昨晩はヤマバトグループの鍋、じゃなくてミーティングにお邪魔しました。
集合場所は燕の北谷さんのお宅で、集まったのは山鳩舎のチカさん・ナベさん、niemiのミサキさん、monkavaのミヤさんとThree Little Song Birdsの阿久津さん。
当日の仕事を終わらせてバスに乗ると、夜の道は車、車、車の大渋滞。約束の時間を過ぎてしまったため急ぎ足で駆けつけると一番乗りで、松本の時間感覚に追いつけていない自分に少し気恥ずかしくなりましたが、そのうちにナベさんと、松本でお嫁さんにしたい女性No.1のミサキさんが加わり、ミサキさんが用意してくれた特製の豆乳鍋をつつくうちに他のメンバーもぽつりぽつりと姿を見せ始めました。
ゆるいペースでミーティングと鍋が進むなか、BRUTUS（No.785）のカバーイラストを担当された大御所イラストレーター、チカさんに会えると事前に聞いていた自分は、購入したBRUTUSを持参して表紙にサインをいただき、さらにはクマ似顔絵まで描いていただきました。ありがたや。そして夜が更けると、自然発生的に似顔絵の時間がスタート。名作、珍作、問題作が次々に誕生し、笑いの絶えないミーティングは明け方まで続くのでした。
Last night, I joined Yamabato (Rufous Turtledove) Group for a hot-pot party…correction…a meeting.
It was taken place at Kitaya-san (Tsubakuro)’s house, with Chika-san and Nabe-san (Yamabatosha), Misaki-san (niemi), and Miya-san (monkava) and Akutsu-san (Three Little Song Birds).
Finishing the day’s work and getting on the bus, I saw the nighttime road full of thousands of cars heavily jammed up. I was in a hurry to arrive at the place falling behind the agreed time, but was actually the first one to arrive, so I felt bashful finding myself to be not yet accustomed to what time means in Matsumoto. Anyway, Nabe-san and then Misaki-san, Matsumoto’s best prospective bride, arrived; and as having special soy milk hot-pot prepared by Misaki-san, the other members too started showing up one by one.
As the meeting-with-the-hot-pot rolling on relaxedly, I asked Chika-san, who was in charge of the cover illustration of BRUTUS (No.785), for her autograph on the cover of that BRUTUS I had bought and brought with me as I had been told that she would join the meeting. And she even drew a portrait of me based on the bear! How blessed I was.. Then, as the evening deepened, without knowing when nor why, the portrait session began and, with a series of masterpieces, weird pieces and controversial pieces produced, the meeting went on until the dawn without running out of laughter.
文中およびカバー写真のイラスト：山口（写真提供はミヤさん、チカさん。チカさん、無断転載すみません）
Illustration above and in the cover image: Yamaguchi (photos provided by Miya-san and Chika-san. My apology to Chika-san for using it without your consent)
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