The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui

shout!”
    “But I figured it out! The head Yoshio saw – it was yours!”
    Poor little Yoshio must have overheard his father’s voice in his sleep and conjured up the image of a bloody severed head. Masako couldn’t help but giggle at how silly the whole episode had been, and so she told her father all about it.
    “But this time might be a bit more difficult than last time,” she continued. “We need to tell Yoshio that you were fired. Then we need to tell him that there’s nothing to worry about.”
    Masako’s father smiled and patted her on the shoulders with his large, warm hands.
    “Oh Masako,” he said with a proud look on his face. “You’re such a clever girl. A born psychologist!”

THE NIGHTMARE TAKES SHAPE
     
    Masako found herself standing alone on the bridge. The low wooden rails were old, and some were rotting or even broken. She could see the telegraph poles on one side at regular ten-metre intervals, and she slowly made her way down the middle of the bridge with the hairs on her neck standing on end. She was so very afraid. But she needed to cross the bridge to do the shopping for her mother. If only she could walk across with her eyes closed. But if she did, she might walk into one of those rotting rails and plunge down into the icy waters below. So instead she kept her eyes wide-open and fixed her gaze on the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
    Why is everything so scary? she thought to herself. What is it that’s frightening me?
    But no matter how hard she thought about it, Masako couldn’t figure it out. Then, suddenly, she froze on the spot. There was something hiding behind one of those telegraph poles! Something that just moved!
    “Who is it? Who’s there?” asked Masako, her voice trembling.
    Then, at that very moment, something in a white cloth leapt out from behind the telegraph pole and gave a terrifying cry before landing right in front of Masako, where it studied her carefully through its fierce-looking Prajna mask.
    For a moment, Masako stood rooted to the spot, too scared to even scream. Then she decided to run for her life. But her legs wouldn’t move the way she wanted them to. Her knees were trembling, and each step was unsteady. Then one of her feet got caught in something, and she tumbled head first onto the railing – smashing right through it and over the edge into darkness. The sound of gushing water came closer and closer, and somewhere a voice called out.
    “Etsuko!”
    Who on earth is Etsuko, she thought to herself as she fell. Is it someone I should know?
    Then the icy waters engulfed her and dragged her body deeper and deeper.
    Masako woke up with a start. Her chest was pounding and she was gasping for air.
    A dream ! she thought. It was only a dream !
    But what an awful nightmare it had been. Her pyjamas were soaked with sweat, but fortunately Yoshio was still fast asleep beside her. Quietly, she got out of bed, changed into a new pair of pyjamas and crawled back under the covers. But, as much as she tried, she couldn’t get back to sleep.
    Ha! Now I remember, she thought to herself. Etsuko was a friend back from when we lived in the countryside. She was a cute girl. I must have been six and Etsuko five when we last saw each other. I wonder what she’s doing now?
    The next morning, Masako woke up earlier than usual. She decided to take the longer route to school and invited Bunichi to walk with her. As they walked side by side, Masako recounted her nightmare from the previous night. She thought Bunichi might be able to tell her something about her dream, since he seemed to have learnt so much about such things from his psychologist uncle.
    “I think something must have happened back when you lived in the countryside,” said Bunichi after giving it some thought.
    “I think so too,” nodded Masako.
    “And what about that girl, Etsuko? Do you think she still lives there?”
    “Yeah, I think so.”
    “Is this place far?”
    “No, you can get there and