Snowman (Epilogue)_12 [Shirokuma Literature Club] [Auto-Reverse]

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After making a snowman with my son, he begged me, "Let's make an igloo, too." My son was thrilled by the heaviest snowfall in ten years.

The finished igloo was just big enough for my son to sit cross-legged and shimmy his way inside.

“I want my own room.”
“Oh, isn't this just perfect?”

“Not an igloo. A real room of my own.”
“…I see. You’re at that age now, aren't you.”

…

And so, I am currently cleaning out the room that has become a storage space to turn it into my son's room. My wife comes by occasionally to check if I'm slacking off.

“When was the last time you used that?”
“Hmm, when was it…”

“If you can't remember, throw it away.”
“Yes, yes…”

I’m the type who keeps everything, but my wife is the type who throws things away without hesitation once they are no longer needed. While listening to the radio on my smartphone via radiko, I continued the slow, agonizing process of decluttering.

I met my wife in college, we married in my fifth year of working, and our son was born two years later. That son will be a middle schooler starting in April. Time really flies.

From the back of the room, I found a cardboard box I had brought from my parents' house. Looking inside, I found something nostalgic. It was a Walkman I had bought with my New Year's money when I was in middle school. A cassette tape was still inside.

I replaced it with new batteries and pressed the play button. However, I couldn't hear anything. Looking at the cassette tape, it was near the end of side B, so I pressed the fast-forward button. After a while, it clicked and stopped.

“Huh? It’s not switching to side A.”

Even when I pressed the play button again, it stopped immediately. It seems the auto-reverse function is broken. I flipped the cassette tape over and pressed the play button again.

“How’s it going? Are you done cleaning?”
“I’m working on it right now.”

I pressed the stop button. I took out the batteries, gave the Walkman a light pat, and placed it into the non-burnable trash bag.

(The End)

(To the afterword)

(Click here for the previous story)

I am serializing this by connecting short stories. I plan to post around every Friday. I have included links to each episode in the table of contents, so please feel free to look back.

(Click here for [Characters and Table of Contents])

I am participating in Kosuke Komaki's project.
Thank you for every week.

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