A Cloud's Diary 
Cho Shinta

○. ○. (Snow) I see a snowman. He looks quite a lot like me, so I went closer. He has a nicely made face. I don't have a face. I am a cloud, after all. This is the beginning of a diary by a cloud with no face. Fluffy, fluffy — that's how I'll go on living!

○. ○. (Overcast) I arrived in cold lands. Chunks of ice are floating in the sea. They are called "drift ice." I wanted to get a good look at them, so I moved closer — and this is what happened. It's cold. The "drift ice" crunches and seems to be laughing at me.

○. ○. (Overcast) Under a dark sky there is a blue lake. There are lots of birds called grebes here. They always hop into the water and before I know it, they surface again. And then they call out "ru, ru, ru". I became a grebe. Look, this too is thanks to them. But I cannot dive underwater. That frustrates me.

○. ○. (Sunny) When spring comes, the snow melts. I am glad that I can float through the sky. I don't even want to think about grebes anymore. We will be friends forever, Kumoko-chan. I think of her. Kumoko-chan was that creature — a cloud dinosaur. Her name was Ryoko-chan. I hope she is alright... But Kumoko-chan is gone.

○. ○. (Sunny) I am on a ship. It looks like it is sailing very far away. I decided to disappear and hitch a ride on it. But my ears tell me: "Stop, stop." I hear "dónde, dónde" and someone says: "That is something the passengers don't like." "Passengers? And who are they?" I ask. "People," comes the answer. Can it really be that there are people who are bothered even by clouds?

○. ○. (Overcast) Today I tried resting on the peak of a snowy mountain. From a distance it apparently looked like a real mountain, and people were quite stirred up about it. That was fun. But I couldn't hold it — I sneezed and the mountain slid away.

○. ○. (Snow) Today it is snowing. I would love to see the happy faces of everyone going to school, but the snow must fall. Quietly, quietly it snows. I hope nobody loses their mittens... and I hope nobody catches a cold. Quietly... quietly... quietly...

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