The View Grandfather Saw
祖父が見た景色
The next evening, Haru reached Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of Europe.
Standing at the of the land, he saw the lighthouse from the old photograph.
The wind was strong, and far below, the Atlantic crashed against the cliffs.
Holding the photograph, he felt his grandfather standing quietly beside him.
Near the lighthouse stood a small cafe, and a woman came out to him.
Her name was Ines, and she kept the cafe near the cape.
When Haru showed her the photograph, her eyes filled with tears.
"That is my grandmother, Amalia," she said softly.
Amalia had passed away a few years before, but she had kept the same photograph all her life.
Ines brought out a photo and an old letter written for the family of the boy from Japan.
If his grandfather had returned, he would have seen Amalia again.
If only Kenji had come back to this , their would have been kept.
In the letter, Amalia wrote that she understood and forgave him long ago.
She had watched the alone every year, keeping the memory of two hearts alive.
"Watch the ," she wrote, "the view is more beautiful when it is remembered by two."
by her words, Haru could not speak for a long moment.
He walked to the very of the as the sky turned gold and red.
Watching the sun sink into the ocean, he finally understood his grandfather's secret and his .
I wish he had seen this , Haru thought, but somehow he is here.
He was no longer the boy who had left the airport months ago.
Holding both photographs together, he promised to carry this love home.
The sun touched the water where the land ends and the sea begins.
His grandfather's long was over, and Haru's own long way was only beginning.