Water..! "75 Years Hiroshima" Dr.Soko DAY23

The Morning of Aug 8th

In the morning of Aug 8th,  when Nobuko woke up, she noticed herself lying on the grass. She wrapped her head with hands. Pulsing headaches repeated.

"..Last night, I was tired and slept on the ground."

"Oh, no...my head hurts."

She held her aching head with both hands. 

"..Okay..I took a train from Kure to Kaitaichi and then walked through  Hiroshima. But, after all, I couldn't find my grandma."

"Ah"
Nobuko felt a momentary dizziness and knelt down, but stood up.

"I have to go to Rakurakuen to look for Grandma"
Her throat was dry and soar, and legs were weak.
Nobuko walked to a field, and took a hard tomato and bit it. 

She started walking.

As Nobuko proceeded along the tram tracks, the summer sunlight and the glare from the ground mercilessly deprived Nobuko of his physical strength. At first, the sweat was flowing like a waterfall, but gradually decreased. The saliva withered, the mouth became rough.

When she felt dizzy,
"Grandma must be waiting for me in Rakurakuen"
she tried to believe in her words and move her feet forward.
Gradually, she became out of breath, and her stride became smaller.

She was so tired.
There was no choice but she leaned against a utility pole by the side of the road, threw her feet and sat down.
Her throat was very dry and was felt like there was sand dust in. She couldn't stop coughing. After all, she stood up.

She searched for water and walked around the back alley, but there was no well or water supply, but there was a water tank for extinguishing fire at the corner of the road. She thought the water was clean to drink.

At that moment, the scenes of the water tank she saw yesterday caught her head. 

Nobuko saw that two boys plunged their heads into the water for extinguishing fire. They were dead. There were other corpses submerged in the water.  

Nobuko could not drink water there.

Nobuko quickly left from there. No matter how many times she shook her head, the clear image of  water tank yesterday, came up to her mind. 

As she walked around, she found a well pump in the garden of a private house. She straightly pierced the garden, pushed pumps, and poured water into her throat. She coughed a lot, because she hurried to drink so much. And then, she dipped her head in water. Nobuko raised her head and started drinking water again.

After a while, Nobuko noticed that an old man of the house was standing at the eaves. Even though Nobuko entered his premises and drank water, he did not look angry, but just looking at her without saying anything. 

 Nobuko bowed to the old man. Then she turned back the way she came and returned to about the pole where she was sitting.

Calling

When Nobuko tried to walk along the tram tracks again.
She heard a voice.

"Ex..excuse me..."
That was a faint voice.

Nobuko looked around with surprise, but couldn't see any person. 

She turned back and started to walk to a direction of the tram track.
"Hi, I'm here! excuse me!"
Nobuko heard it clearly. 

She turned around, and looked around carefully.

Then, she found something moving  in the hollow behind the utility pole. An arm stretched up from the hollow. 

"Water... please give me some water."

She saw a man in khaki clothes lying down in a narrow gutter.