The next morning, I awoke to find myself lying in bed with…Mom?!
“Whoa!”
“Nnh…? You awake, Koyomi…?” she murmured, rubbing her eyes.
Clearly, she didn’t find it strange that we were sleeping together—even though it had been a good two years since I started sleeping on my own. Naturally, Grandpa was nowhere to be seen…which probably meant…
“Um…how’s Grandpa doing?” I asked timidly.
She opened her eyes wide, then smiled softly and stroked my hair. “The funeral home got him all cleaned up, and now he’s resting in the altar room.”
Sure enough, I was back in my world, where for some reason I had chosen to sleep in bed with Mom. How was that possible when I was away in that parallel world?
“Hey, uh, Mommy? About last night…”
“Aww, don’t tell me you’re embarrassed! You really needed Mommy to comfort you last night.”
Now I understood. While I was off in a world where I had chosen Dad, that version of me was here, in the world where I’d chosen Mom. He must have gone crying to her… Now I kinda regretted not talking to Dad while I was over there. Considering it was a world where he and I lived together, we were probably a lot closer there than we were in mine.
How had my parallel self felt when he found out Grandpa had passed away?
“Mommy always thought you hated Grandpa, but that wasn’t really true, was it?”
Perhaps this was the answer to that question.
✦ ✦ ✦
For the first time in years, I voluntarily paid a visit to Grandpa’s room. Two years ago, I would come here once a day to get a piece of candy, but after I decided I hated him, I only ever went when I was forced to. It was practically identical to his room in the other world; even the chest of drawers with the candy inside was the exact same size and shape, and in the same spot.
Did he keep buying candy after I stopped asking for it? I suspected I knew the answer. In fact, I was sure the candy was there. After all, he asked me if I wanted a piece the same day he gave me the treasure chest. I regretted turning him down now. I should have just taken it—it was probably my one chance to patch things up with him.
I walked up to the biggest chest of drawers. The top drawer used to be beyond my reach, but now I was tall enough to open it on my own. After all, I was turning ten soon.
I reached up to the drawer where Grandpa used to keep his candy and pulled it open. And sure enough…there they were. My favorite candies in the whole world.
“I’ll only take one, Grandpa.”
I put a single piece of candy in my mouth, and the familiar sweetness danced on my tongue. But that wasn’t what I was really after. I reached deep into the candy bag and felt around…
“…Aha!”
My fingers brushed something cold and hard. I pulled it out, and sure enough, it was a key.
“I knew it…”
I thought back to what parallel Grandpa had said to me.
“I’d choose a spot I know for a fact you’d find in the future, even if you couldn’t see it right this moment.”
When he first gave me the treasure chest, I despised him and avoided his bedroom. But he had faith that one day, I’d come back for a piece of candy. And even if he was already gone by then, he knew that eventually I’d grow tall enough to open the drawer on my own. And that was precisely where he hid the key.
I went into my room and retrieved the treasure chest from its secret spot. I brought it and the key to the family altar room where my grandfather’s body was resting on a futon. I had anticipated that his face would be ashen like a ghost’s, but in reality, it was just a bit yellow. That being said, while he was always a lanky man, now he looked downright skeletal. I could scarcely recognize him as the same monster I had feared the past two years.
My grandpa was dead. Never again would he get angry at me…and never again would he give me a piece of candy. Suddenly, I was terrified. I hadn’t actually talked to him since the day he gave me the treasure chest.
“Grandpa?” As I called out to him, my eyes suddenly filled with tears. “I’m gonna open the treasure chest, okay?” Before my tears could fall, I plunged the key into the keyhole.
There was a light click…and the lid opened.
“Oh…!”
Inside was an airsoft gun labeled Ages 10 & Up.
“It’s the same one…”
The one I begged Dad to buy me when I was eight. The one Grandpa confiscated because I was too young. The whole reason I stopped liking him. At the time I was sure he threw it away, but instead, he held onto it.
Packed with the airsoft gun was a scrap of paper, folded in half. I opened it to find a message written in shaky handwriting, far worse than my own.
Happy 10th birthday, Koyomi. Don’t forget: never point it at anyone.
Outside, I could hear Yuno barking.