TONBO

Embark on a journey through time.

The narrator, an elderly, apparently Japanese man, is out for a walk when a paper airplane whizzes by. He recognizes it as Tonbo (Japanese for dragonfly), the plane he had as a boy. Captivated by this memory, the narrator drops his cane and follows the airplane around a seaside town. He talks with various townspeople, each seeing him as a younger and younger person—until at last he sees the image of a twentysomething man reflected in an ice cream store window. When the narrator, now a child, finds the plane resting on a bush in a Japanese garden, time catches up with him as he remembers his mother bringing him the plane when he was sick as a boy. Leaving the plane for nearby schoolchildren to find, the man—old once more—returns to his walk and his cane. Say’s signature impressionistic, dreamy watercolors evoke the otherworldly experience of the narrator’s day with a summer palette awash in warm oranges, yellows, and pinks, juxtaposed with cool greens and blues. The whimsical, at times poetically fragmented text is peppered with names and places drawn from the narrator’s memory. While children may have a hard time relating to the experience of reliving one's past, the tale could spark conversation about the power of memory; older adults may enjoy sharing it with the young people in their lives.

A sophisticated, ethereal musing on the passage of time.