Thanks to Vizinczey
"Vizinczey will be no more in a very short while. And all the good I have done will be the last good I do...But for a very long time I have been your guardian angel. I have done you innumerable good turns. Yes, even you reading these words: I did you a good turn just last week. Think back and you will remember a random small miracle that made your existence prettier. That was I."
- Harlan Ellison, Eidolons
I stopped in JB Hi-Fi at lunch today, wandering through the aisles as one always does there, waiting for the one especial bargain that tempts your wallet to leap out at you. It found me in the form of Hayao Miyazaki - the Studio Ghibli films were on sale, where I had never before seen them discounted. Cautious of my budget, I only took two (Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke) rather than the four I wanted (although I resolved to ring Toby and point him in their direction).
Lining up to pay, I noticed that the man in front of me - suited, middle-aged - had a large clutch of DVDs in hand, and that all of them bore the distinctive white cover of Studio Ghibli. He caught me peeking, and peeked back unashamedly, taking note of my own choices. He grinned.
'Of course,' he said, and I nodded. He gestured happily to his soon-to-be-purchases: Princess Mononoke, Whisper of the Heart, Pom Poko and My Neighbour Tortoro.
'They've never discounted,' I said. He agreed. We chatted; I've never seen Pom Poko (neither had he) or My Neighbour Tortoro (one of his favourites), and as we waited in the always-long line, we discussed the films and their merits. He loved that he could watch them with his eight-year-old daughter, enjoying them on a different level to her; she was a particular fan of Spirited Away, while I confessed my all-time favourite was always Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds.
'We have all the others,' he said, a little wistfully. 'Although since my wife and I divorced, not all of them are at my house.'
'Ah,' I said, knowingly. 'I understand. When my ex-boyfriend and I broke up, we had a fight over who got the Miyazakis. I ended up with Nausicaa, but he got to keep Mononoke.'
The man winced. 'Ooh. Tough choice!'
'Yes,' I said, 'it was. But Nausicaa will always have a special place in my heart. You can see the echoes of it in all the others - it was his first one, after all, and I think the best of his original stories. He adapted Howl's Moving Castle from a book.'
The man nodded agreement. 'Howl was a bit sprawling.'
'Yes - but there's always those moments in them which make the whole film worthwhile.'
The line crawled on, and we talked about the Mandatory Random Cute things of Miyazaki films (with which My Neighbour Tortoro is densely populated); how the one advantage he'd found in moving out and starting again at 40 was that all his friends were throwing away furniture, and so he'd been able to furnish a house with their leavings; how his absolute vice was CDs, which overflowed from their racks, and how books were the same at my house, with simply too few shelves ('Nice to know that other people live the same way, he said); and how I would ring Toby to come and buy Kiki's Dlivery Service and Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
After a parting joke about my Schrodinger shirt, we reached the counter, paid separate clerks; and he waited for me, just before the escalators.
'It's funny,' he said. 'I started as a mathematician, worked in government writing environmental policy; now I'm a consultant.'
I laughed. 'Joy among insurmountable joys! I'm an advertising copywriter; would-be novelist.' We ascended the moving stairs. 'I've got an agent trying to get me published.'
'Really? What kind of books?'
'Fantasy,' I said. He grinned again - we'd already established that he read sci-fi and fantasy; I'd commented that in our house, what with a philosopher and a fantasist, we were much the same.
We neared the top of the escalators. Belatedly, he held out his hand.
'I'm Ian,' he said.
'Philippa,' I said. We shook. 'My nephew's name is Ian.'
'It's a good name.'
'It is.'
We reached street level. Ian turned left and I turned right. People coming back up from JB went straight out between us; and at the last, we both turned round and waved, mouthing 'goodbye' over the shoulders of other people.
And then I caught the tram back to work, smiling my silent thanks to Vizinczey for one more random small miracle.
- Harlan Ellison, Eidolons
I stopped in JB Hi-Fi at lunch today, wandering through the aisles as one always does there, waiting for the one especial bargain that tempts your wallet to leap out at you. It found me in the form of Hayao Miyazaki - the Studio Ghibli films were on sale, where I had never before seen them discounted. Cautious of my budget, I only took two (Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke) rather than the four I wanted (although I resolved to ring Toby and point him in their direction).
Lining up to pay, I noticed that the man in front of me - suited, middle-aged - had a large clutch of DVDs in hand, and that all of them bore the distinctive white cover of Studio Ghibli. He caught me peeking, and peeked back unashamedly, taking note of my own choices. He grinned.
'Of course,' he said, and I nodded. He gestured happily to his soon-to-be-purchases: Princess Mononoke, Whisper of the Heart, Pom Poko and My Neighbour Tortoro.
'They've never discounted,' I said. He agreed. We chatted; I've never seen Pom Poko (neither had he) or My Neighbour Tortoro (one of his favourites), and as we waited in the always-long line, we discussed the films and their merits. He loved that he could watch them with his eight-year-old daughter, enjoying them on a different level to her; she was a particular fan of Spirited Away, while I confessed my all-time favourite was always Nausicaa and the Valley of the Winds.
'We have all the others,' he said, a little wistfully. 'Although since my wife and I divorced, not all of them are at my house.'
'Ah,' I said, knowingly. 'I understand. When my ex-boyfriend and I broke up, we had a fight over who got the Miyazakis. I ended up with Nausicaa, but he got to keep Mononoke.'
The man winced. 'Ooh. Tough choice!'
'Yes,' I said, 'it was. But Nausicaa will always have a special place in my heart. You can see the echoes of it in all the others - it was his first one, after all, and I think the best of his original stories. He adapted Howl's Moving Castle from a book.'
The man nodded agreement. 'Howl was a bit sprawling.'
'Yes - but there's always those moments in them which make the whole film worthwhile.'
The line crawled on, and we talked about the Mandatory Random Cute things of Miyazaki films (with which My Neighbour Tortoro is densely populated); how the one advantage he'd found in moving out and starting again at 40 was that all his friends were throwing away furniture, and so he'd been able to furnish a house with their leavings; how his absolute vice was CDs, which overflowed from their racks, and how books were the same at my house, with simply too few shelves ('Nice to know that other people live the same way, he said); and how I would ring Toby to come and buy Kiki's Dlivery Service and Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
After a parting joke about my Schrodinger shirt, we reached the counter, paid separate clerks; and he waited for me, just before the escalators.
'It's funny,' he said. 'I started as a mathematician, worked in government writing environmental policy; now I'm a consultant.'
I laughed. 'Joy among insurmountable joys! I'm an advertising copywriter; would-be novelist.' We ascended the moving stairs. 'I've got an agent trying to get me published.'
'Really? What kind of books?'
'Fantasy,' I said. He grinned again - we'd already established that he read sci-fi and fantasy; I'd commented that in our house, what with a philosopher and a fantasist, we were much the same.
We neared the top of the escalators. Belatedly, he held out his hand.
'I'm Ian,' he said.
'Philippa,' I said. We shook. 'My nephew's name is Ian.'
'It's a good name.'
'It is.'
We reached street level. Ian turned left and I turned right. People coming back up from JB went straight out between us; and at the last, we both turned round and waved, mouthing 'goodbye' over the shoulders of other people.
And then I caught the tram back to work, smiling my silent thanks to Vizinczey for one more random small miracle.