Album

“I’m home.”
I unlocked the door to my apartment and turned on the light. I said “I’m home” again to the small potted cactus on the shoe box. It has been there several months since I started living alone. Even when I come home to an empty room, I always say hello, as was my habit until I was a student.

Along with a large bag, I placed on the table a large package that had arrived at the mailbox.

“Dear Yuri Sasakawa.”
In my mother’s familiar handwriting, my name and the address of my apartment were written. On the back was my mother’s name and a nostalgic Nagoya address as the sender.

I wondered what it was, and carefully opened the envelope. On the flower-patterned letterhead was a short message.

Dear Yuri
How are you doing? It’s getting hotter and hotter, so please take care of yourself. We have received your graduation album from your university. I got to see the contents a little bit first. Sorry about that. It was a really fun college life, wasn’t it? I could feel your memories with me, and it brought tears to my eyes.
I know you are busy every day, but please come back anytime. I will be rooting for you.
From your mother

When I finished reading the letter, tears filled my eyes and the floral pattern on the letterhead blurred and wavered. Clutching the corners of my eyes with both hands, I pull out a large album from the package. I pulled out a heavy booklet from its dark red cardboard case. On the cover is the school emblem in the shape of a crossed lily and a picture of a lily. It is my favorite flower, the same as my name. Yuri means lily in Japanese.

As I turned the pages, nostalgic scenes of the campus jumped out at me one after another. The first time I walked up that hill. The library, my favorite place to be. The cafeteria where I laughed with my friends. Every memory came back to me, along with the scenes, smells, and temperatures. I gently put the album back on the table and went to the kitchen to make coffee. With a warm cup of coffee, I slowly return to that time.

This album will always take me back to that place.