The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

THE CLOCK TOWER

When they reached the roof, the autumn breeze blew a chill through their clothes, and they stood for a moment together, gazing up at the tower.

“Can you climb up that high?” asked Bunichi.

“No problem,” said Masako with false confidence, as she did her best to stop her legs from shaking. Then off she went inside the tower with an air of cheerfulness that was just as false.

“Hey, hold on,” called out Bunichi behind her. “It’s dangerous, let’s go together.”

As they climbed the dusty steps, Masako took in the view. She could see the low green hills on the outskirts of town, all the different shades of foliage under the autumn sky and the long white strip of road that snaked its way into town — past the church, the fire station and the watchtower — and then wound its way to the front door of the school.

“Oh!” Masako let out a gasp as she suddenly felt dizzy and needed to rest on the stairs.

“You shouldn’t look down,” said Bunichi, grabbing her shoulders. “What should we do, Masako?” he asked her. “Should we go back down?”

But they had already got quite far up. In fact, there was only one floor left until they reached the machine room. Masako decided it would be a shame to turn back, so she shook her head and said, “No, let’s keep going!”

“But you can’t even stand up!”

“Well then, please can you take my hand?”

Bunichi hesitantly reached out to take her hand and helped her to her feet, then slowly they continued their ascent. As they went, there were several landings between flights of stairs, each with an overhang and a concrete divider about forty centimetres high, and when they reached the last one, there were only twenty steps left to the machine room. But right at that moment, Bunichi — who had been walking ahead of Masako — let out a piercing scream, let go of Masako’s hand and started waving his arms around frantically.

“It’s a spi… A spi… spider’s web!” he blurted out pointing to a huge cobweb in the corner of the landing.

“Be careful!” yelled Masako.

But Bunichi was too busy grappling with the spider’s web to even notice how close his feet were getting to the concrete divider. He lost his footing, tripped over the divider, and his body went sailing over the overhang.

“Help,” cried Bunichi.

“Oh no!” screamed Masako, forgetting her fear and scrambling to the edge, where Bunichi’s fingers were clinging on. “Hang on tight, Bunichi!”

Bravely, Masako grabbed hold of both of Bunichi’s hands and tried to pull him up with all her strength. She knew that, if he were to lose his grip, then both of them would end up falling several flights to the ground.

If he falls, thought Masako, it will be just awful. I brought him here, so it would be all my fault. And I’ll die as well!

Fortunately, Bunichi managed to swing one of his legs onto the overhang, so Masako was able to grab him by the belt and pull him in.

For several moments they sat on the narrow overhang in silence, looking at each other, listening to their hearts pounding away and waiting for their breathing to return to normal. Both of them were thinking about what might have happened, and both of them felt a chill run down their spine.

It’s weird, thought Masako, but I feel that something like this happened once before.