Oh please .... .

I used all the patience that I had lef in me, to talk Obaba down.

I told her that since she did not write letters to anyone, she wouldn't need any letter paper, and if she ever did face a situation that she should write someone, I'd always be glad to give her as many sheets of letter paper as she needed. Besides, if there is any such occasion, it would be me doing the writing, not her.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Somehow I managed to make her give up this time.

It was the seventh day, when Obaba told me to get her two new markers, since the old ones that she used to write down whatever she had to remember, had run dry and she couldn't write with them anymore.

Racking my brains, I realized it was useless to tell her that she should have kept those caps on.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

So I dropped by 100-yen shops, convenience stores and supermarkets on my way home, but I couldn't find the same marker that she had requested.

I had to search for them all over wondering where in the world did she buy the old ones, until I found them at last at a stationary shop near a station. The problem with this selfish Obaba was, that she would not accept it if it wasn't exactly the same with what she had requested.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I bought three of those markers, with forethought that she might request them again in the near future, and dragged myself home.

As I handed Obaba two out of three markers, keeping one in my room as a safety stock, she immediately made her next request as though it was nothing out of the ordinary.

But I couldn't stand it any more. Her everyday requests were driving me crazy.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I had been complying with Obaba's requests for a week, which all of them were only for satisfying her pride, and I've had enough.

All this time that I had been made to get whatever she wanted, I wasn't just doing THAT, you know.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

All this time, I've been writing contents for this web site, fixing my own meal, washing Obaba's clothes, cleaning her room, cleaning her potty, clipping her nails, going to the doctors' to pick up her pills, going out to meet people, take pictures for this web site, living my everyday life taking extreme care that JoOusama can live her life happily, and so on.

Why do I have to be so busy, when I'm not even earning a penny with it? Where's MY time? And where is MY LIFE?

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I was totally exhausted and my patience was worn out.

Me and Obaba got into something like a fight, though it wasn't actually a fight at all, since that demented Obaba wasn't able to even argue.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Hey Mikeco, are you listening?

"Bzzzzz ... Bzzz .... ."

MIKECO!

"Bzz .. huh? Oh, yes, yes ... I'm listening, I'm listening."

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

"So you were tired of complying with the demented old lady's requests, right?"

Yes.

"What's that got to do with your catching a cold?"

Well, there were other things falling upon me when I was so exhausted.

"There sure must have. The F1 World Championships series has finished with Alonzo as a champion driver, and Renault as a constructor's champion, King Schumacher has retired, Deep Impact has been accused for doping for the Arc."

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

"There's more. Nippon Ham Fighters has won the 'Nihon Series' the Japanese Baseball Championship, Shinjo has retired, St. Louis Cardinals has won the World Series in major league, Shintaro Abe has become the new prime minister of Japan, the skipper of the crab boat prized by Russia this August has been returned, other Japanese fishing boats have been captured instead, my summer coat has come off and my winter coat is now covering me instead. Many things have happened while you were complaining about your misfortune."

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Hey, are you gonna hear me out or what?

"Oh, of course I will. Go on with your story. ( I'll go on with my nap )"

Well, then. It was the seventh day of my 'Obaba mission' when JoOusama told me that she was going to replant HER hydrangea the next day.

"What's the hydrangea got to do with your cold?"

I have to go back some time to explain that.

"(Ohhh, not again ... )"

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Tono and JoOusama seemed that they had an arguement about pulling out the hydrangea planted in the garden, because of Tono's one-sided and illogical idea, that the grape tree planted next to the hydrangea did not bear much fruit this year, because of this flower tree.

Tono seemed to think that if he got rid of the hydrangea, everything would work out fine and the grape tree would bear many fruits.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

But JoOusama did not allow that.

She inisited that it was HER hydrangea, since it was she who had planted it there and because she didn't want to let it wither and die, she ordered her husband to dig a hole in the back of our kitchen, so that she could replant HER hydrangea there.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Tono obeyed her immediately and dug a hole right away. The hole has been there for some time and I was wondering if JoOusama would ever do the replanting, until she seemed to remember all of a sudden and ordered me this time, to help her replant the hydrangea ... .

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

So the next day I spent the whole afternoon, replanting the hydrangea.

Squatting down and digging out the hydrangea from the roots, was a daunting task that needed a lot of patience, since JoOusama had told me to be extremely careful not to hurt and damage the roots.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

But that's impossible! The hydrangea's roots grew in many different directions, some of them going deeper into the ground. It could take you days or even weeks to just find out where these roots ended.

Besides, the hydrangea's roots were in a tangled mixture of roots and soil with some of them coming from other plants. How am I supposed to dig them out without cutting them or hurting them?

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I bet even a professional won't be able to do exactly what JoOusama demanded, I thought.

I decided on my own that it was ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE to dig out the hydrangea without damaging the roots, so telling myself to forget about JoOusama's horrendous ideas, I went on with the digging cutting the roots with a zap of my shovel, whenever I had the need to do so.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

If the hydrangea did not survive this replanting, then that's that. Who cares if it withers or dies, it isn't my hydrangea anyway. Do I sound a little too irresponsible? Well, I guess most people would have said the same thing, if he or she was under the same situation as I was, after being exhausted both physically and mentally by Obaba's 'get me one of these' requests.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

First of all, it was JoOusama's idea to replant the hydrangea, not mine. And it was Tono's idea to pull out the hydrangea to save his grape tree, not mine. I had nothing to do with either of these two plants, I was just a third person in good faith.

So I thought that they shouldn't be accusing me for anything, even if something did happen to the hydrengea or the grape tree.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

After a while of squatting down digging and struggling with the roots, JoOusama has decided that some of the roots must be cut in order to dig out the whole plant.

Just as I've expected. She's finally noticed. She also must have been getting kind of fed up with paying attention to the roots herself.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

It took a good couple of hours to dig out the hydrangea that has grown about four feet tall, but finally it was out of the ground.

But then came the physical labor.

I had to carry the hydrangea around the house to the back where it was to be planted, and there I saw JoOusama ... digging a new hole ... . What in the world was she doing?

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Oh, please .... . Tono has already dug a hole approximately three weeks ago, but now she was digging another one.

As I asked JoOusama why she was digging a hole when there's already a big hole right across from where she was digging, she replied that the older hole which Tono has dug, was not in the right place. She said that there won't be enough sunlight there, and that the ventilation would be poor there.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

Excuse me, lady. I don't see much difference between the place where the first hole has been dug, and the place where you're digging right now. They're less than two feets apart ... .

But JoOUsama kept on digging, so I had to fill the first hole up to the level with the soil that was heaped up aside, then shovel out the soil where she was digging, to make enough room for the hydrangea to fit in. Now, this WAS physical labor.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I was already tired enough squatting and digging for hours, and now I had to dig again ... . I was beginning to think that maybe I could even be a miner, when JoOusama finally said that it should be large and deep enough for the plant.

We set the hydrangea in the hole, and I filled the hole with the soil that I have just dug out while JoOusama held and steadied the plant.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

So she's saved all the physical labor for me, I thought though I knew it right from the start. Then JoOusama watered the plant with plenty of water, as if there had been a flood or something, and went back inside the house, probably because she thought the replanting was completely finished and she, being released from HER responsibility.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I knew it. She never cares about what's left afterwards.

The garden was a mess after we had struggled to dig out the hydrangea, but I knew that JoOusama had definitely no itention to clean up the aftermath, since she was already inside the house and showed no sign of coming out again.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

So I dragged my tired body to clean up the mess we had made in the garden.

I broomed and cleaned all the dirt and soil off the stepping stones, picked up the leaves and branches that JoOusama had cut off from the hydrangea to make it easier to carry, then put the shovels and scissors and other tools we had used, back into its normal place.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

We have started the replanting early that afternoon, but it was already after dark and rain had started to drop, when I finally finished everything that was needed to be done. My body ached and I couldn't move an inch.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

That night I slept like a log, and I thought I might never wake up again. I didn't actually care even if I really didn't wake up again, since that didn't sound like such a bad idea after being exhausted by Obaba and JoOusama.

Even the loud sound from the radio in the next room, which JoOusama always left it turned on 24 hours a day whether she was in the room or not, didn't seem to bother me at all that night.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar

I've had such an exhausting day, I thought, trying to remeber how today had started in my sleep. But losing consciousness in a glorious drowsiness, my memory seemed to hit something that I didn't want to remember. It was a feeling of dizziness and a slight pain in my head which I have felt in the same kind of situation, wandering between the border of consciousness and unconsciousness in my sleep, early that morning.

To be Continued ...

Caterpillar