Letter
A story of a younger colleague.
It was when he was aiming on being an illustrator, and about five years had passed since he moved to Tokyo. He got a letter from a friend in his hometown.
'What? A letter, nowadays...? Is it something he can't say on the phone so he's writing?'
He doubted that but opened the envelope and tried to read it nevertheless, then the task came to a sudden halt and he couldn't endure the agony. The contents contained sentences like 'I want to die already...'
'That's terrible! I'll try calling anyway.'
He made the call in a panic, but no matter how much time passed the ringing just continued and nobody picked up. He kept calling time after time without giving up hope, and suddenly he heard a voice. "Hello?"
Although the voice had mumbled when he heard it, it was certainly a woman's voice.
"Um, I was in the same class as 〇〇-kun, but I called because I received a letter from him today. Are you his mother?"
"Eh? A letter from 〇〇? When did you receive it?"
"Ah, yeah, please wait a moment. I received it today," he said, but when he looked on the table there was no letter! What absurdity!
Even so, no matter how much he searched the room, he couldn't find the envelope or the letter it contained anywhere, though they had been there until just now.
"I'm sorry... I'm sure I had it until now, but it seems like I lost it, but I received it today. Because it wasn't there when I got the morning newspaper."
"Is that so... Actually, that boy passed away one month ago. Then..." the person on the other side hung up.
"What the...?"
He didn't understand what was going on and tried calling one more time, but the line had disconnected.
And in the end, that letter never showed up.
On a later day, he called his parents' home to determine the truth, and it was true that 〇〇-kun had died, and also that it happened one month ago. What surprised him the most was that the guy's mother had died also, one year prior.
It was when he was aiming on being an illustrator, and about five years had passed since he moved to Tokyo. He got a letter from a friend in his hometown.
'What? A letter, nowadays...? Is it something he can't say on the phone so he's writing?'
He doubted that but opened the envelope and tried to read it nevertheless, then the task came to a sudden halt and he couldn't endure the agony. The contents contained sentences like 'I want to die already...'
'That's terrible! I'll try calling anyway.'
He made the call in a panic, but no matter how much time passed the ringing just continued and nobody picked up. He kept calling time after time without giving up hope, and suddenly he heard a voice. "Hello?"
Although the voice had mumbled when he heard it, it was certainly a woman's voice.
"Um, I was in the same class as 〇〇-kun, but I called because I received a letter from him today. Are you his mother?"
"Eh? A letter from 〇〇? When did you receive it?"
"Ah, yeah, please wait a moment. I received it today," he said, but when he looked on the table there was no letter! What absurdity!
Even so, no matter how much he searched the room, he couldn't find the envelope or the letter it contained anywhere, though they had been there until just now.
"I'm sorry... I'm sure I had it until now, but it seems like I lost it, but I received it today. Because it wasn't there when I got the morning newspaper."
"Is that so... Actually, that boy passed away one month ago. Then..." the person on the other side hung up.
"What the...?"
He didn't understand what was going on and tried calling one more time, but the line had disconnected.
And in the end, that letter never showed up.
On a later day, he called his parents' home to determine the truth, and it was true that 〇〇-kun had died, and also that it happened one month ago. What surprised him the most was that the guy's mother had died also, one year prior.
<Coach's Confusion>
You got the information for an interesting personal experience story, didn't you? The conversation is easy to understand now that you've fixed it, but there's one point about putting it in order. The 'phone'. Nowadays, whether it's in conversations or in writing, that word doesn't appear but everywhere you would see the word 'phone', 'mobile' is used instead, without restriction. I'm a little bit confused about if it was a phone installed in a house at the end of the story, or if it was a mobile phone. As a convention, the act in the beginning would be hard to understand for the future if it's "make a call to a mobile phone." To put it all in order: the existence of the letter, the power connection, and the mother's voice, those are all out of this world and it's an interesting story in that it reads as if none of those things actually happened.