Never to Old to Love

   After living 111 years Tomoji Tanabe doesn't have too many hairs left. He's the world's oldest living man, but there's a woman, also Japanese, called Yone Minagawa who is 114 and going on 115. We don't know whether they know each other. But just for the fun of it we might imagine the following conversation, maybe on the beach of some vacation resort with a view of one of those famous Japanese volcanoes.

   "Hi there! My name is Tomoji. What's yours?

   "Don't be rude young man. What business is it of yours to know what my name is?

   "Well, I just saw you lying on the sand and, well, I thought you might want to share a bit of small talk with an old fuddy-duddy like me."

   "You fresh little youngster! Go back to where you came from!" 

   "You think I'm young looking? Thanks! I'm 111. How old are you?

   "Women are not supposed to reveal their age."

   "Oh come on! That might be the rule up to 100 but I imagine you must be..."

   "One hundred and fourteen."

   "Woh! Really? This calls for a celebration!"

   "Celebrate what?"

   "Your age, life, love..."

   "I don't go out with men anymore."

   "Why not?"

   "Love used to be a many splendid thing, as the song goes, but I'm beyond all that now."

   "It's never too late to give it a try."

   "Yes it is."

    "Look I had nine wives. The first ran off with a millionaire. The second died of a heart attack. I couldn't get along with the third, fourth and fifth, so I went to the courts. The sixth, seventh and eighth  were  were killed when the Americans dropped those atomic bombs on us and the nineth died happily of old age."

    "I'm sorry."

    "It was horrible, I mean the bombs."

    "I know. I lost three of my ex-husbands too in the mushroom."

   "You see, we've got a lot to talk about...and a lot to celebrate...after all, look at the sad state of affairs in the world and yet here we are...."

   "I don't want to talk about it. I just want to look at the moon and eat fish."

   "That's great! My favorite passtime is reciting poems in the moonlight...Come on! Be a good sport! Why don't we get together tonight? I've got some sea weed and baby shark at my place...and a magnificent view of the moon from my balcony."

   "O.K. I give up. But no funny business."

   "I think I'm falling in love Yone."

   "With the moon?"

   "No! With you!"

   "Silly man! We can love the years we've lived but nothing more."

  "They say love is like wine: the more aged, the better."

  Yone is moved. She bends slowly towards Tomoji and kisses him on his chapped lips. They embrace there on the sand. The sun is setting. The moon has not come out from hiding yet.  Their bodies remain tangled together on the beach, motionless but in peace as the first mysterious beams of the moon caress their remains.