“The spicy vegetable curry was really good.”
My daughter and I were talking as we walked out of a curry restaurant run by Indians.
“The spicy lamb curry tasted authentic.”
“And the price was good too.”
“Yeah. I liked the plain naan better than the butter naan.”
“Me too. But it was nice that they didn’t use too much butter.”
We were so full that we walked a little before driving. It felt good to walk slowly along the quiet street and talk.
“The mantis walked like this.”
I was in a good mood, so I started imitating the mantis I had seen the day before.
My left arm and right leg went forward together, then my right arm and left leg, with a little bounce in between.
My daughter laughed.
“Did you take pictures?”
I showed her the photos one by one.
“It moved really slowly, almost like it was giving itself a little push. I had never seen such a pretty light green mantis before.”
The Day Before
My husband had been sitting on a bench under the tree outside our apartment building. When my daughter and I came out, he stood up to get into the car with us.
Then my daughter said, “Oh, there’s a bug.”
A fairly large insect was sitting on his shoulder.
He brushed at his shoulder with the phone in his hand, but it stayed there. So I gently knocked it off with his phone.
When it landed on the ground, I saw what it was.
A mantis.
“Wow. A mantis here at the apartment…”
My husband said, “It must have come out of the grass. With that color, it can hide pretty well. You saw it when you were little and lived in the countryside with Grandma, right?”
“Yes,” my daughter said.
“I’ve seen grasshoppers, but I’ve never seen a mantis before. Only in cartoons.”
My husband and daughter laughed and headed toward the car.
I stayed behind and took a picture of the mantis sitting on the ground.
After staying still for a while, it began to move.
Very slowly.
A little at a time.
But then something interesting happened.
It rocked slightly as it moved, keeping its own rhythm. It just kept moving forward, little by little.
I watched for a while, then went to the car.
What Could I Write?
“It’s rare to see a mantis around a city apartment, so I want to write about this. How could I write something with these pictures?”
I asked my daughter, showing her the photos.
She smiled.
“Even if you go slowly, if you keep going, you’ll get there.”
“Oh, you’ve been reading my writing so much that you know my style now. I could write it exactly like that.”
I laughed and told her it was a good idea.
“This mantis showed up at exactly the right time,” I said with a smile.
I had been writing slowly, at my own pace.
But lately, I had started wanting results. I could feel myself getting impatient.
The Field
Then I thought of the old man I often see from the window seat at a cafe near my house.
He works alone in a large field.
At first, I wondered how one person could possibly manage all of it.
But he just kept working at his own pace.
Little by little, he prepared the soil and planted seeds.
The field had been empty all winter. Now many things are growing there.
Green onions are the only thing I can recognize.
Not long ago, I saw him planting what looked like seedlings in part of the field.
Now green leaves are already coming up.
“My class is hard,” my daughter said.
“The professor said there might be a lot of blank exam papers.”
“So the exam is going to be that hard? But wouldn’t students write something they know? Maybe he was joking… but that’s not funny at all.”
My daughter laughed.
“You’re right. What you said is funnier.”
