7: Malformation

I have a master of occultism.

He has his own logic about ghosts and often explains it to me like 'Ghosts should be like this'. According to him, most of them don't understand that they've already dead.

Some of them stay at where they died and keep asking for a help, some simply repeat their living activities without knowing their own death. They are scred of what living people are scared of ; mafias, fierce dogs and insane people. Some of the ghosts even lose their nerve miserably just to be yelled. The thing is there are some ghosts never be scared of a threat. You should stay out of those ghosts that understand what they are.

Things like that are generally said and they make sanse either. But there is another notable thing master told me. I've never heard of any similar examples nor heard someone else have said. Maybe it's just because I'm ignorant but I 'm curious about how you would think about it.

It was in summer when I was a second year university student. I saw strange things three days in a row.

The first one was an old man who sat in front of a pachinko machine. That pachinko parlor was where I went for the first time. I was walking around in the parlor and stopped when I saw his bizarre appearance. His lower lip was extremely swollen and hanged down, almost reaching his breast. I simply thought he had an illness or something with the symptom and left the parlor.

The second one was the next day. I was heading to the city by bus. I noticed that a person who was in front of me had six fingers as I sat on a seat in front of the entrance door. I counted the number of the person's fingers again and again but there were six in one hand. The hand had two thumbs on both end. I thought it might be hyperdactylia. The person got off the bus while no one else stared at the person. I wondered why they didn't notice that fingers, but after that, I came to realize and shamed myself for how thoughtless I was.

Then, the next day, I saw a dowarf.

It was in a pachinko parlor again. There was a kid but the face was exactly like old person's. The face looked either man or woman. He or she was complaining "I can't win with this stupid machine!" with a high tone voice.The person was very short as the legs were bent. The height was just under my breast despite of me not that tall. I didn't stare at him/her this time but felt weird for having seen those unique people this often.

I thought Master would be pleased at the news but he made a vinegary face. Knowing him likes to scare me out, I thought he would say something irresponsible like "You are cursed," but he seemed to be thinking of something for a while, then, he opened his mouth, putting his hands together in a strange form.

"After seeing something unique, you would become to see people closely. There's no wonder but a matter of probability. But do you notice there is something wrong in your story? " said Master. "You know, there is a window on your right side when you sit on a seat in front of the entrance door," He continued as I nodded wondering what he was going to say. "Of course, the seat ahead of yours is the same. Then, here's a question. Which hand did you see on the armrest there, right or left?" I still hadn't understood what he meant, so, I just shaked my head.

"Well, some buses have armrests on the window side. But I'm pretty sure one you saw was on the aisle side because you saw it so clearly that you even wondered why other people didn't notice. Then, its thumb shouldn't be on the left."

As he went on, I began to get a picture.

"You described it as if it was a right hand while it should've been a left hand. You could've noticed not only it had six fingers but also about that. It's strange that you didn't even feel something wrong despite staring at the person, while I felt it just to hear, isn't it?"

I got a feeling that he was going to say something terrible. Cold sweat streamed down on my face.

"In other two stories, you mentioned about their sex or their looks. But you didn't mention about that in the bus episode. You certainly saw the person when the person left the bus, though. Vagueness of your memory about what you've seen means you are unconciously trying to hide the uncertain part and pretending as if it was just a malformed human. Now, I'm going to ask you again. You were the only person who were staring at it, right?"

Master raised his clasping hands.

"Okay. Hold out your dominant hand. Your's is the right. Turn the palm downwards. Put your left hand on the right hand then place each finger on top of each right finger except thumbs. Good. Your ring finger is on top of your right middle finger now. Then adjust your left four fingers to your right four fingers. Now, your right hand has six fingers."

To my readers, if you want to know how it looks like, try doing this with me.

"You've got a symmetrical right hand. How do you feel?"

It felt strange. I could say it was relaxing or relieving. It felt more integrated than just putting both hands together. You can feel it clearer if you move your hands together up and down, left and right.

"That's an ideal shape of a hand that human beings really want to have in the depth of mind. Two symmetry thumbs allow us to grab things with an even strength from right and left. I've ever seen those 'two-thumbed ghosts' for several times."

"You mean it was a ghost no one could see but me?"

"Probably," Master said, grasping my face with his false six-finger hand. "Sometimes we can see them. Some look like while they've been alive, some have two thumbs or two dominant hands... They've unknowingly transformed as if they were trying to hold their unstable existences."

That was a curious story. I'd never heard of a story like he told. Although I'd read quite a lot of books about ghost stories so far, had never seen any description like ambidextrous ghosts or something like that in those books.

At this time, I have no way to know whether it was Master's bluff or a truth of a world I've never known about.