Kokeshi Doll

This story took place in the fall of 2006, near the end of the rainy season in Seoul, South Korea. In my house, we had a very old Japanese Kokeshi doll. It had weird scary-looking black eyes. I used to avoid having eye contact with it when I was little because it would scare me. By the time I was in high school.

During the fall I would sleep in my room with my window about two fingers wide-open. It was wide enough to let in a pleasant breeze and small enough to prevent my cat from escaping. It led to gentle sleep.

I had that kind of dream. In which I could see my room, dimly lit by the street lamp outside. The wind had picked up during the night and rain-drops were falling in thick with audible drops. My cat was looking at something floating near my open window. It was the Kokeshi doll, and it was glaring at me. I felt panic bubbling inside me but couldn't move, like my limbs were clasped by rope. My entire body had gotten stiffened. Suddenly the doll rolled its head around like a gyroscope and burned out in flame. I woke up startling. My heart was pounding and I was sweating profusely.

The next morning my mom was taking on phone as she severed a breakfast. "God…! Japan had a terrible typhoon last night. Did you hear the news on TV?"

I froze and stopped chewing.

"It was a really terrible flood. A lot of people died."

I went back to my room and looked for the doll. It was there but-but it had no head! I asked my mom about it and she said, “Oh… Your cat tore it apart and threw it in the water bucket. Look… there she is… Mischievous pussycat…!”

I looked at my cat. She was sitting on her back legs and gazing up at the sky—meowing sadly. I walked outside and gazed up… Dark clouds were preparing for havoc in our state. Was it just a dream or-or premonition?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t!

After a month, I became orphan.

***