Chapter 6
After exploring the gardens a bit (They were beautiful
with cherry blossom trees and bamboo everywhere!) I headed up to room. I
checked the clock on my cell phone, 2:35 a.m.! Wow… It had certainly been a
long evening. I set my alarm and went to sleep.
I woke up, bleary eyed. What time was it? I hadn’t heard
my alarm go off. Suddenly, I saw something outside, on my balcony. It looked
like the silhouette of a woman. It turned and, even though all I saw was a silhouette,
I felt like it was looking right at me. Then it walked (Or did it float?) away.
“What was that?!” I asked aloud.
I got up and and open the door to the balcony. As I did so,
I heard a loud rip.
“Oh no – the screen tore. I’d better tell Miwako about
this tomorrow…”
I looked outside but didn’t find anything.
“It must have just been my imagination. I should try and
get some more sleep.”
I went back to sleep. When I woke up I got ready and went
to the school to teach. When I got back, I graded some more papers. It felt good
when I was finally done.
I looked over at the door to outside, which still had a
rip in it since I hadn’t gotten a chance to tell anyone in the morning, I got
this weird feeling. I got up and looked out there again. And again, there was
nothing out there. I just couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very
wrong about what happened the night before…
I decided to go downstairs and tell Miwako about it. As I
left the room my cell phone rang.
“Hello,” I said.
“Oh, hi Nancy, what is the name of the place you’re
staying at again?” asked Bess.
“The Ryokan Hiei.”
“I told you!” Bess said to George.
“I guess you were right,” replied George.
“What are you two talking about?” I asked, pretty
confused.
“We met this girl at a bento booth at the expo, and she
grew up at the ryokan you’re staying at. Pretty crazy coincidence.” George
explained.
“I haven’t heard about her…”
"You've got to get down here and meet her. She is so much
fun! She told us about everyone at the ryokan, and it sound like you’ve got
your hand full,” said Bess.
“I should come to meet her. I have a few questions…”
“Uh – oh…” said Bess.
“Uh – oh what?” I asked.
“I know that tone of voice,” answered George.
“What tone of voice?”
“Yup, that’s the one,” agreed Bess, with George.
“What are you talking about?” Now I felt like I was being
messed with.
“You’re working a case aren’t you?” asked George.
“maybe… I don’t know exactly what is going on at the
ryokan, but it’s really strange.”
“Busted!” shouted Bess.
“Ok, you got me,” I admitted,” I may have found a
mystery.”
“Shocking!” joked Bess.
“So, what can we do for you?” asked George.
“Yeah, what’s going on?” asked Bess.
“Well… I saw something really strange in my room.” I told
them.
“What?” asked George, sounding intrigued.
“A shadowy figure showed up in my room, but when I looked
out on the balcony, no one was there. It was like whoever it was just –
disappeared.”
“Creepy… Ok, that’s it, we’re leaving Japan!” said Bess, panicking.
“I’m sure there is a logical explanation,” said George.
“Me to – I’m just not sure what it is yet.”
“The two of you! I swear! If we were being chased by a dinosaur,
you two would be too busy debating the fossil record to run away. Where’s you
sense of panic?!” said Bess, still panicking.
“It was pretty scary, I admit, but I don’t believe that
someone could just disappear.”
“Right, well you said a ‘shadow’ figure, right? Maybe it
was just some sort of trick of the light…” suggested George.
“That’s what I was thinking… I’ll keep an eye out for
something like that.”
“Spooky! Anything else?” asked Bess.
“Nope, I should go. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye Nancy!” They said and hung up.
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