以前，岩館真理子さんのマンガ，「森子物語」について書きました。ずっと「あっちの世界」のことばかり考えていた森子ですが，いくつかの出来事を通じて，彼女の「こっちの世界」への見方は変わっていき，物語は結末を迎えます。この「森子物語」のスピンオフの短編が第2巻には載っていて，森子のおませな妹が主人公になっています。タイトルは「夜汽車にのって」です。
I mentioned a comic book named “Shinko Monogatari” illustrated by Iwadate Mariko. Shinko who has only been thinking of ‘that world’ begins to look ‘this world’ in a different way, and the story then finishes. There is a short story that is spun off from “Shinko Monogatari” in the second volume of it and the main character is Shinko’s sister who is a precocious girl.
森子の妹，花子は勉強そっちのけでおしゃれに夢中なちょっぴり負けん気の強い小学生の女の子（たぶん4年生）です。母が再婚したことにより，以前からライバル視していた少し年上の女の子が義理の姉になってしまい，夏休みにせっかく高原の別荘に遊びに来ても，いやみや傷つくことを言われる毎日に不満顔なのでした。ぶつぶつと愚痴を言いながら，森の中へとお花を摘みに出かけた彼女は，なぜか寂しげな年上の少女と出会います。もっとたくさんのお花を摘もうと，さらに森の奥へ行こうとする花子でしたが，その腕を少女がつかみ，「あの森にはいったらでてこられなくなっちゃう」と強い口調で引き止めるのでした。少女の話では，なかよしだった男の子が，森の奥から聞こえた音を確かめようと，森の奥深くへ入っていったまま戻ってこなかったというのでした。その話をきいて以来，消えた男の子のことばかり考えてしまう花子は，ついに意を決し，森の奥へと向かうのですが・・・。
あらすじだけを書くと，何だかホラーのように聞こえますが，とても可愛らしいお話で，ちょっぴり切なくて，涙ぐみながらも笑顔になってしまうすてきな結末が待っています。本当に短い短編なのに，こんな気持ちにしてくれる作家さんは他にちょっと思いつきません。
岩館さんの新作が本当に読みたいです。
Hanako, the sister of Shinko, is an elementary school girl (maybe in the fourth grade) who is a fashion-crazy and a little bit spirited girl. She ends up getting a sister-in-law who is someone she has looked upon as her rival due to her mother’s remarriage, and she looks dissatisfied even now that she comes to a highlands cottage in the summer vacation because the sister-in-law always says disagreeable things and tries to hurt her feelings every day. Complaining about her sister-in- law, she goes out into a forest to pick some flowers and happens to meet a somewhat lonely looking girl who is older than her. When Hanako tries to go further away into the forest the girl seized her arm and says “Once you go into the forest, you can’t come back!” in a forceful tone. According to her account, there was a boy who was her friend and he has gone deep into the forest trying to find out the source of strange sounds that they heard from the depth of the forest and never came back. Since then Hanako has been so obsessed with the boy disappeared that she finally makes up her mind to go deep in the forest…….
It may sound like a horror story if you hear only this plot, but this story is really adorable and also somehow makes you feel wistful pang with an ending that you may end up smiling despite being moved to tears. I can’t come up with other author who can make me feel that way with such a short story.
I really want to read Iwadate’s new story.
