I Can't Open Them

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This is what my older sister experienced.

It happened in the middle of one very cold winter night.
My sister was sleeping in bed, when she heard something  go padump, padum, padump, padum.

"So annoying....!"
She thought, and she tried to open her eyes, but couldn't open them.

Then the padump, padum, padump, padum grew louder and louder.

"What the hell!?"

While she was panicking, the thing suddenly jumped on top of her chest.

It was bouncing up and down, and giggling.

She could tell that it was the voice of a little girl.

My sister was sweating like a pig and tried to chant some sort of prayer.
But then she heard the voice say:
"Open your eyes and look."

My sister muttered,
"I can't open them...."

Then the thing said,
"If you sleep with your eyes open, you'll get a rooound cake.
So you'll be fine.
Because you'll get a roooound cake you'll be fine."
It repeated the same phrase over and over.

My sister still thought she couldn't do it, but in the end she managed to open her eyes.

And there she saw an ordinary looking little girl sitting astride her.
Soon after that she passed out.

I heard her story on the following morning.

"Some rich imagination! lol"
I told her, laughing.
"That's what I told myself. lol"
My sister was laughing too.


That was the last conversation we had.
On the same day, my sister got run over by a car on the way to school, and died.
Her eyes were wide open.

At the funeral, when I was preparing some offerings, a daugther of a distant relative - a little girl - came up to me.
She said,
"Here. Mi-chan*1 told me to give you this."

I thought this Mi-chan must be another kid of a distant relative I don't know about, and I accepted the gift without hesitation.

"Who's Mi-chan?"
When I asked, the girl said:
"Mi-chan says, because she lives inside the closet, she can't come out. But she says she'll be able to come out soon."

I was lost for words.

The gift she gave me was a small, tasty-looking round cake.*2

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*1 "chan" is a suffix at the end of a person's name, used to show endearment towards that person.

*2 A round cake : the original text at this point was manju

 (まんじゅう) , a Japanese-style round cake with usually red bean paste inside.  Pictured right: Cherry-blossom manju.