Single Sickness and Other Stories by Masuda Mizuko

Mirror

105 Mirror The first thing Ichiko saw was the woman's face. Floating in the water, a blur. That was why she thought she must be in the water, that was why she thought she was about to die. It troubled her that she was dying, but it troubled her just as much that she didn't know who the woman was. With the woman floating right in front of her, she couldn't die properly. Then, in the midst of all this distress, Ichiko remembered a television program she had seen years ago and the legend of the Amazon otter came rushing to mind. On clear nights when the full moon shone brightly, legend had it that the otter who lived in the Amazon River turned into a beautiful woman and waited by the riverbank to seduce men. Ichiko had never been able to forget the old Brazilian man who claimed he had met one of these creatures. He looked ferocious and his skin was burnt black by the sun, but he had worn a puckish grin on his face as he told his tale. "I guess I can tell you now because it happened so long ago. It was different then. Back in those days, otters lived in this region. It was right after the birth of our first child, when my wife was still recovering from childbirth, the umbilical cord barely cut. I went to the river to draw water. It was autumn and the sun set early. Just as I was about to return home, I looked up and saw a beautiful woman standing beside the riverbank. In my entire life, I have never seen a more ravishing beauty. I was completely spellbound. Of course, I knew right away she was the otter woman. 106 ~ Mirror "She beckoned me with her hand, come hither, come hither. Well, I was sorely tempted, believe me. But my wife and baby were asleep at home waiting for me to make supper and I was very hungry, so I went straight home. I always wondered what became of that beauty but no matter how many times I went back to the river, I never saw her again. I wish she would come back and invite me again. I'd follow her in an instant. I'm done with making dinners for the wife and family." The old man had faced the television camera head on, winked and waved his hand to demonstrate how the otter woman had beckoned him. Come hither, come hither. Being a foreigner it was hard for Ichiko to tell his exact age, but she guessed he was at least seventy. The creature floating in front of Ichiko was definitely not the otter woman of the Amazon legend, of that she was certain. This woman was neither attractive nor did she beckon with her hand. She had big bulging eyes and wore a totally blank expression. Just as Ichiko was wondering what the woman might do, the face suddenly turned into the head of a very large fish. The fish glared at Ichiko through the dark water. Instinctively, she glared back. It seemed to her that these thoughts must have come in fragments that poked through the murky haze of her consciousness. She couldn't have remembered the old man's story in one fell swoop. It was only an illusion of smooth recollection, caused by a reflex instinct to string together the unconnected shards of memory that flickered across her brain. Seeing the woman's face could not have been real, and as for it turning into a fish, that was downright peculiar. The fact that Ichiko hadn't thought it peculiar at the time was definitely a sign that her head wasn't right. Of course, when you believe you are dying, nothing you think of can really be said to be strange. MIRROR ~ 107 She learned afterwards that she hadn't fallen into the river at all. Instead it appeared she'd fallen off the other side of the high cliff-like embankment, hit her head on the hard ground and lost consciousness. That was when she realized that one's mind and memory were totally unreliable, capable of making up utter nonsense. It left her with a queasy feeling. Although she assumed she had been unconscious the whole time, in fact she had drifted in and out of consciousness, even getting...