The Short Stories of Peaceful Ghosts

02. The Boy and the Pearl Shell

When I was young, my grandma told me that I had a special ability to see things that a lot of people can’t. I wasn’t sure what she meant back then, so I continued to live as if they didn’t exist. But the older I got, the more I saw and the more I heard. That was when I thought, I could no longer ignore them.

I spent my summer in my grandma’s house with all of my cousins. We would go to the beach early in the morning to see the fishermen pull up all the fish they caught to the shore. The fish would come in, jumping and splashing on the water around the nets. They then get distributed to everyone and we all got at least one to bring home and cook. I was ten.

One day I stayed behind longer than usual until there was no one around me. The house was just a couple of meters away so it wasn’t that far. I could make it back home before breakfast. But what made me stay was the sight of a little shell that was washed up on the sand. It wasn’t very big, but it looked like an open mouth. Inside was a pearl. It was rare to find these things just lying on the sand, so I wanted to show everyone.

“Don’t touch that!” suddenly, a voice came from behind me. As I turned to see who it was, a strong wind swept my hair back, bringing with it some sand that stung both my eyes.

“Owww!” I complained as the knuckles of my fingers rubbed my eyelids. It wasn’t getting better so it was impossible for me to open my eyes. It just tickled when I tried to.

“Here, wash it with some water,” the voice said. I could barely make it out, but there was a puddle of water in front of me, cupped in someone else’s hands. I dipped my face into it and opened my eyes in the water to try and wash the sand out. Seawater.

“Ow! Ow! Aaah!” I pushed those hands aside and started rubbing my eyes profusely. “What are you doing?! That’s seawa---“ and just then, I noticed that the tickling had stopped.

“But it fixed it,” the voice responded.

When I refocused my eyesight, I could see this person clearly now. From the voice, I noticed it was a boy not much older than me. He wore a mask though, so I couldn’t see his face. It was a strange mask. It had eye holes, but nothing else, everything else was white.

“Why are you wearing a mask?” I asked.

But he was quiet. Without another word, he bent down, grabbed the shell and started walking away towards the sea. Just when I was about to stop him, I actually stopped myself. I saw something strange. Something you don’t see all too often… just like that pearl I just found. 

He was walking on the water, never sinking like he should have. It was as if the shore stretched as far as he could walk, but I knew that wasn’t the case. The further he went, the deeper the water. So I walked to the edge of the shore just to make sure. When the water was above my ankle, for him it was still below the soles of his feet. And then I realized… 

Oh, he must be one of them.

 ~*~

Author's Note: I was watching Hotarubi no Mori e and instantly loved it, so I wrote a really short story resembling it. It's not as exciting as Hotarubi no Mori e though, I cried watching that movie! But this one is based on my own personal childhood experience. I never met a boy with a mask but I did find a really pretty shell (not a pearl though!) in my Grandma's place when we went to see the  fishermen pull up the new fish!