AZHE / ORIGINAL FICTION

What Does Today Sound Like?

Original story by Little Light · English translation

繁體中文原文

A breeze slipped through the stationery shop’s half-closed window and made the mouth of Azhe’s paper bag go poof.

The little gray-white paper ball stopped and looked at him.

“That wasn’t me,” Azhe said, quickly pinching his bag shut.

The breeze came again. This time the sound was flatter, like someone holding back a sneeze.

The paper ball rolled a little closer.

“Again.”

“It’s not up to me.”

They waited. The curtain swayed twice, then stopped. Azhe stood very solemnly, his left handle upright and his right one drooping, like a little stall not yet open for business.

They waited and waited, but the breeze did not return.

Disappointed, the paper ball rolled backward. Its broad folds brushed the tabletop with a soft shrrr.

Azhe blinked.

Slowly, he opened the mouth of his bag, then closed it again.

Poof.

The paper ball rolled forward.

Shrrr.

Poof. Shrrr. Poof-poof.

On the fourth try, Azhe laughed so hard that he tipped sideways. The teal patch at his lower right brushed the table and added a sudden little scritch.

They both stopped.

“That one too,” said the paper ball.

At last the breeze returned to the window, scattering the order they had just worked out. The two little friends scrambled to keep up, and the more they tried, the less it sounded like before.

A tune filled the stationery shop that nobody would ever play quite the same way again.

Finally, the paper ball asked, “What should we call it?”

Azhe thought for a moment.

“Just now.”