Heritage Gateways

Osamu Sekiguchi Journals

May 28, 1997

Location: Broadwater, Nebraska - Location: 41:35:46N 102:51:08W

Summary: Wednesday, May 28, 1997 (Cloudy / Clear Day) 63.5F

Journal entry: [Translated by Tomoko Nakayama]

When I walked through Broadwater, my right calf muscle slightly cramped. I could still walk, but I remembered when I had hurt my knee right after we had left Omaha because of overwork.

"You had better take it easy" said a concerned Takako.

"You're right. I'm worried too, I will rest on the wagon for a while."

I rode on the wagon after we had walked about three miles. A wagon is not always comfortable to ride in. the jolting of the wagon rings in my head. But once I got used to the jolting, it became comfortable, and I fell asleep. After a while, I looked outside, and saw Takako, Yuji and Koji walking diligently. I felt bad for them, but I fell asleep again when I tried not look at them.

The cold wind blows inside the wagon, so my whole body got cold. I felt all my muscles get stiff,

"I'll walk," I said to my family and started walking along with Takako. I didn't feel as sore as before, so I was able to keep walking comfortably. We had a lunch break, but I wanted to keep walking at my own pace, so my family started walking about twenty minutes before the others started moving. We were able to walk much slower than usual, since we didn't have keep pace with the horses. Moreover, we could walk with talking about various things, so it was fun.

On the way, we found a dead body of a skunk, and tried to poke it with a stick whild holding our noses, when we found a dead body of a pheasant, we picked a pretty feather and put it on our hats, and when we approached Bridgeport, we saw a herd of cows in a pasture.

"Yuji, yell at the cows" I asked him since there was nobody around us.

"Can I yell as loud as I want?" he asked, with a big smile.

"Yeh, as loud as you want," I answered.

"I want to do it too," Koji said.

"Go ahead, do it as loud as you want," I said again.

"Hey, cows! If you have a problem, come over here!" Yuji said. It was a pretty good try, but I didn't think the cows would come down.

"Cows! Come over here!" Koji whispered quietly. All the cows looked up at us. I wondered if they felt something. No way, they are just cows. That's nonsense!

"You! Stupid cows! Come over here!"

I shouted showing off to my children, but somehow, everytime I yell like this, my words come out in the kansai dialect. Yuji tried to yell like me,

"Come over here! I'll eat you!" I wonder if he is little hungry.

"You! I will bite your side!" I yell out after Yuji; but his words already express my feelings quite well.

"Cows! Turn to steaks!" Koji commanded. We stopped because we felt stupid.

But the cows keep watching us and don't move. They were all gazing at us. I started to feel uncomfortable. The lead cow started moving toward us slowly.

"Oh oh..."

"Dad, the cows are walking toward us!..."

I felt even more uncomfortable. Once one cow started moving, all the cows followed. I wondered if they really were mad at us.

"Cows! Go away!" Koji shouted. That was a selfish request. Think about cows' feelings.

"Cows! If you come over here, we will eat you!" if anything, his appitite hadn't changed.

Anyway, we all stopped, spread both arms and cried suddenly, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" and tried to scare the cows off. The cows stopped again and gazed at us. O.K., we can do it."

"Cock-a-doodle-doo!" we tried one more time. The cows turned around then left quickly. It was a gratifying day in which we learned something very useful.