Chapter 2

                                    

                                          

2020. Kyoto.
A smart phone records as Keishin's finger hit the button.
Mrs. Satoshi was casually telling a story. She looked tired with bags under her eyes, absently holding a cup of green tea in her hands. "Shinjiro was driving on the highway during that storm. Do you remember that storm? Of course not, you were probably in Tokyo. It was a bad one... cats and dogs, worst storm I've seen in fifteen years." The woman in her late 50's was seated on her sofa. The sunlight was pouring in through the window." He was out there in the highway and he lost control of the car. He went over the guardrail and down a ravine. The car flipped over and no one could see it from the road, especially with the rain that heavy. Couldn't even see the lights."
Keishin continued to listen. His handsome face displayed a patient expression as he focused his gaze on Mrs. Satoshi. Already in his 30's, the young blonde author looked exhausted and his eyes squinted as he carefully shifted his gaze from his cellphone to Mrs. Satoshi. In front of him, his phone was recording the woman's story.
"It took me an hour to figure he was late, Keishin-san. It took almost three hours for someone to start looking for him," she kept going as her voice started to tremble like she was almost ready to cry. "I kept thinking maybe he just stopped somewhere, like a convenience store while waited out the bad storm."
The woman sipped her tea, hoping it would hide the shakiness of her voice. Keishin watched patiently.
"He was... uhm... he was hanging there the whole time... hours. Upside down. Tangled up in his seat belt. The rescuers said he could probably reach the horn, but he couldn't hold it long because his arm got broken in the crash." She paused for a few moments, sighed and sipped another from her cup. "That's how he died. Upside down. Pressing on that horn whenever he could stand to."
Keishin nodded and scribbled a few words on his notebook. "Hinako-san, when did it start?"
She did not hesitate to answer. "A week after he died. It started with drops of water. I'd be asleep, in our bed. Then, I'd be woken up because I'd feel raindrops, I guess. I think it's raindrops falling on my face. I'd wake up, but there would be nothing there... but my face and my pillow would be a little wet." 
She leaned forward a bit as she continued storytelling. "It got worse as each night passed. The next night, I'd hear a car horn... short bursts, distant. But close enough to wake me. You would think I'm dreaming, but the sounds seemed real." She placed a now empty cup on the small table in front of her and held her two hands together as if trying to prevent them from trembling. 
"Then, finally... around a week after that, I felt water again on my cheeks. Then I heard the car horn and when I opened my eyes and looked up at the ceiling... there he was, hanging there, upside down." Her voice started to quiet down, almost a whisper. 
"I could see the water dripping off his black hair. His face was a deep purple, like the blood had all just pooled in his cheeks." She then looked at Keishin, establishing eye contact, shaking her head a bit as she continued her story. 

"It's funny... You think you'd scream when you see something like that, but you don't. You just stare... you just stare like an idiot and now, I wonder if my mind was playing tricks on me." She swallowed like she was struggling to describe her next experience... like this was difficult for her to talk about. 
"I thought, is this a dream? But water was dripping from him... and blood, too, and he was just staring at me. Then his mouth dropped open, but instead of a scream or a cry... it was a sound of a car horn. It was coming out of his mouth. So loud. Then you know you weren't dreaming. The sound was so loud, I fell off the bed because I panicked. I screamed because I hit the floor and it startled me."