Kaban · かばん · 鞄

This happened two years ago. I used to be happy by then, but this fact changed my life forever. Thanks to our savings and the good assistance of our travel agent, my mom and I went on vacation to Oceania. It was a foggy, suffocating but enjoyable day when we decided to drink some strong coffee in a street cafe called The Phantom Dude, which was located in a small town by the north of New Zealand. There was a legend in that place: in an abandoned place near the cafe was situated a haunted house in which a ghost had been inhabiting for hundreds of years. In theory, if you went inside the house and found the ghost, he should give you a key to unlock the hidden “Room of Desires”, a place where whatever you wish would come true. But there was a catch: the phantom must love you to give you the prize.

People never tended to go in that building because they were afraid of that lonely, scary and embittered phantom. Years had happened since the last time someone entered there. People gave up trying to obtain the valued key.

I was kind of bored, so I told my mom to wait for me in the hotel and, after that, I secretly went to get in the haunted house. I wanted all my dreams to come true! My brilliant idea to force him to love me was to sing a happy song about an old woman (my mom, in fact) who won the lottery and gave his daughter (me, of course) part of the money to make a ride to New Zealand, which was the country of her dreams since she knew about the kiwi birds’ existence and their hard life in there. The phantom appeared in front of me. “That song speaks about you...?” he asked. He truly wanted to know if I deeply loved those cute animals. My answer was an enthusiastic “YES!”; he, touched, with a big grin on his face, offered me the key. He was supposed to give it to someone as kind as me, as worried for the environment as I was. I received it. My hands were trembling because I was very scared, but I was pretty sure about something: that experience was going to be unforgettable, and I was destined to live it. Chan chan!

After that, I unlocked the door and entered to the room. “WHAT?!” was the first word that came to my head when I realized that I was being transformed into a kiwi! I couldn’t believe it! I had always been skeptical, I never really thought that something would happen if I went inside the room, I almost believed that the ectoplasm in front of my eyes was just a guy inside a costume, who was being part of a tourist attraction... I was shocked. I felt bitterly disappointed for my luck.

A couple days after my tragedy, my mom found me in a park and took me in her arms, not knowing I was her daughter. I ended up being her pet, and now we travel wherever she likes around the world. This week we’ve been to Pisa, in Italy, and maybe tomorrow we’re going to set off to visit the Sistine Chapel.

This story is real. Life will always have a surprise for you, don’t doubt it. About the phantom... the last thing I knew about him was that he stopped annoying people as he used to do, like there was no tomorrow; I think I healed his soul... He is, finally, resting in peace.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29, 2009 and is filed under English,Red-haired Kiwi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.