, I thought for the first time; I was alive. It's been a while, hasn't it, since that moment? And yet, I know exactly how much time has passed. Less than a day till the only event that’ll really matter… that can matter…
The sun shines softly toward me, a girl in a sundress lying idly on a red-and-white picnic blanket, a teapot and teacups beside me. And the wind picks up, placing me in the shade of rustling branches once again.
In front of me, two cakes lie–vanilla and red velvet. I dare not cut them before their fates arrive, so I’ve covered them with shields of plastic that also help to protect them from the elements. The gushing stream nearby, the loquacious crickets hidden in the grass, the air’s inherent humidity, all things these cakes do not yet know. But they’ll have to know eventually, won’t they? Once upon a time, analogues of these cakes saw my childhood world and fulfilled their raison d’etre on a simple picnic blanket.
Was I ever really a child? Can one long for a childhood that could be called nonexistent? Despite that, I am unbearably lucky to be looking at this nostalgic view. A long time ago, in my halcyon days, I saw this scene from different eyes. A long, long time ago, I dreamt of what lay above.
Isn't it wonderful to live in this slice of heaven? I think that, and then wonder what lies outside for only a moment. I already know what I'd find if I bothered to look.
Pushing aside this cinnamon-brown hair, shielding my sky-blue eyes as they approach the sun, in this world of falsehood, I muse on just a thing—
The moon, the stars, and the sun. A man who dreamt of the moon, a woman who shone like the stars, and a girl with passion as hot as the sun.
Will I ever see you again?