Bike

Day 1: Yeah! Ready to buy a bike! Brought my helmet and 2 bike locks with me, yeah! Oh, why isn’t my pin working?

Day 2: Yeah! Got my money, heading over to the store! Oh, it’s too late, it’s closed.

Day 3: Yeah! Got my money, got my bike lock, heading over to the store! Oh, it’s closed this early? OH! That’s what 10月8 means, they’re closed for the week for national day! The camping store too! Ah, I had a sneaking suspicion that was the case! No bike!

30 seconds after I turned around to go home, something caught my eye. A.T. Field? Woah woah woah, back up. I ran back to read his shirt: “Stop! A.T. Field! We need the Human Instrumentality Project!” At this point the person inside the shirt was questioning my giddiness at seeing it. I yelled out “Evangelion!” figuring he would understand. I mean it’s what they call the show in Japanese, and if he’s a nerd enough to wear a Human Instrumentality Project shirt, he’s a nerd enough to have watched it in the original language. Yet he still seemed puzzled. I tried saying it a couple different ways: “Evangerion!” “Ehvangelion!”. I pointed to his shirt and everything. At this point he was slowly sounding out “So-ree, I don-t spea-“ I cut him off, realizing he didn’t understand. I told him “Wo xihuan ni de—“and I motioned to his shirt. He seemed to understand, and if he didn’t, he was in a rush. I wonder if he actually knew what his shirt meant.

“Hey, guess what. I was just attacked by some foreigner who kept going ‘avangelion’ or something and was pointing at me. Then he said ‘I like your..” and pointed at me again.”

“Those Americans, they don’t know what they’re doin’!”

• Daryl Hannah
• Brooke Shields