Memories of the Future
I started out my book wanting to tell as story of sorts – one that changed my life for the better. I met a wonderful girl at the end of last April and we fell in love though we only had 3 weeks of school left. As she is from Greece and was studying abroad for the entirety of this year, we have only been able to spend 8 1/2 weeks together in the past year and couldn’t even make the relationship we wanted and therefore settled for a beautiful friendship filled with innocent love. This story was my way of depicting what I wanted to do for her if we were able to live in the same place and made something more of what it is. I think the book is an accurate depiction of the beauty of the connection her and I have. So for my first prototype I only sought out to write my story and thus came about the title as well, “Memories of the Future”.
It’s called that since this is the sort of love I want when I’m older and I feel like I’ve already lived some on it. For my second prototype I focused on what kind of binding I wanted and making my book covers. I cut out a cereal box to fix the size of the book and pasted a blank white piece of paper over the cardboard in order to make sure the color of the old “Recess Puffs” box didn’t shed through to the viewer. I also used a spread of a map to paste across both sides (one in black and one in grey for the title) in order to create an aesthetic visual appearance for the reader even though it was merely impossible to align the maps right when they were cut in half in book fold mode on Microsoft Word. The world map represents the freedom of travel and the fact that it’s black and white is a message in itself. It says that although the world around those we love seems boring and either black or white, you can make the effort to color in their lives and bring joy to anyone even across borders from Wilmington and Davidson to Greece, Switzerland, Japan, and Australia (all places she’s lived in the past year). Another addition I made to the book in prototype 2 was deciding to use the waterfall fold for the binding. After posting prototype 2 I actually changed the amount of pages I had in a booklet from 1 sheet to 2 sheets so the covers could fit as well.
For prototype 3, I decided to make my final binding, stitch my pages in/insert my covers, and make cutouts to accentuate certain words on the front and back page before reading the book. For my binding I chose a quote that, wait for it, dealt with love! There’s a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald that says “I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it’s these things I’d believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn’t all she should be. I love her and it is the beginning of everything.”
I think this captures the sort of love that is portrayed throughout the book. I have 4 sheets of paper inside total which means exactly 16 pages of material and I stitched in 8 pages of material in the center two folds of the book with white string so that the binding wouldn’t pop out on the page and take away focus from the text. I also inserted the covers after repasting the maps on because I was unhappy with how they were previously aligned. The last focus I had on the third prototype was to add cutouts to allow for words to peep through the cutouts as you may see in the previous image as well as the one below.
The one below has a ‘cheesy’ message, “smile beautifully”, (get it? cheesy? smile?) and the one on the back cover says, “loved.” These are just words that I thought went well with the theme of the book and was an interesting way to add a cutout that many wouldn’t do though it was one of the most challenging parts of the project as I was blindly cutting out pieces with my knife after measuring boxes the quarter of a centimeter. Luckily, my measurements were correct and the cutouts performed their purpose. For my last and final addition book submission, I added both a cover binding and string to my book like so.
I cut out a brown paper bag and pasted the binding words on which read, “AK TOUT KÈ M” which means “with all my heart” in Haitian creole and is also tattooed on my sister’s wrist. These are words we live by and I especially since if you do something with all your heart, you cannot leave disappointed because you’ll know you put your all into it. I left some of the paper bag showing in order to create an organic looking touch to the book and anded the string as a nice way to hold the binding over though still let the reader see what the binding says. Also, in order for the paper not to rip, I put small squares of masking tape on the back of the binding cover in order to keep it from ripping. The string is also there as a nice presentation setting as it creates geometric shapes across the covers as well as ‘ties it all together’ (back with the puns!).
I loved making this book. Me and this girl were planning on writing books together over the summer and wanted to publish them so this was honestly quite the ironic endeavor as an ending project. The prototype series allowed me to show the class how much I like paying attention to details and how the little details make the whole great even in life. Also for tradition, one thousand words exactly.
(Word Count 1000/1000)
Below is the full rendition of the story inside. Feel free to read but it’s not necessary for the post.
MEMORIES OF THE FUTURE – By Jon Kurosu
1
He was sitting on their navy blue sheets watching as she carefully unpacked her overstuffed bags. He liked watching her when she wasn’t looking because she always looked so serene and that made him feel good inside. She knew what he was doing though he never caught on. The sun, still climbing to the top of the sky, angled itself so that just a sliver of light shed into the bedroom. Her hair, which was pulled back in a tight braid to keep it away from her face, was usually a deep shade of brown though when it glistened in the light it flourished with brighter and more playful colors. She was storing her shirts neatly in the wooden chest in the top two drawers and couldn’t help but smile as she reminisced of the day they first moved in together.
They had been imagining their new apartment for months, everything from the decorations to the furniture arrangement and even the food they would buy first. They moved in during January and she remembered that it was bitterly cold. Not the normal kind of cold, but the kind that made you wish there was a blizzard to give the weather a purpose. They brought in a 4 drawer chest, brown like his eyes, and he insisted beforehand that she take the top two drawers so she wouldn’t have to bend over to reach hers, but she quickly took her clothes out and shoved them in the bottom ones. She then relaxed on their bed with one foot on and one foot off as she always did and watched as he started to unload his clothes too. She put on a clever smile as the bottom drawer crept open. He took one look back at her and immediately just pulled both drawers out of the chest. “What are you doing?” she called out.
“The drawers got switched around. I’ll fix it don’t worry.” He always thought of a witty remark to make it seem like he was being forced to do things, but she knew he was just making excuses to make it seem like he wasn’t doing it for her. It never felt like a sacrifice to him though. It was more selfish than anything because he loved seeing her beautifully wide smile after and that was all he needed to have a good day. He looked back one more time to see that grin he loved so much and jumped on the bed with her to hold her in his arms. His second favorite pastime.
She looked down at the clothes in her hand and dropped so she could jump on him. She tangled her arms and legs around him, wrinkling the once perfect navy blue sheets. He thought it was weird at first though it felt like she was hugging him from behind and in that moment he found his new home. They were finally lying next to one another again, hearts pumping faster and faster. He sat up with an excited look on his face and asked, “Are you hungry? I have homemade dough in the fridge. We could make a pizza.” She couldn’t lie her tummy had been grumbling more and more frequently so she nodded. They jumped off the bed, him then her, and headed down the hall to the kitchen.
He opened the fridge and retrieved the dough as well as some mushrooms, bacon, and cheese. She knew to get the sauce out of the pantry and the pizza pan. He started kneading the dough as she fired up the stove to fry the bacon. It always took them longer to cook than it should have because they danced to lively music that flooded out of the speakers filling the whole room as they worked side by side as if they were in college again. He always let her pick the music because he liked her taste of music better than his own though he would never tell her. Together they spread the sauce and the cheese over the whole pizza but always put each other’s toppings. He always added extra bacon for her and she always added extra mushrooms for him. They started heating up the oven as they put the pizza in. They did this so they could finish a whole episode before it was done.
He ran to the living bedroom while she went to the bathroom. She hadn’t gone to the bathroom since she got on her flight from Japan; she had to live there for a few months since she was the international liaison between the American and Japanese headquarters for Apple. She walked in to find the season premiere of “Attack on Titan” season 5 paused on the TV as the aroma of bacon and roasting mushrooms welcomed her. She sat down and he covered her in a blanket. Her tummy rumbled once again and they both laughed as she laid her head on his lap and he looked down to see that tightly woven braid again and smiled.
She had a certain way she liked to eat her pizza, pizza then crust then pizza then crust. He always thought it was weird but thought little of it. She looked at him as he clumsily tried to eat his floppy piece. He was never the cleanest eater when it came to eating with his hands but he got by. After they were finished, he washed all the dishes and looked at his phone. It read 4:14 pm. He knew that she would be getting tired soon and so he popped a few sleeping pills so they could sleep together. There’s nothing he loved more than sleeping next to her. Her head would reach just below his and the arch of her back was just as wide across as his forearm to make them look like one of those couples in the mattress commercials.
He always waited for her to get in bed first too even though he didn’t really know why he did. They both got out their books to do their daily reading before bed though when he got his out she took it from him and placed hers in his hand. She didn’t do this often, but it was one of her favorite things he did for her. He found the page she was on while she curled up to lay on his lap leaving him sitting straight up. She rested her eyes while he pulled out all of his strange accents and high pitched shrills for all the different characters. She would laugh whenever he lost his place because she knew then that he had been looking down at her for too long and he would yell, “You’re distracting me!” and she would grab his thigh in her arms whenever he would stop to say he loved her. She would often fall asleep there but he would just keep reading until he himself fell asleep.
2
Sundays are lame. They knew, because they felt the bitterness in the center of their chest – that feeling when you have to go to work the next morning, but are really not ready to accept it. Denial; that’s a better word. None of them wanted to admit that it was the last afternoon of the weekend they got to spend together.
The golden sunrays were shining above the mountains through the windows, so intense, they could have woken those two up if they were still asleep. Their warmth caused the snow on the very tops of the heavy mountains to melt and there were so many little streams cheerfully coming down the slopes, like tears on a porcelain sculpture’s face. Birds were chirping in the wildness of the mountain forest; they were playing with the afternoon summer breeze, like two little kids that just met on the beach and think they have a lifetime to build the castle of their dreams. Their apartment was drenched in silence. The radio was on and they could hear the tunes coming out ever so quietly, as if they were scared to march in the tenderness those two were sunken into.
He was still there; his arms around her head, his body curved, trying to lock all of hers inside so she would stay there forever. She was still there; her head merged to his chest, her heart beating slow then fast then slow again, like a rope walker that wants to avoid the fall and walks all so fast then slow for a second then fast again. Her bare feet laying soft on the warm wooden floor. Serenity.
“Let’s go out” he said. She turned up to him and laid her head on his lap, trying to meet his eyes that were staring out of the golden window. She had trouble welcoming the sight of him there, at the same place as her. Everything seemed so new to her, even though it had already been a whole week. She yawned and nodded in agreement. “Where are we going?” she mumbled between her pillow plush lips. “You’ll see”, he said. He always had a plan. He knew she was tired of always being in charge of the plan making process, so he wanted to take what seemed like a burden to her, but a piece of cake to him, off her shoulders. He never saw it like a burden; his creative mind always came up with new ideas for forest explorations and midday summer adventures, to keep their time together as productive as possible. He never wasted their time, how could he?
She knew he had a plan the moment he asked her. He always had a plan. Her thankful eyes looked up in search of his one more time, before she got up to drag herself two steps down the hallway and to the next room. “What should I even wear?” she yelled, in this complacent kind of her own way, that makes the cruelest person break into a thousand pieces. She lifter her arms above her head and with a silent sigh, she tried to straighten every single muscle in her lower and upper back, leaning from side to side and then again one more time. “Doesn’t matter” he replied. “Wear your smile, you’ll be good”. She grinned. “Damn you Josh” she thought, “always finding ways to make me smile”.
She kept smiling at the half empty closet for a solid minute or two wondering what the occasion was and what piece of clothing would be the least likely to discomfort her. She looked at herself in the mirror across the room, then outside the glass door that lead to the small balcony of the bedroom. The sun was melting everything within its reach and every single fluffy cloud that was in the sky about an hour ago was long gone by now. She decided to go with her favorite black romper, the one with the red roses on it and the tiny details of lace around the lower end, thinking it was the safest choice, since he could have planned whatever for all she knew. She took of her white polka dot gray pajama pants – she didn’t have her favorite plain solid gray ones with her, she left them at his house – with the grin still on her face and her eyes started shining again. Almost in a hurry, she brushed her hair in two strokes and in a second she slid into her solid maroon authentic Vans shoes; “It’s his favorite color”, she thought. “Ready!” she shouted, dashing into the living room. Before he knew it she was clinging on his face like a baby in his mother’s arms. Her excitement was radiating through her, so strong that her clumsy moves almost brought them both down on the floor.
“Woah”, he said, taking a moment to sit up straight. When he finally looked at her he was in awe. “You look so beautiful darling girl”, he said. His words echoed through her mind, like church bells on Christmas eve. Only he could say those words with such ease, and yet they meant everything to her. He was already pretty much dressed. Unlike her, who would cover every inch of their king sized bed if she could for as long as the sun would let her, he liked to wake up early sometimes. It was one of the only things they didn’t have in common. He had woken up early with the morning sun that day, just to look at her sleeping. There was nothing strange about it, he liked doing it without her even knowing, because only then, he though, it was the most selfless it could be; he was losing sleep but gaining moments, and he would rather spend them by her side, even if she was completely unaware of his presence. He would run his fingers though her silky smooth hair, and hold his breath in fear of waking her up, only to see a smile forming on her lips. There was something about the way she was sleeping that amazed him every time; not her sweetness or her beauty, no. But how content she was, giving up everything in that very moment. She was free, and he craved that freedom more than anything. In that thought, he would push his body a little closer to hers. Her breath gentle and slow, softly hitting the muscles of his neck.
“Are you coming?” she shouted from the stairwell. He woke up, as if from a lethargy, and realized he had been daydreaming for the longest time. He rushed to the door, jumping into his favorite Vans shoes, like hers but in gray, and grabbed his navy pocket tee from the rack, swiftly throwing it on. “Her favorite color”, he thought. He walked out of their apartment, closing the door so lightly, that it seemed as if he never even touched it. He looked at her walking toward the entrance of the apartment building, when it hit him. He knew where they were going.
She opened the door of her navy blue Jeep Wrangler and sat on the driver’s seat. She waited for him to get in too before she twisted her key to turn on the engine, which roared loudly in the quiet afternoon. The single sun rays broke into a thousand pieces reflecting off the freshly cleaned hood of the car, which he had made sure to carefully wash the night before. She felt them burning on her skin, even heavier than they looked from inside their apartment, and she cursed inside her mouth she didn’t think to take the doors down and unzip the roof and back of the car, so that air could flow through and take some of the heat away. Even though it would take just a few minutes to do right then, she was too excited to bother. She rapidly pulled out of the driveway, and they were gone long before anyone saw them leaving.
She didn’t ask where they were going. She knew that when she had to take a turn he would tell her in one way or the other. She turned on the radio, chose the “AUX” option and gave him the aux cord so he could play his favorite music. Then, she turned her eyes to the empty road ahead that was melting under the flaming sun, creating what seemed like water puddles on the hot asphalt. A faint sound started coming out of the overpriced speakers she had specifically chosen when she was buying this car. Her music and her dream car were very important to her. She turned on the volume so she could listen to the song called “7 Years” as clearly as possible, because she hated that song. Yet, she loved it and she knew it was one of his favorite things to hate with her as well.
After a while of him directing their way through highway exits and small gravel roads, she finally saw their destination approaching. It was a small cabin in the middle of the woods, with a five-foot wooden fence, carefully mended revealing its old age, that seemed like it was enclosing a back yard. She looked at him with a feeling of wonder combined with restlessness plastered on her face as she opened the door to get out of the deliberately accurately parked car. The tall trees surrounding them only let a small portion of the otherwise burning light come in through the leaves, that were densely covering the branches like blankets made out of small green fairies dancing in the wind’s songs. He looked back at her, walking closer in big steps and taking her right hand into his, so he could rub his thumb against her fingers for as long as he could until they got inside. The big wooden door made out of poplar went just right with the rest of the cabin, that looked as if it came out of an old tale about elves and wizards, and all kinds of magical creatures could suddenly appear from the corner, where the crowded woods that were fighting over an inch in the sunlight met the old fence.
She looked at him, as if she was asking for proof that it was okay to walk inside. She grabbed the rusty handle, and slowly pushed it down to reveal the warm inside of the cabin, covered in colorful mats, that were scattered on the hard wooden floor. She looked around, examining the place from side to side, paying attention to every single detail that she could find, making sure nothing escaped her careful eyes. On the right side of the room, there was a wooden counter, that looked like it had a matching stool somewhere in the back that someone was supposed to be sitting on, only the place was free of all humans or animals. The small windows filled the place with the tiny amounts of yellow light the trees let come through, while there was a smell of old leather and sugar in the air.
She was baffled. Letting his hand go, she wandered into the next room, while the squeaking door failed to conceal a small living room with big glass doors that were covering the whole back wall, looking outside on the patio and the back yard that was as big as her eye could see.
And there they were. Two of them, looking so strong and proud, one could have mistaken them for warriors of some very important war a historian buried deep down a giant history book that no one ever found or read. Concealed from the world, discretely hidden in the middle of the woods, the four of them were all alone with just each other to blame for disturbing nature’s composure at the time.
He took her hand in his, and gently pushed the glass door open, taking a step toward the patio. There were two large bamboo sofas separated by a glass metallic table that carried only a whole in the middle, probably to accommodate an umbrella, and he sat down in one of them taking her with him and sitting her on his lap. She didn’t hesitate at all, almost collapsing on his skinny body, as she placed her head on his shoulder and looked at the horses. She could feel his heartbeat on her chest, beating stronger and stronger, as they observed the peaceful creatures that were leaning forward here and there in search of freshly grown grass. He put his arms around her and with his mouth as close to her as possible, he whispered something to her ear.
Without a second thought, she grabbed his hand and dashed in their direction, slowing down as they were approaching, so the two of them would not force their presence on the majestic beings that were standing before them. “You want to go for a ride?” he asked, knowing what the answer was, but looking at her big brown eyes that were filled with a need to explore the wild paths of the forest brought him a deep sense of fulfillment. “Of Kurosu”, she replied, and kissed his tender cheek softly, making sure the entirety of her lips got a piece of him. “Let’s go!”
3
They had been riding all day, following the movements of the sun as it climbed the sky and started to fall on the other side of the highest trees they both had ever seen. They went through tiny pathways, squeezed themselves between densely plant populated areas, and even had to go through some small streams riding their horses, during what seemed like the longest ride of her life.
He was leading, in his navy blue tee and khaki shorts, with his socks stopping mid-calf as he always wore them and his backpack tight on his straight back. His horse, bigger than hers since it was a stallion, walked proud and tall through every obstacle nature put in front of it, as if it was in its nature to not worry about life but just move on, looking at the bigger picture every time. It was a yellowish shade of tan, with a dark thin stripe starting from his warm brown mane all the way to his tail of the same color. Its curious muzzle, someone could mistakenly think was covered in dirt, was painted in a cooler, washed out shade of the same brown, and in the same way, its legs seemed as if its favorite pastime were to step in the muddy moors that were scattered throughout the forest.
She was following on her white and brown horse, standing a tad shorter than his since it was a mare. It had a small white, black-tipped feather attached to its platinum mane, falling long on the side of its neck that covered part of its face. It reminded him of her and her hair that she always liked to pull back into a tight French braid, so it didn’t fall on her face, and was one of the reasons he chose the mare for her.
After about an hour and a half, a glade appeared in the distance, and before he knew it, she was galloping in front of him onto the high grass topped soil that was free of trees or plants, but filled with daisies, chamomile and the whitest dandelions. The sunlight glowed golden and bright in the empty space, reflecting off what was left from the morning frost on the white and yellow petals, while the birds on the trees surrounding the glade chirped in absolute harmony. He wanted to follow her, but she had sprinted too far ahead for him to even try to catch up, so he thought he would wait by the trees and just look at her possessed by what seemed like a rush of weightless freedom going right through her body. He stood there for a while, trying his hardest not to pull out his phone to capture the image, because it was so beautiful he knew he’d share it if he did, and this moment wasn’t worth sharing with anyone but himself. He wanted to take everything in, and seeing her so careless, he found himself lost in the moment with her.
When he reached the other side of the glade, slowly walking on his horse, he looked at her one more time before he decided to break the silence. He had other plans for her soon, so he didn’t want to not be able to put them in action, as selfish of him as this sounded, he knew she would really like them. “Baby girl, time to go!” he yelled at her direction, when she turned her head around, her red-brown locks twirling in the air, and he felt the earth vanish underneath. He never knew how he could love one person this much, it had certainly never happened before, and he was almost convinced it was not about to happen soon, even if he tried his hardest.
They started walking through the forest again, though the sun was about to set soon. She had ultimate trust in him, but when she saw the green leaves at the tops of the trees take that glowy golden hue, she knew she had to inquire further about their plans, because she was
sure they could not make it back to the cabin time, even if they started walking back immediately. “It’s about to get dark, honey bear”, she said, expecting him to say nothing but shrug, since he was probably perfectly aware, but he turned around and smiled to show her how completely in control everything was. “I also work tomorrow”, she added, but looking in the distance and pretending it was not a big deal he said “You may or may not, darling girl”.
They kept walking for a while, and the sun set and the night fell and their legs and back were super tired from sitting on the back of a horse all day long, but none of them complained about it. When they turned into what seemed like a wall of ferns, and he walked right through it to reveal something that was taken out of some dream of hers, yet was as real as it could be. There, in the middle of the wilderness, there was an even smaller wooden cabin than the one they started from, surrounded by small wooden posts that held up strings of lights to illuminate the darkest night of the month. She was speechless. Nothing she could say would describe the way she felt in its entirety and she didn’t even try. She just kept walking on her horse until she reached him just outside the entrance of the cabin, then carefully got off her horse and walked toward him.
She took him inside her arms at zero seconds. He always had something planned and this was just no coincidence. “How could he? When did he even plan all this? Where did he even find it?” were just some of the questions she was asking herself the whole time she was squeezing him as hard as she could, in a failed attempt to show him how much she appreciated him. When he finally was set free from her embrace, he found her staring in his solemn eyes, like they were the most beautiful thing in this world.
He loved her a little more every time she did this. In his eyes, those tiny little slits on his face he never liked and always wanted to alter in one way or another, he felt she found peace and tranquility and he just could not believe how something so small gave her so much. But there she was, so calm and strong, and everything inside him melted once more to become one with her chest as he rested his head on her shoulder. “You want to go inside?” he whispered, again knowing the answer already, but he had to do it for some reason of his own. She hummed, as he took her hand in his and walking backwards just to be able to see her face when they entered, he pushed the door.
She was right when she thought there was water around, for she could hear it. There were few things she liked more than being around water and he had just given her one of them. As he opened the door, he revealed the inside of the meticulously decorated architectural dream, like the ones she would design when she was little, but could never build, since instead of an architect, she was studying to become a business consultant. She walked past the living room that consisted of a sofa in a nice cream color, the one vanilla ice-cream takes after being mixed for a while to acquire the right consistency, the two tiny glass coffee tables, on at each side of the sofa, and the bigger one with the same design in front of it, so coffees and teas and other beverages or even food could be rested on top, to reach the wide glass doors covering like before the whole back wall. The view was amazing.
There was nothing in their way, in what seemed like the world’s end, but soon she realized it was just that the cabin was built right on the end of a sharp cliff. She looked out the windows for a while, before she decided to walk outside to admire the beautiful view, where the leaves of the trees were highlighted by the moonlight ever so perfectly, in that white wash of silver color. She took a deep breath before she felt locked inside his tight arms. He looked at
the view right over her head, as he leaned back and forth in the playfulness of the summer breeze. She turned her head a little, and when she thought he could hear her, she tried to tell him something, but right as she was about to speak, he interrupted her saying he had something more to show her, and dragged her down the porch’s wooden steps.
She thought he went crazy. There was absolutely nothing where he was taking her, everything the eye could see was void in the vastness of the gorge under the cabin. But then he took a sharp turn behind some bamboo stubbles, only to disclose what she thought was natures biggest secret. There, concealed by all rude stares, there were two small streams of water coming down the side of the cliff, like twins walking hand in hand in life, which ended pouring themselves in a small handmade pond made of stone. “You like it?” he mumbled, as they approached the pond slowly, in fear of stepping on some innocent bug. “You can go in! I brought you clean clothes and a bathing suit, I just hope it’s the one you like the most, because it was new and I didn’t know if that was the right one, and I was…” he started saying when she took his head in her hands and pulled him close only to balance her lips on his to make him stop talking.
He rested in her kiss, breathing deep through his nose, in what seemed like a dream that could go on forever and none of them would be upset about it if it actually did. And then he felt everything; her softness hug his whole body, her hair winnowing in the light wind hitting his forehead, her warmth radiating on him, his legs unsure of whether they would collapse under the weight of the moment, which didn’t feel like anything he had ever felt before. So he gathered everything he had and in a painfully slow manner, ran his arm around her waist and the other hugged her cheek, to make sure he had a say in the silent conversation only them could decipher.
They slept together that night. Not in the sexual way, no. But in their own way, that means so much more to them than it would to anyone, him stretching his arm under her neck to reach her shoulder, and her touching his chest ever so lightly with her head leaning against it. They fell asleep looking out the bedroom windows at the starry sky, where the moon was at its brightest. They loved each other, and that was the only thing they knew for certain.
