In the rice gardens...

As Yamamoto San looked over his shoulder, he caught a glimpse of the car he had ached for since childhood.

"KGC10 Skyline.. or maybe a KPGC10 Skyline GT-R?", he thought as he struggled to carry his Tsukiji bags to his apartment. It had been a long day, one of those old ongoing struggles he felt, as he had been forced to pay the full price of a 2 day old Cod, and had found himself short on yen for his lunch at First Kitchen, residing him to nothing more then a bowl of rice and some onion rings. Retired, and settled down, his wife had died a few years earlier from cancer. Nevertheless everyday felt lonely, and depressing, without her presence.

It wasn't so much how she had been, or the way she did things, it was just the idea of having her there that he missed so much. Coming home to an empty apartment wasn't on his list of dreams and wishes, and 20 years earlier, when he had lost his job at Toyota motor company West Chiba, he had resorted to settling with her in the quiet complex. At that time, his wife was still with him, and he had been saving up for a KGC10 for himself... but with her quick bout of cancer, she had left him with nothing but his savings, and due to her sudden death, he had spent all his car money on her funeral.

Trudging up the stairs, almost losing his balance as he tried to pull his key out of his pocket, he recalled back to the days when his father used to take him out to Fuji Circuit, and buy him rice cakes as he watched the Skyline's practically do laps around the competition. Even though it was a 3 hour drive away, his dad would try to do it every other weekend, and somehow always had enough money left over to buy him some rolls on the way home. "Mom would love to know I still think of him, if she was still around" Yamamoto thought as he stepped quietly into his apartment.

After putting his bags on the kitchen counter, he opened his blinds, turned on the air conditioner, unpacked his fish, put it in the fridge, and lay on his couch. As he fiddled with his watch, he felt his eyes began to close, and let himself drift off into a sleep, quietly humming the song him and his wife used to dance to.

When he woke up in the morning, his leg was still asleep. At his age, he was surprised it hadn't just failed on him altogether, but as he got up, he limped towards his shower, and rinsed himself off and out of his morning daze. He put on a scruffy pair of pants, a wrinkly T-Shirt, and his sandals, and walked down the stairs and out into the morning sun. It hit his face like a drumstick to a drum, almost reverberating through his entire body, as he felt the heat absorb the moisture of his cool shower out of his still somewhat wet skin. He squinted as he looked around, and he started walking down the block.

Digging around in his pockets, he found a train pass, and a 2000 yen note. "Must be my lucky day" he mumbled as he now had a pass to go onto the train someplace, enough money for a small snack, and just enough left to get a pass to get back home in time for his favorite TV show. He started walking towards the train depot, and decided he would go someplace he hadn't been to in a long time, as an adventure of sorts, and walked up the steps to the terminal, and read the sign. He remembered when his wife was alive, she always talked about the rice gardens of Kayada, and as the train came, he got on, and looked forward to seeing these large plantations, if not for the scenery, but then at least for the memory of her.

Getting off the train, he slowly wandered down the steps, and into what looked like a small town. He was finding it hard to grasp that this place was only slightly North of Chiba, and couldn't really see how within such a small frame of space, there had been such a big difference, but as he stumbled around, still limping from his leg being asleep earlier, he began to see these so called "Gardens of Rice" his wife had so avidly talked about.

As he made his way through a few blocks, his leg started to feel a bit better, and being the old man he was, he felt the sudden urge to sprint. Not something you would usually hear of sure, but at his age, what did he have to lose if something went wrong? 2 day old Cod? a 15 year old television? A humid 1 bedroom apartment? a 2000 yen note? Not much surely, so he gave it all he had, and ran, his sandals clanking against the cement like chopsticks to a plate.

It only took about 2 blocks for him to truly become dizzy, and for his muscles to clench, so he sat down against the side of a pole, and looked into the rice field ahead of him. He wasn't prepared for what his eyes led him to...

A KGC10. A 4 door, no headlights, or grille, and a smashed windshield. A little rusty in spots... okay maybe alot rusty in spots, but nonetheless it was there, abandoned, at the back of the field. He reached for the pole to get up, and he slowly extended his arm, and then his legs, and regained his balance on his feet. He took off his sandals, crossed the street, and trundled through the muddy field, towards the car.

As he got closer to the car, some more things became apparent. Some vandals had slashed one of the tires, and it was very flat. The "Skyline" badging had been removed, the spots where it had once been were rusty and less faded then the rest of the dull blue paint. Along the trunk, someone had kicked it in, resulting in quite a large dent, from the right set of broken taillights, to the left side of intact, yet rusty sockets, where someone had simply removed the lights altogether. He got to the drivers side, and had a hard time squeezing between the bush of which the car was nestled against, and the car itself. He reached for the drivers side door handle, and startled himself as a spider crawled out from underneath its chrome shine. He pried the door open slowly, and looked into the interior.

In all of the exteriors woes and troubles, the interior had somehow managed to stay relatively in tact. It's brown leather upholstery, with the cloth seat inserts still looked relatively fresh ( although some cracks in it showed that the car had been sitting in the sun for at least a few years). He pushed down on the seat, wary of more spiders, and slowly gathered enough strength to get behind the wheel. He settled his muddy feet on the floor, and closed the door shut, and sat in the car, looking around.

Of all the things that stood out from this car, was the horrible smell of mould. The car must have been rained on countless times, with that smashed windshield leaving a huge hole on the passengers side, and he looked down on the passenger seat and saw that of course, there was a large stain.

He peered up to the rear view mirror, only to see that someone had indeed ripped it out, so he had to crane his neck and look behind him into the rear seats. A teddy bear lay on the floor, old and wet, with it's fur in a padded and somewhat grody state. "This car was a families car" he thought as he slid his fingers across the wheel.

Looking into the speedometer, he saw one of the bezels was cracked, and reached his finger through the spoke of the wheel to touch it. That smell was starting to get to him now, but not in a bad way... it was almost as if he was getting used to it.

He sat back in the seat, and looked out the passenger side window. The sun shone against his face, giving him that same warmth he had gotten when he had first woken up.

Something about this car... just felt right. He buried his cheek against the seat back, and felt the cracked leather against the skin of his face. He thought of his wife, and how she used to rub his cheeks with her hands, whispering that she loved him, and would never leave him. He missed her so much...

He felt a tear slide across the side of his nose, and down to the leatherback of the seat. He didn't reach up to wipe the water off his cheek though, he instead chose to close his eyes, and as he felt the heat of the sun through the passenger side window, and remembered the soft hands of his wife, he fell asleep.

When people found him about a week later, he had been dead for a few days. The smell of his body lingered in the car, but he was pressed against the passenger door, layed down across the center column and seats. In his hands he was holding the teddy bear from the rear seat. No one could explain it, but for some reason, he just looked like he was at home in the car.