３１ Ｊｕｌｙ， Ｙūｓｕｋｅ Ｎｏｒｉｓｈｉｒｏ
文字数 3,988文字
I don’t even want to go out at a time like this. I was watching a video on my smartphone when a message suddenly came in from an unknown number.
It said,
“Is that you, Yūji?”
“Uh-huh. Who is it?”
There was a long pause, and finally, a response:
“I can’t tell you now. Tell me about the members of your family.”
“There’s my parents and my younger brother.”
Another pause.
“Grandparents?”
“My grandfather lives with us.”
“You should not forget him.”
“Sorry, it just sort of slipped my mind.”
“You will now receive your orders.”
“Huh.” Almost an hour had already gone by since this exchange first began.
“I order you to give your brother an enema.”
An enema? I often poke my brother’s derriere with my fingers, but that’s just me fooling around. I thought about it before replying,
“I can’t do that. Sure, we have fights, but he’s my kid brother. He’s important to me.”
“You’re a fine young man.”
“Thank you.”
“All right, here is your next command. Pull out a thousand yen from your mother’s secret stash.”
“I’m not stealing. Besides, my mom’s been giving up a lot of the fine things she wants to buy so she can save up a little money, and I respect her. I can’t steal money from her!”
“That’s what I wanted to hear you say.”
It took a while for the next command to come in. A message finally came when I went back to where I’d left off in the video I’d been watching.
“Your next command is to give your grandfather an enema.”
What would happen if I did that? Would he react in a funny way, be more interesting to watch than my brother? Or maybe there’d be no reaction at all. Either way, it might be interesting. But my immediate concern was the video I was watching, which was just getting to the good part, so I decided to ignore the message.
“Are you or aren’t you going to do it?”
I was getting tired of this exchange. I sent a reply saying simply that I was thinking about it.
“Your order has been changed.” This time, the response came real quick, followed by another pause that made me think the person was giving this some thought.
“You are now ordered to spit at your grandfather.”
I watched the video to the end, put my phone down, not wanting to be bothered while I took a leak, went to the bathroom, then came back. I wasn’t surprised to see a bunch of messages waiting for me on my phone.
“Are you going to act?” “You can get infected by droplets of moisture in the air.” “Why are you only like that when it involves me?” “If this is what it must come to. . . .”
Then I got the next message, which was probably the last one.
“You are ordered to kill your grandfather.”
I stepped out of my room and went downstairs. A characteristic of our fine old wooden house is that you hear a weird creaking sound with every step you take. I knocked on the door to my grandfather’s room and heard him drop the smartphone he was now allowed to use in exchange for surrendering his driver’s license. He was focused on praying loudly to his God.
Translated by Eriko Sugita/Arranged by TranNet KK
Yūsuke Norishiro
Born in Hokkaido, 1986. Graduated from the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Hosei University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Made his literary debut in 2015 with “Jūshichi hachi yori” (From when I was 17 to 18), for which he won the 58th Gunzo Literary Prize for New Writers. Also received the 40th Noma Literary Prize for New Writers in 2018 for
It said,
“Is that you, Yūji?”
“Uh-huh. Who is it?”
There was a long pause, and finally, a response:
“I can’t tell you now. Tell me about the members of your family.”
“There’s my parents and my younger brother.”
Another pause.
“Grandparents?”
“My grandfather lives with us.”
“You should not forget him.”
“Sorry, it just sort of slipped my mind.”
“You will now receive your orders.”
“Huh.” Almost an hour had already gone by since this exchange first began.
“I order you to give your brother an enema.”
An enema? I often poke my brother’s derriere with my fingers, but that’s just me fooling around. I thought about it before replying,
“I can’t do that. Sure, we have fights, but he’s my kid brother. He’s important to me.”
“You’re a fine young man.”
“Thank you.”
“All right, here is your next command. Pull out a thousand yen from your mother’s secret stash.”
“I’m not stealing. Besides, my mom’s been giving up a lot of the fine things she wants to buy so she can save up a little money, and I respect her. I can’t steal money from her!”
“That’s what I wanted to hear you say.”
It took a while for the next command to come in. A message finally came when I went back to where I’d left off in the video I’d been watching.
“Your next command is to give your grandfather an enema.”
What would happen if I did that? Would he react in a funny way, be more interesting to watch than my brother? Or maybe there’d be no reaction at all. Either way, it might be interesting. But my immediate concern was the video I was watching, which was just getting to the good part, so I decided to ignore the message.
“Are you or aren’t you going to do it?”
I was getting tired of this exchange. I sent a reply saying simply that I was thinking about it.
“Your order has been changed.” This time, the response came real quick, followed by another pause that made me think the person was giving this some thought.
“You are now ordered to spit at your grandfather.”
I watched the video to the end, put my phone down, not wanting to be bothered while I took a leak, went to the bathroom, then came back. I wasn’t surprised to see a bunch of messages waiting for me on my phone.
“Are you going to act?” “You can get infected by droplets of moisture in the air.” “Why are you only like that when it involves me?” “If this is what it must come to. . . .”
Then I got the next message, which was probably the last one.
“You are ordered to kill your grandfather.”
I stepped out of my room and went downstairs. A characteristic of our fine old wooden house is that you hear a weird creaking sound with every step you take. I knocked on the door to my grandfather’s room and heard him drop the smartphone he was now allowed to use in exchange for surrendering his driver’s license. He was focused on praying loudly to his God.
Translated by Eriko Sugita/Arranged by TranNet KK
Yūsuke Norishiro
Born in Hokkaido, 1986. Graduated from the Department of Media and Communication Studies at Hosei University’s Faculty of Social Sciences. Made his literary debut in 2015 with “Jūshichi hachi yori” (From when I was 17 to 18), for which he won the 58th Gunzo Literary Prize for New Writers. Also received the 40th Noma Literary Prize for New Writers in 2018 for
Honmono
no
dokushoka
(A true reader), and was nominated for the 162nd Akutagawa Prize in 2019 for “Saikō no ninmu” (Highest order). Works includeJūshichi
hachi
yori
,Honmono
no
dokushoka
,Saikō
no
ninmu
, andMikku
Eivorī
no
andāpantsu
(Mick Avory’s underpants).
