tabtabt The day, Chao not as usual took her seat at the central part of the room where I customarily sat down, and the next seat of her was vacant. Then I sat at the very place vacant. I asked her name (Chao was her nickname given by herself), and then gradually we talked about ourselves. She was born in Sendai city living in the town with her parents, and was either a beautician or an intern.

tabtabt I was talking about a short story which I had written before my 20 years. The story had a title of "A Trifoliate Poem for Blue Glass" and contained an episode concerning a girl whom I had met 10 years ago today, in other words, on the Saint Valentine's Day. This story was written for subscribing to the contest in my college promoted by a student's association, and selected to the second prize, then the coterie I belonged to, reproduced it to their literary magazine.

tabtabt At that time, failed to enter university, I lived as a ro-nin (a master-less samurai or a boy waiting for another chance to enter university). February 14th, 1965, on the Saint Valentine's Day, I went to neighboring K city for maybe such a business as to go for the certificate of completion of my high school course or else, and on the way home I met a girl who gave her name as Satoko Kato at a coffeehouse named White Cross in a quarter near by the station. (It might be emphasized that it was the first experience for me to enter a place such as coffeehouse.)

tabtabt Going down the narrow stairs, White Cross was in a basement having rather large and gloomy room. I sat down at the seat near the entrance and Satoko was seated alone facing me beyond 3 boxes or so. It seemed that she was reading a book or something casting down her eyes, and she raised her head, met the eyes of us, smiled calmly. Such cases happened in several times and she encouraged me to her seat. "Come on and let's talk."