Thanks to Katie for this weeks suggestion, I found it more difficult than I was anticipating. Also, sorry for the week of silence. I we went camping for our honeymoon and didn't bring computers.
On the top floor of the Sega Enterprises building, there is a small office in the middle of the open building layout with no windows, and a wooden door as heavy as the feeling Yuji carried in his chest. He felt like he was in trouble, as if he'd been falsely accused of some ugly crime.
"Welcome Yuji. Please, make yourself comfortable."
Yuji sat on the edge a long leather couch, rested his elbows on his knees and tried not to make eye contact with the strange western doctor. He had big round eyes that were positioned too close together, idiotic round glasses, and a bushy mustache that made him seem powerful and dangerous.
"Is there anything in particular you would like to talk about today?"
His Japanese was passable as far as vocabulary was concerned, but there was something offensive about the way he pronounced everything back in his soft palate.
"Īe."
He made a note on his big aluminum clipboard. "That's quite alright. Is there anything that's been bothering you?"
"Īe."
The doctor took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. "Yuji, I know this can be difficult. You and I don't know each other at all, yet I'm asking you to talk to me as if we were harmonious. Let's start slow. Watashinonamaeha aru Doctor Robert Nicks, I work for Sega Technical Institute back in the U.S.."
Yuji slid farther back on the couch. "I'm a programmer, I write code for the Sega Mega Drive."
Doctor Nicks smiled. "Good. I understand you're having trouble coming up with a concept for your new game?" In reaction to Yuji's tensing up, he pulled his question, "Never mind that. Do you have any hobbies?"
Hobbies? Yuji thought, looking around Doctor Nick's office he noticed that he had furnished the walls with many wall shelves. Each shelf varied by length and height starting at around waist level, and they weren't arranged parallel up the wall like a ladder, but randomly, at different heights and intervals. Yuji imagined he was six-inches tall and had to climb to the top of the wall by jumping up the shelves. "Coding is my hobby."
Yuji passively argued with Doctor Nicks over the nuances of a hobby while looking at all of the things on his shelves. There was the obligatory shelf of awards, diplomas, and certificates. The sturdiest shelf was occupied with thick books with long English names. But all the others were taxidermy of various sizes and shape, all of them protected under glass bell jars. The shelf closest to them held a blue bird with a rosy chest perched on a branch. Above that was a chubby little brown bird with a short, upturned tail, and big white eyebrow stripes that made it look very serious. On another shelf, perched on the side of a grey and weathered piece of barn board, was a small white bird with black wings and white spots, it had a black crest, a black chinstrap beard, and a tiny spot of red at the back of its head. All the other shelves were covered in eggs. Nests filled with green eggs, or blue eggs, or spotted brown eggs. There were Ukrainian painted Easter eggs, and golden eggs, but most of them were actual bird eggs.
Yuji had stopped paying attention, but Doctor Nicks hadn't noticed yet. "...is to calm the chaos of your thoughts. Thoughts can be very powerful and if one can focus that power--you're looking at my nature collection." Nicks rose from his chair, "This is a fine example of focusing the chaos into something productive." From the most central shelf, he took something that Yuji has glanced over at first-- thinking it was some kind of giant burr--from under its bell jar. He cradled the spiky object in his hands and as he brought it closer to Yuji, he could see the spiky ball had a tiny mouse face.
"This is the prize of my collection," Doctor Nicks said. "This was my first taxidermy I ever got. My brother got it for me in Africa. It's my favorite. Atelerix albiventris. Hejjihoggu."
Yuji shook his head, "Hari Nezumi." Needle mouse.
A small bell chimed. "And that's the end of our time today. Next time I'd like to talk more about finding things that refresh your creative energy."
Pressure, Yuji thought, feeling a wave of creative energy wash over him. I know exactly what I'm going to do about this new project.