The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

  “Masako?” said Bunichi. “You know, it’s still early. Shall we walk across the bridge and down into the suburbs?”

  “Yeah, sure,” said Masako. But then she noticed that the rails on both sides of the bridge were very low. “Actually, I think it might be time to head back,” she added, feeling that indescribable fear coming back.

  “Why?”

  “Just because.”

  “Do you have other plans?”

  “No, not particularly.”

  “Then why not?” said Bunichi, suddenly noticing the anxious look on her face. “You’re not going to start telling me that you’re scared of crossing the bridge, are you?”

  Bunichi had hit the nail on the head – so Masako didn’t even bother to reply. Instead, she glanced at the long white bridge, with its telegraph poles dotted along it at intervals of several metres and the low, wooden rails in between. Masako was now getting quite scared. Something like this has happened before! She thought to herself. And something bad is now about to happen.

  “I don’t want to cross the bridge,” Masako suddenly said.

  “You really are a strange one,” said Bunichi as he took a few steps onto the bridge and peered over the handrail into the waters below.

  “I guess it is a little high up,” he added. “But then, I thought you’d already overcome your fear of heights.”

  “I just don’t like this bridge!”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Bunichi peered over the edge again and listened carefully. There was nobody around except for the two of them, and all he could hear was the rushing of the water and the occasional croak from a frog.

  “I’ve got it!” said Bunichi. “It’s not heights you’re afraid of it. It’s the rails and handrails in high places that scare you! You were able to climb up that clock tower because there were no rails! Don’t you see – that made it easier for you!”

  “But why would I be scared of rails?”

  “I don’t know. But there are plenty of people who have random phobias.”

  Masako wasn’t sure if Bunichi was making fun of her, so she started to pout a little.

  “Well, I can’t help what I find scary, can I! I just feel as if something might come jumping out from behind one of those telegraph poles.”

  “What, like someone wearing a Prajna mask?”

  smirked Bunichi.

  “Stop it!” yelled Masako, surprising Bunichi.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Look, I’m scared! I’m really scared!”

  Masako covered her face with both hands and sank down onto the ground. She suddenly felt like she might be able to remember something that happened a long time ago. But at the same time, she was too scared to remember it.

  “Are you not feeling well?” asked Bunichi, looking genuinely worried.

  Masako said nothing, but gave a small nod.

  “Okay then,” said Bunichi. “Let’s go home.”

  THE HEAD IN THE HALLWAY

  Masako felt as if she could remember whatever it was that had happened if she really put her mind to it. But she was afraid the memory might be too painful for her to bear. So several frustrating days went by. It was actually during that period that Yoshio started to wet his bed again.

  “What is it this time?” asked Masako. “The woman with the scissors isn’t there any more, right?”

  “No, she isn’t...” replied Yoshio. “It’s just that...” Yoshio’s voice trailed off into incomprehensible mumbling.

  Later on, long after they’d gone to bed, Masako awoke in the middle of the night and tried again to help Yoshio overcome his fear.

  “Come on, Yoshio,” she said, shaking him awake, “let’s take you to the bathroom.”

  “But...” Yoshio mumbled, sleepily.

  “Come on, hurry up, or you’re going to wet the bed again.”

  “But I don’t want to go yet.”

  “But you have to go. Oh... I see. You’re scared again, aren’t you? You’re back to being a big scaredy-cat!”

  “No, that’s not why.”

  “Well then, go!”

  Yoshio pulled back the covers and got out of bed. Then he walked out into the hallway slowly. As for Masako, she was feeling quite satisfied with herself, so she rolled over onto her side and closed her eyes. But before she could fall back to sleep, Yoshio came back into the room with his face as pale as a sheet. Then he sat down next to Masako and began to cry.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Masako, surprised.

  “At the corner of the hallway, there’s a man’s head on the floor,” sobbed Yoshio.

  “What?” said Masako, sitting upright. “That’s impossible. You must have just dreamt it!”

  “No, it’s really there... covered in blood, and rolling around on the floor.”

  Overwhelmed with fear, Yoshio threw himself into Masako’s arms, trembling. Masako tried to be brave, but she was so scared by Yoshio’s story that she had to make an effort to stop her teeth from chattering.

  FATHER’S SECRET

  “But it really can’t be true,” said Masako, trying to convince herself as well as Yoshio. “A man’s head in the hallway. I mean, it just can’t be true.”

  But Yoshio seemed genuinely terrified. He wasn’t playing.

  For a moment, Masako considered going to the bathroom with Yoshio again. But what would she do if there really was a man’s head on the floor? She even considered waking her parents, who were asleep in the next room, and asking them to come along as well. But if she did that, then Yoshio would know she was scared as well, and she didn’t want that. She needed to be strong for his sake, so she could set a good example – no matter how scared she really was inside.

  “I’ll show you how ridiculous it is,” she said, hopping out of bed.

  “You’re not really going, are you?” said Yoshio with his eyes wide-open. “You’re not really going to go to the bathroom?”

  “Yes I am.”

  With that, Masako took hold of Yoshio’s wrists and tried to make him stand. But Yoshio wouldn’t move. In fact, he was so scared that his body was frozen still, so he couldn’t get out of bed even if he’d wanted to.

  What a wimp, thought Masako, I can’t believe he’s a boy!

  After reassuring Yoshio that everything would be fine, Masako stepped out into the hallway with Yoshio in tow. There was no light out there, and in the dark, for just a second, she felt as if there might actually be something there. But she’d never been scared to go to the bathroom before, so she was determined not to be frightened this time either.

  “Things look scary only because you think they’re scary,” she whispered to Yoshio.

  Together, they peered around the corner of the hallway and along to the bathroom.

  “See!” said Masako. “There’s nothing there.”

  Yoshio blinked his eyes and grabbed hold of his sister’s body, then took a good long look along the hallway.

  “That’s so strange,” he said. “I swear it was there earlier.”

  Masako wondered why on earth Yoshio might have imagined a man’s head lying in the hallway. Surely there had to be a reason. But she knew there’d be no point in asking Yoshio, who most likely didn’t know the answer himself.

  It’s amazing how the human mind works, Masako thought to herself, it’s just baffling!

  When the next morning came, Masako left the house together with her father, just like she did every day. The train station was on her way to school, so she could walk and chat with him every morning. Masako really enjoyed those chats, and she felt particularly close to her father. So she figured it would be all right to tell him about what had happened the night before. She thought he might even know how to help Yoshio overcome his fears. But unfortunately, her father knew more about engineering than he did about heads on hallway floors, so he was unable to suggest anything.

  When they reached the station, Masako said goodbye to her father and carried on walking over the level crossing. For no
particular reason, she turned to look back at the station, and when she did she got a bit of a surprise – she could see her father standing on the platform just like every other morning, but this time he was on the wrong platform waiting for a train going in the opposite direction. Masako wondered if he’d been deep in thought and gone there accidentally, but that seemed unlikely.

  What’s going on? thought Masako. Maybe he just needs to stop by somewhere before work. But then, if that was the case, surely he would have left the house earlier than normal.

  Masako couldn’t help but wonder whether she’d just seen something she wasn’t supposed to, so she quickly turned around before her father could see her looking. And when she got to school, the thought still bothered her. All day long she kept wondering why her father wasn’t going to work and why he was hiding something. In fact, she wondered so much, it was almost impossible to concentrate on her classes.

  “Hey Masako!” said Bunichi a little later on. “Are you all right? You don’t look well.”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” said Masako, but Bunichi wasn’t convinced.

  VOICES IN THE NIGHT

  All day long, Masako had wondered whether she should tell her mother about the incident at the station. And by the time she arrived home, she’d decided it was the right thing to do. Funnily enough, though, her mother didn’t seem in the least bit surprised.

  “Well Masako, there’s something I didn’t tell you about before, because I didn’t want you to worry,” she said with a frown on her face.

  “What is it?”

  “Well, it’s not such a big deal as it might sound, but your father quit his job.”

  “He did? Why?”

  “Well, his company didn’t have as much work to do as they had before, so they needed to let some of the workers go.”

  “Let them go? But that means he didn’t quit, right? He was fired!”

  “I guess so. But there’s really nothing to worry about. Your father is lucky. He’s a skilled engineer. So he’ll have no trouble at all finding a new job. In fact, he’s already received an offer from another company.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  Masako couldn’t help but think it might have been better for her parents to tell her what was going on.

  I’m an adult, too, she thought to herself, so I’m old enough to be told things as important as that. She felt especially frustrated with her father, and wished he would stop seeing her as just a child. So she decided to confront him about this on the way to the station the next day.

  “So, dad, have you already decided on your next job?”

  she said, out of the blue.

  Her father’s eyes widened in surprise.

  “Oh, so you know about that?” he said, then laughed out loud. “I guess you must have overheard me when I came home the other night, did you? I came home a little drunk and was probably talking louder than I should have, and complaining about how the company was going to ‘give me the chop’. I probably woke you up.”

  Suddenly, Masako understood where Yoshio’s night vision might have come from.

  “Did you say ‘give me the chop’?” she asked in a voice that was also a little too loud.

  “I did,” answered her father. “But there’s no need to shout!”

  “But I figured it out! The head Yoshio saw – it was yours!”

  Poor little Yoshio must have overheard his father’s voice in his sleep and conjured up the image of a bloody severed head. Masako couldn’t help but giggle at how silly the whole episode had been, and so she told her father all about it.

  “But this time might be a bit more difficult than last time,” she continued. “We need to tell Yoshio that you were fired. Then we need to tell him that there’s nothing to worry about.”

  Masako’s father smiled and patted her on the shoulders with his large, warm hands.

  “Oh Masako,” he said with a proud look on his face. “You’re such a clever girl. A born psychologist!”

  THE NIGHTMARE TAKES SHAPE

  Masako found herself standing alone on the bridge. The low wooden rails were old, and some were rotting or even broken. She could see the telegraph poles on one side at regular ten-metre intervals, and she slowly made her way down the middle of the bridge with the hairs on her neck standing on end. She was so very afraid. But she needed to cross the bridge to do the shopping for her mother. If only she could walk across with her eyes closed. But if she did, she might walk into one of those rotting rails and plunge down into the icy waters below. So instead she kept her eyes wide-open and fixed her gaze on the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

  Why is everything so scary? she thought to herself. What is it that’s frightening me?

  But no matter how hard she thought about it, Masako couldn’t figure it out. Then, suddenly, she froze on the spot. There was something hiding behind one of those telegraph poles! Something that just moved!

  “Who is it? Who’s there?” asked Masako, her voice trembling.

  Then, at that very moment, something in a white cloth leapt out from behind the telegraph pole and gave a terrifying cry before landing right in front of Masako, where it studied her carefully through its fierce-looking Prajna mask.

  For a moment, Masako stood rooted to the spot, too scared to even scream. Then she decided to run for her life. But her legs wouldn’t move the way she wanted them to. Her knees were trembling, and each step was unsteady. Then one of her feet got caught in something, and she tumbled head first onto the railing – smashing right through it and over the edge into darkness. The sound of gushing water came closer and closer, and somewhere a voice called out.

  “Etsuko!”

  Who on earth is Etsuko, she thought to herself as she fell. Is it someone I should know?

  Then the icy waters engulfed her and dragged her body deeper and deeper.

  Masako woke up with a start. Her chest was pounding and she was gasping for air.

  A dream! she thought. It was only a dream!

  But what an awful nightmare it had been. Her pyjamas were soaked with sweat, but fortunately Yoshio was still fast asleep beside her. Quietly, she got out of bed, changed into a new pair of pyjamas and crawled back under the covers. But, as much as she tried, she couldn’t get back to sleep.

  Ha! Now I remember, she thought to herself. Etsuko was a friend back from when we lived in the countryside. She was a cute girl. I must have been six and Etsuko five when we last saw each other. I wonder what she’s doing now?

  The next morning, Masako woke up earlier than usual. She decided to take the longer route to school and invited Bunichi to walk with her. As they walked side by side, Masako recounted her nightmare from the previous night. She thought Bunichi might be able to tell her something about her dream, since he seemed to have learnt so much about such things from his psychologist uncle.

  “I think something must have happened back when you lived in the countryside,” said Bunichi after giving it some thought.

  “I think so too,” nodded Masako.

  “And what about that girl, Etsuko? Do you think she still lives there?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Is this place far?”

  “No, you can get there and back in a day.”

  “Masako, you should go there this weekend,” said Bunichi, stopping in his tracks. “I really think you’ll find some answers if you do. You’ll find out whatever it is that’s troubling you so much.”

  Masako looked Bunichi straight in the eyes and said, “Will you come with me?”

  “Of course I will.”

  “Thanks,” said Masako, dropping her gaze. She was so happy to be returning to the place she’d loved after so many years away. And to go there with Bunichi was even better. But at the same time, she was a little worried about whatever horrible secrets she might find there.

  Over the next few days, Masako wrestled with her mixed feelings. Then, when Sunday came, the weather was perfect, with not a single cloud in the sky. Bunichi came to
pick her up early in the morning, and he seemed pleasantly surprised to see her wearing a very colourful dress.

  “Wow!” said Bunichi. “You actually look like a proper girl with that on!”

  “How rude!” pouted Masako. “What do you normally think of me as?”

  “A girl, of course.”

  “Well,” replied Masako, “you’ve also dressed up more than usual, haven’t you.”

  Bunichi looked down at his new dark-green sweater as his cheeks turned bright-red in embarrassment.

  Together they walked along until they reached the train station, where they took the local line downtown. Then they changed to another train, from where they watched the city fade away through the windows to be replaced by beautiful countryside scenes, with the leaves of trees changing to a palette of different colours and the rice fields glowing the brilliant gold of the harvest season.

  “Do your grandparents still live in the countryside?” asked Bunichi, turning to Masako.

  “No, we don’t have family there any more. Apparently some people we don’t know are living in the house we used to live in. But there are a lot of people we knew in the neighbourhood, so I’m sure they will all remember me.”

  “So you were born there?”

  “Yeah, I lived there until I was six. After that my dad got his job, and we moved out into town.”

  A full four hours later, they arrived at their destination, where they took a quick lunch at a small restaurant along the shopping avenue near the station, then slowly started on their one-kilometre walk to the village where Masako was born. Behind them, the sun shone across the low mountains and hills nearby, and the air was clear and refreshing. On either side of the road there were fields of radishes and turnips, but there was not a soul in sight – perhaps because it was lunchtime.

  “After we cross that river,” said Masako, “there’s not much further to go.”