***~ Below is the english version of the script in <Siki’s notebook>~***

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P.1

 

Do I deserve happiness even though I am nothing special?

 

 

P.3

 

Siki’s Notebook – When happiness is getting mouldy

Story and illustration by kikiwong

 

 

P.4

 

Siki falls asleep after a busy day at work.

It isn’t just one long working day for Siki; it’s a life of toil.

 

His super big mouth (which takes up two thirds of his little body) finally gets a chance to relax in his warm cozy bed.

 

 

P.6

 

Siki is a smallish jelly who works for an oceanic volcano company as a cleaning agent.

Lava flows constantly down volcano number 610.

Siki’s job is to keep it clean at all times.

 

For Siki, his job takes up his whole life.  There’s not much room left for a break…

Well, not much but he does get a little bit of sleep every now and then…

Better than nothing, don’t you think?

 

 

P.7

 

Sometimes, Siki asks himself if there could be anything missing in life…

He loves cleaning; and he’s working at a job he likes more than anything else in life.

Is there any wrong in all this?

 

Perhaps, he just doesn’t know what he wants in life.

 

 

P.9

 

If I’m working at something I like, why should I still feel lost?

 

(sweep sweep sweep sweep …)

 

 

P.10

 

One day, Siki gets a notice from his company telling him he has a vacation coming up.

But he doesn’t seem very excited about it, probably because it isn’t something he’s longing for…

 

Doesn’t make much sense, does it?

 

Well, let me tell you what happened.

One morning Siki’s long-term partner, Sweeper, decided to quit his job because Siki never took a day off in his life.   Not being a workaholic like Siki, Sweeper was sick of working day and night, so he decided to quit his job at deep-sea volcano number 610, and become a household assistant.

 

And so the company had to take Siki off his worksite because they hadn’t found another workaholic yet to fill the vacant position.

 

 

P.11

 

Luckily Siki has not become unemployed. His company knows how extraordinarily hard-working Siki is, and they have no intention to fire him.  Actually, they want to reward him, with a world cruise vacation, in an extra special fine “Zisha” teacup as his very own personal vehicle.

 

And that “Zisha” teacup is full of goodies! Strange as it is, the cup is not full of tea, but of Vieille Réserve Cognac!

 

 

P.12

 

Siki isn’t too happy about the idea of a vacation, but he can’t change reality.  He jumps into his Zisha, finishes his Cognac, and begins his world cruise anyway.

 

 

P.14

 

Up above the ocean, a deep, voluptuous blue sky covers the whole world.

Siki relaxes his jelly body under the warm sun, and feels the waves pushing his Zisha up and down, so gentle he can enjoy the sound of the sea birds singing, and the smell of salty sea air… the chorus of nature is a stranger to Suki, and yet it comforts him.

 

 

P.15

 

So this is the outside world up above his deep-sea worksite!

This is the first time Siki has flown up above the bottom of the ocean!

 

 

P.16

 

It’s just too comfortable in this cozy swinging crib under the warm sun with the feel and the smell of salty sea air … soon Siki falls into a deep sweet dream.

For the first time he realizes he can sleep perfectly well without being exhausted from work.

 

Now when Siki closes his eyes it’s no longer dark and wet, but warm and snug, his mind bathed in a gentle rosy sunset.

 

 

P.17

 

Suddenly he hears a great wave approaching, poor Siki doesn’t even have time to open his eyes before his Zisha is buffeted into a turbulent whirlpool, and he faints from shock.

 

Yet another first for little jello Siki – “fainting” …

But it feels like sleep to him.

 

 

P.19

 

How long is it since you last slept so soundly?

To forget the outside world… to rest your body and your soul?  Is this so difficult?

 

 

P.20

 

“Slam! Bash! Whack! Ka~boom…!”

Siki finds himself tumbling across hard dry mud – his back is hurting like hell!

By the time he gets himself organized enough to open his eyes, all he can see is a giant bird above him preparing to attack!

The target … looks like it’s going to be this round little jelly thing – Siki.

 

P.21

 

“HELPPPP!!!!” Siki cries out from his heart – he plunges, he rolls, he jumps, he slides…  trying to get away!

 

 

P.22

 

“KA-THUD!”

Siki trips over his own feet, his head rolls over and over and over across this dusty mud.

 

When the dust begins to settle he looks up,

he sees the bird choking and coughing as it flies away.

 

 

P.23

 

At last, Siki gets lucky…

 

 

P.24

 

“Hey, he’s gone!  What are you still looking so worried for?”

 

Siki looks around to make sure the bird is really gone … to calm himself down he takes a deep breath, and finds that a pungent stinky stench has attacked his nose – his brain feels it’s being bombarded again! — now Siki wakes up completely, and he rolls himself over for another three feet …

 

 

P.25

 

“Hey you’re too rude!  You didn’t even say thank you and now you want to sneak away!”

 

Siki finally settles down, holds his breath, and realizes there is a soft green, grayish mouldy looking “something” talking to him…

 

Oh it’s so stinky that the smell is coming out of the book!!

 

 

P.26

 

But Siki cannot speak – he grew up under the water – you can’t talk underwater! All he can do is nod his head and bow to try and demonstrate his gratitude … for slowly he realizes, that horrid stinky smell comes from the same green mouldy “something” which just saved his life…

 

What is that thing?! Siki tries to imagine but can’t find any clue in his little mind.

 

The mouldy thing watches Siki nodding and bowing.  It looks as if Siki’s about to faint again.  Who knows what this green mouldy thing is thinking?  How could anyone tell?  It doesn’t even have a face!

 

 

P.27

 

The green mouldy “something” silently stares at Siki’s frantic kow-towing – patient, supercilious, unimpressed.  It doesn’t tell Siki to stop, but doesn’t seems very satisfied with all Siki’s nodding business…

 

Siki’s trying so hard to give his thanks that his little brain is about to flop…. oh boy, he’s going to faint again…

 

 

P.29

 

“So are you awake yet?” Mouldy Ball demands.

(let’s give her a nickname for now – Mouldy Ball)

 

 

Of course Siki can’t reply as he’s not able to speak.  And now his attention has been distracted for suddenly he has noticed that crowded before him stands a collection of inexplicable weird-looking shapes and objects.

 

What, or who, or where is all this?

 

P.30

 

Oh dear … Siki’s little mind looks just like his giant open mouth… nothing but a big empty hole… this is all too complicated, there’s too much going on which he can’t digest…

 

All that’s left for Siki is one big empty… “huh?” 

 

 

P.31

 

Siki turns to his right, and then he turns a bit more, hoping to find an empty space on which to settle his eyes…

 

“Hey, when are you going to stop all this ducking and weaving?”

 

Siki looks back at Mouldy Ball, and slowly he has a suspicion, or perhaps the beginning of an idea: Mouldy Ball and this chaotic new world may be a perfect match for each other, like piano keys which needs black and white to survive. 

 

 

P.33

 

Oh, so you and I feel the same loneliness.

 

 

P.34

 

Walking across the dry mud, past smelly garbage piles, climbing up mounds of rubbish, Mouldy Ball leads Siki into a ravine at the base of a trash mountain, piled up on top of a white box.

 

 

P.35

 

Inside the box all is clean and shiny and white.  Its walls are pleasantly decorated with hanging photographs.

Looking closer, Siki sees that the photographs appear to document the life of a rice ball.

 

Inside this box all is extremely neat and tidy, unlike anything Siki has seen outside.

But when he turns to Mouldy Ball, an uncanny, uneasy feeling fills his mind.

 

 

P. 36

 

Sipping his hot tea, a familiar taste reaches Siki’s little brain … it’s the taste of the ocean – it’s the taste of the ocean!  A warm, nostalgic, comforting feeling surrounds Siki’s heart.  He misses the ocean, the ocean that belongs to Siki, even though there’s only work and sleep.  He finds his eyes have become wet with tears.

 

Mouldy Ball turns out to be fastidious in the art of tea, and thinking Siki’s shape resembled a drop of water she had prepared Seaweed tea by way of invitation to her little box.  Startled, perhaps embarrassed by Siki’s emotional response, Mouldy Ball changed the subject.

 

 

P.37

 

“Actually, those photographs you see upon the wall, are all about me –“

 

Once upon a time, Mouldy Ball was, in fact, a rice ball.  A prize, top-shelf, glamorous rice ball.  So popular around town that even the rats had awarded her a nickname: La Prima Ballina.

 

 

P.38

 

“Back in those days my fame was incomparable.”

Mouldy Ball coughed dryly.

 

“You can’t stay beautiful forever.

 

“Doesn’t matter how spectacular you are as a rice ball, if you don’t get eaten right away – it’s – it’s – just mouldy trash!

 

“I thought beauty would give me everything, but still I was defeated by Time.

 

“By refusing to be eaten, I could not escape my fate of becoming tainted – mouldy! – abandoned by the whole world.”

 

 

P.39

 

“Are you even listening to me?!”

 

Observing Siki sitting there silently, apathetically – so she thought – Mouldy Ball considers him such a fool – he’s ignoring her completely!  She petulantly hurls her teacup at Siki’s head.

 

Unable to speak, Siki haplessly nods his head.

 

Mouldy Ball turns her back upon Siki, frustrated and regretful – why had she chosen such a one-way path – what’s the point to feel regret now?

 

 

P.41

 

Regret held tenaciously in the mind, decisions made without second thoughts. 

Must such misery be carried forever, or can it not be released?

 

 

P.42

 

Siki slides quietly over to Mouldy Ball and gently pats her head, gives her a momentary hug.  Even though Siki may not have understood the details, may not have recognized the full extent of the tragedy, yet Mouldy Ball is deeply touched.  Deprived of affection for so long – who would want to give a hug to a piece of stinking mouldy trash? Mouldy Ball could not prevent the tears from pouring down her fa – well, down her front.

 

Siki was astonished to find Mouldy Ball sobbing like a volcano beginning to erupt.  This was the first hug Siki had made in his life. 

 

Did I do something wrong?

 

 

P.43

 

Siki is lost, circling anxiously around the weeping Mouldy Ball.  From the outside you might think something terrible is about to happen between them… 

 

But it’s not.

 

 

P.44

 

Caring for another is far beyond right or wrong.  Honesty is greater than misunderstanding.

 

 

P.46

 

In fact, long-suffering Mouldy Ball wanted only a moment of emotional release, and soon regains her composure.  Observing this tongue-tied jelly ball she feels a slight relief – he would never say anything against me, she thinks, nothing to make me feel bad, nor to interrupt a conversation or a train of thought.  Alone for so long, Siki appears perhaps a good partner –

 

“Well, if you have nowhere better to go, you can stay here if you like –“

 

 

P.47

 

Siki thinks.  And thinks some more. 

 

He is not delighted by this strange place. 

 

Outside that dark, crowded, turbulent mass of buildings – and then that huge bird’s attack – it all leaves him uncomfortable, unsettled, longing for escape.

 

 

P.48

 

(“No! – No … no –“)

 

Siki earnestly shakes his head and lifts up his Zisha before his eyes,

proclaiming his desire to return to the ocean.

 

 

P.49

 

Mouldy Ball, Mouldy Ball, don’t be disheartened, if you can meet a Siki who’s not quite right for you today, then you can meet another tomorrow who might be a bit better.  Hope, she realizes, “that’s probably why I’m still here.”

 

Mouldy Ball sets her spirits with a noisy “Harumph!”  She’s made up her mind … let me take that wordless jelly ball back to his ocean.  It’s a place she’s never been to, never really thought about, and now she’s curious.

 

 

P.50

 

She packs a travel bag, and then leads Siki down the trash mountains, past the concrete structures, through the dry mud and waste waters, to leave the dusty world behind them, taking care to avoid any large birds who might take an interest in this soft jelly ball.

 

How long have they been walking?  They don’t care.

 

Gradually the air becomes more clear, the surroundings more calm.  Mouldy Ball has brought Siki to the beach.

 

 

P.51

 

At last they reach the water’s edge.

 

Siki can’t begin to contain his joy, and to share it he gleefully dances circles around Mouldy Ball.

 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but whether panicked or delighted Siki does pretty much the same thing.

 

 

P.52

 

For the urbane, highly seasoned Mouldy Ball, her first visit to the beach is more restrained.  She unpacks her luggage and prepares tea.  Rice tea, the tea leaves mixed with seawater, leaves her relaxed and content.  Sipping her favorite tea, gazing out at the gently undulating blue of the ocean she can’t help but think – life’s pretty good, huh?

 

Finally Mouldy Ball has some glimmer of understanding why Siki desires to return to this place.

 

 

P.53

 

No buildings, no trash mountains, no dust or noise.  To her surprise Mouldy Ball finds that she feels joy in her heart at this endless expanse of peace and calm.

 

(crab #1: “Well Hi there!”

   crab #2:  “Hellooo cutie!”

     crab # 3 [unseen, off-page] “Wowee, now there’s a hot tomato!”)

 

 

P.54

 

Hot tomato???  Did someone just call me a cutie?

Has that jelly ball plugged my ears?

Although startled – and suspicious – yet Mouldy Ball can’t suppress the feeling of long-lost delight rising within her.

 

(“So, ah where ya from?”   “Me?  Oh, ha ha, well …)

 

Well, thinks Mouldy Ball, this is an unusually handsome crab!

She can’t remember how it got started, but they’ve definitely begun a conversation.

 

Still, Mouldy Ball – La Prima Ballina – is an old hand at this.

And anyway, she tells herself, he’s just a crab …

 

 

P.55

 

For speechless Siki, the way Mouldy Ball and this debonair crustacean are carrying on is like a pair of aliens.  Not only he doesn’t understand the conversation, their sudden mutual fascination is inexplicable.  Love at first sight – Really?

 

Well, if you’re open you’re ready!!

 

Whether you’re going to love or not, you’ll probably know within minutes.

 

Siki – do you understand?   (no no no)

 

 

P.56

 

Mouldy Ball is entirely entranced with her new boyfriend, creating a new “love Channel” between these two…

Siki, he is left to his own devices there on the beach.

 

Looks like Siki is enjoying his new beach game as well!

 

That night, when the time arrives for the moon to begin her shift, Siki and his new friend are bathed by the moon’s soft light gently shining soft and romantic feeling.

 

 

P.58

 

Tonight the moon is especially big, maybe because it’s closer to his home.

On land back in the dusty city he had not noticed the moon, and he had not imagined it could be so grand.  His heart is totally enchanted by the moon, enjoying this quiet, peaceful moment.

 

 

P.59

 

There is no need for words, for the moon has captured Siki’s heart.

Perhaps it’s the magic attraction between two circles.

Siki is fascinated, and slowly falling asleep.

 

 

p.60

 

Siki dreams of himself inside a box,

surrounded by darkness.

But for a small square opening filled with blue sky and a large bird flying far above.

The bird appears to have the freedom Siki is longing for.

 

 

P.63

 

Did you hear it?

That desire deep in your heart …

 

 

P.65

 

“I’ve decided to live right here.

What’s your plan?”

 

Mouldy Ball appears beatific standing there with her new beau.

 

Plan?  What’s a plan?

Siki has never tried to plan anything in his life.

Does this mean Siki must say goodbye to Mouldy Ball?

Does this mean it’s time to go back to the ocean?

Suddenly Siki remembers the moon he had fallen asleep to last night,

and longs for that magical moment.

 

P.66

 

Tonight Siki sleeps on the beach beside Mouldy Ball’s new home: her new boyfriend’s shell, waiting for the moon to arrive.

 

 

P.67

 

The moon seems to know that Siki is waiting, and so she shows up earlier …

 

Again Siki is overwhelmed as the moon approaches, the distance between them dwindling to nothing.

 

 

P.69

 

The moon is so close to Siki that they could hug one another.

 

 

P.70

 

Since then Siki waits for the moon to arrive every night, no matter if it’s cloudy, windy or rainy, if it’s hot or cold.  Finally Siki becomes sick, and never again has the moon shown herself.

 

 

P.71

 

“Don’t scare me!  Are you OK?”

 

Mouldy Ball is so scared to see Siki getting so ill that her fungus particles stand out, so she takes him home at once.

 

That night Mouldy Ball takes Siki inside the shell to make sure he does not get cold again.  So sick and tired, Siki lies covered by a piece of soft sea grass, unable to sleep, still thinking of his moon.

 

 

P.72

 

Siki dreams.

He tries to move a little to the left.

He tries to move himself up a little.

Oh – he’s no longer stuck to the ground, but instead is floating in the air.

 

 

P.73

 

Looking up, the bird he dreamed of last night is flying beside Siki.

He discovers he is not merely floating, but is flying freely in the sky as well.

This new sensation surprises Siki and so he opens his mouth even wider.

 

 

P.75

 

Siki seems to have a new idea.

His heart is pounding hard.

He doesn’t understand what his feeling is trying to tell him, all he knows is that some force is emerging from his body which will lead him to a faraway place, a place from which he will be able to see the moon.

 

 

P.76

 

Gazing around, he finds his surrounded by bright colored spheres.

They all look like the moon, except some of them have rings, some have tails, nothing exactly like his moon, bright and shiny.

 

 

P.77

 

The more he thinks about the moon, the more he longs to see her.

The shape of the moon seems to become clearer before him.

 

“You don’t have to search for me anymore, I’m just right in front of you.”

Siki turns around.

 

 

P.78

 

“Siki, Siki … your love and your courage has brought you to me.  I’m happy and I’m touched.  This is the first time I’ve ever received such a brave and strong message as well…  But I can’t accept your love.  This is for your own good.  You’ll know the answer in the future.  For now please remember what you’ve learned, keep it for yourself, and keep it for the future.”

 

 

P.80

 

Rejected!  Siki is filled with sourness.

 

A million question marks pour out from his brain.

 

 

P.81

 

Siki weeps, really weeps for the first time in his life.

It looks as though he might drown himself.

 

 

P.82

 

Mouldy Ball returns from a stroll upon the beach, to find the shell flooded and her new boyfriend washed up upon the sand… She can’t believe what she sees!

 

Racing inside the shell, Mouldy Ball finds Siki lying in a pool of water – but instead of a round jelly he has become as flat as a sheet of paper.

 

 

P.83

 

There are no flies on Mouldy Ball: she figures it out at once!  Siki has become perilously dehydrated!  There’s not a moment to lose – Mouldy Ball grasps Siki, and hurls him like a Roman discus into the ocean.

 

Siki, Frisbee-like, describes an aerial parabola directly into the sea!

 

 

P.84

 

At last, back into the ocean, basking in his own home.

This long-lost sensation gradually seeps into him, plumping him back up.

The seawater gently replenishes Siki’s body and his heart.

Never had he noticed this touch of his own home. Siki delights in the ocean’s generosity, which has always taken care of him, never demanding any return.

Now the ocean hugs Siki tightly.

 

 

P.85

 

It doesn’t look like you need to search and wait for happiness.

For the joy which belongs to you is all around you.

 

 ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *********

 

 

Page 92

From the Memoirs of Mouldy Ball

 

Backstage, the beauties buff and pout.

 

La Prima Ballina (long before el fungi, the next top rice ball) is busy ironing her prize accessory – The Ace of Weeds.

 

Five minutes ‘til show-time, all the beauties are ready to roll on the catwalk – but La Prima Ballina has such an attack of nerves that her bowels have become unreliable.

 

(rushing to the bathroom)

 

“She’s left her seaweed on the table … Seven Seasoned Rice ball takes a peak in the empty room…

 

La Prima Ballina returns from the powder room to find her seaweed – gone!

 

Inspired in a pinch, at her best under duress, La Prima Ballina casually grabs a stick of sushi leaf from the cleaning lady’s lunch box …

 

It’s a new sensation!  The crowd goes berserk!  It’s the fad of the year!

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Final translation by Ian Richardson & Man-chi Lai
Primary translation by Amelia Chieu and Jennifer Heylier.
With the help of Julia Chow.