Asphodel

Such a lovely day- The perfect day for sitting in the park, or having lunch on a terrace, or walking where a car would serve.

Naturally, there were no extra people in the streets.

Well, maybe one or two- Inoue didn't spend every afternoon, eating a steak sandwich on a bus bench. But it gave a perfect view of the mentioned park, the center fountain a few yards away, across the street. Nothing worth noting, but a perfect thing to stare at as you wait for the bus... Or for a delivery truck, that just happens to swerve and hit a fire hydrant, spraying water on a tree at the park edge.

Poor driver, getting out and yelling for help. Not only is his truck crashed, but it was badly hatched, bt the doors sprang open on impact and spewed plastic, colored eggs all over the street. Luckily, a dozen or so pedestrians - who just happened to have empty shopping bags on hand - all broke their walk to come towards the mess, picking up eggs and calling reassurances to the driver, who wasn't even looking in his breakdown.

Crunching his wrapper in his hand, Inoue got up and tossed it in the garbage, turning to go just as everyone else was stalling to stare - if only for a moment. He didn't need to stay, after all. The hard timing was done, and he knew the rest. The happy helpers would forget what they were holding, and promptly trip on their ways home, dropping the eggs all over again in various parts of town. A small, if strangely synchronized mishap, which shouldn't cause too much ruckus.

But it would keep anyone curious enough to pick them up quite busy - if for only a while.

A bell rang as the B-Z Model Shop's door opened, announcing the departure of its owner. Inoue Yori stepped into the fading light of sunset still wiping his hands on his untied apron, but his eyes were already shifting across the row of shops surrounding his. The sharp gaze turned satisfied, pleased at the sight of people milling about the street and store fronts, as if it weren't something he'd come across everyday. As if it were something besides the random passage of neighbors and fellow town folk.

Done wiping his hands, Inoue tossed the apron onto a counter and grabbed a tan satchel from it. Locking the front door – the OPEN sign still displayed in the window, with strange, fuzzy text handwritten in below it – he turned the key with hands still covered with already dried bits of glossy paint. This wasn't an odd sight in and of itself, given his work often marked him by the end of the day. Usually he'd take the time to better wash away the stains before taking to the street...

But today was special. Today, he was ready to stand back and consider what he had built.

His shop corner was just across from the central road, leading him into the center of town and the park at the heart of it, the people passing by increasing as he neared the grassy expanse of perfectly symmetrical lines of trees and flowers. Any of the benches the cobbled cross-point of four dirt paths would the perfect spot to stop. And so he did, pulling a leather roll of tolls and smooth bit of wood from his bag as he considered the area.

The fountain – a marble pyramid in the center trickling water down between the “bricks” – blocked a bit his view, but it was still the best spot to catch sight of as many residents as possible, prone as they were to come by on the way home from work or school, or linger to meet friends or relax on their own. At some point or another, for just a moment, everyone would come by. Everyone would cross paths.

He had designed them that way.

And with any luck, he would spot no fault in his model.