（今号は、各おかしらの得意な言語で「おかしらの夏休み」をテーマに執筆をお願いしています。）
Interim presentation for Seisaku-kenkyu-shien-kikou (Keio OBs‘ voluntary group supporting policy research) was held at the symposium space on the first floor of the Hiyoshi campus building.
Despite the fact that this was only an interim presentation, perhaps because the president of the university was going to be present for the occasion, the presentation by the students that day was surprisingly well done.
We, on the other hand, Kojima san left during the presentation and before the president arrived, saying that he must go to China. I was thinking to myself, oh well, Yoshino san, Ooe san and Umegaki san are all here, so there should be no problem. But later, I became the source of the problem.
I soon realized that I can’t stand up. Even if I do, I can’t walk. “My goodness! It hurts so much?” I politely asked my left leg, but no answer. What hurts, hurts. That is the simple truth, it seemed like.
A straightforward fact that I am in pain ran through my body. In the past month, I lived deceiving my left leg by taking painkillers. But, this seemed like the limit.
Both suppository and oral medicine were not working anymore.
That night, after the presentation, there was a reception. The students; who seemed satisfied with their result, were happily talking with the Keio senpai of Hanabusa san and Kojima san (not the dean, Tomoyuki) who are the sponsors of the voluntary group.
I was facing the grim fact that the pain no longer subsided, and was narrowing the sphere of activity as much as possible. Sitting on a chair, I tried my best to join everyone’s conversation. But the problem still remained, which was to narrow the walking distance to my car. Simply calculating, the distance was no more than 100 meter or so, but it seemed like eternal distance. I know that finally, I must convince myself, “ok, I’ll walk”. I had no time to keep on debating on the clear fact that I am in pain. “Walk!”, I strongly commanded myself from the bottom of my heart.
When I sat on the car seat, I said to myself, “finally its over”. According to my schedule, I was planning to attend a socio-semantics meeting with Fukaya san and spend the night there. But, I could no longer walk. I called and said “ Sorry, can’t come”. I gave up and said to myself, there is no way but to take a good rest.
And this, was the beginning of my long vacation not taken for a while.
（掲載日：2004/07/28)
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