Fantasy story about crabs and the sea
Matsubara was a student at a music school. In early summer, he took his guitar to the sea, but when he returned, he didn’t bring it back. He said he left it with the sea for a while.
Matsubara’s guitar was newly purchased, shining chestnut-colored, and when he strummed the strings, it would make a sound as pleasant as morning dew dropping.
He placed the guitar on the beach and took a short nap. It wasn’t long, just seven or eight minutes, merely a quick doze. When he woke up, the guitar was broken. All six strings had snapped. Matsubara said nothing had ever surprised him more.
“No way! There wasn’t a soul around!”
Indeed, it was the early summer sea, where there wasn’t a single person. The vast blue ocean and untouched beach stretched endlessly. The only things moving were the birds flying in the sky. Despite that, Matsubara shouted at the top of his lungs: “Who did this?!”
Unexpectedly, a very small voice, close by, said, “Sorry.”
Matsubara looked around but saw no one.
“Who is it? Where are you?”
This time, another tiny voice said, “Apologies.”
Then, several small voices followed one after another: “We just touched it a little.” “We wanted to play music, too!” “We didn’t mean to break it.” “Yes, we just wanted to strum a little Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So.”
Matsubara grew angry and thundered, “But who are you—”
No matter how loudly he yelled, there was no echo from the sea. No matter how furious he became, the tomato-colored sun simply smiled, and the waves softly swelled and sang their song.
Matsubara took off his glasses, breathed on them, and wiped them with a handkerchief. Then, after putting his glasses back on, he carefully scanned the beach.
Ah… he finally saw them. Behind the broken guitar, there were many tiny red crabs. The little crabs were lined up, almost as if they were bowing.
“We’re truly sorry,” the crabs said in unison, apologizing. Then, one by one, they added:
“Blame it on the fact that we all have scissors for hands!”
“We really didn’t mean to break it, just touched it a little…”
“Yes, we only tapped it lightly, and snap, the strings broke.”
“Yes, that’s how it happened.”
“Truly, we’re sorry.”
The crabs apologized again.
“I can’t believe you guys!” Matsubara was still upset. “Do you think just saying ‘sorry’ makes it okay? This guitar was brand new; even I haven’t played it much yet! But, but…”
As he thought about how it had been ruined, Matsubara grew more and more sorrowful. Just then, a crab crawled from the other side of the guitar toward Matsubara and said, “We’ll fix it!”
Matsubara raised his shoulders in surprise, “Fix it? Don’t make such big claims. How are you going to reattach broken strings?”
“We’ll think of something! Everyone will put their heads together!”
“No matter how much you think, crabs’ brains…” Matsubara laughed mockingly. But the crabs were serious.
“Don’t underestimate crabs’ brains! There was once a time when crabs sewed up a sail that was about to tear on a ship. It was quite a surprising feat.”
“But sails and guitar strings are totally different things. This is a musical instrument. Even if you fix it, it won’t sound the same.”
“Don’t worry about that! We all have excellent musical sense. We’ll keep fixing it until you say it’s perfect!”
“If you say so… I guess I’ll be going!” Matsubara glanced at his watch. It was exactly three o’clock. Then one of the crabs said, “Excuse us, can we keep the guitar here for a while? Once we fix it, we’ll give you a call, and you can listen to the sound over the phone. If it’s good enough, you can come pick it up. If it’s still not right, we’ll keep working on it.”
Matsubara was dumbfounded. How could crabs make a phone call? How could such tiny creatures dial a number?
Anyway, that’s how Matsubara ended up leaving his guitar by the sea.
Back home, he waited every day for a call. About a week later, a small package wrapped in white paper arrived at Matsubara’s house. On the back of the package, written in strange letters, were the words: “From the Crabs.” Astonished, Matsubara opened it and out rolled a white seashell, about the size of his palm.
“Why did they send me this?” As he wondered that, he thought he heard a faint sound coming from inside the shell. A soft, plucking sound… Ah, it was the sound of the guitar.
Without thinking, Matsubara pressed the shell to his ear. Along with the sound of the guitar, wasn’t that the sound of the waves?
Ah, indeed, it was a phone call from the sea. But had the guitar really been fixed? Hearing the sound meant the strings were at least reattached, Matsubara thought. However, being a student at a music school, nothing could fool his ears. He brought the seashell up to his mouth and said, “It’s not the original sound! The low E string is too boomy!”
As soon as he finished, the music in the shell stopped abruptly.
“Then, give us another week!”
Matsubara heard the crabs’ voices before the call ended.
Matsubara couldn’t wait for a whole week.
Whether he was at school, walking home, or strolling around town, just thinking about the seashell phone made him incredibly happy. Matsubara suddenly thought it might be more fun to listen to the crabs play the guitar through the seashell than to play it himself.
A week later, late at night, the guitar sound came through the seashell by Matsubara’s pillow. He hurriedly pressed it to his ear. This time, along with the much-improved guitar sound, came the crabs’ singing:
“The sea is blue,
The waves are white,
The sand is pale yellow,
The crabs are red,
And the guitar is chestnut brown.”
“Hey, for crabs, that’s not bad at all!”
Matsubara muttered to himself. Suddenly, the crabs’ chorus stopped, and the lead crab’s voice came through: “Hey, hey, ‘for crabs, that’s not bad’ isn’t exactly a compliment.”
“So how should I praise you then?”
“Say something like, ‘Better than anyone else,’ or ‘Number one in the world!’”
“That’s a bit much, don’t you think? If you want to be the best in the world, you need to practice more. Your guitar playing is still lacking.”
“Really…”
The crabs grumbled, “We’ve been taking care of that guitar! We polished the strings with fine sand, carefully buffed it under the moonlight.”
“…”
At that moment, Matsubara suddenly remembered the crabs’ claws. So he loudly asked, “Hey, isn’t it strange? If you touch the strings with those clawed hands, won’t the strings break again?”
The crab clearly replied, “No, we’re wearing gloves!”
“Gloves?” Matsubara was astonished. The crabs were smarter than he had imagined!
Proudly, the crab continued, “Yes. Now we’re all playing guitar while wearing green gloves made from specially crafted seaweed. They fit perfectly and are great for playing instruments. We regret not wearing them earlier! If we had, we wouldn’t have broken your guitar that day!”
“I see…” Matsubara was convinced and said, almost unintentionally, “Well then, I’ll leave the guitar with you for a while longer! I’m super busy right now and can’t make it to the sea.”
“Really?!”
The crabs shouted together, almost unable to contain their joy.
“Yes, really. Work on the guitar’s high notes! Pay attention to the harmonies during the chorus. And, make sure to call me often.”
After saying that, Matsubara put down the white seashell. Then, wrapping it in a handkerchief, he carefully placed it in a drawer. Matsubara thought, “I’ll treasure this seashell.”
“Look at this! This is the seashell!”
Matsubara often showed the seashell to others, but all they could see was a pale pink hue inside the shell. No one else could hear the crabs singing, the guitar, or the sound of the waves. No matter how hard they pressed the shell to their ears, they couldn’t hear anything.
Perhaps it was a seashell that only those who had given a gift to the sea could hear.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
