The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

A BRIDGE ACROSS MEMORIES

Masako couldn’t believe her ears. She shook her head again and again, wishing it would all go away and, without realizing, she took a step backward, then another, then another.

“No way! That can’t be true!” she said to herself. “There’s no way I would ever do such a thing.”

“Masako,” said Bunichi in a worried voice.

Then, suddenly, Masako let out a long and lingering scream — splitting the silence around them. In a flash, she remembered. She remembered everything, and the shock of it all sent her running.

“Hey, where are you going?” called out Bunichi behind her. “Watch out!”

Masako was running and stumbling, with her hands wiping the tears that ran from her eyes. But fortunately, by the time she had reached the end of the bridge, Bunichi caught up with her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he said. “That’s so dangerous. You weren’t looking where you were going! What if you’d run into one of those rails?”

“I didn’t mean to!” cried Masako as Bunichi put his arms around her. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

It had all happened eight years ago, when Masako was only seven years old. It was autumn, but it had been a humid day, with the distant mountain range turning grey under cloudy skies and rain threatening to fall at any moment. No one else was there, and there wasn’t a sound, except for the cries of the frogs by the water below. Masako was on her way home, having finished the shopping her mother had asked her to do at the other end of the bridge, and she was walking deliberately down the middle — as her mother had always told her to — away from the dangerous rails along the sides. That was when it happened.

“Do you remember?” asked Bunichi, kindly, and Masako gave a sheepish nod.

Etsuko, who had been running behind Bunichi, caught up.

“Masako! I’m sorry! I had no idea you were suffering so much! I mean, it happened eight years ago!”

“But I remember! Etsuko, I remember now!”

“But it was my fault!” said Etsuko, gripping Masako’s hand. “That day, I’d taken the Prajna mask hanging on my father’s wall without asking. I thought I could wear it and surprise someone. That’s why I was hiding behind the pole on that bridge. But it wasn’t like I was planning to play a prank on you. I was just waiting for the first person to cross the bridge. It could’ve been anyone. I didn’t even know it was you until I came out from behind the pole. Please believe me!”

Masako played the incident again in her mind: Etsuko jumping out in front of her with the Prajna mask on and her hair flailing wildly in the autumn breeze. She remembered how she’d screamed in sheer terror, and how she’d pushed Etsuko in the chest with all her strength. She recalled the sound of Etsuko’s back hitting the rail behind her and the crack of the wood giving way behind her. How Etsuko had seemed to hang in mid-air for just a moment before plunging with a scream into the waters below.