mono

Once, when I was small, I saw a boy, his name is mono.

I was 9 at that time; I come to the beach with my families. Not many people come to this beach because of its rural place. In that village most of the families are fisherman people and that is why when they saw my family who came from city they amazed with us. But we're not really special or anything, we just come to find a place where we can spend our time quietly.

It’s 9 am. Mother and I open the blanket to make the space for her to sit and lying down while watching me at the beach. Father comes from his car bringing lunch box. And then father and mother sit quietly watching me playing with the sand. I wonder.... what were they thinking?

“Hiroshi! Don’t go play too far, you will get lost!” shout mother toward me.

“Yes mother!” and I kept on playing sand by my own.

The day becomes hotter.

I come to mother and ask “mother, what time it is?”

“It’s 11 am. I think we can have lunch right now.” Say mother while she look at her wristwatch. While mother prepare the lunch, a boy come out of nowhere look at us. he looks around 6 years old, his skin were brown like chocolate milk, it might be because of tanning, but he wear a big clothes that it looks so loose and might fall from his body if he didn't tied it up with belt and rope around his body.

“come here, boy. Come eat with us.” Say mother toward that boy.

He slowly comes to us.

“Come on, eat the food. We have plenty.” Say mother while showing him all the food that we have. Father and I look at him, not knowing what to do.

He then sit and take the food. He chews the food slowly.

“What is your name?” ask mother. The boy just remains silent and nodded.

“How old are you?” ask father. But he keep on remaining silent and nodding.

“Can you speak?” ask mother. This time he looks at her, but he still silent and nodding. Does he can’t speak or does he not understand any word that we said?

In the end he didn't speak any words for any question that my parent asks. We didn't realize it because he wears big clothes, but when we look at him carefully, he is so skinny, like he never eats anything before. Mother gives him food and told him to eat more. He just eat silently, and bowing his head, nodding everything. It seems like he didn't understand what we're talking about.

“Hiroshi, go and play with this boy.” Say mother to me.

“What? But I don’t want to play with this kid.” say me while look at him. He just looks at me and my parents.

“Just do what your mother wants.” Say father with strict voice.

I reluctantly answer my parents “yes father, yes mother.”

Finally I give in and I play with that boy. While I build the castle, he scrapes the sand with a stick. So he also doesn't want to play with me. This made me angry and I ignored him and continue build the castle. While I playing sand, I keep an eye on my parents. They just look at me, waving their hand and smiling. This time I won't be fooled.

Whenever I went away from my parents, they would always argue with each other. Even once when I sleep in my room, I awoke with their argument. Their argument becoming so intense to the point they look like demon that fighting with each other. However, this trip will be our final trip as a family. Soon father and mother will separate and I have to choose which one I should live with. I really hate that choice, and I won't let it happen no matter what.

But when I realized that boy ignored me completely and only focusing in scraping the sand with stick, I was really angry that I focused all my attention to build the castle, until I heard a slap sound. The sound comes from my father slapping my mother's face. Normally if I got slapped like that from father, I will cry out loud and father will reconcile with me, but from mother and father's face, they still has more to arguing, and this enraged me so much.

I had enough! This is too much! I don't want to choose any one of them!

At that time, I still remember what I had asked to mono.

"You! Bring me to your home, let me live with you! I don't want to live with my parents!” at that time, he just looks at me and just nodding his head. He walk to show the way but being impatient, I pull his hand and run away from my parents.

Mother and father don’t realize my absence because they are still arguing.

We run and run until my legs give in. I feel very tired, but when I can’t see their face, I was very happy. I even thought I won't see their face again. The boy looks at me. His face doesn't even show any emotion. He must be wondering what I was doing.

“Are you wondering why I did this?” I ask him but he’s just being silent.

“If you don’t want to listen, forget it.” that’s what I planned to do but a while later, I opened my mouth.

“My parents dislike each other. They are fighting for something that is meaningless. Why can’t they see that this is both of their faults? And father and mother doesn’t even want to listen to me.” And then I looked at mono. He just looks at me for a while and continue walk.

“Hey, stop ignoring me and say something!” shout me for being angry at him.

He then looks at me. From his face, he doesn’t even feel anything from my shout.

This person really makes my blood boiling “Are you mute? Or are you deaf? When people ask you question, answer it!!”

But he just looks at me without any emotion in his face. It’s like I’m talking to a wall.  Calm down Hiroshi, don’t be mad. He might not be able to understand my word. Teacher once told me about people who can’t speak and can’t talk, and how sad is their life. Teacher also said as a human, we must be considerate to others. And if I be mad at him, I will be just like my parents. Therefore, I must do another way to communicate with him. Then I place my hand at my chest and I say my name.

“Hiroshi.”

He just stares at my hand where I placed at my chest.

“Hiroshi.” I said it again.

He looked at me.

“Hiroshi!” again I shout my name at him.

“Hiroshi!!”

“HIROSHI!!”

“HI-RO-SHI!!” again I called my name. And I look at him right at his eyes to make him understand.

He looked at me. Does he understand?

“iirohi….” Say the boy. His word makes me very surprise.

“You can talk?! You can talk?!!! Finally you spoke!!!” shout me with surprised. Somehow I felt like I have unlocked this person’s ability to talk.

“If you can talk, why you didn’t say it? I had though you are mute and deaf you know.” But this times the boy just silent. And then he looks around, as he sees the sun has going down, he realize the evening has come.

I want to continue my conversation “bah, forget it, I… ” but he walks away from me “…HEY WAIT!!!” I shout and chase him.

I follow him from walking across the river to walking across the jungle until I arrive at an old wooden house. It’s not too big or too small, and it's just a normal house like any others, but it looks scary, like a haunted house. He enters the house through the big broken window of that house. I follow him through that window too. The inside was dark, dusty and the furniture was a mess. I can even smell something smelly inside the house. If mother is here, she would scold me for making this entire mess and father doesn’t even want to live in this place, but is this how he lived for his entire life inside that house?

But I have come so far. At least I have to come and talk to him. I walk inside the house to find that boy. He is standing in front of a room.

As I try to talk to him, I heard a shout. I was surprised, and in a split second, the shout turn to cry, and the cry turn to laughter. It comes inside that room. And then he takes out the small crab, shell, and the food that mom gave him (when did he take mom’s food?) before and come inside the room. Why does he collect them? When he come into the room, the noise has quiet down. I take a peek inside the room. It was quite a sight. I saw a woman, having a messy hair and tattered clothes hug him while mumbling something. The voice weren't clear as her voice is cracking, but I heard the repeating sounds like 'mono'. So his name is mono huh? That is what I though when I heard it. I can’t hear her words clearly and it makes me want to come closer so I open the door.

But I made a mistake; I shouldn't have opens the door to see the woman. She was really surprise at me and holds the blunt knife near her.

I tried to say something “wait, I…” but she mumbling and shouting something I don't even understand. the only word I have ever understand is during she rise the knife and move it fast towards me and that word is "GET LOST FROM MY MONO!!"

oh my gosh! That words spook me! I overslept. The train is moving fast. It makes me realize the time also moving so fast. It has been 20 years since then. I look at my hand. It has a big scar, made by that woman. Luckily I still can move my hands normally. After she attacked me, I manage to run away from that house and meet my parents back. I told my parents about that woman, and they called the police. The police finally caught the woman, but they couldn't find mono, and not even a trace of a child living in that place. It’s as if he is a ghost. In the end, I have to go back home because of fever from that injury. Not long after that, mother and father divorce and since then I lived with my mother until I graduate from school and work as a salary man. Since then I don't know what happened to mono. But then I heard that village where I met mono will be gone soon. The villagers have moved out from their house and soon all of the houses will be demolish and a new industrial factory will be build. By the time I got that news, I got a feeling that I have to come back. Somehow I have a feeling that mono is there, continue to be forgotten.

The train arrives at the destination. A middle age man standing beside a car, come and greet me. "Welcome, umm..."

"Hiroshi, nice to meet you." I answer him.

"Right, Mr. Hiroshi, I’m Tachibana, your guide to my village." said Tachibana with a smile. He opens the car door for me. After I get into the car, he starts the engine and moves the car.

"How long will you be here?" I ask Tachibana while he driving.

"I will be here until next week. The demolition will begin next month." said Tachibana.

"I’m sorry for troubling you."

"It’s alright. Beside you have told me your story. My grandfather and uncle also want me to help you to investigate It." said Tachibana. His grandfather was the chief of the village before this. Now the government wants to compensate him and his villager if he sold the village to the government. Soon, this village will be a factory. "My uncle was a police. Now he retired, but he did involve in that case before, but the case closed few years later after you went out from my village because we can't find any further trace for the kid."

"Not a single trace?" I asked him.

"That’s what we can deduce at that time." said Tachibana.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him again. Now this seems puzzled to me.

Tachibana then spoke "during that time, the village doesn't have enough tools and power to investigate even one case in more details. even the police in nearby town doesn't want to waste their time on this rural village to find one unknown kid, even more the one that doesn't look like he exist. Uncle had no choice but to close the case because our only clue to that boy, that mad woman died later on."

A silence occurs for a minute.

I was surprised for the reason of the closed case, but I need to know more about mono, so I asked him "can you tell me more about this mad woman?"

Tachibana be silent for a moment. But then he opens his mouth “hmm.... I don't know what her name is... My mother once told me about how she is a kind person before, and her parent died when she was in high school, so she started living alone. When she finished her school, she works at nearby town as a librarian, but she still living alone. Some people are worried with her living alone that some of the men in village proposed to her for her own safety. She rejects those men until she met a man at a place where she worked at. I heard he was a soldier, very knowledgeable especially in survival skills. She fell in love with him and the neighbors heard the rumors that he even proposed her. However, he died in a very horrible way." he stopped talking. The car has arrived at the destination. Tachibana look at me, wondering if I want to continue listening to his story again.

"Go on," I said to him. And Tachibana spoke again.

"You see, it seems that he suicide inside her house. He left a letter for her and doing hara-kiri (cut stomach) in the house while she was gone. Inside the letter, he wrote about the war where he was once killing so many innocent people and how he lives in regret and emptiness like a doll. but no matter whatever he do, he still feels regret and empty, so he take responsibility and took his justice just like a human being, instead living like a meaningless machine. But since then, she shy away from her neighbors and began to act like a mad person. And it becoming worse that nobody wants to come near to her. Hence, when we get the news that she had a child, it really shook us. She wasn't even married to that person, you know. We even feared that the child is kidnapped or something, but we still can't find any lead in the house. When she was caught, uncle told me she just muttering something nonsense until she took her last breath."

"What did she said at that time?"

"Hmm... something about possession, like that." said Tachibana.

I stood up from the car. Now I have arrived at the house where mono lead me and met that mad woman.

"It’s okay, let's look inside the house first." and we enter the house.

Inside the house is a total mess and dustiness. Tachibana give me a mask to wear and he also wears the mask. We then search inside the house from living room to the any other room. This house is very messy, but there is no trace of a child living inside the house. Tachibana look at me, wondering what I would do. I try to remember back most of the thing when I was inside the house. My hand getting numb when the memory that woman raising the knife toward me resurfaces, but I calm my mind and try my best to recollect the even that happened.

Then I walk to the living room and tell Tachibana how it happened from the moment I enter the house until I open the door where I met her. 

"And then she raises the knife at me and said 'give me back my mono!' ..."

"Wait," said Tachibana.

"Mono is that kid name?" ask Tachibana with wondering.

"Well... because she keeps on mumbling like that to him, so I assuming ‘mono’ is his name." I tell that to him.

"Hiroshi... I think I realize something." and he bring me to a shelf inside the master bedroom, the room where I opened the door and met the mad woman. He opened the shelf and he shows me a big size box. 

There’s a character write at the box but it is not very clear.

"Hiroshi, I found this box, and I opened it, but there is nothing inside, but if you tell me the about that person who called mono, then this character might be related to this person." he write the character with the pen, and the character now can be seen.

  Mono (thing, object, possession) 

I was surprised. Tachibana then talk "if my deduction is correct, there must be something that can be opened inside this box." and he search and manage to find a rope that when it pulled, it open the wall inside the box. 

"This hole is small, but I think we can get inside one person by one person." As he said that, he realizes the inside is dark and he said “wait here, I will take torchlights.” He taking torchlights from his car and give one of it to me whiles his other hand holds torchlight. Tachibana enter the hole and then I enter it too.

The hole getting bigger and more things can be seen inside the hole. This hole looks like a storage room, made by woods, only that there are children's clothes and toys inside this room. Tachibana looks more inside this place and he found out there are big and worn out bed and a small shelves. As he opens the shelves, he found clothes for a pregnant woman. “I guess she hide herself inside this place and giving birth to this person who you called him 'mono'. and then both of them tries to live in secret, unknown to the outside world, until she breakdown and becoming mad, or she has becoming mad way before that." but I remained silent to his explanation.

Tachibana realize about it and try to ask me "why are you silent?"

"I...I was surprised.... he....all this time... he has been living like this with that woman...." my words were stuttering as I was holding my tears. I though my life has been a hell for me, but I never knew there is someone who live their life far worse than me. I shed tears for this person who unbeknownst I named him mono, but the truth about that name really makes me feel sad.

"Yeah..." said Tachibana "Sadly, I can't found any identification for that child. Maybe his name is '私の大切なもの (watashi no taisetsunamono)(my precious thing)'"

Tears almost come into my eyes. I shake off my head and searching more for his clues. “He must be alive! I must believe in it!"

Tachibana look at me, stunned, but he then helped me to find the clue about him too. 

We searched and searched, until we manage to find a hole at one corner of the room. The hole was small, but it can be fit for children to go inside that hole. Later, Tachibana and I agree to make that hole bigger. After we opened the wall at the hole, we entered it. The inside is like a cave, but there is a light near the other side of the exit. We walked and we saw a beach. But before we getting to the beach, Tachibana suddenly pat at my shoulder. I turned around and I was surprised, there was a person with a big blanket lying near the side of the cave! We rushed to this person.

Tachibana and I were very surprised, this person looks like he's in teenagers, but he's so skinny and pale, it's as if he were dying.

"Hang on!" said Tachibana, but he doesn't even move an inch. I was wondering what I should do, but the only thing I did just shout at him "MONO!" though I wish not to call him that word.

But he reacts to that word. He then look at me for a while, with this disbelieve look, and he said "...iiirohii?"

We surprised with his word, but finally tears falls in my eyes. Finally I found mono. We carry him out from this cave and walk towards the beach. By the time we got out from the cave, I see a beach.  I realize that beach is where I come and having picnic with my families, and where I found him. And I understood why he's here. He is waiting for me, to get out from this place.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

After that, mono was treated in the hospital for malnutrition and slight osteoporosis (that’s why he looks like he’s a teenager), but the doctors were having problem with his identification and communication. it seems that he can't understand some of the words and he is having problem in speaking and mono only react when somebody called him mono. Maybe his own mother always calls him mono. The specialist were trying to want to make further research out of mono because of how miraculously he lived alone without any people help since he was young and they believed that he might have the similar case as the 'genie' case. Even the media try to make his story out of news but I stopped them because they treated Mono like an animal show. And many more problems arise as his interaction toward people becoming aggressive.

  hence, i make a new identification for him, and make his name '尊い 者'(totoi mono)' which shall mean precious person, and bring him back home to live with me. 

time has passed, i married with a woman where she is now a landlady of an old household, where we live together with my child. the place were filled with many kind of people inside the house. but that is not all, this household also filled with joy and fun because mono, who work as a guard for our house and as one of the household and most importantly being my brother. although he still has problem with communication, he is still loved by the people because of his bright personality. soon, he will finished his learning at school and will go and live with doctor kai gotou, the doctor who wants to help and treat him. i am glad he manage to overcome the past and live his life. 

therefore, until he go, i will treasure the moment he live here. 

.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................

how i got this story? well... i got this story from my dream. this story is about an abandoned boy name mono, and how he managed to lived until this point, but as i try to tell the story, i slowly forgot the part of it inside my memory. but as time pass on, i began to remember that i was once read a story of hayy ibn yaqzan, a story of a man who grew up in the forest and learn about the world through his own observation without anyone to teach him and how it shows the learning through autodidact. but of course the story isn't true because we have heard so many cases of abandoned children throughout the world and most of it having many hard time to struggle living in the society.

but then, does learning come through surrounding or does it come through our own self curiosity?

maybe because of this question that i got this dream.

 i once though of stop to make this story as i believe i might have watch any japanese movie and maybe i might be sued for the copyright for write this story (i'm not japanese...tululululu.....) but suddenly i got the feeling if i let it go, mono will be gone forever. and somehow that heartbreak me although mono is just a character that appear in my dream. hence i make this story, and i publish it so those who see this story can tell me about the original story.finally, i manage to finished this story, so sit back and enjoy.