This is a strange experience that actually happened at my parents’ house.
I had returned to my parents’ home for a homebirth and spent the last trimester of my pregnancy and a while after the birth at my parents’ house.
My parents’ house is a two-story house, and now that my sister and I have both left home, my father and mother live there alone.
My father and mother’s bedroom was on the first floor and I was using an empty room on the second floor.
As usual, I was resting on the futon in the bedroom on the second floor.
I was in the late stages of pregnancy and my belly had grown quite large, and I was having trouble sleeping and could not get a good night’s sleep for a long time.
My body would ache during the night and I would wake up.
Still, I would close my eyes and try to sleep.
Tottttt…
From somewhere, I heard what sounded like someone running.
I zipped my ears and felt that the sound seemed to be coming from above.
At first I didn’t pay much attention to the sound because it was in the middle of the night and I was in a daze, but then I began to hear the same sound at night.
That…again.”
My parents’ house has two floors, and I sleep on the second floor of the house.
In other words, there shouldn’t be someone upstairs making noises.
Perhaps it just sounds like it’s coming from above, but in reality it’s just the sound of my father and mother walking around downstairs and it sounds like that…
Or maybe rats or cats have gotten into the house, and the sound of their movement just sounds like footsteps…
I try to think of causes to distract myself from the fear and try not to be too aware of the footsteps.
But still, I hear what I hear.
There were times when my parents were away on errands.
I didn’t want to be alone, but since I was heavily pregnant, I was the only one left at home.
Then I heard footsteps….
That sound like a child running with bare feet….
Until now, the only time I have heard footsteps was when someone was in the house.
But now, I am completely alone in the house. There is no way I can hear the footsteps of others.
I decided to talk to my parents about the fact that I was no longer fooling around, but just then I gave birth in a hurry.
It was an easy delivery, but my physical condition was imperfect and childcare was harder than I expected, and I was exhausted every day.
I was no longer interested in the sound of footsteps, and I had completely forgotten about the incident.
A few years later.
We decided to get together once in a while, and my sister and I returned to my parents’ house for the Obon holiday.
As I was washing the dishes after we had finished eating, I overheard my mother and sister talking.
I was washing the dishes when I overheard my mother and sister talking, “Sometimes we hear what sounds like footsteps in this house.”
When I heard that, I suddenly remembered
I’ve heard that too!”
and interrupts the conversation.
My mother first heard footsteps about three years before I moved back home.
I was in the living room during the day and heard footsteps that sounded like a small child running barefoot.
However, there was a small child across the street from my parents’ house who was about 3-4 years old, so she didn’t pay much attention to the footsteps, thinking they were coming from there.
The footsteps echoed again when I forgot about them, and my mother said that they might be “Zashiki Warashi.
Hearing the name “Zashiki Warashi” also brings an image of good luck, so I am no longer afraid of them.
There seems to be no particular basis for this, but my mother seemed to think so and tried to coexist with them without making waves.
Strangely enough, my father had never heard of it, and this revealed a secret that he had been unable to confirm and had kept quiet until now.
As the night went on, it was time to take a bath.
My sister was looking for something for a long time.
Apparently, the pants of the children’s pajamas she had brought with her were missing.
When she opened her bag at her parents’ house, she took them out and put them in the hallway just outside the living room so that she could put them on right after taking a bath.
We all search for them, since it is impossible for something that was there just a moment ago to suddenly disappear.
But as it turned out, the pajama pants were nowhere to be found in the house.
They were definitely here a moment ago…”
My sister was not convinced, but decided to put on another pair of pajamas and go to bed that night.
The next morning, when I woke up a little late, my sister asked me the first thing she did.
Hey, did you put these pants here?”
Upon listening to the story, it seems that they found the pajama pants they had been looking around for last night.
The place where they were found was in the Japanese-style room diagonally in front of the living room.
There is my grandfather’s (maternal father’s) Buddhist altar in the Japanese-style room, and they seemed to have fallen off in front of it, as if they had been taken off.
My sister asked everyone in the house, “Did you put the pants here that you said were missing yesterday?” But the response was that no one had touched it.
If it had fallen in such a conspicuous place, it was impossible not to find it when everyone looked around for it.
The pajama pants were dark pink, so even if they were mixed in with the rest of the clothing, they would still stand out.
Perhaps the footstep culprit hid them?”
Such speculation was rife, but it was a curious event that did not sound like a joke.
I have asked my mother about the footsteps every time I talk to her since then.
My mother replied
I still hear it now and then.”
She said.
It seems that whatever is living in my parents’ house is still there…
