Night on the Galactic Railroad: A Fairy Tale by Kenji Miyazawa

Author: (Japanese) Michio Kaku
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: "Classmates, some say it's like a great river, while others say it's like the traces left after milk flows—what exactly is this white expanse, do you know?" A blackboard hangs a pitch-black star map, and the teacher points to a white, hazy streak running vertically and asks the class. Keisuke immediately raises his hand. Followed by four or five other classmates. Gion also wanted to raise his hand, but quickly lowered it. Indeed, he had seen it somewhere in a magazine, vaguely remembering it as made up of countless stars. However, recently, Gion has been dozing off in class every day, too busy to read or having no books to read. As a result, he is clueless about everything. The teacher quickly noticed this. "Gion, do you know?" Gion stood up resolutely. But when he stood up, he realized he couldn't answer the question at all. Zanelli turned his head from the seat in front, looking at Gion and giggling softly. Gion was speechless, his face flushing crimson. At this point, the teacher spoke again. "When we observe the Milky Way closely with a large telescope, we will know what it truly is, right?" But Gion still couldn't answer immediately. After thinking hard, he still thought it was stars. The teacher was at a loss, so he shifted his gaze to Keisuke. "Alright, then let Keisuke answer." Keisuke, who had been so eager to raise his hand earlier, now hesitated and slowly stood up, remaining silent for a long time. The teacher stared at Keisuke in astonishment, then quickly turned to the blackboard and said, "Alright." Then he pointed to the star map. "When we observe this white expanse of the Milky Way with a large, high-powered telescope, we will see countless small stars. Right, Gion?" Gion nodded, his face flushed crimson. But his eyes were already brimming with tears. Yes, I knew it all along, Gion thought. Keisuke undoubtedly knew it too. It was in Dr. Kaku's house, Keisuke's father's house, where he had read that magazine with Hebe together. After finishing the magazine, Keisuke even ran to his father's study and brought back a thick book, flipping to the section on the "Milky Way" to explain it to himself. The two spent a long time admiring the beautiful pictures of twinkling stars on the dark pages. How could Keisuke forget all this? He couldn't possibly not know the answer. Recently, every morning and afternoon, working has been exhausting, and he couldn't play joyfully with the others during school hours. He also couldn't talk to Keisuke much. Keisuke had seen all this and remembered it in his heart. He must be sympathizing with him, so he deliberately pretended not to know the answer. Thinking this, Gion felt pitiful about himself and also felt sorry for Keisuke. The teacher continued his explanation. "Alright, if we consider the Milky Way as a great river, then each small star would be like a grain of sand or pebble at the bottom of the river. If we see it as flowing milk, it would resemble a river even more. In other words, all the stars are like tiny fat globules floating in the milk. If this is true, then what is the water in this river?"