永倉新八からのお返し。

活動写真のチケット。幕末という動乱の時代に、命を永らえたおかげで観る事が出来た文明の不思議。孫を連れて足しげく通った小樽の劇場。おまえさんと観るのも悪くないだろうよ。

そういや劇場の出口で町のごろつきに絡まれた事があったんだが、儂がひと睨みしたら一目散に逃げ出しやがってよ。最近の若いのはだらしねえと思ったもんよ。

いや、だらしねえのはどっちだったんだかな。

それは新しい時代に取り残された男が見た夢の切れ端。

A thank-you gift from Nagakura Shinpachi.

They're tickets to a moving picture, that wonder of civilization I was lucky enough to witness, having survived the turbulent Bakumatsu era and gone on to live a long life. I often took my grandkid to a theater in Otaru. Wouldn't mind seeing one with you, too. Speaking of, the local hooligans liked to hang around the theater exit, but they'd scatter when I gave them a good glare.

Agh. I wonder which of us was the bigger loser there.

It is a fragment dreamed by a man who was left behind by a new era.