‘Aren’t you cold, Aya-chan?’ Hiromi made out some air conditioning sounds in the room noise.
‘No, Mummy, thanks! I feel great in these tighties!’
Hiromi impatiently took the communicator and went out to the balcony to see if she could spot her husband’s car.
‘Good afternoon, Ms Arai!’ a low male voice startled her.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Sano!’ she greeted her neighbour, a very old man smoking on his balcony, through a barrier.
‘Isn’t the weather just wonderful today, Ms Arai? only maybe a little too hot. What do you think?’
‘Oh, Mr Sano, could you imagine it, I even had to turn the air conditioning on. I totally agree with you.’ She spotted her husband’s pickup truck coming down the hill in the beginning of the street. ‘Sorry, Mr Sano! Keirou is coming back, I need to lay the table for my family’
‘Oh, sure, sure! Have a very nice day, Ms Arai!’
‘Wow, again like a chimney—at this point the smoke will totally get into the room. Thank God the wind is the other way today. Not only did he lead himself into such a state, now he wants to help the others too,’ so thought Hiromi about her neighbour, shaking her head on the way back to the living room.
‘Aya-chan, Daddy is back! go wash your hands and we will have lunch.’
‘Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!’ Ayaka leapt up and began to run wild around the room.
‘Ayaka, please, calm down! Grandma Yano will think a volcano is erupting if you stomp your feet so much!’
But Ayaka heard nothing of what her mother was saying. Running up to the front door and having made her way through the lock, she ran downstairs to meet her father, all the while yelling loudly.
‘So many tourists in the park today. There were like two buses of Americans brought here. I don’t even know where they got so many people to begin with! Can you imagine, Hiromi,’ Keirou was telling her wife, ‘two buses! I do think though it was on purpose—it surely is a lot cooler on Deck 1 than in the city, oh yes it is. They must have wanted to save on air conditioning, right Ayaka?’
‘Keirou, don’t distract her please! it wouldn’t hurt you to eat as well, too.’
‘I think, Daddy, that air conditioning needs to be turned off. They are very inefficient energetically. It’s so hot today! Mummy turned the air conditioning on at home. And she also put some tights on me: here, have a look,’ Ayaka lifted her dress in the same way again—to show her father her white tights covering half of her belly, which had already got bigger since she started eating.