I always kind of entertained this fantasy, when things were
really bad.  Even back then, I knew it could only ever be a
fantasy, so I never got too hung up on it or anything. But if
practice was especially hard, or if a performance went
especially wrong, or if I was just in a really awful mood, I'd
think about what I'd say to Miss Suzume right before I quit.
Before this year, though, quitting dance was so far away from a
possibility that it might as well have been taming dragons, or
catching ghosts, or something equally never gonna happen. So I'd
think about what I'd say in a perfect world if I could get away
with anything, enjoy that fleeting moment of imagination, then
put it behind me and get back to work.  Still, in my mind, it
would all happen in the middle of a competition. I would miss a
turn or something and catch her eye in the audience,
disapproving and hateful and judgmental or whatever, and I would
just stop. Cut off the music with an imperial wave of my hand
and the audience would gasp at the au